Saturday, October 16, 2010
Monday, October 4, 2010
Herbalist, Kisibi, and Baby Tori
10/2/10
Today, we had an herbalist come and talk to us. He even took us on a walk around the compound to point out the points that he uses to help treat things such as malaria, snake bites and sexual problems. It’s really neat to see how there are natural things in nature that God has placed here on earth for us to use. I always think of drugs being made in laboratories somewhere. I hardly ever think that there are natural remedies already in nature. It was really cool to be able to listen to the herbalist speak about the plants. There is even a certain tree that only grows near underground natural water reserves so if they find that tree, they know that they can drill for a well near the sight of the tree.
Tonight, we watched a movie called “Sometimes in April” that is about the Rwandan genocide. The movie was so powerful. It was so hard to watch but I’m also thankful that we did watch it. It’s something that actually happened and I don’t think we should ever try to sugar coat a subject like that because then it takes away the power behind it. I think everyone needs to watch movies about the Rwandan genocide and the Holocaust because they are true and we don’t need to undermine the extremeness of the horrible situations. I also think that hearing the true facts about horrible events like those can motivate people to never let it happen again. I hope to, one day, go to Rwanda for at least a couple of weeks and spread the gospel there so that they can heal from the genocide.
10/3/10
We went to a village called Kisibi today for church. Our cook, Ba Leonard, lives here and invited us to come to his church and have a meal at his house. Church started at 10 am and went until about 12:30. We of course got up and sang a couple of songs! The Zambians love it when we sing and I'm sure we butcher a lot of their songs but they just stare at us with big, gap-filled, grins on their faces! After the church service, we all filed out and shook everyone's hands (as is the custom here) and said "Mwabuka buti?" to everyone (which means "How have you risen?"). It really is wonderful that they take the time to greet each and every one of the people in the church every time they gather. We then went up to Ba Leonard's house and ate a traditional African meal that he prepared for us! It consisted of: chicken, nsima, FANTA (my drink of choice), rice, rape (a green vegetable similar to cabbage), rolls and this orange sauce. I have to admit, I'm not a complete nsima fan. Nsima is like a mashed potatoes/corn meal mixture that is really bland and thick. After lunch, we got to listen to some men play guitar and hear this instrument which was to resemble a drum/cymbal! It was so cool. They had made it out of round pieces of tin and then had wire attached to each one with bottle caps on the wire. And when they beat the tin, it made such a cool sound! All of the little kids started dancing around in a circle, so naturally we joined them!! Boy can those kids move! Some of us girls are trying to figure out how to move our hips like that and we just cant. Its amazing! It was so much fun to just dance around with these little kids and our guys even joined in, too! The songs that they sand about related to God and missionaries. The first song said "My God, we praise You because Your hand can heal." The second was somewhere along the lines of "sin is sin". The third, "God forgives us". The fourth was praising the NGO (non-government organization) World Vision for the work it has done in that area. The last two songs were played by this cute little old man who sang songs of poetry about being "born alone" or being an only child which is very rare here. The people of Zambia are so welcoming and want to make sure that you feel at home! I felt so guilty though because we all ate right in front of them and they didn’t eat while we were there. They all had to wait till they got home to eat or they brought their own food to the party/gathering.
10/4/10
We found out that this morning, another little baby died. Baby Tori, who had just been brought to Namwianga last week, died at 4 am. She had not been eating all day Sunday and was so weak. Dr. Black and Mrs. Bingham left during church last night to go put in a feeding tube in Tori and another little baby named Trey. There is so much hurt going around our little HIZ family. One of the girls had gotten so close to Tori in the week that she was here and is having a really hard time today. Another girl here was up at the haven all night feeding her through the tube every two hours and had to do CPR on her a couple of times before Tori finally gave up her fight.
