We headed out at 5 am on Friday, Oct 5 on our exciting 9 day trek across Zambia. We were in a rattletrap yellow school bus that had been used for a primary school, so the seats were short & extra close, an 11 passenger van, & a truck, all of which were piled to the brim with people or supplies. We rambled along at 45 mph with frequent “comfort stops” along the way. Along with our family, Janice Bingham, Roy Merritt, & the 24 college students, we took 5 Zambians along who were going to set up & take down camp & cook for us as well as a mechanic. Vann, Janice, & I were blessed to be able to cram into the air-conditioned van so the trip was much more tolerable for us.
First, let me just say that anywhere you go in Zambia in a big yellow school bus, you’re going to attract attention! Everywhere we stopped in Zambia, people would come out & gather around the bus & stare. This was not a problem until we stopped for our “comfort stops” (using the toilet in the bushes) & then we even had a few people following us there. Fun! Fun!
The first day, we traveled into Lusaka, the capital of Zambia. It is a moderately big city with modern shopping centers which we were excited to visit. We were all going to Subway for sandwiches, but when we arrived, found they had no bread ready, but were baking some. We waited for that delicious bite, but must say they were disappointing as the bread just wasn’t nearly as good as it is in the USA. Oh well … We were excited to find a store that sold Snickers candy bars & some great ice cream!! That night we traveled to a farm called Fringilla where we set up our tents in a field. The adults all got to stay in cute thatched roof chalets & ours even had a TV with 8 channels!!! Our first look at a TV in over a month!! We also enjoyed the hot showers without having to worry about using too much water!!
Next morning, we awoke early as the peacocks outside our door were crowing – or whatever loud noise peacocks make- so we headed over to the campsite for a breakfast of bread & cereal, tea or coffee. This was to be our breakfast choice for the next 9 days. Zambians tend to eat the same foods over & over every day, so they don’t really think about varying the diet much for us.
We headed north from Fringilla to a place called Ibis Gardens. It is a resort type lodge & has a large (but freezing cold) pool where we were allowed to swim & relax for the morning. This was a nice change for us & it was a lovely place. We feasted on Chips (French fries) & cold cokes & ice cream before heading off for our next stop at the Forrest Inn.
The Forrest Inn is a nice place with a wooded camping area that has a large round thatched roof gazebo where we could eat our meals. Again, the adults stayed in little chalets. We enjoyed a buffet of rice with stroghanoff, stir fry chicken, & some funky vegetable salad. We hit the bed around 9 as it was going to be an early morning. It gets dark so early here (around 6:30) so there is usually not much to do at night besides go to bed early. Next morning we were up & on the bus headed to Kapiri Imposhi?? , a small village about an hour drive away. There we met with the church members for a 3 hour service followed by a traditional meal of nshima (the staple - cornmeal mush), chicken, beef stew, tomato & onion relish, & the traditional drink, Chibonte? Not sure about the spelling! It is made of cornmeal which has been cooked in a lot of water & you add sugar. Definitely not our favorite, but the people here drank it as fast as they could get it!! We were fortunate to be holding some little kids who loved it, so they drank most of ours! The people here were friendly & very welcoming as they have been each place we’ve visited. They had a group of about 10 ladies which formed a choir & they sang & danced for us.
It was back to the Forrest Inn for another evening. We had bologna sandwiches w/ cheese for dinner & a birthday cake celebrating one of our cook’s birthday. In her honor, we had a “talent(less)” show.
Next morning we headed out early toward the Kundalila Falls area. As we move north, the trees get taller & there is more green! There are even a few hills around here as opposed to Namwianga where it is flat, dry, & sandy everywhere. Here we were “rough camping” as there was no electricity or water besides the stream. We took a 15 minute hike which took us across the stream & down a steep canyon to see a beautiful waterfall!! Most of the students & Vann & the girls all swam under the falls. I, however, only waded as the water was FREEZING cold! I was wishing I had gotten wetter, though, as I was about to die of heat stroke climbing back UP the canyon wall. We took quick baths in the stream above the falls before settling in for our dinner of rice, sausages, tomato relish, peanuts & cooked cabbage. (This would be our dinner for 6 of the 9 nights we were out – alternating the sausages w/ chicken). My Dad would have loved this trip as we ate bologna sandwiches nearly every day as well. By the end we were all craving some fresh fruit or vegetables!! We all stayed in tents this night. We were all in bed by 8:30 or 9 as there was no light other than flashlights. Next time – remind me to bring a lantern of some sort!!
