Alicia’s Birthday
Six months before her birthday Alicia started making plans to go see a refugee family we know in western Zambia. “For my birthday I want to go see Trancy and the O’ kids,” she had been saying. She spent the time leading up planning out this unique birthday wish and in late October we headed out in our semi-reliable landcruiser to drive 8 hours to our ultimate destination, the Mayukwayukwa refugee camp near Kaoma.
The O’ kids would be Omedy, Oneal, Omeal, and Omari. They had been trying to flee with their parents from the violence in Congo but without the proper papers the parents were suspected of child trafficking at the border and imprisoned for 1 1/2 years. The children were taken in by a missionary family in Mwandi, and we met them when we moved to Zambia in March of 2015. Our kids became quick friends with the boys and worked their way well into all our hearts, and especially Alicia’s. After the government decided the parents were innocent, the family was reunited and placed in a refugee camp at Mayukwayukwa. (See blog Sunday April 19, 2015)
The drive there took us west and north of Mwandi following the Zambezi river and passing classic African landscapes and elephant crossing signs up to Mongu, where we met with Trancy, a young woman we knew from when she lived in Mwandi and a story all in her own right. She and Alicia had become good friends and they enjoyed visiting and seeing the way her life had really improved since moving to Mongu. We went out to eat at the “OK Restaurant” in town and set out the next moring for Kaoma.
Maps and GPS don’t always get it done here but we knew the general area we were looking for and after a two hour drive east to Kaoma we found the signpost for Mayukwayukwa- 55 K going north. This road was dirt and rough and we continued along trailing a cloud of red dust and every 15 minutes or so asking someone if we were still going the right way. In the end we reached the camp, truely in the middle of nowhere Zambia and sat at the entrance waiting for Arnold, the father, to meet us for the fist time.
Several people passed as we sat in the shade of a tree with the doors of the truck open trying to avoid the heat of the day. After some time Arnold came jogging up, introduced himself and hopped in to lead us to their home. We drove through the market of the camp where a few small shops sold cooking oil, soap, salt, and some other basic neccesities and past the small school house the boys attended in the camp. Arriving at their home we pulled up to a huge dirt mound rising up beside the house that was enclosed with a grass fence. Switching off the car, the boys came running out from the house with their mother trailing and hugs were given all around. I bit my tongue to hold back some emotion that came from somewhere- maybe a mix of joy at seeing them combined with sorrow for the conditions they were now in.
We got out a little blue bike we had brought for them and some other gifts Alicia had bought- a small DVD player, several movies, coloring books, frisbees, and crafts. Before going inside I climbed the dirt mound and could see a large section of the camp with houses all crowded close together, very neatly made grass fences and thatch roofs with mud walls. I climbed back down as Alicia laughed and couldn’t stop hugging the boys and Rachel and Ethan were showing the gifts with quick enthusiasm.
I walked into their yard, maybe 40 by 40 feet, with a neat grass outhouse on the left, mud walled bathing area on the right and joining the sleeping quarters and just divided from a small storage and cooking building on that side. The dirt yard was swept clean and things could not have been more in order.
We went inside the house and sat in the boys room which consisted of a small floor space and a mattress on the corner big enough for 4 small boys. A sheet hung in a doorway that separated the boys room from the parents bedroom in the two room building. As the boys played with their gifts and curious neighbot children came around Arnold began to tell us about life in the camp and their arrival there last year.
When they first came they had very little belongings and the first night were shown the new arrivals building where they could stay. There was no bedding or furniture, just a dirt floored open room, and when the boys learned they were to sleep there, Arnold had some tears to console and hearts to calm. Fortunately he had a mattress from prison and some blankets that helped to get them through those first weeks.
Newcomers to Mayukwayukwa get $6 a person a month for the first 8 months, then you have to drop off the roll to make room for newer newcomers. The family survived on this and went to work building the home they now live in and trying their hand at farming and chicken rearing in the camp. The difficulty for a refugee is that they are only allowed to leave the camp for a maximum of 3 months and only if there is a job or other reason to get a pass. This makes job hunting almost impossible (there are no towns around the camp) and starting up a business from within is difficult as your clientele have as much expendable income as you do. The hope is that one can find a way to get out of the camp and find work or relocate in another country where this can be possible. Some families spend entire generations in these camps stuck in a no man’s land between nations.
My mind went through how to get Arnold work, how to get the boys or one of them to America for school, how to help, and it is still going. This is a hard working family, keeping their faith, currently without opportunity making the most of where they find themselves.
They fed us a meal of roasted goat and fried potatos and even had bottled water for us to drink. They gave us their best and we did our best to love them in return. As we left I pressed some money into Arnold’s hand and thought about what God would have us to do. Each of us reading this has been blessed (if you have a screen!) and God calls us to be a wise and generous stewards of what He has entrusted to us. This includes our very lives, our wealth, our time, and the love he has poured out on us.
My wife shows me often how to live this out as she gives these things for her family and for others. It is typical that she would desire to spend her birthday seeking out others and pouring into them. This is not typical of me, but I am learning. I would not have planned this for a 40th birthday party. But I am not very wise and often trade joy for self without ever knowing it. God shows us a better way to live through His Son and in those around us following Him.
As we left Ethan said it was the best day ever.
In many ways it I think it was, and I look forward to what God will do with it next.
Love,
Paul, Alicia, Isaac, Ethan, and Rachel
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| Mayukwayukwa |
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| Congolese and American Families |
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| Rachel, Oneal, and Ethan |
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| Alicia and Omari |
