Safari Tent Living - Zambia Style

Thad and Mary May are moving to Zambia in 2011. Yes we are! We want to finish our productive career years working in Africa doing relief and development work. Our first step in this big transition was to quit our jobs. So last summer we resigned from our professional positions in Engineering and Nursing to make time for the training we knew we’d need. This fall we completed training with All Nations, a missionary training center based in Kansas City. We also traveled to Florida for training at ECHO in tropical agriculture and appropriate technologies for developing countries. The first year we’ll be doing an 8-month internship from February-September. We’ll be returning home for the last 3 months of 2011.

It's a love story, really. View our short video that tells our story.

Why Zambia?

It seems Zambia chose us, actually. We have a shared family history with this African nation of 10 million people. Mary lived there in the summer of 1972 with her parents while her father was on a teaching sabbatical. In 1991-1992 we lived there for 14-months on Thad’s engineering assignment, along with our 4 kids. More recently, we’ve led 3 short-term teams of college students to Zambia, working with local missions that serve school children, widows and AIDS orphans. We’ve traveled throughout much of southern Africa, but Zambia has always held a special place in our hearts. It feels like home.

We’re joining an existing mission team from All Nations. One thing we know for sure: we don’t want to go this alone. That’s why we’re joining a team of 4 long-term volunteers that have also trained with All Nations. They started working in Singanga village in Southern Province, Zambia in 2009. This village of ~150 people is right on the bank of the Zambezi river, 30 miles upstream from Victoria Falls. The team’s focus is church planting together with community development and orphan care. Personally, we envision ourselves as trainers who will train others in home health care, sanitation, and agriculture. When we train the nationals to be trainers, we enable a movement

We’ll be living in the village learning the language.

We’re committed to learning the local language. The best way to do that is to live with the people. So we’re buying a safari tent to live in the village. The tribal language spoken in this region is called Lozi. Language learning will be our priority in the first 2 years, and also our biggest challenge. Without knowing the language we will miss the mark. To really understand the culture requires listening to their stories in their language. We have lots to learn.

Current situation in Zambia. Zambia is one of the poorest nations, ranked 79^th out of 103 developing nations behind Haiti (76^th) and Kenya (75^th) based on the WHO (2010). It also has one of the highest orphan rates in the world, largely due to AIDS. The average life expectancy has been reduced to 45 years. One out of 7 people are HIV positive, and that number increases to 1 out of 4 in the urban areas. 64% of the people live on less than $1.25 per day (Unicef, 2008). The poverty is even more pronounced in the rural areas.

Expenses and Contributions. First we want to say “Thank you”. Any support given for this cause is so appreciated. We pledge to be good stewards of your donations. Our assignment with All Nations is a volunteer position; for our internship we are covering our basic living expenses out of our savings. We estimate $4,000 in one-time start-up expenses to live in Africa. This includes a safari tent ($1200), construction of thatched roof frame for the tent ($500), portable tent furniture ($200), solar Panel and batteries ($300), water filter ($60), 2 mosquito nets ($40), GPS ($200), 2 mountain bikes ($400), basic medical supplies ($100), agricultural hand tools ($200), and irrigation treadle pump + piping + tank ($800).

Tax-deductible donations can be given to us through All Nations. 100% of the proceeds are directed to our account; be sure to include a post-it note with the check, indicating "Suggested donation for Thad and Mary May". Do not write our names anywhere on the check. All Nations is a not-for-profit 501c(3) organization.

Make checks payable to All Nations, mailed to the following address:

All Nations

c/o Walsh Washburn LLC

5360 College Boulevard, Suite 100

Overland Park, KS 66211

Our shared email is thad_may@hotmamil.com.