Kenya

Kenya is another beautiful country, also maybe the friendliest. To get to Eldoret we had to drive several hours from Kisumu. During the drive we past the equator line! Now that we are in the north it’s a lot cooler and cloudy! We spent our 1^st day at the market and then headed to the Marian school, which is a private school for all ages. It took us forever to get there because there were so many different dirt roads and we never knew where to turn. Since we got their late we didn’t have very much time there because we wanted to get out before the daily rain came otherwise there was no way we’d make it back to the paved roads let alone our hotel. Midafternoon we left and right we got on the bus it began to pour, our bus drivers still tried to get us out even though the roads were terrible. For some reason there was a white car on the wrong side of the road stopped so we tried to bypass it on the wrong side and ended up sliding into it. We didn’t really feel anything but since it was a wreck they drivers had to get out and negotiate. Well not just the drivers but 7 Kenyans pilled out but the motto is you can always fit one more in Africa. By the time they came to an agreement they couldn’t get the car to move so the guys got out and pushed the car out of the way, then the bus was stuck in the mud. So everyone got out to push but it wouldn’t budge. To summarize what happened 3 hours later, 3 tractors later, and tons of Kenyan observers later, we got out. It was about seven so it was cold and dark, but at least we didn’t have to sleep on the buses in the middle of the road. One of the tractors followed us to the paved road in case we got stuck again but we didn’t!

The next day we went to a church to hang out with teenagers. First we all ate madazie (donuts) and drank chi tea. They took us on a tour around the church, they have a big garden, and some bee hives, they also have built a well! A few of us girls went into the “kitchen” and learned how to make chipotty, which is similar to tortillas. Then we ate lunch and after they had us try murseek which is a drink that they have every day. It was the grossest drink ever, they said it was like chibwantu in Zambia but that I could at least finish, this drink had the thickness of a milkshake but tasted like sour milk with little chunks in it. There was no way I could drink it all! After we played volleyball with them, and the Kenyan guys were amazing! Not only can Kenyans run they can also play volleyball!

On Sunday we tried to drive on the muddy roads again, I don’t know why but I guess they thought we could make it but we didn’t. Luckily we were able to push the bus out of the mud and then we turned around and drove back to before the roads got bad in case it started to rain while we were at church. So we had to walk through the mud but that’s why God gave us feet, it was so much safer! Right when we got there everyone welcomed us; the women even gave everyone a hug. This is what I mean by being the friendliest people. They were all smiles and I loved it! After church they fed us the best village meal we’ve had by far!! They gave us rice, mashed potatoes, beef, soup, chipotty, and chi tea! When it was time for us to go everyone kept telling us we were welcome back anytime and said they would love to come to America to visit us one day.

Today we are driving to Uganda. We will be there for 2 days and then we start our journey home!

Tanzania

For the past week we were in Tanzania. It was so pretty! For the first
few days we were in Mwanza getting to know a missionary team there and
learning more about mission work.
 The first day was really laid back. We went to Lake Victoria and
played with the missionary kids and had orientation. Then we split off
and the nursing students went on a tour through a hospital while
everyone else split into smaller groups and ate dinner with the
different families. 5 of us went to the Guile’s home. It was really
cool to see how a family works as a missionary. They have four of the
cutest kids, 3 of them are old enough to go to the British
international school there while the mom stays home with their
youngest and the father along with the other male missionaries go out
and meet with different church leaders and work with the churches
they’ve planted.
 The second day we went to a museum where we learned about the Sakuma
tribes. We walked through models of their homes and got to see
different tools they used. One thing that really stood out to me were
these branches placed to look like a mini teepee (It’s really hard to
explain). They are about 3 feet tall and they are placed in the yards
of witchdoctors because they use them during traditional rituals to
call back ancestral spirits. At the end of the tour they performed a
traditional ceremony for us. It started out with just the women
dancing and then both men and women were along with others playing the
drums. It looked like a dance team because they were all in rows and
moved together. At the end of the performance one man opened up a box
that they were around and pulled out 3 pythons for them to dance
around. Then to end the show he picked one up and bit the pythons
head! That night we went downtown and ate at an Indian restaurant on
the lake.
 Sunday we all split off with different missionaries and saw different
church plants. The one I went to was a small church about 2 and ½
hours away. When we got there (at about 11) the preacher was finishing
up the lesson and then they had us all introduce ourselves. During the
service the wind came up and it got really cold since the windows and
door are just holes, so randomly as I’m sitting there it gets darker
and I look back and two men just carried up a tin door from nowhere
and leaned it against the doorway. Then it started raining and ½ the
church had a leaky roof so we all squished up to one side. At about 2
the service ended but then they went into a discussion that lasted
about an hour. Everything was in a different language so I have no
idea really when was going on. The missionary got up every now and
then and put his input in but afterwards he told us their goal in
Mwanza is to bring the Bible to people and then let them interpret
what they read into their own culture with what’s available and
accessible to them. He said they don’t give them answers right away
because they want them to solve their own problems and go through the
mind process, at times they will give them advice but he said they try
really hard not for force what a western church looks like on them. At
3 we ate lunch there which was bugala (their name for nsime), rice,
chicken and chicken awfuls (intestines). After church we thanked
everyone and headed back into town for dinner.
Monday we left our hotel on safari jeeps for the Serengeti!! Whatever
car you picked was your car/guide for the next 3 days. We drove around
looking at animals until 6 the first night and then went out the
second day from 6:30am until 7:30 pm. During those days we saw so many
different animals, some I don’t even know the name of but here’s a
list of what I remember: zebras, giraffes, baboons, warthogs, water
buffalo, wildebeest, impalas, topes, hippos, ostriches, lions, hyenas,
cheetahs, a leopard, and tons of colorful birds. My favorite moments
were when we saw the babies, I feel like we saw babies of almost every
animal!! I also loved the lions. We drove up to about 8 female lions
laying under a tree along with 2 adolescent male lions, they had a
little scruff going on around their heads but not a full mane yet.
Then the leopard was in a tree so all you could see was a spotted
trunk when you looked through binoculars but I also saw him move his
back paw that was hanging down back up. We also got to see the
wildebeest migration, we had to stop once to let about 100 cross the
road it reminded me of the lion king when simba’s father dies during
the wildebeest stampede.
The 3rd day  we packed up and left our lodge at 730 so we
could do a little driving around before we had to be out of the park
at noon. During that drive we saved the BEST for last!!! There was a
male lion with a full mane lying next to a female lion about 2 yards
from the road we drove past!! They didn’t seem to mind at all that we
were right by them, she was sleeping and he just stared at us.
After we left the park we drove to the smallest airport you’ve ever
seen, they are so small that 1st they forgot about our flight to
Kenya, second they let us take liquids through security (all they said
was “take a sip”, I guess if you take a drink and it doesn’t kill you
then its safe), then our tickets where hand written. But after all
that we made it to Kenya where we are now!