I just cant comprehend the reason why these little babies have to die. It doesn’t make any sense to me and it never gets easier. Tori was the 6th baby since we have been here. Its just hard to think about the reason for their death. I mean, if they had been in America, they would have probably not died. I was talking to a girl today and we were saying how its harder for us to comprehend it here because we know what the medicine in America can do and its just not available. Little baby Tori needed Oxygen last night. The havens have 2 oxygen machines and one is broken and the other was up at the clinic. TIA. Resources here are so sparse that even if you do have a certain machine that you need in order to save a life, it may or may not work. Its hard to rationalize all of it. I think my group is getting to the point where we are just tired of all the deaths and we just want to be able to do something to save all the little babies. Hopefully, we will use this heartache that we are experiencing to be our driving force to go and change the world.
Friday, October 1, 2010
Malaria study and Elephant ride!!
Monday (27th) was a pretty chill day here at the mission. We were allowed to sleep in and rest up from our weekend and our classes did not meet which was such a blessing. A lot of us caught up on homework. (It is so hard to focus on studies here because I much rather be out playing with the kids or hanging out with everyone!) It was nice to be able to plan our own schedule for a day and just stay inside in our shorts (we aren't allowed to wear them outside our house because its not culturally appropriate) and be care free.
Tuesday (28th)- We had to wake up and be ready for our day trip at 7 so we actually got in sleep in a little later than normal! We went to a hospital about 3 hours away in a town called Macha. This hospital is so cool! Its one of the nicest ones that I have seen here (which would still be atrocious to Americas standard) and they actually conduct Malaria research out of their little lab. This hospital teams up with John Hopkins and sends some American students over to work in the Malaria lab. It was so neat to be able to explore the hospital and see how labs are run in Africa. It gave me a whole other perspective on medical mission work in Africa. I always thought, for some reason, that medical mission work in a developing country would be in a village and treating them there. I had never thought about setting out to cure a disease that affects a whole population here to be mission work! It really opened my eyes to so many more possibilities on the mission field. The missionary that lives in Macha and works at the hospital was actually born there because his parents were missionaries. As he got older and grew up, he went through school and became a pediatrician. He said that he got so tired of seeing Malaria being the number one killer among children in his hospital. He knew that he had to try to do something to help out so he set out for his lab. They collect mosquitoes from villages around and also take blood samples from the area. They have found that mosquito's are very smart insects. They used to feed at dusk and dawn but now that mosquito nets are used, the start to feed earlier. They have adapted their feeding schedule based upon humans schedules! The area of Macha has actually had a decrease in Malaria cases in the past 10 years or so! They have found out so much just from their little research lab and are able to teach the public about what precautions to take in order to avoid getting Malaria.
Wednesday (29th)- About 6 of us students loaded back into the cruiser to head back to Livingstone for a day. We also had to take the PA students, Tori and LeAnne, back so that they could catch their flight back home. They were with us for 6 short weeks and it was so sad to see them leave. They really became close with a lot of us here and are so fun to be around. They explained a lot of things to us in the clinic. Once we got to Livingstone, we checked into our hotel room and went to the market! We were able to purchase a few things before we walked over to The Hungry Lion for dinner. The Hungry Lion is like a KFC/Burger King. They have fried chicken and burgers. I got a hamburger which was so good!! We then walked down to this place called Wonderbake and had ice cream and coffee! I had the BEST cappuccino that I have ever had. It had such a good flavor and was very strong!
Thursday (30th)- We had to be ready for breakfast at 6 am and ready to go at 6:45. Emily, Rose and I went on an elephant back safari! It was so neat and the elephants were so adorable. Emily and I decided that we are going to adopt one and bring it home...we will just split the overage charges. We were on the elephant for about 1.5 hours and walked through a game park and the elephant even went into the Zambezi River! It was so beautiful and I think we picked the perfect time because it was dawn and the sun was gorgeous! We then fed our elephant at the end. Ours actually ate the WHOLE time. It would just stop at pull off a couple of branches from the tree and start eating. I asked the guide if the thorns hurt their trunks and he said that their skin is one and a half inches thick! For lunch, we went to this wonderful little Italian place in Livingstone. An Italian restraunt in Africa! Think of the irony. But it was so, so good! It’s a NGO (Non-Government Organization) that is supported by the Catholic church there in Livingstone and Italians actually own it. They take in troubled teens and teach them culinary arts! It’s a really neat place. AND they had gelato!!