Next day started out early as usual – eating breakfast usually between 6 – 7 am. We packed up & headed out for the Livingston Memorial. Here I will say that most of the main roads we traveled on were excellent. We traveled the great North – South Highway which was built in the 70’s by the Swiss. It is surprisingly smooth for Zambia standards, so made for a pleasant trip. HOWEVER – when we would get off of this road, most of the roads were unpaved, pothole ridden roads – like the one taking us to the Livingston Memorial. On it, we drove about 16 miles taking us over an hour to get there. All along the road, there were little houses & children would run out to wave & then would follow us so that by the time we arrived at our camping area, there were probably 100 people standing around staring at us. The memorial is really not much to see – just a large concrete structure with plaques on it. The story is that this spot was where David Livingston died of malaria. The people there cut out his heart & buried it under a tree at the spot of the memorial & then dried out his body & carried it over 1500 km to the coast of Tanzania where it was placed on a boat & taken to London to be buried in Westminster Abbey. Livingston was the first missionary to enter Zambia, so opened the way for others to follow.
One of the people who met us at our campsite included a 73 year old man who was obviously a Livingston historian. He gave us a talk about Livingston & his influence on the people of that area.
That night, the crowd finally left around 7 o’clock as we were eating our dinner. We built a large bonfire & sat around telling ghost stories for about an hour. Just as some of us were talking of going to bed, the flocks of children re-appeared. ( We called them the children of the corn!) We went on to bed, but some of the students stayed up & talked, sang, & danced with the kids.
Next morning started out early (again) which I didn’t really mind as we were going to bed at ridiculously early hours. We visited Chief Mialo’s village which had a new church which had just been started 3-4 months ago. There were approx. 40-50 people there besides us & we enjoyed a 2 hour service with them. At the end, they served us Chibonte again which we drank as little as possible without being rude. I hate to even take the food or drink if I don’t like it as I know the people there have limited resources & would love it.
We were back on the bus for a trip further north to Sanfeya which was on the shores of a huge, beautiful lake. Our lodge was definitely a bare – minimum kind of place but the beautiful view of the lake was worth it. It had a white sand beach & the lake was so large, you couldn’t see the other side, so it was just like being at the ocean. The only problem is that this lake has parasites in it, so we couldn’t swim in it. (Although I saw some locals doing just that). Again, we had a huge thatched roof shelter that we could cook & eat under. That night, we had a man who had formerly been a witch & one that had been a witch-doctor who had been converted to Christianity. They both spoke to us out on the beach about their former lives. It was fascinating & just a reminder to us that the evil spirits are “alive & well”. It was really quite freaky as we were sitting out there listening & off in the distance, it began to lightning & the wind began blowing harder. Before it was over the wind was fierce & the lightening had moved even closer. Maybe a sign that satan didn’t like the testimony of leaving evil ways to follow God!!
The power had gone out before we had dinner, so when we went back to our rooms, we lit a single candle that was left in the room. We quickly got ready for bed & shortly after blowing our candle out, we could hear the rain start pouring down. Within minutes, all the students were yelling that their tents were leaking & they started running up to the lodge with all their sleeping bags. So – we had a camp out in our 4 rooms!! Thankfully, the rooms were nice size & had a little carpet on the floor, so everyone slept peacefully!
The next morning we awoke to a beautiful sunrise, which Vann took about a hundred pictures of. It was a gorgeous day & the sun rising over the lake was stunning. After breakfast, we again headed out to a nearby (hours drive over awful roads) village to meet with a church there. We enjoyed a 2 hour service sitting on mats under some mimosa trees. Afterwards, we visited with the people, played with the kids, & enjoyed traditional dancing lessons from some of the women. The congregation fed us a meal of kasava (like nshima, but made with the kasava plant), fried & boiled fish, boiled okra, kasava leaves, capenta (tiny dried fish – like minnows), fried caterpillars, & cabbage. Yep – you read right – fried caterpillars! I can’t say that I ate a lot except the fried fish, but I did try everything once. After we finished, the members came in & finished up everything we had left including the fish heads!
We had another night at the Sanfeya resort before heading back toward home the next day. This was our longest driving day – about 6 hours back to the Forrest Inn. We again enjoyed their buffet, nice thatched huts, & hot showers! One of our students was having a birthday this day, so they made a chocolate cake for him. His name was Brian, but the cake said “Happy birthday Brain”. He thought that was pretty funny!
