The electricity may fail me but my God never does

the sunset on my run the other night

Hello, as of right now I am typing in the dark. We went on a road trip to come back to no power. If you are wondering how I am writing on my blog, well it is because I am writing on a word document first then when 9 o clock hits I post it. I won’t be writing everyday from now on as you can see, I am sorry to everyone that has been reading faithfully, which I really appreciate. As you can understand internet just plans stinks here, and at this computer I cant even load pictures, so I have to go to someone else’s laptop to upload my pictures onto my blog. I hate having to be a bother so I am now waiting a few days when I have lots of pictures and lots of stories (don’t worry they wont be as long as the posts from a few days ago.)

how they bus people around, put them all in the truck bed

My weekends are always very enjoyable, not much going on since I am not at the hospital. Saturday and Sunday were just spent relaxing and catching up on some reading and studying. Harriet and I went on another run, and met another 23 year old girl, named Eunice. We are going to invite her and Jean for dinner on Wednesday and see if they want to come to the youth bible study later that night. This weekend we had an Anne of Green Gables marathon, made me think of my grandmother Buck. I use to always watch it at her house when I was younger (thinking about you gram, hope your doing okay). Also, Harriet and I spent a good 2 hours shelling peanuts; we ended up getting blisters and only about a bowl full of nuts. We decided to give them away since everyone has been so kind to us here. Other then that, not much happened this weekend, that’s why I didn’t write a post, don’t want to bore anyone.


how they make milk here, ya with powder

This is the church we go to every sunday

Here we are shelling peanuts

 Today at the hospital we spent about 3 hours rounding on all the patients. There was a car crash right outside the church yesterday and a few people had to go into emergency surgeries. If they were in the US hospital they would have been in an ICU, they were in a normal room here full of other patients. They had Nasal Gastric tubes to drain their stomach contents, catheters to drain their urine, chest tubes to drain extra blood, IV to give them many fluids and many other drains that I won’t get into. Also there was a birth of a baby boy with spine-a-bifida and he is still alive. In the picture below you can see a sac on the boys back it is part of his spinal cord which is very dangerous, I am surprised he is still alive. The boy also has no movement in his legs and you can see in the picture his legs just stick straight out, with his feet bending inward. I have never seen anything like it, its sad knowing that the boy won’t live long because they do not have the technology here for that surgery. Also today I saw a 15 year old girl (I wish I took a picture of her) but she weighs 30 pounds, she looks to be able 8 years old. The mom wants to take her home because she has many other children to take care of. I can hardly believe that she feeds the other kids from the looks of this girl, so sad. I saw a lady with a snake bite and a guy with a scorpion bite and they had to be opened up to reduce the swelling or they will lose that limb (like what happened to Robert.) Robert is doing well, the doctor noticed that his arm was moving better, I will play with him again tomorrow to see if he improved. Saw a few patients with Tuberculosis, which is still crazy to me. They are airborne precautions and here we are checking on them with no masks on or anything, but none of the workers have gotten it, so that tells me that the US just goes to far sometimes.

the baby with spine-a-bifida, see the sac on the back and how his legs bend straight

 I am going to have a hard time going back to the US hospital and being so strict with precautions. The funny thing is, the US has 10x more hospital infections then they do here and they do barely anything for keeping sterile. Granite in Surgery they are pretty good with keeping sterile, but nothing like they are back home. America has come to a point when everyone is resistant to antibiotics and has no normal flora left and everyone gets sick from the littlest of things. I can honestly say I am happy that my mom didn’t germ-x me every 5 sec as a kid and let me get dirty because I have a better immune system for it. I never get sick, where kids now and days they get a cold for touching a dirty doorknob. It goes back to the saying “God made dirt and dirt don’t hurt.”  99.9% of germs aren’t even bad for you, it is the .01% that is, which the germ-x doesn’t even kill anyways so it is pointless. But anyways I am done with my spiel on that, sorry sometimes I need to just vent here and there.

                                                             can you guess what this is?