Tuesday (28th)- We had to wake up and be ready for our day trip at 7 so we actually got in sleep in a little later than normal! We went to a hospital about 3 hours away in a town called Macha. This hospital is so cool! Its one of the nicest ones that I have seen here (which would still be atrocious to Americas standard) and they actually conduct Malaria research out of their little lab. This hospital teams up with John Hopkins and sends some American students over to work in the Malaria lab. It was so neat to be able to explore the hospital and see how labs are run in Africa. It gave me a whole other perspective on medical mission work in Africa. I always thought, for some reason, that medical mission work in a developing country would be in a village and treating them there. I had never thought about setting out to cure a disease that affects a whole population here to be mission work! It really opened my eyes to so many more possibilities on the mission field. The missionary that lives in Macha and works at the hospital was actually born there because his parents were missionaries. As he got older and grew up, he went through school and became a pediatrician. He said that he got so tired of seeing Malaria being the number one killer among children in his hospital. He knew that he had to try to do something to help out so he set out for his lab. They collect mosquitoes from villages around and also take blood samples from the area. They have found that mosquito's are very smart insects. They used to feed at dusk and dawn but now that mosquito nets are used, the start to feed earlier. They have adapted their feeding schedule based upon humans schedules! The area of Macha has actually had a decrease in Malaria cases in the past 10 years or so! They have found out so much just from their little research lab and are able to teach the public about what precautions to take in order to avoid getting Malaria.
Wednesday (29th)- About 6 of us students loaded back into the cruiser to head back to Livingstone for a day. We also had to take the PA students, Tori and LeAnne, back so that they could catch their flight back home. They were with us for 6 short weeks and it was so sad to see them leave. They really became close with a lot of us here and are so fun to be around. They explained a lot of things to us in the clinic. Once we got to Livingstone, we checked into our hotel room and went to the market! We were able to purchase a few things before we walked over to The Hungry Lion for dinner. The Hungry Lion is like a KFC/Burger King. They have fried chicken and burgers. I got a hamburger which was so good!! We then walked down to this place called Wonderbake and had ice cream and coffee! I had the BEST cappuccino that I have ever had. It had such a good flavor and was very strong!
Thursday (30th)- We had to be ready for breakfast at 6 am and ready to go at 6:45. Emily, Rose and I went on an elephant back safari! It was so neat and the elephants were so adorable. Emily and I decided that we are going to adopt one and bring it home...we will just split the overage charges. We were on the elephant for about 1.5 hours and walked through a game park and the elephant even went into the Zambezi River! It was so beautiful and I think we picked the perfect time because it was dawn and the sun was gorgeous! We then fed our elephant at the end. Ours actually ate the WHOLE time. It would just stop at pull off a couple of branches from the tree and start eating. I asked the guide if the thorns hurt their trunks and he said that their skin is one and a half inches thick! For lunch, we went to this wonderful little Italian place in Livingstone. An Italian restraunt in Africa! Think of the irony. But it was so, so good! It’s a NGO (Non-Government Organization) that is supported by the Catholic church there in Livingstone and Italians actually own it. They take in troubled teens and teach them culinary arts! It’s a really neat place. AND they had gelato!!
Monday, September 27, 2010
Stitches and Jumps!!!
So the past 12 days of my life have consisted of some very exciting things!
On Tuesday (14th), we went to the havens after class and played with the children. We didn’t really have anything exciting happen but just enjoyed living the life here in Zambia.
On Wednesday (15th), our boys led chapel and did such a great job! Trey spoke about how if we don’t give God 100% of who we are, He wont be able to use us to our full extent. He used an illustration with a glove and showed how if we don’t put our fingers inside the glove, the glove is useless. That’s how we are with God. If we don’t allow God to permeate our whole being, we will not be useful in spreading His gospel. That afternoon, we had a lady come in and speak about the traditional marriage practices in Zambia. The girl usually didn’t know that she was getting married until the day of her wedding- the parents of the husband met with her parents and arranged everything. She did not meet her husband until the day he and his dad came to pick her up from her home to take her to their village! Crazy! That would never work in the States. This lady said that there was never divorce because the couple trusted their parents and knew that they had preapproved this marriage. They also learned to love each other so it developed into a stronger marriage.