The next day we drove to Lusaka where we again enjoyed the shopping center & eating out. We ate at an Irish pub where I got my much craved salad & shared a basket of ribs, chicken strips, & sausages with Vann. It’s great to eat some of our more “traditional” foods. We had definitely had enough of the Zambian food for a while. After 3 hours at the center, we drove to the Eureka campground just outside of town for the night. This was a lively campground with lots of people from all over the world staying here. There were people from South Africa & Australia & who knows where else! They had a great thatched roof reception with restaurant & had a large screen TV to show the Rugby World cup game. There are even zebra, giraffe, & antelope running around the grounds.
I didn’t even eat dinner as I was too tired of the rice/sausage/cabbage/peanuts meal & was still stuffed from our lunch. We headed to bed around 9 again, although I heard that a lot of students stayed up visiting with other campers.
Next morning we set out for home which would be about a 5 hour drive. We made it to within 1 hour of home, when the fan belt on the pick-up broke. Of course, it was Sunday & we didn’t have an extra with us. We left the driver there & went to the next town (20 miles away) to find a belt. After he had called around & walked all over town, he finally found one & caught a ride back to install it so that we could go on home. We arrived HOME about 3 pm. & were excited as we had heard that our internet system had been repaired while we were gone. Students were on within minutes of arriving back, but about 20 minutes later it kicked them off again – thus continues our saga.
We are having to reset the system frequently & sometimes even that doesn’t work.
Vann, Shelby, & I are going back to Lusaka tomorrow for Shelby to take the PSAT test on Wednesday. We are hoping to go to the office of this internet company & let them have an earful of the problems we are having with it. I don’t know if it will do any good, but we sure hope so!
By-the-way, today has also turned out to be a good day as we FINALLY got Savannah’s retainer in the mail. I don’t remember if I blogged about this, but she just got her braces off the week we left & ended up leaving her retainer sitting on the kitchen table. The girls staying in our house mailed it to us that week & we just today finally got it!!! It’s a tight fit, but she thinks she’ll be able to get it all the way in pretty quick! Praise the Lord!! We sure didn’t want to have to put her braces back on!! Keep watching – if we can get this internet fixed, I’ll be able to get some pictures of the trip on soon!
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
Trip to Livingstone
We’re continuing our saga of limited internet access this week. The part that was ordered from the UK came in & the man came from Livingstone last Friday to repair it, but the electricity was off, so he could not fix it. While here, however, he noticed another part that had gone bad & had to be ordered putting it another week or 2 behind. At least we have this slow dial-up service to fall back on which is better than nothing! It just makes it very hard to up-load pictures or to complete online classes. But once again – TIA!
On Friday morning at 6:00 a.m., we all piled into the old yellow school bus for our first trip! We headed off on the 2 hour journey over some good & some very bumpy roads to the city of Livingstone. Once there, we made a quick stop at the ATM for some cash & then off to the Zambezi Waterfront Hotel where we would be staying for the next 2 nights. No – not in one of the nice waterfront hotel rooms or chalets – we were camping in tents! They have about 30 tents set up on platforms in a field with 2 foam beds & a lamp in each. Pretty primitive, but overall not bad! At least there were clean bath houses available with hot showers in them!! Best shower I’ve had in a month!
First thing, we headed off to do some Adventure Sports. 17 of our group decided to white water raft (including Shelby). It was a half day adventure in class 3 & 4 rapids of the Zambezi river. She has a video showing them flipping at most of the rapids!! She said it was a blast.
Savannah chose to do a half day Adventure package that included rappelling down a canyon wall, doing a zip-line type run across the steep canyon, & doing a gorge swing which was basically like bungee jumping, but you swing across the gorge rather than dangle by your feet. All this took place in the gorge of the Zambezi River. Vann & I satisfied ourselves by going with Savannah & living dangerously vicariously through her!! It was pretty exciting! I'll try to get video or pics on soon!
After the adventures were over, some of us headed to the Royal Livingstone Hotel, which is an exclusive hotel right on the banks of the Zambezi river, just a few hundred feet from the head of the falls. You can see some of the mist from the falls off in the distance. This hotel has beautiful grounds & there are cute little monkeys all over the place including some with their babies! They were a lot of fun to watch. While there we enjoyed High Tea in their tea room with a selection of hot or iced teas & all sorts of sweets & pastries. That was our lunch for the day!
Next stop was Victoria Falls which is usually spectacular!! It has a mile across opening to the falls which in wet season is so full, you can hardly stand close to it due to the mist coming off of it. However, at the end of dry season like we are now, it is less than spectacular although there are still some nice waterfalls coming off of it. You can see some of the pics of it at the links on the left.