Last Few Days in Namwianga

Well I have officially finished my finals and I only have two crazy days left here in Namwianga. It is definitely bitter sweet! I’ve learned so much and will miss all the people here!! For the next two weeks we will be traveling in South Africa, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda…and then home.

I know it has been forever since I’ve updated ya’ll on what we’ve been up to so here are some things that stick out for me!

1.       It started raining, not hard like it usually does here, but you can tell the rainy season it coming!

2.       I saw a baby black snake one night!

3.       During a crazy wind, lightning, and sprinkle storm our electricity went out and was out for about 19hrs! We thought we were going to die…i guess that shows how dependent we are on electricity when it comes to living. We had to bucket flush our toilets, use a gas stove, and use as little water from the pump as possible because it was low and we didn’t want to run out! It was definitely something we NEEDED to experience because now that I look back on it was fun!

4.       Then the power came on for like 3 hours and went back out for 3 more. During that the girls’ dorms were playing drums and having a girls’ dance party in the dark so about 6 of us girls joined!! It was a blast!

5.       I was holding Maya one Wed. when her dad came in again and THIS TIME HE HELD HER!!! It was so cute!! He came up to me and I asked if he wanted to hold her and he did along with feeding her, even though you could tell he probably has never fed a baby before, but it was adorable!

6.       Victoria can now stand with help. She has to hang on to one of my hands and is still wobbly but its progress…she even takes some steps if you hold both hands!!

7.       Last year the HIZ group went to Ba Monga’s wife’s funeral, and they had a 1 year memorial for her so we went to that. It was similar to an American funeral with the family sitting in the front left and a preacher talking, the only difference was they had a time when anyone could get up and say a few words. It was really sweet to hear the nice things and memories they had of Mrs. Monga. I really liked how that made the experience more personal for everyone!

8.       I found out my Tonga tutor is engaged to a guy named Oscar. He is a doctor in Lusaka!

9.       Monday Oct. 24^th was Zambian Independence day. The basic school had each grade put something together for a program so we went over there. It was WAY different than I expected. They had a girl’s fashion show, some boys rapped, then a group did a skit, another did a poem about Zambia, a group of girls sang a song about AIDS, and then they had the 6^th grade class do a traditional dance while they sang. It lasted a couple of hours and then all the kids were free to go home!

10.   One day I went over to the village by the clinic to play with the kids. When I first got there I just walked around with them to gather up more kids and a few of them showed me the houses they lived in. I didn’t get to see inside but it was interesting to see who lived where. It explained a lot to me about why they were the way they were. For example one girl who knows the best English lived in a mud brick house that had a cute little garden in front and a satellite dish. Another girl who knows little English lives with a very extended family in a smaller mud brick house and I didn’t notice a satellite dish. After we got more kids we went and played futbol  it was about 10 boys against 5 girls and one makuwa (me)…the girls definitely lost, but we did get two goals!!

All of the girls with their friends

Girls Devo with our Tonga Tutors

Holding Our Babies African Style with a Chitenge!

Independence Day

Mrs. Monga's Memorial

My House with their Babies

Rosa's House

Spiders all over our House

Studying for Finals

Tribal Dance at the Basic School

Victoria

Trip to Northwestern Zambia

Wed. Oct. 5 – we drove and drove and drove : ) and had several geography stops  (bathroom breaks in the bush)

Thurs. Oct. 6- we left Frangilla Farm where we stayed the night and headed for Mumena
(our destination) in total we drove for about 18hrs.

Fri. Oct. 7- the missionaries taught two classes the first was about cultural research. The first thing a missionary should do is observe and get to know the people before diving in. With their experience they told us about the Kaonde people who live around them. They are people who used to be hunters but do to immigration from Congo they had too many people with little food and killed off all the wild animals. Since they didn’t grow up with agriculture they now have to teach themselves  from scratch. Religiously they believe in ancestral spirits and witchcraft even though he current chief is a Christian and has made those practices illegal most of the tribe continues to do it in secret. In this part of the world witchcraft influences their lives daily. Their number one emotion is fear, if they have a nightmare it’s because someone is trying to attack them in their sleep. Along with fear comes jealousy, no one wants to get ahead of another person because their afraid of causing someone to be jealous of them and curse them.  The Kaonde tribe is matrilineal; if your mom is in the royal family then a counsel of old women will consider you as the next chief.