 Today after tea, Rebecca, Harriet, Julie and I went on a little road trip to get Rebecca’s passport stamped because she is waiting on her work visa to get approved. Every 30 days she needs to go back to the immigration office to get 30 more days to stay in the country or she will go to jail(it’s a pain.) I thought since I was there I would try and get my stamped also. My visitor visa only lasts 30 days and mine was going to expire soon. The man that usually does it was drunk and another man had to take us and a good thing too because he was nice enough to stamp mine till August 19 (I leave the 18, but just encase I have another trip back like I did coming here, he extended it!) Then we went to a bank and I got some more money exchanged, I will need more if we end up going to Victoria Falls this weekend! After our trip to the bank we got invited to lunch by Elva and Don Brooks another missionary couple here in Zambia! The great thing was they had Wifi, and it was so fast, I was so happy. I got to read my emails in5 minutes instead of the hour it takes here and text some of my family and it was just so lovely to have it for about an hour! Harry and I had to sit in the back and we picked up two people on our way back and took them home. It was another trip to the village church last week. Sorry to anyone who may be just starting to read and I make references to past posts a lot. I guess that means you will have to start from the beginning to see what I am talking about.

                                                   the view of a river we drove past

oh you know just some donkeys

                                          view from the missionary couple house, Elva and Don Brooks

                                             more scenery

 On our trip home we got to take so many pictures, I will try and post as many as I can. We drove past a beautiful river, tons of huts and market places. We even stopped and got a cold drink and these men dressed up in what looked like costumes came up to us, Julie informed us that they are witch doctors, very scary looking. Part of our trip was very bumpy and I was smart enough this time to bring a pillow and blanket to sit on, those wooden benches are not comfortable bouncing up and down. Julie stopped on the side of the road for us to take a picture, next thing you know there are about 5 kids running towards us. I put out my hand and they all come to touch it. I ask the guy that we took home, why they always want to touch our hands, meaning white people. He told me that they think we have different skin, like it is almost breakable and feels different. It is so cute, these kids spoke English and they all told me their names, don’t even think I will be able to pronounce them, let alone spell them. Then we drove off and they were all just waving goodbye, you can’t help but fall in love with these kids here. My friends were so right about me probably adopting one. Lord willing one day I can come back and adopt one or two. It is about 6 o’clock and I am writing you now in complete darkness, before there was sun, now the sun has gone down and I am using a flash light to see the key board. If I don’t get this up till Tuesday, which may very well be the case because there is no power then I am sorry for all my faithful readers.

                                          if you look close at what these witch doctors are wearing-intersting

 It was just great riding in the back of the car today, and being able to see God’s beauty. With the hustle and bustle of the day we don’t get to appreciate God’s creation. They have such wonderful sunsets and sunrises here, and at night you can see so many stars its breath taking. To think a God so powerful and mighty could love such small creatures as us. He actually sent His One and Only Son to die for sinners the people that were going to hate and reject Him Son. If that isn’t love, I don’t know what is. “He saves us, not because of righteous things we have done, but because of His mercy…” Titus 3:5. The word of God shows us that we did not deserve any of the things He has blessed us with, but because He is a Holy, Merciful and Loving God that we are made free! I can see why the Zambian people are so happy here when they have nothing (well, in our eyes they have nothing.) But, in reality they have everything in Gods eyes, because they have eternal life, which is far better then riches and gold.

 

you can see hear what we eat on tea break-why i have gained a few pounds

 

Yay the electricity just came back on, I might be able to send this blog out tonight, we will see that is still a few hours away it may go off again. You will know, if this is up on Monday.

one giant bee against two frightened girls(the bee won)

Hello from Zambia today is a beautiful day, like everyday. I am starting to feel the heat; it is starting to get warmer and warmer everyday. This blog I promise won’t be as long. Now that I have gotten into a routine not many new things happen.

Robert playing ball

At the hospital this morning I got a chance to hangout with Robert, the little boy that had surgery on his arm. Canada Rebecca thought it would be a good idea if I played ball with him. We found a tennis ball and Frisbee and played catch. It was so great to see him laugh and smile again, it is so contagious. First I made it fun by throwing it back and forth; I started making him throw between things and was not letting him use his other hand. What has happened is that he has kept his arm a certain way again and now it is starting to become contractured again. For all those who don’t know what that is, it is when you don’t use a muscle and the muscle memory starts staying like that, so if we do nothing, his arm will permanently stay in that position. That would not be good for a little boy, it will be hard for him to work when he gets older that is why these games we so important. He needs to try and start moving his arm a little bit everyday. We played for about 35 minutes, we had quite a crowd watching us, all laughing and cheering when he did good and bad. I taught him to play baseball, bowling, Frisbee and I even put a pop bottle on a swing and made him try to hit it and knock it off (he liked that one.) By the end of the 30 minutes he was moving his arm a lot better; that means there is hope for his arm. I told him he needed to exercise his arm everyday for 30 min. I gave him the ball to play with; hopefully he does it when I am not there this weekend. I might have to do a sneak attack on him tomorrow to make sure he is doing it (or no more sweets for him.) Harry and I might try and organize a game tomorrow with the kids in the hospital, they never play any games, and they don’t get the chance to be kids, we will see how it goes, with little words we do know in Lunda/Luvale.