That evening we enjoyed a stir-fry buffet dinner back at the Zambezi Waterfront Hotel before turning in to our tent for an early evening. Roy, who is accompanying us on this trip, is an early riser, so we’re sure he’ll be around bright & early to get us started!
Saturday started bright & early as expected with Roy stirring everyone around 6:30 a.m. After a continental breakfast, we headed toward the Botswana border to the Chobe Game Reserve. We had little difficulty getting across the border & were loaded into open air vehicles for the drive into the park. I must say this place was very barren & desolate looking. It is the end of the dry season & there is little green to be found. What little there is is being eaten by the wildlife as there’s just not much for them to eat right now.
The first part of our tour was on a boat where we floated the Chobe river. We had to make a quick stop at a little booth to report how many people were on the boat & when we did 3 or 4 monkeys climbed on board to try to snatch some of our food! As the boat started to leave, they all jumped off except 1 small one who stayed until the boat was about 15’ from the shore, then lept off & swam back to shore. It was really funny!!
On the boat tour, we saw a lot of unusual birds, some hippos, monitor lizards, & a few crocs. They fed us a delicious meal of kudu (an antelope) & fish with all the trimmings, before heading out on land cruisers for the land portion of the trip. We saw some kudu, elephants, giraffes, sable, antelopes, water buck, cape buffalo, & even a couple of lions that were hiding under bushes. Unfortunately, we couldn’t see them very well & for some reason our driver didn’t want to stir them!! It was a little thrilling being in an open air vehicle about 20’ from lions!
That evening, we arrived back at the hotel just in time for a quick shower before dinner. The food was great at this place! It is definitely a tourists place & caters to all coming to see the Falls & do the Adventure activities.
Sunday morning we started off with a breakfast buffet before piling back into the yellow school bus for a short trip to the Livingstone Central church of Christ. There we enjoyed fellowshipping with around 300 Zambian Christians. It was interesting as after the service they introduced a couple who was going to be married in December. They stood up in front of the congregation with the boys parents indicating that they knew about their plans to marry & approved. The girls family was from a ways off, so someone else stood up for her. She stood with her head bowed the whole time & a sad look on her face. She is supposed to do that as she is mourning that she is leaving her family. That was a nice cultural experience for us. Afterward, we stopped at the Hungry Lion for some take out chicken & headed to a rest area by the river for a picnic lunch. Next was shopping at a curio “mall” just outside of Vic Falls where the students enjoyed practicing their bargaining skills & purchased bowls, baskets, masks, drums, jewelry, paintings, & all kinds of other fun stuff!! Back on the bus for the 2 hour jaunt home.
As we got closer to Namwianga, we could tell that it was starting to cool off (thank goodness) & there were a lot of clouds in the sky. We found out it had rained all afternoon, & we shortly enjoyed another round of lightening & thunder that evening, but only a little bit of rain. We ate a quick dinner & headed back to church services where we sang a couple of songs for the group. After almost every service, they have at least a couple of groups sing songs. There are a lot of great singing groups here & the people love to sing! Dad would like a couple of the quartet groups that sing – even if we can’t understand a word they’re saying!!
All in all it was a very enjoyable weekend! Traveling here is certainly much different than we did on our Greece trip. No 4 star hotels – no air conditioned chartered buses – no tour guides, but still a lot of fun!
Monday morning I awoke with stomach cramps. We’ve been passing this around since we’ve been here, so I guess I won’t get to go to the Haven again today. I really miss getting to see the babies!!
We had a little excitement the last couple of days. On Sunday night, our night watchman killed a black mamba snake in our driveway. Then, tonight one of the girls came into our house & left the door open behind her for just a minute. As she turned around to leave, she saw a cobra coming into the house. She screamed & a couple of guys & the night watchman came running & threw bricks at it to kill it. It has rained only a couple of times now, but is apparently enough to bring them out!! I think I’ll take my flashlight out with me from now on!!
We leave on Friday for a 9 day camping trip to Northern Zambia, so this will probably be my last post for a couple of weeks. We're really hoping that by the time we get back, our internet will be up & running & picture loading will be much faster.