The second class was about missionary team strategies. First you have to discover the root cause of the problem and then a solution using the appropriate technology. The difficult thing is finding a solution that works and won’t cause dependency.

That afternoon Whitney, one of the missionaries who arrived in Jan. took us to the Konkwa village where we met Josephine. She’s a mother of five boys, when we first arrived at her house she was bathing one of her sons outside in a little bucket, but stopped to get a grass mat for us to sit on. She was very friendly even though it was hard communicating with our language barrier. She cooked us some ground nuts that were pretty good! It was fun to actually be in the village instead of just driving or walking past on the way somewhere.

Sat. Oct 8- We went to Meheba Refugee camp and spent to day with the Congolese Christians. The refugee camp has been there for many years and has developed into what looks more to me like a village except you still have to go through a gate and bribe the police to get in. there used to be 150,000 refugees there when a war in Congo began but now there are about 50,000. When a refugee first arrives they are given a tent, a small plot of land, and enough seed to last them two years so then they can provide for themselves. Driving through tents were still set up in some places but by now most families have different upgrades such as mud huts and brick houses, we even noticed solar panels and cable satellite dishes. The day consisted of lessons and singing by different people and a lunch with nsime, rape, and goat. One of the missionaries said that the church there has progressed well, only 5 years ago when the 1^st missionaries moved to Mumena they were just having one on one lessons with the Congolese and now at this meeting there were elders who were first taught sitting toward the back of the group watching the young men take charge and practice what they’ve learned.  

Sun. Oct. 9- everyone spilt up into smaller group and went with the missionaries to different churches that had been planted. I went back to Konkwa Village Church of Christ where Josephine lives, it was about a 2km walk. Other groups walked 4km, rode different vehicles to father churches, and one group even biked an hour through the forest to church. It’s amazing how much effort the people here have to put into just getting to and from church, while in the states we just hop into a car drive down a paved road and are there within minutes.  The Konkwa church altogether had about 80 members present including children, other churches had smaller groups the bike group had about 11 Zambian members.  What amazes me is how far God’s word has spread here in only 5 years!

Sunday night we had a trick-or-treat celebration for the missionaries kids. We all went back to our rooms got creative costumes on and waited for the children to knock on our bed room doors. They had so much fun with it!

Mon. Oct. 10- we left the mission and drove to Nsobe Game Park where we stayed the night. The place was so green and beautiful! There were monkeys swinging around on trees and after dark we saw a kudu! Before dinner we had several hours to spare so we rented 4 canoes and 12 of us girls went out on the lake, it was so much fun (even though we got stuck once) because the sun was setting and there were pretty birds everywhere!

Tues. Oct. 11- at Nsobe we went to a reptile exhibit where we got to hold a baby croc, a small green snake, and a python! Then we hit the road and stopped for lunch at Ibis Garden Hotel where we swam, before getting to Frangilla Farm to stay the night. We arrived there at 3p.m and had so much time to kill and it was raining so we stayed in our room and watch TV for the first time. Before dinner at 7 we watched news about 101 deaths due to a flood (that’s the 1^st time we’d ever heard about anything going on outside of Zambia, we are so out of the loop here), then we watched the end of a really weird Arnold Swartzenager movie, watched a little motocross, the end of hotel for dogs, Argentina vs. New Zealand in the rugby world cup, and the beginning of the patriot. We def. got enough TV in that one period to last us the whole 3 months we are here, at dinner we found out several other rooms watched the same things, I guess when you don’t have very many channels you don’t have any other choice!

Wed. Oct. 12- after breakfast we drove to Lusaka to spend most of the day there. We started out at the Northmead market which is similar to the ones we’ve been to throughout Zambia but because it was in the capitol it had more of a variety and some nicer things! After we ate at Revolucion a Mexican food restaurant started by a guy from California. It was pretty good compared to what I was expecting! Then we went to the mall and I couldn’t even believe I was still in Zambia! It felt like a rich mall in the U.S. they had high fashion clothing stores, high tech. stores, even a store attached that looked and felt like a super Wal-Mart! All anyone pretty much bought was ice-cream…well until we got back on the bus. As we were driving through downtown people come up to your windows and try to sell you jerseys and some guys decided it would be funny to open the window and bought a poster the only bad thing was once he paid the light we were stopped at turned green so the seller had to run next to the bus until he got the poster rolled up and handed into the bus. It was the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen, it was like a drive through sonic only it was clothing and other random items that you could buy! We stayed the night at Eureka camp grounds where some of our group saw zebras walk through the camp grounds. I didn’t see them because I was too amused with the flying termites?! Apparently since the rainy season is here (it wasn’t supposed to get here till Oct.24 but the first rain came on the 5^th I think) anyway the flight of the termites began while we were outside. It was so amusing; they were coming out of tons of holes in the ground and taking their first flight! The bad thing was then birds kept dive-bombing and eating them. Someone said “it looks like its snowing backwards” because there were so many flying up at once! If you looked closely at the small holes you could see them crawling out and surrounding the holes were tons of larvae squirming around. That night around 3a.m while we were sleeping apparently a group of zebras charged through the campground. I wish I would’ve seen it but it didnt wake me up and I slept through it!

Thurs. Oct. 13- we finally made it back home, but before we had to stop in Choma for chitangie shopping!