a little boy on traction, has to stay like that for a month

After tea, I followed Martin around again. I learned how to put on casts. His first patient was a 17 year old boy; he broke his tibia in his leg, very painful. I administered Ketamine to the boy (the sedative they use); I finally got a chance to really see how this medicine works. This guy had me cracking up, what happens with the medication is it knocks you out in 15-30 sec, but you are still awake (this was so weird for me, we don’t use stuff like this in the US.) So his eyes are open but he is not responding, so Martin starts to dress his leg. The boy starts to mumble and then starts to talk; it was like he was day dreaming. He started talking in his own language saying his heart was beating fast (martin had to tell me that ha-ha still not to good), then he started talking in English; that took me by surprise. He started saying “sister, why are you laughing at me.” I told him “I am not laughing at you,” “yes you are” he said. His eyes were wide open; but aren’t looking at you. Then the kid started spitting, apparently they spit when given this drug and vomit and sometimes sweat as a side effect (very interesting.) about 30 minutes later Martin and I were finished and we got his friends to wheel him back to his room, spitting all the way back.

                                                        This is my dearest friend, robert
His other patient was a much younger boy, just crying his eyes out when he saw the needle I brought in. This young kid broke his arm and was needed a cast too. He was crying and I was holding his hand singing to him, trying to get him to look at me and not at the needle. It worked and within a few sec he stopped crying and was out, eyes wide open and everything (still freaks me out.) This cast took no time at all, it wrapped it up, waited for it to dry and he was done. It was very cool seeing how the cast was made; you just don’t get to see these things in America. After, I put a lollipop in his pocket because he was still knocked out. I got a marker out and started drawling and writing on his cast to make it prettier. I figured out how to spell “Jesus Loves you” in Lunda to write on his cast, I wrote when he needed to come back to get the cast removed. It was quite fun just doodling away, he will have something to read when he wakes up. It is so nice being able to openly talk about Jesus and His love here, well it is a mission hospital, but still, they are so open to it!

the boys cast

After work Harry and I had a delicious meal at Joy Beers’s house and a wonderful cake after. We ended up finding put there was an old pool behind there house, so after lunch we brought our books and towels and went to soak up the sun again. I could not relax because this was this rascal bee that kept flying around us. If some one could of videoed us, they would have had a laugh. Here we are screaming because this bee keeps looking like it is kamacazing us and buzzing around our heads. I know what you’re thinking it is just a bee, but this bee was huge and black and loud, and we had no idea if it was poisonous or not, we had a good reason, we were acting like girls. Harriett and I then went to a prayer meeting and now are at a girl’s night tonight. We are going to have dinner, popcorn and a movie, I love Fridays, especially since tomorrow is Saturday and I don’t have to get up early. Well, I better go, hoping to get up pictures tonight, using a different computer tonight to see if I can figure it out since I have so many I want to post!!!

                                                                 Our new lay-out spot :)
-by the way I added some pictures on the last 2 posts

A lizard and a spider in a bedroom with 2 girls (wed/thur)

Hi, I am back again, two blogs in one day is exhausting. I hope that I never get this far behind again, I have been on this for hours trying to remember what we did. Thankfully, I can write this on a word document and copy and paste it on my blog when we have Internet at 9. Maybe on Friday I will be able to Skype my family, I miss them, Harry wants to talk to her boyfriend tonight, so that is why I want to get this all done early!
 

