Hebrews 6:10

This week was our last week of camp and so much happened that I would love to tell you so I will try to not make this too long!

In class we made Jello, No-Bake Cookies, and decorated cupcakes! None of them had ever made No-bake cookies before so at first they were hesitant to try them but after I convinced them to they all wanted more!! On the last day of camp we decorated cupcakes and I talked to them about how God created them with Love, beauty, intelligence, goodness, ect. and no one is the same. We are all unique just like the cupcakes they personalized with different colors of frosting and designs! I don’t know if they understood my point or not because they were mainly focused on the sugar but it was fun and a great way to end class!

It’s sad to think that camp is over and I will probably never see these kids again but I know God has great things in store for all of our futures. The hardest part for me saying goodbye to them was wondering “who is going to continue to set examples for these kids? Who is going to love them daily? Who’s just going to give these kids the attention that they deserve?” and it’s hard to think that some of them possibly won’t get that until camp peace starts again next year. I learned last week that Santa Rita has really bad drug wars and most people that live there are or know of someone who is involved. That’s why these kids can afford private school and seem better off than others. But in reality they have the material items they want but they don’t get the support and love they need all the time. One girl’s father died a couple of years ago because he was involved and this sweet little girl is only 13! Another girl who’s about 8 lives with her grandma because her parents split up and live in another town and work all the time. I wish they all knew how special and important they are and I hope I showed them the love of Christ this summer and gave them hope for their future. I know some days though I felt like they were showing me more love. On Wednesday we went to El Jerhal (a water park) and took the kids. We were split up and each in charge of a certain amount of kids who had to stay with us at all times and sweet Diego when he found out he wasn’t on my team was so sad. So the intern who was in charge of him asked if he’d rather be on my team and since only one girl on mine showed up we let him switch. His face was soo happy and sweet when she said “ok you can go be on Cynda’s team”. Another time was when sweet Jennifer came up and gave me a hug and a picture she drew in Bible and said she was going to miss me and little Josue gave me a hug and said something “mucho” as he left. I’m assuming something about liking camp a lot or class a lot or who knows what, but it was sweet! All I know is that I will miss them and I know that God will give them many more opportunities to cross paths with Christians who will show them love and treat them the way that they should be.

Today I went to La Pintada (a small village outside of Copan) with Rachel and Abigail. We took food and books and just enjoyed the children’s company there. First we gave them all crackers with peanut butter and then we sat them down and read to them. It was great! I love La Pintada because it’s so beautiful, laid back, and quiet! One thing I love about children is you don’t have to know them for very long before you can seem like their best friend. I was sitting out on the futbol field and one boy that I was randomly tickling came and just sat on my lap for the longest time meanwhile another little boy would come up and tickle me and another girl was playing with my hair! Children are just so open and full of life!!!

Tomorrow we have debriefing all day and then Monday we pack up and deep clean our house before heading to the airport on Tuesday. I can’t believe time has flown by. It seems like yesterday I didn’t know my way around this town and I didn’t know anybody’s name but now our paths have crossed and it’s time for God to take us somewhere else.

Thanks so much for praying for me, the interns, the camp kids, and overall UPH while I was here. Continue to remember that there are organizations and missionaries all over the world that continue to need your prays along with precious children.

One thing I want to leave you with was last night I was sitting at team time and one of our youth leaders said “I’m glad I don’t have to wake up at 5:30 a.m. for camp anymore but it’s also sad because I feel like I don’t have any purpose to wake up for” and immediately I said “But you do, you woke up every day this summer to go to camp and serve God and now every day for the rest of your life you can continue to serve God”. I don’t know where that came from and I didn’t even realize what I said until after but it’s true. We should serve God no matter who we are and where we are because that’s what we were created for.

Me and two other girls gave a devo. A couple of weeks ago and one verse that I shared that has just stuck with me ever since is Hebrews 6:`10 “God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and CONTINUE to help them”. Remember that it’s your job daily to serve God in whatever way that looks like to you because you do have a purpose in life!

Lots of "Favorites"

This last week has probably been my favorite by far.

Last Sunday night some of the interns went over to Caleo’s (a youth leader’s) house and her parents taught us how to make Baleadas. If you don’t remember that’s the first thing we all ate when we landed in the airport. It’s a tortilla with refried beans and two kinds of cheese. It was fun to learn how to make tortillas from scratch because here they pat their hands back ’n’ forth and SOMEHOW it turns into a flat circle. Mine turned out as heart shapes, ovals, and who knows what with random holes J …They say once a girl can make tortillas she can get married so Daddy your dream may come true and I’ll get married after I’m thirty!!

