Thursday, August 25, 2011

Culture Shock

We have now lived in Zambia for a total of 3 years and 4 months (combining our time from 2003-2005 and 2010 to now). But it doesn't matter how long you live somewhere - you still every now and then run into situations that just hit you over the head with "This is not America...."

We need 3 more girls for our Luyando House to be filled. We are hoping Junior's little sister will be found and will come live here with her brother. Today, we found out about 2 other sisters (ages 3 and 5) who are the nieces of one of our builders here at New Day. Their mother died 2 weeks ago, and when we asked about their father, this is the answer we received..

"He's not around. He stays far into the bush near Kalomo and last year I went looking for him and spent a whole month searching but never found him. Besides, he's already married and my sister was his second wife. But it's not a problem for you to take the girls. He never paid the bridal price for my sister, not even a small amount, so he has no rights to the children - the children are now the property of the woman's family."

Wow. Yep, definitely not in America anymore... Pray for us as we talk to Social Welfare and decide what we can do to help these girls!

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