2-23-2015

This morning we went out to the farm to see Darren, Dianne, Panest, Monice and the kids. Panest and Monice have moved to the north side of the farm and have built a new house. They have planted 15 acres of corn and it looked to be around 40 bushel/acre corn. They also had several chickens. They are very happy in their new homestead.

Darren and Dianne have made great strides improving their homesite as well. They had a nice garden planted and and planted several fruit trees. Darren took around to see the newly surveyed boundaries of the property. We also looked at the rest of the corn. Dianne cooked us a wonderful lunch which we
ate before leaving in the afternoon.

We then drove about 1.5 hours to see New Day Orphanage to visit Wes and Lori and Blue and Darby. It was really exciting to see everything they have built since they opened in 2010. They have a corn grinder which is being operated Monday-Thursday. The demand from the surrounding community keep the mill running almost continuously. The profits from the mill pay for all the electricity at the orphanage. They are also raising broiler and layer chickens, and have just started to raise talapia.

The kids put on a performance of The Redeemer for us. It was wonderful! After the performance they had prepared peach cobbler, homemade cookies and homemade ice cream! A very very rare treat in Zambia.

We drove back to Choma to have a late supper with Stanley Simulilika. Stanley's wife and sister in law had prepared a feast for us. We had pork, lamb, goat, chicken as well as two types of salad and rice. This was not a good day for our typical Zambia weight loss program! Stanley runs a private
primary school (grades 1-7) and last year had a 100% passing rate for his 7th graders going to secondary school!

We left Stanley's got back to the mission house about 10:00 pm.