When we finished making and eating baleadas Caleo, Daniella, Lynette, and I went to Central Park to play futbol in the dark! It was a lot of fun to get to hang out with youth leaders and not be doing camp prep. While we were playing about 6 other kids joined in. I like how sports can bring strangers together to have fun. But one thing that I thought of was “where are these kids’ parents?” No one was around watching them closely and I felt bad that at 9:00 p.m . no one seemed to care where they were.

At camp one of my favorite things we made were Smiley Face Sandwiches. I had the kids cut up grapes and bananas and put them on a peanut butter sandwich to make faces. We talked about how you should be joyful because of the blessings God’s given you and I had them list off a few things they were thankful for!

One of my favorite moments during options this week was with sweet Diego. I helped with the arts and crafts option where we made friendship bracelets and colored. On Thursday Diego who is maybe 6 came and I asked him if he wanted to make a bracelet. He said yes, picked out some colors, and handed it to me. So for a while I’m doing it for him but then I thought it would be good practice for him to try even though I doubted he would understand especially since I don’t know Spanish and he doesn’t know English. I call him over and all I can do is show him and then grab his hands and get him to do it with me….after about 2 min. that boy has it down.  I had to hold the bracelet down and tight but he could wrap the string and tie it faster than anyone else in there. He is so smart and cute. I kept saying things like “Bueno, bonita, Yayyy!” so he would understand I was proud of him and he would just laugh! After options were over I tied it on his arm and he grabbed some more string and said something. All I understood was “casa” so I assumed he wanted to take some home and I said “Si” and his face lite up. Then Diego said something about “Para tu hermana” (For his sister) and I was like “Si” and he wrapped his arms around me and gave me the biggest hug!! Sweet Diego, I love him! It’s been fun seeing him come out of his shell more. At first he was very shy and quiet but now he comes up to me all the time and talks to me (even though I don’t understand) and gives me hugs!

For Fun Friday we had a camp peace vs. camp joy day at the park. Both camps came together and we did things like dodge ball, futbol without a ball, tug of war, and a lot of other outdoor games against each other. During the tug of two of my favorite things happened: 1) some of the older girls of the camp who are about 13 sometimes act like they are “too cool” for songs and things we do at camp but before the tug of war they started our camp cheer really loud and showed a lot of camp pride. It was cool to see and I thought “wow they actually do like camp peace!!” 2) camp peace definitely isn’t as intense or sporty as camp joy because we lost a lot but after about the third time we lost the tug of war the kids started yelling “Perdimos, perdimos, perdimos” and jumping up and down. I was sooo confused. I thought “Didn’t they see that we lost? Why are they jumping up and down and chanting like we won?” And then I asked what they were saying and it was “we lost, we lost”. It was so cute and then my thought was “Yes those are our kids!!” After seeing how the kids at the different camps act I am so thankful to be at camp peace. They really do follow directions, respect us, and are happy in all circumstances!!

I can’t believe we only have one more week of camp with these awesome kids!! I hope for more Favorite moments and that camp peace will continue to have camp pride! Please continue to be praying for us as we finish up our time here. Pray that we will be intentional and show love to all the kids even though we will soon say goodbye! 

Finding God in the Chaos of Everyday Life

There are moments in life where we get so caught up in our day to day routine, stress, and a to-do lists that we forget that God is constantly surrounding us. One of my favorite things to do is go somewhere outside that is peaceful where nature surrounds me and everything God created is singing to Him. This last week was probably the craziest by far. You’d think that after being here for several weeks we’d get into the groove of things and have everything under control, but that definitely hasn’t been the case for me. Once camp is over for the day you have to go back and plan for the next day, get your supplies, and head to something else. Monday nights we have worship night with the interns, Tuesday nights are youth nights, Wednesday is community night where we spend time bonding as interns, and Thursday nights are teaching nights where someone comes and speaks to us. It is all great and I’ve enjoyed all of them because I think they have allowed us to all grow closer together  but there are times where I wish there were more hours in a day. After feeling overwhelmed all week I went to the Bird Park Saturday morning with two friends from Harding (Abigail and Lynette). It was GREAT!! I felt like we were in a rain forest the whole time surrounded by God and His creation. We got to see a lot of really cool birds and even hold and talk to a few J In the park there was a short nature walk, which really the whole things was a nature walk the only difference about this one is it wasn’t paved so you felt more like you were hiking!! It was so peaceful and quiet, as I’m thinking “God knew I needed this time just to meditate and relax away from noise and crowded streets” I realized I’m surrounded by God’s creation EVERYDAY!! During the nature hike we came upon a family playing in a river and washing clothes.  When I saw them my immediate thought was God created them too! It was at that moment that I realized that after praying for quiet time where I could be surrounded by God all week that I realized God blesses all of us with being around him 24/7. Even in the chaos of being around people running from place to place you are still surrounded by Gods creation and I think we take that for granted, or at least I do. 

