We’ve had some fun firsts this week! On Friday evening, most of us piled into a few vehicles & headed to a nearby village that has a Bible Study/ Devo every Friday night. After bumping over “roads” part of which required 4-wheel drive, we arrived at a 4 room school house which has no electricity. It was pitch black & looked like there was no one there yet. We unloaded & walked toward the building to discover there were about 30 men, women, & children already there. We lit a lantern & sat in school children’s desks & for the next hour had one of the most up-lifting times of worship. The people there sang beautifully & their strong voices echoed through the room. David Gregerson, one of the missionaries here, gave the devo with it being interpreted into Tonga. Afterward, they asked our group to stand in front & sing for them which they answered with many “amens”. At the end of the service, everyone went outside & as you go out the door, you stand in a line & greet everyone coming out the door after you, so that by the end, there is a huge line & everyone has shaken hands & greeted everyone else!! Every man, woman, & child participated - it was really a neat thing.
The Greeting line at Kisibi Church.
Saturday morning we went on a walk through the Paddock with a herbalist (medicine man). He shared many of his secrets with us of the plants he uses to treat ailments from snake bite to infections to infertility to even “unluckiness” such as not being able to find someone to marry. It was quite interesting & we were surprised to find that he was willing to share his secrets, as most will not tell them as they could hurt their business once people around here know.
The medicine Man
Saturday night is going to be our movie night & tonight we watched Cry Freedom about aparteid in South Africa. We sat out on the veranda & used a projector to watch it. After the movie, we all went back to bed pretty quickly & about 15 minutes later as Janice was locking up her house, she heard a “whacking” sound. It turns out that Justin, our fearless night watchman & his friend were killing a snake up on the veranda where we had just sat minutes before. He said it was a cobra, but none of us actually saw it to be sure. Janice said it looked like it was about 6 ft. long as they were carrying it away!!! I guess the Lord was watching over us! A little excitement for our first week!
On Sunday, most of us worshipped with the Namwianga church of Christ where there were over 400 in attendance. This is the congregation where most of the students from the secondary boarding school & George Benson teaching college attend. It was a pretty Americanized service. On our way home on Sunday night, several of us heard a group of students singing over on the secondary campus & they let us listen in while they sang - They were a singing group called Sweet Aroma & were 8 students from the high school. They had wonderful voices & were obviously unafraid to use them to praise God! Hopefully, I will be able to get some video or audio of them to include in the blog.
On Sundays, our cook is off, so we are in charge of our own food for the day! He had left us banana bread & cereal for breakfast & we pulled out leftovers for lunch as several people had gone into other villages for morning services, & for supper fixed chili with fixins & baked apples. Not bad for our first meal to cook in Africa! Thanks to the leftovers from the Zambia Medical Missions group, we have a lot of food from America that we had not expected to have.
On Monday, during chapel we had a couple of visitors from the college here. One of them is the choral director & he taught us 3 or 4 songs that they sing in Tonga. We will be having chapel with the school some days & he is hoping we will learn these songs enough to be able to sing with them by Friday!! For the most part they repeat verses often, so that makes it a little easier. They stopped by again after dinner to go over them again. The people here sure seem to enjoy singing which fits just fine with our group!
Thurs. - Well, it’s now been a full week without our internet. They are having to replace some parts - it is a month old system, after all, & is taking much longer than we had hoped. We also found out last night that our water lines had been cut by a man wanting to water his cattle. Which means we now have no fresh water either. Thankfully, one of the houses has a small reserve tank, so we can still use that for meal prep, drinking, etc. but no real baths for any of us for at least a couple of days. There is lake water we can treat & bathe in (a bucket bath) but most of us are just skipping it for today, anyway. After all - this is Africa!! We’re having lots of “this is Africa” experiences!! Some of the students are really kind of excited, though, as it gives them a chance to practice some of the things they learned at HUT. Like - purifying water by placing it in a clear bottle & setting it in the sun for the day.
Today on our way to chapel over at the George Benson College, we saw a green mamba!! Fortunately, it was already dead, but was neat to see what it looked like. I would just as soon not see one alive, but I’m sure I will before the 3 months are up!
Friday~
Our students sang in chapel for the George Benson college - they sang 3 Chitonga songs & 1 English. I think they did really well considering we've only been here less than 2 weeks! We received word today that it will probably be another week before our internet service is up & running, so I'm borrowing a neighbors. Several of us piled into a truck to go into town to check out the internet cafe there, but when we arrived found that the power was out there & stayed off the whole time we were there. Some of us went to the small outdoor market area & walked around - they had mostly older clothes, some new, & chitengas (fabric wrapped around the waist like a shirt or can be used to sew with). Kalomo is a very small town, so when Macua (white people)show up, we're easily noticed! People here, though, have been very friendly. It's a different feeling to be in such a minority!
When we arrived back home, our power was still out & is still out, so I am now at a neighbors house ( the Oldenburgs, from Abilene) using their dial up service! We're feeling very much like we're in AFRICA!!
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