Overall being in Mumena has been one of the highlights of this semester! I enjoyed seeing the missionaries and getting to hear what life for them is like here in Africa. There was a diversity of missionaries from a retired couple, a few families, and newlyweds; it was interesting to hear about how each couple got into mission work and how it’s possible at any stage in your life! Most of them suggested if you wanted to go into mission work to first take classes/major ->intern -> 2 year apprentice->and then be a missionary long term. If you dive straight into long term you’re more likely to have negative culture shock because all the preparations are like a safety net.  Seeing everything they had given up and were doing really taught me what being a disciple of Christ really means. 

Kalomo Hospital

6 people are allowed to go with Ba Rogers to the Kalomo Hospital each Thursday. I went for the first time this week, and I had heard stories about how hard it was but I finally got to experience it 1^st hand. It is definitely not a place with top notch care where they can give you anything you need. We walked through about 4 different wards which were just single rooms that had anywhere from 3-10 beds with the sick person on the bed along with the family/visitors because they didn’t have room to sit anywhere else. It was really difficult to walk through because we are there to comfort them but we don’t know what to say or how to say it so they’d understand. All we could do is walk around and greet them in tonga and then ask them something in English and if you were lucky they’d understand and then you could start a convo. with them. Most rooms though after greeting them someone prayed over the room and shared an encouraging scripture while Ba Rogers translated. One of the strangest things I saw was a man’s hand who herds cattle. One day he reached down to grab a stick and a thorn punctured his hand so now his hand looks raw and is infected so much that it’s the size of a tennis ball.

After the wards we went out back to a building where pregnant women are waiting till they give birth and where care givers stay. There were no beds anywhere, just small sacks of personal belongings and straw sacks people sat on. The 6 of us sat down with everyone and we all sang in tonga and then one of the guys gave a message and prayed for them.

The experience wasn’t something I didn’t expect, because I was prepared for the poor conditions. It’s the thought that Macha Mission Hospital is 2 hours away and its cleaner with a higher standard of care, but these people don’t have the money or energy to get there so they are stuck physically ill in an unsanitary situation. 

Trip to Livingston!

BIG AIR

Sunday after church and lunch we drove to the Zambezi River and went through customs (since the bridge is half way in Zambia and half way in Zimbabwe). When we got through to the building they asked us all to sign a release form (OF COURSE) and then as we did they numbered us and called random numbers to go to different stations. Most of us signed up for Big Air, which means we’d bungee jump, gorge swing, and zip line. They called some numbers to go zip line and next they said #25 to the bridge (that was me?!) so I walked onto the bridge and right away he asked if I was #25 I said “yes?” and he started suiting me up with harnesses and chords…I couldn’t believe I was going to jump off the bridge first!! Next thing I know there’s a man videotaping me asking if I have any last words…I was sooo nervous that all I could say was “Well I hope it’s worth it?” then they prepped me and told me to go to the edge. “3, 2, 1” & I was in the air flying!! It was AMAZING! My heart was pounding out of my chest and I had no clue where I was but as I was hanging there all I could think of is I Did It! After they got me back up next thing I know they were getting Hanna Boyd and me ready for Tandem Swinging. It was also a lot of fun, even though I was still scared. The swing was probably scarier than bungee jumping so I’m glad I got to do it with someone! After that the hard parts were over and all we had left was tandem zip lining, which was a piece of cake and not scary AT ALL compared to the others.

It definitely helped being the first to go (even though it was scary) I didn’t have time to psych myself out or think about what I was about to do too much. I’d definitely recommend you all do this at one point in life, maybe never again but at least once!!!

Rafting

The next day we went rafting on the Zambezi River. I was really nervous since I’ve never rafted before and my first experience would be on a river that’s rated a 5! But once we got there they prepped us on what to do if you fall out or if someone else does, just random info you need to know before you try it, then we picked groups. I was in an all-girls group of 7 and our raft guide was Tim who was the head guide for the day. After we got into our rafts and Tim prepped us some more we went through our first rapid. He said “everyone forward” then “right forward left back” and next thing I know there are huge waves and I see people getting down so we all followed and got in the “get down” position. When we got to calmer water Tim said “back in position” and then gave us a talk on how he never said “get down” but we weren’t listening and did…Oops?! The rest of the trip we paid closer attention because we didn’t want to fall out, Luckily our raft NEVER flipped, I think all the others did and if not their guide purposely flipped them before the day was over but our guide knew since we were girls not to flip us!  We did get out into the water to swim when the river was calmer and then also we swam through rapid 23 which is only rated a class 2 (that was scary enough for me) I felt like I was going to drowned because I kept getting huge mouthfuls of water and couldn’t breathe!

Safari

Tues. we went to Chobe game park in Botswana for a safari. It began with a boat ride that morning where we saw lots of elephants, hippos, and crocs. Then after lunch we all got into jeeps and drove around…it reminded me of Yellowstone, except with a guide. We saw more elephants plus zebras, giraffes, baboons, and other animals that I don’t know the name of. My favorite parts of the day were when we saw a baby elephant that was about 2 weeks old, a croc catch a fish and eat it, and when an elephant charged at our car!

Presidential Election!

Tuesday Septemer 20,2011 were the presidential elections for Zambia. People all over the country were traveling to poll booths to vote for who they wanted to win. That evening before dinner I was talking to a few George Benson students and about half of them had voted. They said most people in the Southern province wanted H.H to win because he is Tonga, but they didn’t know who the winner was yet. All they had heard was that there was some violence in Lusaka, some cars were blown up, and they found pre-marked ballots but the press was announcing that the country was peaceful because they didn’t want anyone to think otherwise. The next day there was still no declared winner, but Ba Siaziyu informed us on what was going on. He said due to the pre-marked ballots there were delays and re-voting at certain polling stations. At the time Michael Sata was winning with 265,000 votes, Bana the former president had 192,000 votes, and H.H had 93,000 votes. But only 33 of the 79 constituency’s had turned in their totals.

