Zambia to Canada and Back

I’m in the airport in Lusaka, and I’m on my way to Canada for the holidays.

What am I leaving behind in Zambia?

I’m leaving my house and 11 new puppies my dog gave birth to on Tuesday. I’m leaving an un-weeded garden. I’m leaving garden beds that haven’t got soya or ground nut seeds in them and were supposed to have. I’m leaving the rain and the emerging vegetation that resembles the entire spectrum of the colour green. I’m leaving 56 kids and toddlers that are going to classes everyday taught by Bushimbe and Katamfya. I’m leaving my ex-pat friends and my Zambian friends. I’m leaving unfinished issues with leadership over here and I’m leaving a lot of love behind.

I’m only going for three weeks. You`d think it was three years.

What am I going towards in Canada?

I’m going to my family and my friends. I’m going to stand beside my best friend as she recites marriage vows to her husband. I’m going to cold and snow, and warm fires and piles of blankets on my childhood bed in my childhood bedroom. I’m going to live music and the chance at some live theatre and window shopping with my Mom. I’m going to coffee and hot showers and nights of endless amounts of belly aching laughter with the girls who are now ladies, that I grew up with.

What am I coming back to in three weeks?

I’m coming back to an organization that is MAYBE, just MAYBE now getting its feet off the ground. I’m coming back to two Canadian volunteers, a Japanese volunteer, a German volunteer, two American volunteers and a slew of Zambians that have believed in this thing longer than Kim and I have. I’m coming back to the peak of mango season and fresh maize and pumpkins, which I can whip into a fabulous soup. I’m coming back to a change.

We are expecting a tight year full of back to back volunteers from around the world; all coming to be a part of something that means something more. I want to take care of them when they`re in Zambia. I want to watch them fall in love with Kibombomene, the way Kim and I did. I want to see it all through their eyes. I need that.

I keep thinking about something Vance (one of our newest arrivals from Goderich Ontario) said to me a few nights back. He said that when he was teaching in Canada, he never knew what it was all for. He said that in Kibombomene, at SWSC, he knows now. He feels purpose and meaning. I think that this is what it`s all about. This unwritten sorta thing that can only be felt. It tells us that things can be better. It tells us that we can be a piece of making it better. It`s that hope. It`s the ambition that drives all opportunities to create more happiness and more love. It doesn’t have to be only felt in Kibombomene. It should be felt all over the world.

One of the greatest gifts that I can reflect on as my time in Zambia comes to a close for another year is this HOPE. It`s watching hope through other people`s new experiences. It`s seeing it when our students stand up and recite the alphabet for the first time all on their own. It`s seeing it in Vance as he remarks astonishingly about the beauty of the place that I sometimes unfortunately forget.

I am looking forward to going home to Canada and I`m looking forward to coming back to Zambia. I`m looking forward to living a life from here on in, that doesn`t forget how hope looks and feels and how it just is.