"Travel Light, Live Light, Spread the Light, Be the Light": 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!!