The kids that I adore, teaching them engligh and Jesus loves me

I will start off where I left off on the other blog, it is easy to keep on going on, and I thought it would be good to separate them, easier on the eyes! Wednesday and Thursday were both pretty slow days at the hospital, good for the patients, boring for us. I followed a well seasoned nurse around, names Martin. He is a great nurse, I got to watch him do many procedures and help here and there. It is much more interesting then sitting around in the Pharmacy, helping Harry dispensing pills (physically sitting and counting out pills and putting them in bags and labelling them.) That’s loads of fun, and if anyone has tried to read my hand writing it looks like a 5 year old boy wrote it. Then having to try and speak and explain the pills to the patients, now I just look ridiculous trying that. Harry has gotten that down saying “chimene =morning,” “musana=midday,” “chongoloshi=afternoon,” and “wufuku=evening;” me not so much! Here at Loloma you want to know what they use as eye droppers, they use syringes with needles attached and they snap off the needle. Can you imagine putting this up to a child’s eye- ya, you cringed too. But, Martins day was more interesting, patient’s lines up to see him.



Our visitors from the day before

First, I got to see an older mans knee get his knee drained full of pus and blood and then get a drain placed. This drain looks like a long water balloon; I don’t know how that would even work. This man had his knee cut up with a blade with only Lidocaine, and using scissors to open up the wound to clean it out. Next, was a little girl that also got a body part drained. Her foot has loads of pus in it and thankfully he knocked her out with Katamine, but before that started working she was screaming and crying. I have a lollipop in my pocket just for these occasions. He took a needle and just drained it all out; we wrapped it up and sent the girl on her way. The next victim was an 18 year old boy; this kid had an ox cart run over his foot and ankle, now tell me that wouldn’t hurt. Martin was debriding this wound and his foot looked like ground meat. This kid was tough as he is cleaning and scraping the wound you could see the pain in his eyes. I was happy when the Katamine started working and made the boy kind of get knocked out (kind-of is the key word.) Sent that kid on his way and the last patient was up, that was a 6 month little girl. The girl has a cyst on top of her eye that needed to be removed because it kept on growing. Martin gave her an injection in her leg and she cried and cried for about 15 minutes. I then tried to sing her to sleep and I realized I had a lullaby on my phone and I played it and the baby started to calm down a bit. We put the baby on the table and injected some lidocaine around her eyebrow and the baby would not stop crying. Martin started the procedure anyways; he cut open her eyebrow where the lump was and gradually spread it open more and more, then you saw a little white ball. Martin started to pull it out and then he cut it off to remove it all. This thing was an actual little hard ball; it was so weird seeing it come out of the infant’s forehead. He stitched the baby up and gave her back to her mom and she finally stopped crying. I can’t imagine what it is like for a mother watching her child cry in pain and agony. I can kind of understand what my parents said when I was little, when I would get spankings, “this hurts me as much as it hurts you,” I always said “yeah-right.” I can see where my parents are coming from now, even though a spanking and watching a needle cut open their child’s eye is slightly different. I also saw a baby have her 6th finger removed, I didnt get a picture and I am kicking myself, that was crazy, she had 2 thumbs!! Over-all a pretty eventful day Wednesday and Thursday, checking up on the patient, handing out lollipops to the little kids, and making sure my poor little Robert was doing okay! He was up and smiling and doing puzzles, I will be so happy when his final surgery is done and he can finally go home (he has been there for over a month.)
 

Wednesday night was the youth group which I always enjoy, interacting with the local teenagers. In the bible study we talked about John 14- The Lord Jesus tells the disciples that He is going to leave, but He has prepared a place in Heaven for them. It was an interesting discussion, a few kids having questions about Salvation. I gave the one boy a Bible and told him to write down any questions and I would try to answer them for him next week, let’s pray that I have the right answers for him. Jesus said “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life, no man comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6. We sang songs and prayed and after had wonderful muffins. Harry and I went to Julies and sat and talked and sang songs till about 10 at night, it was nice singing Christian songs I haven’t sang in a long time. After it was over one of the Christian guys came and talked to me, and asked my name (they have a hard time pronouncing my name the BR is hard, so we decided for them to start calling me Kapi), I told him to just call me Kapi, which is his nickname. We both came to discover that we are both identical twins (that’s what kapi means). He told me that we were destined to get married now because our twin is married and we are both single kapi’s, I just laughed, how do you respond to that?
 