Michael Sata also known as “The Opposition” is who most of the younger voters were voting for along with most of the Bemba tribes in North and Eastern Zambia. He was campaigning for better agriculture and mines. Also he is a really great speaker Ba Siazyu said if you are against him and then hear him speak once he supposedly will change your mind. He is against corruption but has a harsh personality.

Bana is the former President who’s running again. I heard from a few of the college students that they didn’t want him to win. He wasn’t even elected to be President, the real former president ran two five year terms beginning in 1991 and then passed away so Bana then replaced him until the next election.

H.H. also called Obama (because he wants CHANGE) is Tonga so all the Tonga tribes voted for him in Southern Zambia. He was running because he wanted change, not for power or money. He is a rich man that was driven into politics because of the countries circumstances and was campaigning for better agriculture, education, health, and basic needs of the people. During run offs between candidates, neither Sata nor Bana could find any way to complain or put H.H. down because he ran a very clean and honest race.

On Friday September 23,2011 at 6:00a.m after 52 days of politics the new President was announced from ECZ to officially be Micheal Sata, who received 70% of the votes. At 14:00 the inauguration at the State House in Lusaka began. I watched it in a class room at the college with about 60 Zambian students. We heard Bana give his farewell speech and then due to technical difficulties we could see Sata giving his inauguration speech and all the people who crowded the streets of Lusaka to watch but we couldn’t hear anything he was saying. Underneath on the screen it read “The change we wanted has finally come”. The next elections will be in 2016.

Highlights from the past few weeks!

Basic School-

Zambia and the United States have drastically different school settings. I went to the basic school one morning to observe a third grade class while they did math and sds exercises and then went to observe a sixth grade class while they worked on English and science.

If anyone came to an elementary school in the U.S dressed or with the supplies the Namwianga students had they would be made fun of, which really is sad. The basic school kids were all wearing their blue uniform but their clothes were falling apart with loose threads, holes, and dirt. No one had a new outfit. Also their shoes were falling apart. One girl didn’t even have shoes, over her tall knee high socks she wore a thick sock folded down to double over her foot as protection. Another girl was wearing a jacket that was way too small for her, the sleeves only came to the middle of her forearm instead of to her wrist which was at least 4 inches away from the end of the sleeve. Then they all had a book bag to carry all their exercise books in for each subject but their backpacks were also falling apart with holes, if they had a bag, some children just had several black plastic bags like Wal-Mart bags layered to hold up to their books. The school building had paint chipping and school desks that were falling apart. In the third grade class when they were gathered on the floor to listen to the teacher explain problems on the chalkboard they were sitting on a large blanket that was worn out and dirty.

The sad thing is that it’s normal to them; it’s the environment that they’ve grown up in. They aren’t used to schools that have janitors that wax the floors or repaint the building.

Clinic-

I was assigned to go to the clinic on Friday with 2 other people. We just got to listen to a ladies lungs with pneumonia, see a guy that the dr.’s couldn’t diagnose without a lab test, and a girl with an STD. I won’t go into any more detail, but it was interesting! Hopefully I will get to go back soon!

Tonga Partner-

Ba Siaziyu invited students from the college to a party that we hosted, so we could each get a Tonga partner. They are supposed to help us learn Tonga and we can help them with English, but really it’s just another friend to hang out with! They had a basket with everyone’s names in it so we drew out our partners name and just got to know them the rest of the night. My partner is Hanambe, she is from Central Zambia, she’s 22, it’s her second year here, and she’s studying to be a History teacher. I’m excited to get to know her better throughout the semester!

Gospel meeting-

This weekend a few of us went out into the bush for a gospel meeting on Saturday and Sunday.

After an hour and a half drive on bumpy dirt roads we arrived at the church around 11:10a.m. We were instantly greeted by the woman of the church and then went inside to have a recap of what the meeting was about before because it actually started on Friday, and the subject was Revelation.

At 13:00 we ate lunch, which consisted of nsima, rape, and goat. (rape is kind of like cooked spinach or cabbage) Since we were guests they served us first and we ate inside the church using a bench as our table while everyone else ate outside on the ground. What you do is grab the nsima, which has the consistency of mashed potatoes, with your right hand (using your left hand for anything is bad because it’s your “dirty” hand) and you roll it into a ball. Then with your thumb you make a dip in the middle of the ball so it’s shaped more like a spoon or cup and you scoop up rape and then take bites out of it and then start over. After we finished the women came in and grabbed the dishes, when women grab or hand anyone something they get down on their knee’s to show respect, even to their husbands at home, and if the person they are handing it too it on the ground they have to get down even farther. One of our culture teachers told us that if a husband is sitting on the floor and the wife comes in to the hut to give him dinner she will crawl in on her elbows to hand it to him so she’s lower. Anyway back to the weekend, the ladies then asked us to leave so they could clean off the benches and sweep the floor, and while they did that the men just stood around.

When it was clean we went inside and had several lessons, songs, and prayers, they even asked us to get up and sing for them and they had a men’s group that also sang.  About an hour before dinner they said we were free to go do what we wanted so we again all just stood around while the women cooked and prepared for dinner.

We ate inside the church again and were served first, after the women cleaned up after us and then moved the benches outside around a fire since it was dark.

We all sat around the fire under the stars and listened to a few more lessons on Revelation, sang, and had several prayers. When it ended at 22:00 they said the women would sleep in the church and the men outside so we got our sleeping bags ready and went to sleep. The next morning at 6:15 we woke up to a rooster and realized the Zambian ladies were already up and cooking. After cleaning up our sleeping bags we sat around a fire and ate porridge while the women were still working, I saw some carrying huge buckets of water on their heads from a river. The only thing the men did was kill and skin a goat that they were preparing for lunch.