Thursday (16th)- I worked up at the clinic between classes and lunch and got to see a man come in with a 6 inch laceration to his upper left arm. He has been in a fight and was stabbed and his attackers had flown from the scene. Whenever there is a crime like this in Zambia, the victim has to go to the police station and fill out a report before they can seek medical attention. Because of this rule, the man that came in had actually been attacked about 15 hours before hand before he ever came in to get stitched up. In many cases, this can cause many problems because of the onset of infection that is likely to happen. Thankfully, an infection had not really started but because it was now an "old" wound, it would had to be sewn up differently. We made sure to clean it out really well (after we gave him a couple of shots of lidocaine) and made sure all the dirt was out. It was a deep wound but it had not gone very far into the muscle so Dr. Black and the PA students sewed up the muscle and then preceded to sew up his skin. It was really neat to watch the procedure. The Africans can take pain like no one that I have ever seen. We Americans wince at a headache and immediately take some Tylenol to solve the problem. The Africans have to deal with their pain because they have no other choice. The women here don’t get any medicine before giving birth and don’t even make a single noise throughout labor. And only about 30 minutes after giving birth, they are already up and moving around the room! It is insane to be able to witness their strength.
Saturday (18th)- We went to visit this German missionary named Klaus Muller. He attended ACU and now he runs a farm and teaches people how to manage their farmland while also preaching the gospel. While first being a missionary and teaching men how to preach, he would get so frustrated at teaching these men how to change the world and then them still not being able to provide for their families. Klaus finally came up with the idea of teaching men how to spread Gods word while still being able to feed their family back at home. The school is 3 years long and cost just a little over $1000 for the 3 years. They pay off their tuition by growing crops on their plot of land that Klaus gives them. After harvesting their crops, they take them to the market and sale them. All the money that they make off their yields goes directly to their tuition and any money that they make after that, they get to keep. It is really an interesting school. We got to tour the fields and see all of the crops. They also teach how to care for animals so there were some sheep running around. Klaus spoke about how the worst thing for a poverty stricken country is to get outside food aid. At first when I heard this, I thought that that was a very harsh thing to say. I didn’t understand how it was bad to give someone suffering from starvation food. His point was that when outside food aid comes, people stop working in their own fields and become reliant upon the outside aid. That is what has happened in Africa. Most Africans have stopped working in their own fields for their own food because they know that they can get it from someone for free and that costs them no time and labor. the principality of working for food and being independent is gone in most places.
Sunday (19th)- We went to church and our guys led the service. Kelsey preached that day but I didn’t get to hear his message because I helped with children's church. Before the message was given, we all got to hold some of the haven babies. I got to hold Sam and Bright saw me and came and sat in my lap! Those little boys have me wrapped right around their little fingers! I love them so much! We also went to a bridal shower for the Merritt's (one of the missionaries) adopted daughter, Jennifer. She is getting married in October and we will get to go to her wedding!
Monday (20th)- Monday wasn’t really that eventful because my whole house got sick and we couldn’t go to the havens. It seems like everyone is taking turns getting sick around here. I did a lot of studying for our midterm that was on Wednesday, though. I also went over to the girls dorm and hung out with some Zambian girls. They gave me a Tonga name and its Luyando which means love.
Tuesday (21st)- I went up to the clinic for the first half of the day. I got to give another shot to a child. I also saw a guy get checked up on that I saw last week. He had a 6 inch laceration on his right arm. My house did not sleep much on Tuesday because we had our missionary anthropology midterm so I got about 4 hours of sleep but it was fun staying up and studying with everyone and us waking up so tired the next but we have decided that when everyone is in the same boat (whether its being sick or not sleeping) its so much more fun. We made a game about how many times everyone got sick and therefore we could laugh about the whole ordeal.