Thursday night Harry and I went running again, and sun-bathed. Don’t worry we had our skirts on and we didn’t pull them up any higher then our knees, remember that girls with shorts or pants on are considered prostitutes. We got a chance to read and listen to music outside. People walked by looking at us like we were crazy, I guess it isn’t everyday you see 2 white girls laying on towels soaking up the Africa sun there. It was nice having a free day to spend in the beautiful African sun; it is always sunny blue skies here. It has been about 70s everyday, and it is their winter, now that’s a great change compared to Cleveland weather, where it is snowing, raining or cloudy. Today I also found a tick on my foot, I had shoes and socks on all day-don’t know how that got there, but I had a quick freak out, thinking I had Lyme Disease (everything freaks me out, I am such a whimp.) Thankfully Lyme Disease isn’t around here *sigh of relief.* Hoping tonight we wont have any more spiders or lizards in our room when we go to sleep, its hard sleeping knowing they are in your room.
 

I’m thinking about my parents while they are in Myrtle Beach and hoping they are having nice weather also. Side note, happy belated birthday to my brother in law- Eric Sailor, Love you and miss you (as of course I do the rest of my family and friends-don’t worry Alex I haven’t forgotten about you either xoxoxo). Also I think Ryan Bucks birthday is soon too, sorry I can’t remember the exact date I just know it is always when we are in Myrtle Beach, so Happy Birthday to you too. It makes me sad to think I will be missing my mother’s birthday on August 13; we will celebrate when I come backJ. Now Harry and I are just relaxing in the house, Harry so kindly made dinner while I am slaving away at this computer. There might be imprints of my fingerprints after this last two blogs, don’t worry I am about done for today. Harry made fried rice, with eggs, ham and tomatoes (we use what we got, and so far everything we made has turned out great.) Good thing Harry can cook, because if it was just me it would be PB&J every night. Tonight’s dinner I added my new favourite hot sauce, which I add to everything I can hear. Everyone now knows to just put it on the table when I come to dinner; they are far to kind to me! Now we are just waiting for the internet to come on and we are probably going to go to the very last minute tonight!!! I hope everyone is having a great summer, I know I am, God has blessed me more then I can ever imagine!! Missing Becka, hope I get to see you again before I leave here, maybe we will be in Chit together. Send love to everyone, I am done for tonight I need to stretch out my carpal tunnel hands-till tomorrow!!



Letting the kids play with my stethascope

3 adults, 3 kids, 2 dogs and a chicken (mon/tue)



Here is all of us chasing after the chicken

Hi, so sorry it has been a few days since I have written, I have been doing so well on updating everyday. Becka just left Tuesday morning and she had the laptop we were all using, so for the last few days we had no computer. So, now I am going to try and fill you guys in on what’s been happening these last few days. Right outside my house at this moment is a group of army guys chanting and marching, with the walls being so thin it feels like they are in our living room, thankfully they are not. Remember, the other day how there was cheering at all hours of the night; here we came to find out that it was because of a football (soccer) game with Zambia against Zimbabwe for the championship game, Zambia ending up winning and it was like everyone won a million dollars. So anyways it is now just Harry and I at the house, it feels so empty, and we miss her already.

plucking the chicken

I am going to back up a few days, the last day was Sunday and Harry, Becka and I have just been given a chicken, which is a high honour and I was happy knowing we were probably going to have chicken the next day, and I was right! Monday morning we went to the Beer’s house and the kids were all ready to help us cut off the chickens head (I have some great pictures, so beware if you don’t want to see don’t scroll to the bottom.) We took the chicken out of the closet outside to find his legs we not tied together anymore, so the chicken just flies out. Let me tell you, I screamed pretty loud, but it was very comical trying to then chase after the chicken. Lets see, there was 2 dogs, 3 kids and then me and Harry running after this chicken, while Becka was videoing it, it was absolutely hilarious. After about 5 minutes we caught the chicken, and David the oldest boy got his axe and found a tree to put the chickens head on. After about 2 hits the head fell off and the chicken was just moving around. The kids were loving it, and of course they knew exactly what to do next- we had to de-feather it of course, and how do you do that, well put it in hot water, so that’s what we did. After we plucked out all the feathers it was ready for cooking, we gave it to a more professional to do the rest, so it would be ready for lunch, and it was!