On Friday morning at 6:00 a.m., we all piled into the old yellow school bus for our first trip! We headed off on the 2 hour journey over some good & some very bumpy roads to the city of Livingstone. Once there, we made a quick stop at the ATM for some cash & then off to the Zambezi Waterfront Hotel where we would be staying for the next 2 nights. No – not in one of the nice waterfront hotel rooms or chalets – we were camping in tents! They have about 30 tents set up on platforms in a field with 2 foam beds & a lamp in each. Pretty primitive, but overall not bad! At least there were clean bath houses available with hot showers in them!! Best shower I’ve had in a month!
First thing, we headed off to do some Adventure Sports. 17 of our group decided to white water raft (including Shelby). It was a half day adventure in class 3 & 4 rapids of the Zambezi river. She has a video showing them flipping at most of the rapids!! She said it was a blast.
Savannah chose to do a half day Adventure package that included rappelling down a canyon wall, doing a zip-line type run across the steep canyon, & doing a gorge swing which was basically like bungee jumping, but you swing across the gorge rather than dangle by your feet. All this took place in the gorge of the Zambezi River. Vann & I satisfied ourselves by going with Savannah & living dangerously vicariously through her!! It was pretty exciting! I'll try to get video or pics on soon!
After the adventures were over, some of us headed to the Royal Livingstone Hotel, which is an exclusive hotel right on the banks of the Zambezi river, just a few hundred feet from the head of the falls. You can see some of the mist from the falls off in the distance. This hotel has beautiful grounds & there are cute little monkeys all over the place including some with their babies! They were a lot of fun to watch. While there we enjoyed High Tea in their tea room with a selection of hot or iced teas & all sorts of sweets & pastries. That was our lunch for the day!
Next stop was Victoria Falls which is usually spectacular!! It has a mile across opening to the falls which in wet season is so full, you can hardly stand close to it due to the mist coming off of it. However, at the end of dry season like we are now, it is less than spectacular although there are still some nice waterfalls coming off of it. You can see some of the pics of it at the links on the left.
That evening we enjoyed a stir-fry buffet dinner back at the Zambezi Waterfront Hotel before turning in to our tent for an early evening. Roy, who is accompanying us on this trip, is an early riser, so we’re sure he’ll be around bright & early to get us started!
Saturday started bright & early as expected with Roy stirring everyone around 6:30 a.m. After a continental breakfast, we headed toward the Botswana border to the Chobe Game Reserve. We had little difficulty getting across the border & were loaded into open air vehicles for the drive into the park. I must say this place was very barren & desolate looking. It is the end of the dry season & there is little green to be found. What little there is is being eaten by the wildlife as there’s just not much for them to eat right now.
The first part of our tour was on a boat where we floated the Chobe river. We had to make a quick stop at a little booth to report how many people were on the boat & when we did 3 or 4 monkeys climbed on board to try to snatch some of our food! As the boat started to leave, they all jumped off except 1 small one who stayed until the boat was about 15’ from the shore, then lept off & swam back to shore. It was really funny!!
On the boat tour, we saw a lot of unusual birds, some hippos, monitor lizards, & a few crocs. They fed us a delicious meal of kudu (an antelope) & fish with all the trimmings, before heading out on land cruisers for the land portion of the trip. We saw some kudu, elephants, giraffes, sable, antelopes, water buck, cape buffalo, & even a couple of lions that were hiding under bushes. Unfortunately, we couldn’t see them very well & for some reason our driver didn’t want to stir them!! It was a little thrilling being in an open air vehicle about 20’ from lions!
That evening, we arrived back at the hotel just in time for a quick shower before dinner. The food was great at this place! It is definitely a tourists place & caters to all coming to see the Falls & do the Adventure activities.
Sunday morning we started off with a breakfast buffet before piling back into the yellow school bus for a short trip to the Livingstone Central church of Christ. There we enjoyed fellowshipping with around 300 Zambian Christians. It was interesting as after the service they introduced a couple who was going to be married in December. They stood up in front of the congregation with the boys parents indicating that they knew about their plans to marry & approved. The girls family was from a ways off, so someone else stood up for her. She stood with her head bowed the whole time & a sad look on her face. She is supposed to do that as she is mourning that she is leaving her family. That was a nice cultural experience for us. Afterward, we stopped at the Hungry Lion for some take out chicken & headed to a rest area by the river for a picnic lunch. Next was shopping at a curio “mall” just outside of Vic Falls where the students enjoyed practicing their bargaining skills & purchased bowls, baskets, masks, drums, jewelry, paintings, & all kinds of other fun stuff!! Back on the bus for the 2 hour jaunt home.