After the bird park we all went as a group of interns to the Hot Springs!! It was also really relaxing and definitely the best way to spend Saturday midway through our time here. We enjoyed rubbing this clay mud all over us and letting it dry while vapor that smelled like rotten eggs blew past us and opened our pores!! Lol we def. looked like crazy Americans and at one point we thought do Hondurans even do this and does it even work or is this just a way for them to make money and laugh at us!! Either way we had a good time!

This week is going to be another crazy week full of activities but with only two weeks left its impossible not to want to do everything and soak it all up before it’s over. In class I am teaching my students how to make main dishes so we are going to try to make mini pizza’s, smiley sandwiches, and quesadilla’s! My youth leader Rita who I’ve enjoyed working had to quite today. It’s really sad because she had an aunt pass away last Friday and her Grandpa has been in the hospital so she doesn’t have the time and her family really needs her at home. I enjoyed getting to work with her and watch her become more of a leader, I wish she could continue to help me teach the class but I know she’s going through a lot right now! I just hope that she had a positive experience as a UPH youth leader and I hope I can find a way to communicate with the youngest class since she helped translate! I would really appreciate it though if you would keep Rita and her family in your prayers!! 

I can't believe its halfway over!

So a lot has happened this past week and a lot is going on this week as well. We are all always going somewhere, getting something, or needing to be doing one of those things!

Last week in cooking class our theme was “drinks”, so Rita and I taught the class how to make chocolate-banana smoothies, fruit smoothies, and horchata. The problem was….I’ve never made horchata or drank horchata and Rita was sick the day we were supposed to make it. I think the school administration ladies who randomly walk past my class or sit in the kitchen overlooking thought I was some crazy Gringo who’s never cooked in my life! My first problem was my class blended the rice in water the day before so it could CHILL overnight, but it definitely FROZE in the refrigerator. So we had to thaw it out and add more water. The next problem was I added too much cinnamon…I didn’t know the difference but someone told me the color of the drink was darker than it should’ve been. Who knew? In the end though with A LOT of help from Marta and Alejandro (youth leaders) it turned out great!! J

Friday night UPH had their 4^th annual Locos Futbol Tournament!! There were a lot of teams mixed with full time staff, summer staff, interns, and youth! It was a lot of fun just to have everyone together in one place at the same time cheering each other on and playing! I was on the Northern Ireland team and we actually made it to the semi-finals…none of the girls on my team had ever played I don’t think so I was expecting us to get out early but we survived and I actually made a goal! 

On Saturday we went to the Mayan Ruins! It was really cool to get to see where and how the Mayans used to live and why Copan Ruinas is such a touristy town. I wasn’t feeling the best so it was hard for me to pay attention to the tour guide but I caught a few things here and there that I thought were interesting. The ruins are spread throughout this area and the river divided the rich from the poor. The rich always wanted to distinguish themselves from the others so they would do things to make themselves stand out. When a baby is born up until they are 20 months they would strap a board to their forehead to make from the tip of their nose to the center of their head flat. So they had flat foreheads and a point in the top of their heads. They also would get teeth pulled or decorated with jade so their teeth were green. None of these sound to me like they are very healthy for anyone but when He was talking about it I thought “you know what, we do that too”. As Americans we go on crazy diets to be thin, we dye our hair, we tan, ect…..what are people going to think of us in a thousand years when they hear that?

This week we have a lot going on…in class Rita and I are teaching how to make appetizers/sides, we are going to watch one of the local public school spelling bees where some UPH staff do an afterschool program and tutoring, we are having a talent show with our youth leaders, Our fun Friday camp theme is “costume party”, and Saturday we are planning a trip to the hot springs.