Wednesday (22nd)- We went up to The Merritt's house (they are some of the missionaries here) and they had an older lady come and speak to us about mission work in Zambia. It is said that she is one of the oldest Christians in Zambia. It was really neat to hear her speak about the times of the first Christians and how they impacted Zambia. In her family alone, there are close to 200 Christians!!
Thursday (23rd)- I went up to the clinic and I just helped with the patients that came in. I didn’t go back in the afternoon because I went up to the havens to play with the children. My little boy Sam has rickets which is caused by a vitamin d deficiency so I took him outside to play on the playground for a little bit. I then came back home and was typing out some emails and kept hearing these extremely loud thuds on the roof. At first I didn’t think anything of it because the tin roof makes a lot of noise and then we gets these huge wind storms that also make noise. These thuds kept getting louder and I was the only one on my side of the house so I ran to the other side and they thought it was me making the sounds. Finally, Callie and I walk outside to see some little African boys peeking their heads around the corner of this shed in the field across from our house. They had been throwing LEMONS onto our roof and our boys had put them up to it! Needless to say, we ran after them but by they had already had a good head start on us so we didn’t catch them. Then at dinner, all of our guys denied everything. It made for some fun jokes though! Thursday night, my roommate Emily and I both got really sick. We felt miserable and the bad thing was that we were leaving in the morning for Livingstone which is a 2 hour drive away! When we finally went to sleep, it was after 1 am and we had to wake up early to get everything ready to leave. Ba Janice gave us some medicine so by the time we actually got to Livingstone, we felt much better!
Friday (24th)- We got into Livingstone and a group of us went to go Bungee Jump! It was the most intense/exhilarating/frightening thing that I have ever done! Its a 111 meter drop till you don’t have any more slack in the cord! And then you are bobbing upside down, hanging by your ankles, over the Zambezi River and there are tons of rocks below. After the bungee jump, I also did what was called the Swing. Emily and I did it together and its where instead of diving off like in bungee jumping, you step off the platform. The drop was way more intense than with the bungee jumping but it was so much fun to have someone there with me this time! I also did a zip line across the Zambezi River! It was so much fun and was relaxing after having just done the prior two things. I also walked over into Zimbabwe for a tad bit! The place between Zambia and the bridge where we jumped is called "No Mans Land" and it is not owned by either country! We were talking about how it America that would never happen because we are too territorial of our land and don’t want any to not be able to be used. This past weekend we stayed at this cute little camping ground. All the tents had 2 beds in them and also had a lamp! It was really nice but it got so cold in the mornings! We would wake up shivering. Right now Africa is just coming out of their winter months so its still chilly here at night and early morning. We are heading into the summer months though where we will want those chilly moments and none will be found.
Saturday (25th)- We went on a couple of safaris! We first went on one in Botswana (so I got another stamp added to my passport!) where we were in pop-up safari cars! It was so cool! I had never been on a safari and I absloutely loved it! We saw tons of elephants, hippos, impalas, a few giraffes and a couple of crocodiles! At one point we were within 15 feet of about 10 elephants!!! They are HUGE! They were also baby ones that were adorable. We then went on a water safari that afternoon. We all piled onto the boat and floated by several crocs and got so close to hippos!
Sunday (26th)- We woke up early and went to Livingstone Church of Christ. They were so welcoming to us and were so happy to have us with them. The service lasted about 3 hours and at the end they wanted us to sing some songs. We got up and sang 3 songs in Tonga and they loved it. Its so neat how people get so happy when they hear you sing praise to God in their language. The Zambians are so happy to see that we are trying to relate to them.
On Tuesday (14th), we went to the havens after class and played with the children. We didn’t really have anything exciting happen but just enjoyed living the life here in Zambia.