As we got closer to Namwianga, we could tell that it was starting to cool off (thank goodness) & there were a lot of clouds in the sky. We found out it had rained all afternoon, & we shortly enjoyed another round of lightening & thunder that evening, but only a little bit of rain. We ate a quick dinner & headed back to church services where we sang a couple of songs for the group. After almost every service, they have at least a couple of groups sing songs. There are a lot of great singing groups here & the people love to sing! Dad would like a couple of the quartet groups that sing – even if we can’t understand a word they’re saying!!
All in all it was a very enjoyable weekend! Traveling here is certainly much different than we did on our Greece trip. No 4 star hotels – no air conditioned chartered buses – no tour guides, but still a lot of fun!
Monday morning I awoke with stomach cramps. We’ve been passing this around since we’ve been here, so I guess I won’t get to go to the Haven again today. I really miss getting to see the babies!!
We had a little excitement the last couple of days. On Sunday night, our night watchman killed a black mamba snake in our driveway. Then, tonight one of the girls came into our house & left the door open behind her for just a minute. As she turned around to leave, she saw a cobra coming into the house. She screamed & a couple of guys & the night watchman came running & threw bricks at it to kill it. It has rained only a couple of times now, but is apparently enough to bring them out!! I think I’ll take my flashlight out with me from now on!!
We leave on Friday for a 9 day camping trip to Northern Zambia, so this will probably be my last post for a couple of weeks. We're really hoping that by the time we get back, our internet will be up & running & picture loading will be much faster.
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Pictures Added!
I have been able to add just a few pictures to my first African posts, so if you want to see them, you can scroll back down through the old blog posts. Hopefully I will have more of those & even some slides shows on the way. We are now using a dial up internet as the one Harding had installed has still not been fixed. It is VERY slow with so many people trying to use it, so uploading pictures has been a chore. I'll hopefully be able to get several more on this week!
Monday, September 17, 2007
Another Day in Zambia
It’s another gorgeous day at Namwianga! One thing we cannot complain about has been the weather. It is nice & cool in the mornings, probably about 60 degrees, heats up in the afternoon to about 90 (but with almost no humidity it is definitely tolerable), starts cooling down around 4:00 & is cool again by night-time - in the 60’s. So far there’s been a nice breeze blowing most of the time, so even in our unairconditioned houses, it feels great with just a fan. We are going into summer, so there are a few things starting to bloom like Jacaranda trees which are a bright purple flowering tree. I wish I could send a picture, but until we get our own internet service going, we can’t do pictures.
We’re now going on our 5th day without fresh water in the pipes, although they just brought us some from another source in a big trailer. They say our tank is now starting to fill up. We haven’t had access to enough water for a decent bath in 5 days, so I’m sure everyone will want one as soon as it’s available. With the water shortages, lack of internet, & occasional loss of power, the missionaries here say we’re getting to experience the real Africa! They have been gracious enough to allow us to use their internet services, so at any given time there will several people sitting on their veranda with their laptops.
Well, this has been a fairly quiet weekend. We did all get to go into “town” - Kalomo - on Saturday morning. When I say town, it consists of about 2 blocks of small shops, restaurants, a post office, & outdoor market. However, it does have an internet café which is why we were going in. A few people got to use it, but the service was slow & spotty, so most of us just went to the market & a local bakery. The market has rows of stalls which are made of sticks bound together & they sell all kinds of clothes, shoes, & chitenges (about 2 yards of fabric which all the women wear wrapped around them as skirts). The chitenges are what most of us went for as they can be wraps or made into skirts, tops, or purses.
On Saturday afternoon, we had a woman come & give a cooking lesson. She made several things of which I don’t remember the names of but one was a drink which was made from corn meal & water (not my favorite) & chicken & nsima which is the favorite meal around here. (also not MY favorite). We even got to watch & help them chop the heads off the live chickens & pluck the feathers. Fresh from the farm to the table!!!! The poor chickens were so skinny it was hardly worth taking their lives for!
Saturday night was spent watching Blood Diamond out on the veranda. After 45 minutes of trying to get the sound to work on our video set-up, we finally got it going. Which of course, meant that it was late getting over, so I had perfectly good reason to fall asleep toward the end -right, J.D.!?!
Sunday morning we bounced over 40 minutes of “roads” - probably 10 miles or so to a village called Kisibi, which is the home village to Leonard, our chef. Most of our group went & we were a large part of the crowd. It is interesting as the men sit on one side & the women & children on the other side. They sang “We love you in the name of the Lord” to us & requested us to sing 4 songs. I love that after you sing a song they all say “amen” together. After the service, we again did the line greeting where everyone shakes everyone else’s hand. It is so sweet the way the little girls shake hands & do a slight curtsy.
