Goodbyes

I just got back yesterday morning from spending a week out at Lushomo. Just went out there to see the fam one last time before I fly. So, when we made arrangements to be picked up and brought out to Lushomo, one minor detail was left out. They were having a huge youth thing there, over 250 youth showed up. Mostly teenagers, some in their twenties. So Liz and I found ourselves in the position of "group facilitator." Meaning we each had a group of about 14 that we were supposed to lead out in various activities. It was interesting. And frustrating. The whole weekend was so unorganized! The AY leader in charge of things showed up late to all of the facilitators meetings, didn't keep people very well updated on when they were supposed to speak, etc. Liz had to do a talk on Peer Pressure, and I was supposed to cover Date Rape, mine never happened because it was so unorganized that several things got cut. Anyway, it was interesting to say the least.

The theme of the weekend (it started Friday evening and ended Tuesday morning) was "Its Time to Get Connected." So, they were constantly shouting "Get connected!" Everyone at this program was really excited to have a couple of Mzungus there. We posed for dozens of pictures. They all wanted a picture holding a mzungus hand, or with their arm around a mzungu or what. It was funny. Met some sweet people.

The rest of the time we just hung out with Chile, went on some walks around the place. Nothing fancy, just enjoying being there. Missing it already.

Malamulo

So, last Monday I spent the day hanging out at the house I was staying at because Dr. Fam was gone for a workshop in town, and Dr. Christie had gone to town as well and I didn't feel like I knew anyone else there well enough to bug them the whole day long. It was a pretty good day. I spent most of the day reading books to Chrisalyne's kids. Chysa had me read the the same three books over and over and over.. I could almost quote "If You Give a Pig a Pancake," "The Little Puppy's Bad Day," etc... now. She's a little mess.

Tuesday I went on rounds with Dr. Fam again, then we went to Theater to remove a guy's prostate. We were supposed to have surgery on a hernia as well, but that didn't happen because the Prostate surgery took too long. Just about everything that could go wrong did go wrong with this surgery. To start things off, when the man got on the table, he told the anesthesiologist that last time he had surgery he reacted to something they gave him, so they had to try to get a hold of his last surgeon. That took some time, they finally got a hold of him and were told it was okay to go ahead and give it. So, the anesthesiologist went to try to give him the injection. They just wanted him numb from waist down, so he just had to insert a needle between the guy's vertebrae. Problem: the man was rather hefty and the spot couldn't be found. So... he did general anesthesia instead. Once he was under, the man had to be intibated... then it was quite a bit of work to wade through all the fat tissue. Not only that, but Dr. Fam was just using the incision the other surgeon had used, and it wasn't large enough to work in, and the man was bleeding a lot. When he finally got down in there, he had trouble getting the prostate out. I mean it took a long time, meanwhile he was bleeding and I had to suction all this blood up. Finally, he got part of the prostate, couldn't find the other two lobes, but he had to turn his attention to stopping the bleeding and started tying off blood vessels, but had trouble finding where the bleeders were because the fat was in the way, the hole was too small, etc. Then, one of the guys assisting had to go, so there were just two of us assisting, not enough hands. At one point I was trying to retract with my left hand, hold a couple of clamps with my right hand, and suction at the same time. Well, finally the other two lobes were located and we were able to close... took a long time though. We were in Theater about six hours that day.

Wed Chrisalyn, Cam, and the kids and myself all hiked for two hours to go see where Yanjinani, Chrisalyne's hired help, lives. It was quite the trip. With two little kids, plus a backpack full of supplies to keep those kids cared for ad happy... we were loaded down with stuff. We hauled the kids in Chitenges (2 yard piece of cloth, just throw the kid on your back, then tie them on with the chitenge... quite effective). It was a nice hike, and we drew quite the crowd once we started climbing the mountain she lives on. White people don't pass through there very often. It was funny, we had this big group of people following us for some time. A drunk lady even latched onto Cam, holding her hand for a ways. The family was all dressed up for us, grandpa had his suit on and everything. It was cute. So, we visited them for some time, had lunch there, then headed back.

Thursday was more surgery. Two med students from Loma Linda were there too. One of them scrubbed in. We had two hernia's, I closed the first one. It was kinda funny, I'm in there with med students, they stand back and watch and I have my hands right in there. Surgery isn't really their thing... one had to ask me to take over when he was helping at one point. Then, we closed the lady with the peritinites that we had had in there a week before (they didn't close all the way in case of reinfection). After that, they were taking care of a guy who has rectal cancer. He couldn't pass stool because of it. So, they had to give an enema, then insert a tube and allow things to drain. Quite messy, not for the weak of stomach. Apparently they had another surgery that night, obstructed bowel, went from 8:00 PM to 3:00 AM... didn't know about it until the next day.