                                                            chicken with the head cut off
 

We went back to the hospital after tea and that’s when other Canada Rebecca told be to come and help with another birth. I went and gloved up and the labour was well on its way, if you don’t come quickly you can miss the birth (these ladies pop their kids out fast.) That was not the case today, this lady was having a hard time and that is never a good ending with complicated births here. The lady is pushing and pushing and the baby would not come out, the nurses we even doing fetal pressure (that is when the nurse gets on top of the mother and pushes on the moms stomach to try and help the baby come out.), ya I was quite surprised at that site too (no, there wont be any pictures of that, so everyone can relax.) After about 30 min and the baby was not out, the doctor had to come and do some serious cutting-and of course with nothing but local lidocaine, but that wears off quick. After that did not work he had to perform an episiotomy, I was just cringing for this poor 18 year old. The girl was so young and just getting torn up, so after another 30 min and with some more cutting and fetal pressure the baby came out! No scream or cry came from this little boy, but he had a good heart beat. We are all trying to stimulate the baby to get him to breath but no such luck. He was brought over to the warmer and the doctor had to start bagging the boy, seeing how small the bag was just broke my heart. 30 min pass again and still nothing, doctor had to intibate, as he is asking for drugs to inject into the poor little boy; the nursing one by one had to tell him we did not have anything. They are frantically trying to put an IV in the boy (you know how hard it is to put an IV in a kid that’s 30 mins old) well, that didn’t work. The doctor had to inject some dextrose into his umbilical cord to see if the sugar would help at all (we didn’t have calcium gluconate, epi, or anything that would jump start his breathing-so sad.) Surely after intibating the boy that he would be put on a ventilator, we did not have that either, so we are all switching off bagging the little boy, checking the lungs to make sure it was going into both lungs evenly. Still, the baby had a good heart beat we could not figure out why he wasn’t breathing. So then finally a relative came and we taught the family member how to do it, she was so scared and sad, she didn’t want to mess up. When a life is in your hands you just suck it up and do what you have to do to save them. The doctor then stitched up the girl and she is just whimpering in pain, I couldn’t even watch, not because of the blood but because I very well knew she could feel every last tug, pull and stitch. I just went over to the baby and watched him and listened to his lungs. Hours later, we left and let the mom recover and the relative breath for the baby. Would come to check up on the boy to find the lady bagging crying, I tried to comfort her, but what can you say (and I cant speak Lunda or Luvale anyways, so there was literally nothing I could say, I just rubbed her back.) Our shift was over shortly after and the baby was still alive, but we later found out that the boys heart stopped beating around 4, I was very glad I wasn’t there to see that. First baby die while I was there, so sad, at least the boy will go right to heaven with Jesus.

how do you smile when your bagging a baby?

 

After work, we went straight to Julies house for lunch, it was Monday that meant Shima, but there was our chicken all cooked in a sauce, with cabbage. I can proudly say I enjoyed shima, ate an entire lump (with my hands don’t forget) and the chicken was very delicious, yup I could never not eat meat, I love it so much (I am a Buck through and through!) Later that afternoon we had some visitors stop in from Chit, the place Becka would be going for part of her stay in Africa. I met another girl from Canada named Jennie, a boy from Scotland but going to med school in Ireland named David, a girl names Erica, and Tanis with her 2 adorable adopted little girls. Becka was going to travel back with them Tuesday morning. They weren’t our only visitors, we had a car full of Poidevins- there was Tiffany she was 22 in nursing school, Naomi, 17 already in college, and Joel who was 14. Then there was Murray and Grace the parents and they were dropping off Debbie-Ann who was going back home and was going on the mission plane in the morning. There was quite a crowd there it was nice meeting so many other Christians.

 

We were showing the around and chatting with them, then later after a delicious meal we all played Rook. It is a lot like Euker (sp?)  never knew how to play but they taught we and I learned very fast. I actually ended up winning at the end of the night (which was till almost midnight, and the reason why I didn’t update my blog Monday) I was pleasantly surprised by my win and was happy I finally knew how to play.
 

