We have just returned from Zambia. “Amazing!” was one of our English words of the day in our learning adventures during the trip, and it is a perfect word to describe an AMAZING journey!
On our final day, after we checked in at the Ndola airport, we went back outside and took a walk with Theresa, prolonging the inevitable goodbye. A two-minute walk away from the terminal we found ourselves in a beautiful expanse of open grassland surrounded by a lovely abundance of varied trees.
As we walked, we spoke of what a fruitful trip it had been, how much we learned, saw, and experienced and how many new things were put into place. How can so much happen in less than two weeks?
Simple. It started WAY before two weeks ago. What blossomed on this trip were the fruits of nearly 12 years of experience, hard work, determination, trial and error, paying attention to what works, and a wealth of unconditional love.
Theresa pointed out a tiny plant growing along the side of the road. “This is food,” she said. “If you cook it and add peanuts to it, it is delicious. Even this one,” she pointed at another plant, then another. As we marveled at how simple and lovely that is —“food” being what naturally grows around us— it occurred to us that this is an example, on a grand scale, of the principle we were just looking at. At one time, we humans didn’t know what was “food” and what wasn’t, what would nourish us and what would kill us. It is such a tangible experience of a phrase we often hear in practice: “You are the sum total of all it has taken to produce you since before the beginning of beginningless time.” Life is always unfolding, changing, expanding, as one whole.
Participating in the project in Kantolomba is such a great way to experience that unfolding. Whatever role we play — a girl in the Girls Program, the Zambian coordinator, a visitor from the United States, a donor to the project, a blog reader — we are simply and beautifully both agents of and witnesses to that unfolding. Amazing!
If you have not been following along, check out the blogs. Much has unfolded!
In Gassho
Jen