So finally, after a three month absence, we made a trip back to the Mayukwayukwa refugee camp. Of course everything was in shambles. Our whole program had fallen apart. Everyone there was expecting us to come for World Aids Day on December 1st. However, due to lack of funds we had to cancel our trip. The problem was that our funder, the Internation Organization of Migration (IOM), and specifically their Zambian Project Coordinator was back in the US for two months. We needed her signature and finally got it last week. So our program at the camp was dormant from November-February, way too long for things to continue without support. Our educators there had pretty much given up hope that we were ever coming back. So my job was to jump-start things and get the ball rolling. I think we accomplished this. I mean, I hope we did. We are scheduled to go back two more times, a pair of trips that serve as bookends for the month of March. Our contract is up then and we are planning a big celebration day for everyone we've worked with. This means tons of organizing because even our funder's funder, CIDA (please bare with me and all the acronyms) is making a trip and our program is going to be the centerpiece of their visit. You know your boy has everything under control.

I should mention that this particular (mostly Angolan) refugee camp has been in existance for the past forty years and is finally being dismantled. What does this mean? It means that all these people who were born in the camp and know no other life, let alone Angola, are about to lose their status as refugees and be left to the whim of the Zambian government.

It's unclear what steps they will take, but it's possible that they will pack up the refugees and drop them off at the Angolan border. I really haven't got a handle on everything that's going down, but I'll update you when I find out more. It's odd to know that just as GRS pulls out at the end of March, that's just the beginning of UNHCP, World Food Progam and even IOM all slowly saying PEACE!