One thought I want to leave you with is Rachel N. who help found UPH gave a devo. the other night and talked about how God chose you. He chose you to go through everything you’ve been through and everything you will go through, He chose you to be where you are right now, He put people in your life for a reason, and every interaction you have even if it’s a simple “hello” to a stranger was for a reason even if you never know why. God says, “I, the Lord, chose you”…it’s not a mistake because God knows you fully. We don’t even know our whole selves because we are constantly changing and growing. BUT God sees the full picture. He knows who we will be when we are whole and His timing is perfect. One scripture we used was Isaiah 29:16 “You turn things upside down, as if the potter were thought to be like the clay! Shall what is formed say to him who formed it ‘He did not make me’? Can the pot say to the potter, ‘He knows nothing’?”  So instead of wondering why something’s happening, why you are where you are, or even changing yourself to try to be what you think you’re supposed to be in a situation instead of who God created you to be remember that GOD CHOSE YOU TO BE THERE AT THAT MOMENT WITH YOUR SPECIFIC HEART MIND AND SOUL  FOR A REASON. No one understands you completely not even you do, but God does. 

Love, Love, Love!!

This weekend was our first weekend we stayed here in Copan Ruinas. It was nice just to experience what life is like and what people do for fun! Some of us went Saturday to La Pintada (a small village outside of Copan). It took us about an hour to walk there from the office and then we met up with a few children who showed us the way to the waterfall!! The hike was uphill most of the way which was hard for us Americans, but those sweet kids would run up ahead barefoot and stop and wait for us! The view was gorgeous and the waterfall was so clear. We enjoyed eating lunch up there and playing with the kids. On the way back down I held Franky who’s three and the cutest little boy!!! I felt like he was the first Honduran I’ve been able to communicate well with, probably because neither of us know very much Spanish!! J He would point and count the cows but he could only count to three so I helped him out. Then I would point to other animals like chickens, a horse, a dog and say “Que Es?” and he would name the animals!

When we got back down to the houses a few of us went to Harleen and Franky’s house because their mom wanted to show us how to make dolls. On the streets in Copan Ruinas little girls will come up to you with a bag of different size dolls and try to sell them to you. I was soo excited that we finally had the opportunity to sit in a true Honduran home with a family!! When we got there the mother was very hospitable and found us all chairs to sit in and then asked who wanted to make one. No one volunteered so I decided to do it and I’m soo glad I did. She was really sweet and showed me step by step what to do and when I definitely didn’t do it right (most of the time) she would take it and help me! (The dolls are made out of dried corn husks that have been dyed).

After we left her house we went to a local fabric store run entirely by women who use a loom to weave scarves, purses, headbands, ect. The money they earn goes toward feeding their families and buying school supplies.

On the way back to Copan we took a different trail and passed by a mini Mayan ruin. The main Mayan Ruins are located right outside Copan Ruinas on the drive to Camp Peace but apparently there are random Mayan remains scattered throughout this area that are free to explore! The one we saw was a bunch of large rocks that at one point probably had carvings on them but the only one we could identify was a frog. Frogs in the Mayan culture symbolize fertility.

                This past week we’ve all really been focused on love. How important it is, what your intentions are, and making sure you love all people. It’s easy to get caught up at camp thinking “oh it’s just another day that we have to occupy the children” but really it’s another day to demonstrate God’s love to one another. This last weekend at a devo we talked about 1 Corinthians 13 which most of us have heard multiple times in our lives but it was a good reminder. One girl brought up the fact that when you read it different points pop out and certain ways to love are harder than others at different times because of what you’re going through at the moment in life. You may struggle with patients one week and being boastful the next. Another point that was made was how it’s those who you struggle to love the most that really need it and in the process of showing love to them you grow closer to God. For example at camp their might be a child who really just doesn’t pay attention and acts out a lot but because of it you pray to God more for the strength to love that child and due to that dependence on him you are strengthened. Not to say that these kids here are bad, that was just an example. Really the children at camp have been great! I’ve loved getting to teach them, play with them, and just find out more about them. But the next time you’re asking God “why am I in this situation, or struggle” instead of asking God to take it away we should be thanking him and running to accept the challenge because in the end we will be strengthened in Christ and more prepared for the next trial ahead.

                Please be praying for all the interns this week. We’ve had several get sick and we are all definitely running low on energy. Pray that we will be strengthened through the trials we have ahead of us and remember to thank God for your own personal trials and growth. 