On Wednesday (15th), our boys led chapel and did such a great job! Trey spoke about how if we don’t give God 100% of who we are, He wont be able to use us to our full extent. He used an illustration with a glove and showed how if we don’t put our fingers inside the glove, the glove is useless. That’s how we are with God. If we don’t allow God to permeate our whole being, we will not be useful in spreading His gospel. That afternoon, we had a lady come in and speak about the traditional marriage practices in Zambia. The girl usually didn’t know that she was getting married until the day of her wedding- the parents of the husband met with her parents and arranged everything. She did not meet her husband until the day he and his dad came to pick her up from her home to take her to their village! Crazy! That would never work in the States. This lady said that there was never divorce because the couple trusted their parents and knew that they had preapproved this marriage. They also learned to love each other so it developed into a stronger marriage.
Thursday (16th)- I worked up at the clinic between classes and lunch and got to see a man come in with a 6 inch laceration to his upper left arm. He has been in a fight and was stabbed and his attackers had flown from the scene. Whenever there is a crime like this in Zambia, the victim has to go to the police station and fill out a report before they can seek medical attention. Because of this rule, the man that came in had actually been attacked about 15 hours before hand before he ever came in to get stitched up. In many cases, this can cause many problems because of the onset of infection that is likely to happen. Thankfully, an infection had not really started but because it was now an "old" wound, it would had to be sewn up differently. We made sure to clean it out really well (after we gave him a couple of shots of lidocaine) and made sure all the dirt was out. It was a deep wound but it had not gone very far into the muscle so Dr. Black and the PA students sewed up the muscle and then preceded to sew up his skin. It was really neat to watch the procedure. The Africans can take pain like no one that I have ever seen. We Americans wince at a headache and immediately take some Tylenol to solve the problem. The Africans have to deal with their pain because they have no other choice. The women here don’t get any medicine before giving birth and don’t even make a single noise throughout labor. And only about 30 minutes after giving birth, they are already up and moving around the room! It is insane to be able to witness their strength.
Saturday (18th)- We went to visit this German missionary named Klaus Muller. He attended ACU and now he runs a farm and teaches people how to manage their farmland while also preaching the gospel. While first being a missionary and teaching men how to preach, he would get so frustrated at teaching these men how to change the world and then them still not being able to provide for their families. Klaus finally came up with the idea of teaching men how to spread Gods word while still being able to feed their family back at home. The school is 3 years long and cost just a little over $1000 for the 3 years. They pay off their tuition by growing crops on their plot of land that Klaus gives them. After harvesting their crops, they take them to the market and sale them. All the money that they make off their yields goes directly to their tuition and any money that they make after that, they get to keep. It is really an interesting school. We got to tour the fields and see all of the crops. They also teach how to care for animals so there were some sheep running around. Klaus spoke about how the worst thing for a poverty stricken country is to get outside food aid. At first when I heard this, I thought that that was a very harsh thing to say. I didn’t understand how it was bad to give someone suffering from starvation food. His point was that when outside food aid comes, people stop working in their own fields and become reliant upon the outside aid. That is what has happened in Africa. Most Africans have stopped working in their own fields for their own food because they know that they can get it from someone for free and that costs them no time and labor. the principality of working for food and being independent is gone in most places.
Sunday (19th)- We went to church and our guys led the service. Kelsey preached that day but I didn’t get to hear his message because I helped with children's church. Before the message was given, we all got to hold some of the haven babies. I got to hold Sam and Bright saw me and came and sat in my lap! Those little boys have me wrapped right around their little fingers! I love them so much! We also went to a bridal shower for the Merritt's (one of the missionaries) adopted daughter, Jennifer. She is getting married in October and we will get to go to her wedding!
Monday (20th)- Monday wasn’t really that eventful because my whole house got sick and we couldn’t go to the havens. It seems like everyone is taking turns getting sick around here. I did a lot of studying for our midterm that was on Wednesday, though. I also went over to the girls dorm and hung out with some Zambian girls. They gave me a Tonga name and its Luyando which means love.
Tuesday (21st)- I went up to the clinic for the first half of the day. I got to give another shot to a child. I also saw a guy get checked up on that I saw last week. He had a 6 inch laceration on his right arm. My house did not sleep much on Tuesday because we had our missionary anthropology midterm so I got about 4 hours of sleep but it was fun staying up and studying with everyone and us waking up so tired the next but we have decided that when everyone is in the same boat (whether its being sick or not sleeping) its so much more fun. We made a game about how many times everyone got sick and therefore we could laugh about the whole ordeal.