Church started at 9:20 and didn’t end until 13:00, I don’t know what happened during the whole church service because I went out with the children and helped teach bible class. We acted out the story of Noah’s ark, David and Goliath, the good Samaritan, and Daniel in the lion’s den and then sang children’s songs with them. After church we had our third meal of nsima, rape, and goat. One thing we found out is we grew up spoiled with a variety of food because we had exact same meal 3 times. Also the women here are super women; they do so much. They were always cooking, cleaning, and caring for the children while the men socialized and sat around. Yet the women still respect their husbands by kneeling down to hand them anything and never complaining. I also learned about how the men treat their wives. During the gospel meeting I asked a boy that was 22 how the men and women submit to one another in Zambia and he said most men don’t, they treat their wives like animals, even some Christians.

Kids/college girls

We’ve been getting to know a lot of the college girls. We’ve gone to their rooms several times and just talked and they’ve come over and we taught some of them how to play spoons. But one of the cutest things are the little neighborhood kids. One day we were doing homework in the living room and a little girl and boy that are 6 and 5 came and knocked on our door asking if we wanted to play! So we went out on the porch and colored with them and just asked them a lot of questions. Hope is 6 she likes pink and yellow, she wants to be a teacher when she grows up, and she likes to help her mom cook! Joshua is 5, he likes orange, he likes ALL sports, he wants to be a policeman when he grows up, and he likes taking out the trash?!...really every time he didn’t understand us he’d just say “Yes” but it was adorable! A few days later I came home and there were 3 boys at our dining room table coloring and drawing pictures. Apparently they knocked on our door looking for someone, but we didn’t know where he was so they asked if they could come in and they felt bad saying no so they came in and colored. During that I asked them a lot of questions to, I guess if these kids don’t like questions they won’t come back? Lol but I like finding out about them! Adrian is 11, he is on a soccer team, he like green, he likes to read, and he wants to be a doctor. Gift, Adrian’s brother, is 10, he’s on the same soccer team, he likes red, he doesn’t like to read, and he wants to be a manager when we grows up. They said their dad is a brick layer and their mom works in Haven 3. Taonga is 10, he likes purple, he’s on a different soccer team, and I don’t remember his other answers. But they all three like Dragon Ball Z so they were drawing some muscle character that they said was a fighter for good people?! And they have a soccer game against one another on Tues. at 14:00, so I told them I would go watch them!! They are really sweet and its funny watching all their different personalities!

We went to their game by the clinic and they were so excited to have us watch them. It was so cute! We had to leave before It was over and the next day I wasn’t home so they left me a note inviting us to go fishing in the river with them at 10:00 on Saturday, so that will be interesting!!

MAYA AND MARISSA-

Last Saturday twins, Maya and Marissa, were dropped off at the Haven when they were 3 hours old because the mother died in labor. On Wednesday I was rocking Maya to sleep when two guys came in and went over to Marissa’s bed, I was kind of confused because I didn’t know what they were saying. Then one of the aunties pointed to me so they walked over, and I just assumed they wanted to hold her so I asked and the auntie said “no, it’s her father, he just came to look”…I wanted to hand him his baby girl SO BAD!!! But the two men just looked at her for a few minutes and left. After I asked the Auntie and she said Fathers in Zambia don’t hold their kids, it is just a custom. You might see younger fathers that are more westernized involved in a child’s life and showing love but it’s not very common. 

Random!

VICTORIA:

About one and a half weeks ago we were given a sheet that had all the names of the children at the haven so we could sign up for at least one we’d go visit every day. They wanted to make sure that all the children were getting attention, that way not just one child is held by 20 people at different times during the day! I signed up for Victoria in Haven one because shes the girl I held on the very first day! She was on in July and is so cute; the only thing is she never smiles. I’ve held her and played with her every day, trying to make her laugh but she has a concerned look on her face with tears falling down (even if she’s not “crying”). BUT a few days ago I held her for probably one & ½ to 2 hrs and she FINALLY SMLIED!! It was adorable, I think she just had to warm up to me because after that she just got better and better! She claps, laughs, “talks”…now all we need to work on is her standing so her leg muscles can build up and she can walk! That’ll take a lot of time, but I love going to the Havens, & look forward to seeing her every day!

NEW BABIES:

I was sitting in Haven 1 holding Victoria when Ba Cecilia came in from the front porch with a baby saying “Look we got a new baby!”… I was shocked; I guess I never really thought about the process and how all those kids came to live at the Haven?! So we asked her and she told us that some people call ahead and warn them when they are coming to bring a child and other people just show up and expect them to take it. Most of the children still have families, the only reason they are placed here is because their family can’t take care of them because of their age or health, but once they are older most will go back into the village and live a normal Zambian life. That day Ba Cecilia had actually received two babies, one was a day old and its mom died in child birth from lose of blood and the other baby (the one I saw come in) was 2 months old and the mom died of an illness. It was really sad to see these two babies crying, knowing that they weren’t going to live with their family for the first few years in life, but all the aunties that care for the children love them and do so much that I know in the Haven they will have a good life.