The next morning we all went to the air strip to see the plane come in and say good bye to some of the people. Harry and I ended up finding out that David and Jennie are wanting to go to Victoria Falls as well, so now we are in the process are all going for a few days in August. I then thought I could fly back to Chit with Jennie, because David and Harry will be going back home and I did not want to stay in my house by myself. Jennie was saying how in Chitokoloki is much more fast pace and Tanis likes to do a lot more with everyone, play volleyball and different games. Julie said it would be fine to stay there for a week and I could see the hospital there, and they have a lot more materials and drugs. Harry and I are really hoping to be able to go to Victoria Falls, which is one of the seventh wonders of the world, and I am all this way I have to see that (makes Niagara Falls look really small.) I know everyone would love to see pictures from that; you can go on a safari tour, bungee jump, white water raft, shops and swimming. I will definitely let you know how the plans are going with that, I am very excited and hope it all works out.

 

After the plane left, we all walked back and I managed to drop the key, now that’s no good, so I had to re trace my steps and try and find it-no such luck,(the airstrip watchman ended up dropping it off later that day, what an answer to prayers). I did end up finding some kids and they followed me all the way there and I was playing with then and letting them listen to my stethoscope and it was the cutest thing. I was teaching them English, I would say a word and they would repeat, at the end I had them all singing Jesus loves me! We then said good bye to Becka and the Chit car, all hugging and taking pictures, of course. Tonight Harry and I hope to face book them and try to get everything figured out. After Becka left, the Poidevin’s left an hour later with the 3 kids to take to their place for a few days, now it will be really quiet without them! We said our goodbyes and headed back to the hospital for a pretty quiet rest of the day.
 

Later that night, since we had no computer Harry and I had a girl’s night. We did face masks, pedicures (minus the nail polish), I plucked her eyebrows-if anyone’s knows me, that made me very happy, and Harry picked my back (ha-ha she likes to pick zits- just like a Hoffman-Sarah you would get along with her very well.) We were listening to music and dancing and singing, caught up on our chit-chat and got some good reading in. We accomplish a lot without those 3 hours of internet, now here I am trying to update my blog, because I am using this like my Journal also.
 

I looked at my email and had some emails from my family asking if I was alright since they haven’t herd from me in days, so sorry to frighten my family. If I end up going to Chit I will have WI-FI, now that would be great. Well, now that I have written a novel, I am sure your eyes are getting a bit tired from all my jibber (see what happens when a girl goes days without internet-she just goes on and on.) I will write one more today, maybe you should come back to read that one, but I don’t think that one will be that long. Wednesday and Thursday are not as eventful. I am off for this blog I will see you on the next one (well not really see you, you know what I mean!)

Just bouncing in a skirt

Is this not the cutest thing, Tanis's girls

I don't think i will complain about potholes again

The church we went to today

the toilet, or just the hole in the ground, had to watch for snakes

Today was quite a tiring day, as we were gone from 9-5 at the little church that was about hour away (or so I thought.) Julie asked if we wanted to go to another assembly today, and the 3 of us agreed. Rebecka got home late last night from getting her work permit accepted, which she was very pleased about. Rebecka will now be staying till November, but she is leaving here from Loloma on Tuesday, so we do not know when she will be back. It looks like it will just be Harry and I in the house, then when Harry leaves in the beginning of August it will just be me :(. That will be very lonely, I hope Rebecka comes back here, or maybe I will travel somewhere else, not to sure.

two of the cutest kids

inside of the hall, the lovely benches

Looking for fruit, little detour on our way home

Anyways, there was about 5 of us in the back of Julie’s truck, we sat on these wooden benches, which were not comfortable at all. The trip there and back ended up taking 90 minutes both ways, with barely any paved roads. It was like a roller coaster, minus the seat belts and minus the fun ha-ha. We were getting bounced around like popcorn in the back of the truck, trying to hold onto things. I felt like she was smuggling Mexican across the boarder, we were so smooched in there. At one point I was sitting on the ground and we hit a bump so big I bunch up on top of the bench again. I never thought I would say this but I missed the pot holes in Twinsburg. I also wished I had more fat on my butt so it didn’t hurt so much! None of the roads are paved and you re driving on sand and grass (like off-roading, i'm sure Eric Sailor would like it.) You got to see how beautiful Africa was, but it was hard to see when your bouncing all around. Oh, the things you see when your in Africa, it is truly a life changing experience. So, about 90 minutes later we finally arrive at this very small church with about 15 people, sounds a lot like my church. It made me really miss everyone from my home town assembly. First, was Gospel, then Breaking of bread, ended with ministry. We used a very small piece of bread for the loaf, and used what tasted like kool-aid for the wine. I was very scared to drink it because water had to be used to make it, and I doubt they boiled it, I seem to be okay so the water must of been fine. The singing here is very lovely, you can sing along, I am getting very good at reading the language, just have no idea what I am singing, unless it is a tune I recognize. 