After the evening service, one of the secondary school students was baptized in the Gregerson’s water trough. A great start to a new week!!
We’re now going on our 5th day without fresh water in the pipes, although they just brought us some from another source in a big trailer. They say our tank is now starting to fill up. We haven’t had access to enough water for a decent bath in 5 days, so I’m sure everyone will want one as soon as it’s available. With the water shortages, lack of internet, & occasional loss of power, the missionaries here say we’re getting to experience the real Africa! They have been gracious enough to allow us to use their internet services, so at any given time there will several people sitting on their veranda with their laptops.
Well, this has been a fairly quiet weekend. We did all get to go into “town” - Kalomo - on Saturday morning. When I say town, it consists of about 2 blocks of small shops, restaurants, a post office, & outdoor market. However, it does have an internet café which is why we were going in. A few people got to use it, but the service was slow & spotty, so most of us just went to the market & a local bakery. The market has rows of stalls which are made of sticks bound together & they sell all kinds of clothes, shoes, & chitenges (about 2 yards of fabric which all the women wear wrapped around them as skirts). The chitenges are what most of us went for as they can be wraps or made into skirts, tops, or purses.
On Saturday afternoon, we had a woman come & give a cooking lesson. She made several things of which I don’t remember the names of but one was a drink which was made from corn meal & water (not my favorite) & chicken & nsima which is the favorite meal around here. (also not MY favorite). We even got to watch & help them chop the heads off the live chickens & pluck the feathers. Fresh from the farm to the table!!!! The poor chickens were so skinny it was hardly worth taking their lives for!
Saturday night was spent watching Blood Diamond out on the veranda. After 45 minutes of trying to get the sound to work on our video set-up, we finally got it going. Which of course, meant that it was late getting over, so I had perfectly good reason to fall asleep toward the end -right, J.D.!?!
Sunday morning we bounced over 40 minutes of “roads” - probably 10 miles or so to a village called Kisibi, which is the home village to Leonard, our chef. Most of our group went & we were a large part of the crowd. It is interesting as the men sit on one side & the women & children on the other side. They sang “We love you in the name of the Lord” to us & requested us to sing 4 songs. I love that after you sing a song they all say “amen” together. After the service, we again did the line greeting where everyone shakes everyone else’s hand. It is so sweet the way the little girls shake hands & do a slight curtsy.
After the evening service, one of the secondary school students was baptized in the Gregerson’s water trough. A great start to a new week!!
Friday, September 14, 2007
TIA - This is Africa!
Unfortunately, our internet service has been out for the last few days, so I haven’t been able to post on the blog, answer emails, or pay bills!! So - when you see this, it may mean that our internet is finally working again~or we're borrowing the neighbors. You sure do miss something like that when you’re so far away & that’s the only means of keeping in touch.
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.
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.
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!!
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!!
Thursday, September 6, 2007
Settling In
We're all unpacked & starting into a routine now. Most of us are still waking up at the crack of dawn (the rooster down the road doesn't help with that) but that makes it easier to get up for early classes.
The weather here has been really very pleasant. It is the dry season & they are going from winter into summer. It is nice & cool in the mornings, then heats up quickly when the sun comes out & then cools off again in the evenings. There is a light breeze blowing most of the time, so it is pretty nice. It will start heating up soon & then the rainy season starts in November. Everything here is dry & brown (although a few things are beginning their spring blooming) since they have not seen a drop of water since March. That means we must be very careful of our water usage & not waste a drop!!
One interesting thing we have here are wall spiders!! They are big flat brown spiders that sit up on the wall every evening. They tell us not to kill them as they are our friends - they eat Mosquitos!! I guess I'll put up with them as long as they stay in their area & not mine!
We had our first official Zambian meal today: Nshima (a corn meal paste), rice, boiled chicken in tomato & cooked cabbage. It was actually pretty good. Our cook, Leonard, does a great job! He is cooking mostly western foods & has made us pizza, fried chicken w/ mashed potatoes, pancakes, biscuits, cookies, & several cakes!! He & a helper cook 3 meals a day for 30 people - no small job! I have a feeling I'm not going to lose any of the weight I was hoping to on this trip!
I am still having difficulty getting pictures on my slide show. I may have to investigate another way to do pictures. Hopefully, I'll fix it soon as I want you to see for yourself what we're doing!