CHURCH OUT IN THE BUSH:

Sunday we drove about an hour to a village for church. It was a completely new experience. The building was practically a square hut; The walls were made out of mud and it had a thatched roof. We sat girls on the left and boys on the right, because in some places its culturally inappropriate for mixed genders to sit together. The benches were just really rough wood planks that were about 6 inches wide with a leg on each side holding it up, I was fortunate enough to have a flat spot, others in our group sat on random humps and bulges because spending money on comfort to them is not a necessity. Communion was really different, Biblically we do the same thing, its just they lack the money to have several trays going around at once and the wine was definitely not welches lol. It was a really bitter fruit that is locally grown that they just added water to; I don’t know if it was safe to drink so I took a really tiny sip but luckily no one that I know of got sick from it. During the service an elderly lady or “Baama” came in and sat behind me and on her way to sit she shook all of our hands because she was just so delighted to see all these Americans worshiping , it was so sweet seeing how welcoming and happy she was. One of my favorite parts about church here is how friendly everyone is because it’s a tradition they grew up learning. After worship is over the men leave from the back bench to the front and then the women from the back to front leave and when you get out the door everyone’s lined up and you have to go through the line shaking everyone’s hand greeting them. Once you get to the end you stand next to the last person and all the people behind you greet you. I don’t know if that makes sense or not, but essentially in the end you’ve greeted every single person that was at church that day!

GIRLS DORM:

The George S. Benson College students started arriving last Monday and so we’ve met a few here and there. Michelle met two girls that invited her to come visit them thurs. in their dorm room so she took me and Stephanie with her. When we first got there we were really confused on where their room was so we met a girl named Cheapo which means gift, she told us shes the only daughter of seven children…anyway she showed us where to go and then said we were welcome anytime to her room which is #6, she was so welcoming and the hospitality didn’t stop there. When we got to the room we were looking for we knocked and then went in and it was the smallest dorm room I’ve ever seen, it somehow fit 2 bunk beds in it and 3 school desk chairs but I don’t know how. We all introduced ourselves to each other and met Fita, Deborah, and a 3^rd girl that has a name I can’t pronounce. They cleaned of the only chairs they had and offered it to us, and its rude not to accept so we took them and talked to them for a while about school random stuff. I noticed while we were talking one of the  girls left the room and came back and was then hand washing 3 cups, after she filled them up with a juice and gave each of us one. It was just so polite and we’ve learned in their culture that they always offer something when guests are in their homes. I felt really bad drinking it because I knew they spent money on it and I could just go back to our house or to the kitchen and get whatever I wanted. After talking for a while we taught them how to play spoons. It shocked me when we asked them they said they had never played a card game in their life! It surprised me but they just don’t have the luxury of sitting down and entertaining themselves. They loved the game though, they always laughed at whoever didn’t get a spoon!! While we were playing they were talking to us about random things and one thing they said was “do you all three have boyfriends?”…and we all said “No” and they were SHOCKED! One of the girls with a concerned look on her face asked, “Well when are you planning on getting one?”…and we replied “I don’t know, just whenever we meet someone we could see ourselves with. So then we asked them if they had boyfriends and all three of them did, one had been dating her boyfriend for 2 years now and is planning on marrying him.

Klaus Muller:

We visited Twin Fountains which is a college that focuses on agriculture. A German named Klaus Muller was the founder. He first moved to Namwianga missions and taught agricultural science at the secondary school, but decided that hands on learning would be more effective. He then moved to Lubbock, TX for three months because the land there is most similar to Zambia’s and learned how to work better with the land. After he came back to Zambia and started twin fountains. Its 2,000 acres that are used to teach students how to…grow crops year round, handle and train cattle to plow, manage money, along with teaching them about Christ. It is a really good program; it’s 2 years long and costs a total of $2,000 (which sounds cheap but here the average annual income is $700), during their time they will learn everything I listed above and sell all the crops they grow. If they are working hard in their garden and tend to it as they should then the school will double the amount of land they can plant on, which means more crops to sell. After the 2 years are over they graduate and are given the amount of money they earned through their crops. Last year Klaus said his top 2 students graduated with $2,500 each, which means that they really sold $4,500 of crops in 2 years!! That is Amazing!!! 

Marriage in Zambia

Marriage in Zambia is a lot different than American couples. I realized that when Ba Daka came and spoke to use about courting and the marriage process.

Once a girl hits puberty she goes through Kuvundika. Kuvundika is a three month time period when a girl is secluded from society in order to spend that time learning tolerance. They teach the girls how to respect and obey their husbands.

After the three months boys can now begin to notice the girl in which he wants to marry, but before marriage is an option he has to go to both his and her grandparents with a strategy to convince them that he is worthy, which in the U.S is like asking the father for permission to marry his daughter. The girls grandma will then go ask the girl what she knows about him, to make sure they are in love. If it is proven that they are, then the girls’ grandma will take a plate filled with white beats covered to the boys’ grandparents to show approval. It is a gift showing they agree on the marriage of their grandchildren.

Before they are married the boy also goes through a period where he is instructed by an elderly man how to live a married life. When the day comes for them to be married the girl is taken to the boy like a gift.

In urban areas of Zambia weddings have become more westernized with cake, music, and dancing but rural areas still have Zambian traditions. They beat drums and dance traditional dances, but the couple getting married is calm and watches the excitement. Ba Daka said there isn’t a lot of kissing like American weddings where they show how affectionate they are of one another.

After the excitement of getting married they then live together for better or for worse. In Zambia there isn’t a lot of divorce like in America; it has just recently been introduced by younger generations. Couples still do fight like in all relationships, but they don’t let anyone know of their struggles. Zambians are not very open about their relationships; they believe that they should first solve the conflict between themselves and if that’s not possible then go to their grandparents for advice to help. Zambians don’t take their problems to other people or to church, if they talk about marriage problems to friends their marriage will be seen as a failure and won’t last. Ba Daka symbolized their problems as a sealed bucket; when there is a problem they put it in the bucket and then put the lid on and cover it to hide their struggles from others.