the back of our packed van, the awesome benches we sat on

Our Safari ride

Becka thinks we should keep this as a pet j/k

After the meeting the people made us lunch, of shima, cold beans, peanuts and a chicken that they just killed when we got there (how I know, because we herd it squaking). The chicken was very chewy but very good, I think I getting use to shima, it wasn't as bad today.Then after lunch we were given a gift of a live chicken and a bag of peanuts. It is funny because when I was writing emails to the missionaries from Africa, they said to always accept gifts with both hands, even if it is live chicken (and here is it actually happening to me ha-ha.) Someone had to hold it by the wings the entire 90 min home so it wouldn't fly away, I think it pooped on Harry. Tomorrow we are actually going to cut off its head, pluck its feathers and cook it (sorry anyone that's a vegan). Tomorrow I will literally have a chicken with its head cut off, no pun intended!! Around 5 we got home, dropping everyone else off on the way, because we seemed to pick up a few people on the way back. I think there was about 9 people in the back this time, but butt is still sore. The trip was especially hard on me because I am still getting over Malaria and I am so tired all the time, but I made it and I am glad I went because I felt like I did a real life safari without all the animals (unless you count the chicken and bugs and dogs.)

Well, I am off for today, hoping to skype with my family, missing everyone so much! We will see what tomorrow brings at the hospital, good night!

Harry holding the chicken

The fruit we found, they are not to good, very bitter

the chicken before we cut the head off

When friends become family

Here at Jean's house with her boy, Courage

In front of Jeans house, our new friend

It is amazing what God does for His children. I have been extremely blessed to be here. I have found helping people and seeing the smiles on the Zambian faces, has been more of a joy that I ever thought possible. Just walking by the kids and seeing them screaming and laughing and smiling and running up to you just to touch you is nothing I can even explain. The warmth you get when they get so happy just because they have touched you. (Imagine how Jesus felt when everyone was so excited to see him and touch him, there is nothing better.) Now take that feeling and times it by 10 when you truly help them and having them thank you, it is like God is blessing you even more when you are helping them. My dad always told me that you get more pleasure helping others then helping yourself, and being here I can see that more then ever (my dad is pretty smart sometimes ;) )

Jean's house on the right and her toilet and shower on left

Day two of Malaria is like getting over the flu. All day today I felt weak and tired and having stomach pains and headaches, it is not fun. Harriett has been so amazing taking care of me; we have become more then friends this week, I consider her a sister now, which makes the time in Zambia so much more enjoyable! We are so alike it is scary, but I appreciate her so much during my time of sickness, especially when I am use to my mom taking care of me. It is funny how little things make you think of your family. It has only been a week and a half and I miss everyone tremendously.  But, I am getting better and was able to leave the house and today was the day that we met our new friend, Jean for lunch (I thought her name was Gin ha-ha oops.) She came to our house and we walked to hers, chatting and learning about one another. She is such a sweet girl, renting a place with her teacher wages, supporting her son, sister and cousin.  I have some pictures down below of her house, they have no electricity and have 4 rooms for 4 people, but this is a lot more then the other village people, who just have huts.

Her sister washing clothes, that was nice to see

Jean's neighbor, so filthy :(

She made us rice and tomatoes, which was surprisingly very good. She asked if we wanted shima or rice and we said rice, im trying to eat shima as less as possible. In august they have a Christian girls camp and that’s all they eat, with beans and caterpillars, and they eat that every meal for a week. I might end up losing weight that week, compared to the weight gain this past week. We invited her to some gospel meetings later in the week and we got her number to make her dinner at our place. After the visit we felt more like family. She does not have many friends being new and we just enjoyed spending time with her. Later, we went to the market again I got eggs, and bread and rice, so we are actually able to make a meal. Not much to tell on a Saturday, on our day off. Tomorrow we are going to a smaller local assembly, which I am very use to and it will feel like home (besides the not being able to understand it part.) The Malaria is really catching up to me today; I am very tired, weak and achy, off to bed, goodnight!

other little kids that came over when they saw white people

the mice someone was selling, Jean bought one to cook