The weather here has been really very pleasant. It is the dry season & they are going from winter into summer. It is nice & cool in the mornings, then heats up quickly when the sun comes out & then cools off again in the evenings. There is a light breeze blowing most of the time, so it is pretty nice. It will start heating up soon & then the rainy season starts in November. Everything here is dry & brown (although a few things are beginning their spring blooming) since they have not seen a drop of water since March. That means we must be very careful of our water usage & not waste a drop!!
One interesting thing we have here are wall spiders!! They are big flat brown spiders that sit up on the wall every evening. They tell us not to kill them as they are our friends - they eat Mosquitos!! I guess I'll put up with them as long as they stay in their area & not mine!
We had our first official Zambian meal today: Nshima (a corn meal paste), rice, boiled chicken in tomato & cooked cabbage. It was actually pretty good. Our cook, Leonard, does a great job! He is cooking mostly western foods & has made us pizza, fried chicken w/ mashed potatoes, pancakes, biscuits, cookies, & several cakes!! He & a helper cook 3 meals a day for 30 people - no small job! I have a feeling I'm not going to lose any of the weight I was hoping to on this trip!
I am still having difficulty getting pictures on my slide show. I may have to investigate another way to do pictures. Hopefully, I'll fix it soon as I want you to see for yourself what we're doing!
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
Zambia - Our home away from Home
We arrived safely in Zambia after a LONG journey. We left at 4 a.m. on Friday & arrived at Livingston around 2:00 p.m. on Sunday afternoon. We had an overnight stay in Johannasburg where we discovered that 8 of our bags had not made it there with us! After trying to figure out which bags were missing - which was not easy as the airline person in Little Rock had just slapped tags on the bags - not matching them with the names on the bags - we finally determined which ones were missing. THEN we had a bout with the customs agent who wanted to confiscate our trunks because we had brought medicines & med supplies into their country. After all kinds of cajoling, he finally agreed to let us pass as we were leaving again the next morning. We finally climbed in bed at 1:00 am that night.
Upon our arrival in Livingston, we again had customs difficulties with the trunks of supplies & it took another 2 hours to secure an agent to negotiate for us. They did (thankfully) agree to let us take the trunks on & they would finish with the paperwork & let us pay later!! We arrived at our home away from home, Namwianga Mission, 2 hours later - about dinner time. We enjoyed a delicious dinner of pizza, garlic bread, & cake! Everyone fell in bed that night!
Vann & I & the girls are sharing a 4 bedroom house w/ 8 other female students. Thankfully, there are 2 full & 4 - half baths in this house! It is a really neat place with concrete & tile floors, & a hugely tall ceiling w/ a straw roof. The walls don't go to the ceiling, so it's all open, but shaped in a U-shape, so at least you can't hear a lot going on in the other wing. There's a large living/dining/kitchen area, so it's become the social - hang out place!!
Our first morning up, everyone woke up around 5 am. We enjoyed pancakes w/ home made maple syrup & took off for a tour of the mission. We stopped at the medical clinic, Erics house, Haven house, & the basic school. The medical clinic is an outpatient clinic but they are working to make it into a hospital. It is a really nice facility & several of our students will be doing volunteer work & clinicals there.
Eric's House is run by Roy & Kathi Merrit & their many workers. They have a really nice home & there they care for up to 20 children that have been abandoned. Several of these they have adopted as their own children. Also there right now are about 20 more orphans under the age of 2 that are waiting for their facility, Haven House 2 to be finished. It's pretty wild around there!! The girls had a great time holding & playing with the children & will be spending a lot of their afternoons at Eric's house & Haven house. Haven house is also an orphanage, but for infants. They keep kids up to age 2 there until they are old enought to move to the Haven 2. In Zambia, approx 25% of the children are orphans as the AIDS/HIV disease has taken so many of their parents & many women also die in childbirth & the babies cannot be taken care of by their families. These babies are well taken care of at Haven House, but it is obvious that they cannot possibly receive near the amount of attention & stimulation that they need to thrive. During our visit to the Haven house we were told that they had just received a baby boy the night before & they were going to name it Vann. Check my pictures for a picture of our family with Baby Vann (also nicknamed Mini-Vann around here!)
Tues. is our first day of classes here. In the afternoons all of the students will be rotating through the 4 places - the clinic, Erics house, Haven house, & an after-school tutoring program. I'll have tons more to tell you about those later.
Here are new Pics added of Baby Vann. I'll have pics of the other babies coming soon!
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