March Update

Thank you for your continued support. It is appreciated very much. The rain is continuing to fall, the mappopwe is getting tall and is almost ready to harvest.
Things here are going well. I am finally getting strong again after having malaria. Zesco, the power company in Zambia , came and did the necessary work to complete the electrical upgrade, and I-TEC came completed their work also. Leading up to this time, I was really pretty worried that Zesco would not get the job done, because they had come to do the work for the whole previous year. But in the end it all worked out. God is good.
Zesco sure made me sweat a lot. I had been working with them for the past year; trying to get them to come and run the new underground cables and move an existing overhead line. In August they came and moved the overhead line, but the underground part was not done. I would ask them about it and they would say, “We will come next week”. That week never came. The I-TEC team bought tickets and set a date they were coming. I communicated that to Zesco, and was told they would come. They never did. Finally the day arrived, I-TEC showed up, but still no Zesco. It was not until the second day that the I-TEC team was here that Zesco came. Then they did the job. They waited till the last possible minute. I was worried, anxious, and nervous about it. I probably have fewer hairs now, but they came and did a good job. Both groups worked well together and the job is finished. We had been praying about this for a year. Sometimes I do not understand Zesco’s timing or God’s timing, but in the end it all worked.
The upgrade will help the hospital with some of their voltage problems; however the power is generated or transmitted at such a low voltage that it is hard on equipment. Now the main electric cables at the hospital are big enough to help alleviate some of that problem. What ultimately needs to happen is for Zesco to generate the voltage at a higher level. But until then we do what we can.
I have been given a new name. It is a Batonga name. They call me Chimuka. For much of staff at the hospital I am not Jesse; I am now Chimuka. The name means ‘one who arrives late’. If a woman is overdue with a child and then the baby is born; they usually call them Chimuka. It also means ‘why did you not arrive sooner.’ I do not know exactly why they call me that but I kind of like it and have accepted it.