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.