Ba Daka went through Kuvundika when she was about fourteen years old. She was then bought with a bride price to show appreciation and has now been married for forty-two years, has several daughters, a son, and ten grandchildren.

first few days!

Hello,

I know ya’ll are probably wondering what we’ve been up to! It has been so crazy since we left the states on tues. First of all can I just say that’s the LONGEST flight I’ve ever been on & I think we should invent something faster ;) We left Washington D.C at 5pm eastern on tues. and landed in Johannesburg, South Africa at 5pm (Joburg time) on wed. We really only sat there for 18 hours including a 1 hour gas stop in West Africa but with time zones changing it was 24hrs! In Joburg we stayed the night at a hostel and the next morning got on a plane for ZAMBIA!!! The flight was about 2 hours and we landed at noon in Livingston. The plane was soo cool because instead of the usual tunnel you walk through to get on and off the plane at the terminal there were just stairs to the outside, so we felt pretty special! Haha after customs we ate pizza and got on the Namwianga missions bus to drive to Victoria Falls! During the drive we all just stared out the windows because it was unbelievable! I couldn’t believe I was in Zambia! We drove past nice areas and poverty stricken areas, it reminded me a lot of Honduras. There were market areas with lots of people and rural areas with a few mud huts. We also drove past a few monkeys that were on the side of the rode! When we got to the falls it was AMAZING!!! I was in awe at how huge and pretty it was.  Its probably one of the prettiest places I’ve ever been too! You could walk all along one side viewing the falls or walk along the side before it falls along rocks. We saw the bridge we will be bungee jumping off of in a few weeks, & it looked like so much fun! I can’t wait to go back!

After the falls we drove to Kalomo and on to the Namianga Missions where we moved into our houses. I was shocked at how nice they are. In my house there are 4 bedrooms that each have their own half-bath and then also 2 full baths that have really strange tubs but hey, atleast we have running water!! Connecting the halls is a living room, dining room, and kitchen. There are 2 girl houses and then the guys have a bunk house.

Friday August 26, 2011

Today after breakfast we took a tour and saw the college, clinic, church, and then we ended at the haven. I LOVE the haven! The 1^st house has babies, so right when we got in we all went to see them! I picked up a girl named Victoria and held her until we had to go to the second house. Leaving her was the saddest thing, right when I laid her back down into her crib she started crying because she wanted someone to hold her. The second house was full of toddlers that had lots of energy! I met a girl named Teagan that loved being held and swung upside down so I played and held her for a while until I went to the last house. That house has children of all ages that are sick with mostly either aids or tb, but some have other illnesses.

Sunday August 28,2011

Yesterday we went to Choma which is a town about 45 min away from Kulomo, there we tried to exchange money but the line was way too long so we just borrowed kwatcha from our teacher because we were going to go to the market! When we got there, there were rows of wooden stalls or wooden frames lined with fabric to make little shops. Most of the stalls had dried fish, clothes, shoes, and cooking supplies, but we went in search for chitangies! Those are what the women wear around their waist as long skirts and also carry their babies in. After we got back to the mission and ate lunch most of us went and watched a futbol game between Harding and the Pirates. It was supposed to start at 3 but here people are really laid back and don’t depend on time so it really didn’t start until 4. We stayed for a few hours and the score was 0-1, we were losing but when they got a point it was so crazy. The other teams fans had those really loud horns that blew constantly and they rushed the field like it was a parade! Haha

Today we had church which was different than I expected. Most of the songs were in English and they also prayed and preached in English which might be because we are on the mission (most people here have learned English). At the end Ba Merritt had all of us stand up and say our name to introduce ourselves and said we knew Chitonga…& well I know a little but every time I say something they laugh! Lol so its definitely a good thing we start intensive tonga lessons tomorrow! After church I signed up to help cook lunch which was supposed to be spaghetti, coleslaw, and brownies but right when we were ready to put it all on the stove and in the oven the electricity went out, so we went to plan b (sandwiches) and saved the spaghetti for dinner! That night at church they asked us to sing for them so we had to all get up on the platform and sang three songs, one was in Chitonga.

Monday August 29, 2011

Today we started classes I’ve had tonga, global heath, and missionary anthropology. Ba Siazu was our tonga teacher and he helped perfect our greetings! One thing that’s important to the Zambian culture is being friendly. He said unlike Americans who can just say hello when you’re walking past someone they take time to greet properly and make conversation. 

Leaving Borger

Hello,

I can’t believe the time has come for me to pack and leave for Africa. It seems like just yesterday I was being interviewed for a spot to join 25 other Harding students in this adventure, But since then I have taken a Nursing class, spent two weeks at HUT, and read several books on African literature.

If you are wondering what HUT is it’s a camp for medical missions and healthcare missions minors, Bible majors, and future HIZ student to attend to learn more about what life would be like on a mission field. If I had to summarize the experience I had there in one phrase it would be, “What did I just do?!” lol. Well..I lived in a bamboo house without electricity or running water, I worked all day along with my family (which were 6 other Harding students) in order to get paid that evening & buy a small meal to cook over a fire, I helped kill a rabbit to eat, I learned how to garden, I learned about first aid, I learned more about missionary work, & most of all I lived like MOST people in this world live EVERYDAY.

This Friday Ill be back at HUT learning more until August 23^rd!! Then we will be flying to Africa J I am looking forward to the life changing experience God has blessed me with. I hope by writing this blog you will learn from my experiences there and grow along with me!

Keep Us In Your Prayers,

Cynda