The Boy Who Stole My Heart

There comes a point where you can’t do everything yourself and you know God is the only one with the power to fulfill every want and need in this world whether it’s through you or someone else. UPH is a wonderful program that serves God in great and wonderful ways but it’s just impossible to reach every child here in Copan Ruinas. The camp I’m working at is for the private school children because the public schools go year round and those that don’t have the privilege of attending either school can’t afford necessarily to take off of work because the money they make helps feed their family who depend on them. This hit me pretty hard on Wed, the 1^st day of camp. I was teaching my class. We were singing songs and having a good time and I look over and the sweetest little innocent eyes were looking at me with interest. They were wondering “Who is that Gringo” “What are they saying” “It looks like they are having fun”…but never jealousy! He would smile at the thought of imagining himself being a part of our class and then get back to reality and start to work on the school building. This sweet boy is maybe seven and works alongside 2 grown men to help keep the school grounds clean and add on! I feel really bad that we are practically right in his face showing him what he’s missing out on and I wish I could just say “Hey why don’t you go play with them while I do your job” but I can’t because it’s out of my control. I pray that he knows Jesus and benefits from us being there. I know God has a plan and purpose for him, I don’t know what it is but I do know that this boy with no name has stolen my heart!

Okay enough of that emotional stuff! Camp has been great. It’s hard for me because not very many of the children know English like I was expecting. The camp is a bilingual camp and is taught in English but soo many of them don’t understand me, especially the youngest who have only been attending a bilingual school for a couple years. I have learned though that I can connect with older kids. Naomi, Stephanie, and Marlon are some of the kids I’ve connected the best with and they are going into 5^th and 6^th grade….def. not the age I expected to be spending the most time with, but I love it! And you don’t have to speak the same language to have fun together!...Thursday during recreational activities I was down by the futbol field playing with some of the kids and noticed little Mario who’s 5 going over to the playground. One of our jobs is to make sure no children are off on their own so I snuck up on him underneath the slide said “Boo” and tickled him. HE LOVED IT!!! After that he would run and try to get away from me and I would attack him and it would start over and over again. Next thing I know Diego, Aleph, and Harvey joined in and they would point at me and say “Esta Lobos, Esta Lobos”. After running around so much I got tired and decided to pretend to play dead. Then they would sneak up on me and I would wake up again and trick them!! All we did was run and laugh and connected even with the huge language barrier! Martha came over about halfway through and told me that they were calling me a wolf! J

On Friday’s we don’t teach class and we call it “Special Friday” because we do different activities with the kids! Today we had a futbol tournament along with jump ropes, basketball, and water games! We started the day off in our camp teams which are equally divided into colors, mine being Green, and we made a poster and a cheer! My team named ourselves the green monsters and we totally dominated in the tournament, just saying!! Lol I was very proud of them. They were very positive and cheered on their teammates. We had a blast!  

We don’t have camp on the weekends so UPH planned a hike to a waterfall tomorrow and we get to swim!! I’m excited to get out and see what it’s like around Copan! 

He Makes Beautiful Things

Today is our day off because Camp starts tomorrow!!! Im excited to get started into the routine of camp and am blessed to have a relaxing day to enjoy by myself and become rejuvenated for an ENERGY filled next 5 weeks! Since I have some time I will update ya’ll just about random things that might be interesting!

                We went on a staff retreat Sat. and Sun to Welchez coffee farm and reserve about an hour away. It was Beautiful! It’s a family owned business where they grow coffee beans but haven’t completely done away with the natural landscape because they said the land needs its natural resources so they have preserved the land and grow the best coffee possible. They drove us up a hill and we took a walking trial around part of the land. It felt like I was in a rainforest!! It was gorgeous! There were giant trees and vines everywhere. We even crossed a wooden bridge over a small waterfall that had crystal clear water.

The path took us to an open restaurant where we ate a meal similar to what they would eat when they have special guests or during holidays. They served us tamales as an appetizer; rice, beans, and meat as a main dish; and a small thicker tortilla fried with honey and sugar as dessert along with coffee! After lunch we walked back to the house we were staying in and walked past the machines they wash the coffee beans in. They wash it about three times to get different layers off and then it dry’s and goes into another machine and comes out ready to sack! The rest of the time there we spent going over UPH’s core values, having devo’s, and enjoying each other’s company! (The Welchez have a café in Copan Ruinas just down the road from the UPH office with is where im sitting right now)

                Not really too much has happened besides the retreat because the rest of our time has been spent preparing for camp. We’ve gotten our class rooms decorated and our materials ready for the first couple days of camp. We’ve also been coming up with different games, songs, and activities that we want to do at camp…just a lot of running around and meetings!