Wednesday (22nd)- We went up to The Merritt's house (they are some of the missionaries here) and they had an older lady come and speak to us about mission work in Zambia. It is said that she is one of the oldest Christians in Zambia. It was really neat to hear her speak about the times of the first Christians and how they impacted Zambia. In her family alone, there are close to 200 Christians!!
Thursday (23rd)- I went up to the clinic and I just helped with the patients that came in. I didn’t go back in the afternoon because I went up to the havens to play with the children. My little boy Sam has rickets which is caused by a vitamin d deficiency so I took him outside to play on the playground for a little bit. I then came back home and was typing out some emails and kept hearing these extremely loud thuds on the roof. At first I didn’t think anything of it because the tin roof makes a lot of noise and then we gets these huge wind storms that also make noise. These thuds kept getting louder and I was the only one on my side of the house so I ran to the other side and they thought it was me making the sounds. Finally, Callie and I walk outside to see some little African boys peeking their heads around the corner of this shed in the field across from our house. They had been throwing LEMONS onto our roof and our boys had put them up to it! Needless to say, we ran after them but by they had already had a good head start on us so we didn’t catch them. Then at dinner, all of our guys denied everything. It made for some fun jokes though! Thursday night, my roommate Emily and I both got really sick. We felt miserable and the bad thing was that we were leaving in the morning for Livingstone which is a 2 hour drive away! When we finally went to sleep, it was after 1 am and we had to wake up early to get everything ready to leave. Ba Janice gave us some medicine so by the time we actually got to Livingstone, we felt much better!
Friday (24th)- We got into Livingstone and a group of us went to go Bungee Jump! It was the most intense/exhilarating/frightening thing that I have ever done! Its a 111 meter drop till you don’t have any more slack in the cord! And then you are bobbing upside down, hanging by your ankles, over the Zambezi River and there are tons of rocks below. After the bungee jump, I also did what was called the Swing. Emily and I did it together and its where instead of diving off like in bungee jumping, you step off the platform. The drop was way more intense than with the bungee jumping but it was so much fun to have someone there with me this time! I also did a zip line across the Zambezi River! It was so much fun and was relaxing after having just done the prior two things. I also walked over into Zimbabwe for a tad bit! The place between Zambia and the bridge where we jumped is called "No Mans Land" and it is not owned by either country! We were talking about how it America that would never happen because we are too territorial of our land and don’t want any to not be able to be used. This past weekend we stayed at this cute little camping ground. All the tents had 2 beds in them and also had a lamp! It was really nice but it got so cold in the mornings! We would wake up shivering. Right now Africa is just coming out of their winter months so its still chilly here at night and early morning. We are heading into the summer months though where we will want those chilly moments and none will be found.
Saturday (25th)- We went on a couple of safaris! We first went on one in Botswana (so I got another stamp added to my passport!) where we were in pop-up safari cars! It was so cool! I had never been on a safari and I absloutely loved it! We saw tons of elephants, hippos, impalas, a few giraffes and a couple of crocodiles! At one point we were within 15 feet of about 10 elephants!!! They are HUGE! They were also baby ones that were adorable. We then went on a water safari that afternoon. We all piled onto the boat and floated by several crocs and got so close to hippos!
Sunday (26th)- We woke up early and went to Livingstone Church of Christ. They were so welcoming to us and were so happy to have us with them. The service lasted about 3 hours and at the end they wanted us to sing some songs. We got up and sang 3 songs in Tonga and they loved it. Its so neat how people get so happy when they hear you sing praise to God in their language. The Zambians are so happy to see that we are trying to relate to them.
Thursday, September 23, 2010
group sickness :(
Please pray for my group. People are getting sick left and right and Im starting to feel a little but Im hoping that I can sleep it off tonight!
Monday, September 20, 2010
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