                But I can’t end on that more boring note so here are a few random facts:

·         The power here goes out at least every few nights. Sometimes it flickers and other times it goes off for maybe an hour.  

·         20 Lempiras is $1 and things here are pretty cheap. You can get a Honduran meal for anywhere around 40 Lemp.s unless you go to a more touristy restaurant and then a meal is more Americanized and costs about $5.

·         It is the beginning of rainy season so it is pretty hot and humid. You can’t go anywhere without sweating, or at least I can’t J the good thing is its more cloudy than sunny and when it does rain it’s in the evenings and it cools the air down a lot!

·         Oh and I held a baby parrot!!

 

Bienvenido y Copan Ruinas

Week 1:

                I arrived at the airport at 11a.m. along with about half the interns. There are 10 of us from around the world. It’s very interesting to think that people who are so different (we have different homes, lifestyles, hobbies, ect.) were brought together to minister to children in Honduras because we have two things in common our faith in God and our interest in Latin America. While we waited at the airport we ate our first authentic meal, Baleadas. Baleadas are similar to quesadillas. They are tortillas folded in half with frijoles y queso in them, but the cheese here is a little different than back home. It is salty and sweet and looks like sour cream when it’s melted but has a little bit of a grainy texture….it’s hard to explain!! Some of the interns aren’t very fond of it, but I don’t think it’s too bad!

                Once all the interns arrived we drove to Copan Ruinas which was about three hours away. Copan Ruinas is a touristy town because it is right by some Mayan Ruins. Because of the tourism the economic level is very diverse. There are wealthy hotel owners and bankers and there are poor street venders. The population is about 7,000 so it is a small town and everything is within walking distance. We definitely get a workout every day!! J There’s a central park in the middle of town and from there everything is within about two blocks in all four directions. We’ve learned if you need to go north you go uphill and South is downhill…it’s pretty easy to remember!

This first week had been orientation, a lot of team building and preparing for camp to start next week. It has been a nice transition instead of jumping right in and not knowing what to do they have given us a lot of time to get to know each other, the staff, and the youth.

There are two camps, Camp Joy and Camp Peace, which are generally the exact same except for their locations. Camp Peace is in Santa Rita which is about a ten minute drive away. At each camp there are four different classes Bible, cooking, art, and discovery/science. I was assigned to Camp Peace and am the cooking teacher along with my Lider Joven who is Rita. Rita is fifteen years old and from Santa Rita. A Lider Joven (Youth Leader) is basically an interns partner. They help prepare and teach the class. One Goal of UPH is to help children grow up with hope and experiences that will help shape them into leaders to change their families’ future. A lot of the Linder Jovenes were campers at one point and now they are leaders at camp and hopefully someday they will be the interns and directors.

Blair, one of the founders of UPH gave a devo and talked about the importance of interactions with children. Some statistics he said are there are over 7 million people in the world and 2 million of those are kids (don’t quote me on that, I didn’t write it down when he said it so it may not be true…but something like that). And before the age of 13 a child can be impacted enough to change their path or direction and have hope for their future. After the age of 13 though it is more difficult because he/she has become, I guess more engrained into their minds of who they are and what they can be good or bad. One quote Blair used was “Every encounter with a child is a divine appointment”. Its our job at camp and everyone’s job really in their daily lives to always be positive, encouraging, and smart about what they do and say when a child is around because children are so moldable. Blair also referenced Exodus 2 when Moses was saved by Pharaoh’s daughter. Moses could’ve been eaten alive by crocodiles, drowned, killed in anyway but she saved him and raised him as her own and because of that he was able to do amazing things and fulfill God’s plan for him because he had Faith. At UPH they strive for what Blair calls “moses moments” when you encounter a child and see the unfulfilled future they have ahead of them but with the love of God are able to change that childs future and give them hope!!

I could go on and on about so many more different things but this post is probably long enough. Please continue to keep us all in your prayers. Pray that we can be light to those children at camp next week and go out and experience your own “Moses Moments” 

Leaving the U.S.

Tomorrow I embark on a new journey! I am headed to Honduras with people around the world to be an Intern at Urban Promise Honduras. I don’t know what to expect but I trust that God has a plan for me there. I will try to blog when I can for those of you who want to follow and who knows…maybe I’ll post a few pictures on facebook if I get a chance!!

Thanks so much to those of you who have given me support and have already begun praying for our team. I really appreciate it and without you I wouldn’t be able to experience what God has in store for me these next six weeks.  Please continue to pray for those of us traveling there and the Hondurans we will be building relationships with. 

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.