Friday I just hung out with the family, did some cleaning, helped make lunch, went for a walk, went to the market, etc... It was a nice day. While in town, I met some members of this big group from Loma Linda there on a mission trip. Saw them again on Saturday. It turns out the leader of the trip is Claudio, who was the leader of the trip I went on to Ecuador a couple of years ago. So that was pretty cool... of all the places and times. Looks like we'll just keep randomly bumping into each other in different countries... haha. Anywho, this guy is Argentinian, his parents have connections to La Universidad Adventista del Plata in Argentina. So, he is going to have them put in a good word for me. So, now I've got connections. :)

Sunday we left at about 6:15 AM on a bus that passes through Malamulo. From there we went to Blantyre, caught another bus to Lilongwe, then a minibus from Lilongwe to Mchinje, taxied with a couple of catholic priests from there to the border. Exited one country, entered the next, found myself exchanging on the black market again for lack of a better alternative (the lady at the immigration office hooked me up with a "reliable" guy and had us change money in front of her so she could make sure I didn't get ripped off... haha). Then we taxied from the border to Chipata. As soon as we came into the bus stop, the car was surrounded by about 10 guys telling us to use their bus service, trying to convince us they would give us the best deal and their bus was better than everyone elses... They actually got into fights with each other about this... a couple started punching and shoving at each other... quite amusing. We finally purchased our tickets then waited. We spent the night there. Cam and Ray spread out on a bench, I took the concrete floor, covered up with a couple of chitenges. At about midnight our bus arrived and we all piled on and spent the rest of the night sleeping in there. The bus left at 5:00 AM and should have arrived at 13 hrs, but.... we broke down in the middle of nowhere and had to wait for a mechanic to come repair the gear shift. Yeah... so, I think we got in around 16 hrs.

Once we finally arrived at the bus station, Cam and Ray had to call their ride to come pick them up (they spent the night in Lusaka because they flew out the next day), and I had to call my ride (someone from RFI was in town running errands). Then we spent some time telling people that no, we do not need a taxi, bus, or mini bus. Cam lost her wallet, Ray stressed over whether or not his package had arrived at RFI, he needs stuff in it... chaos broke loose for a while. Finally got things worked out, rides arrived and we were off again. So yeah... it was a good trip all in all, and I was very happy to see my pillow last night.

Malawi

So, right now I am in Malawi at the Malamulo Mission Hospital. Last Tuesday at 4 AM the LIFE students and myself started off our morning by pushing the truck at Riverside until the driver could get it started. Then we hopped in the back and we were off! We reached the bus station around 5:30, just in time to buy our tickets, store our luggage, say our goodbye’s to those who were not coming with, and head out. When we bought our tickets we were told that the bus went all the way to Lilongwe, Malawi. So, we were planning to go straight there and then bus down to Blantyre from there. So, imagine our surprise when we found ourselves getting off the bus several miles from the border. Turns out we were misinformed. So, we took a taxi to the border, went through immigration on the Zambia side (basically getting an exit stamp on our passports), then we took a taxi to the other side of the border and got an entry visa there.
Now, the man on the Malawi side of the border was quite friendly, gave me his phone number and everything. (He’s planning on me taking him with me to see Riverside Farms… silly). So, I had a little chat with him trying to figure some things out. We wanted to exchange some money for Malawi kwacha (thought the taxi driver would probably be expecting some money at the end of the trip), but didn’t want to exchange on the black market. So, we were asking if there was somewhere we could exchange money. The immigration officer said no, there isn’t anywhere until you get to Lilongwe, you’ll have to trade on the black market. So I got info from him telling me what kind of exchange rate would be good, how much it would cost to get to Blantyre, etc. Now, at the border and several of the bus stations, as soon as you open the car door you are surrounded by men shoving money in your face trying to get you to change your money with them. So, it wasn’t hard to find them. They all carry calculators around in their hands, so when I asked them what kind of rate they would give me and told them how much I was exchanging, they started calculating. I asked the man I was dealing with to let me see the calculator so I could add it up, I took it from his hands and started punching numbers in only to find it was dead. Finally someone produced a working calculator, so we used that to figure how much they owed us. Sneaky sneaky people.
Wednesday was a rather easy day. Not a whole lot going on. Got a brief tour of the hospital, met the director, things like that. Then Thursday I spent the day with Dr. Fam, the surgeon. He let me come on rounds with him. We visited a man who had had a couple toes amputated, a lady who had all of hers amputated, men recovering from prostate surgery, a man who would have his prostate out later that day, a girl ready for her skin graft, etc… Then he let me come watch him perform surgery, and not only that, but he let me scrub in.
The first surgery was the removal of a man’s prostate. Its great, before each surgery Dr. Fam sits and has his own quiet prayer time, then there is a group prayer, then the surgery begins. I like how they work. I got to help with retraction and suctioning. The surgery probably took about 4 hours in all. As soon as that surgery was over, it was time to take care of an emergency. A boy had been cutting sugar cane, swung the blade, missed the knife, but nearly amputated his thumb. It had a huge gash in it, fractured bone, and the thumb was dangling. So, Dr. Fam cauterized the blood vessels, then stitched the ligaments and a tendon back together. So far it seems to be doing fine. They were worried the blood supply would be lost and they wouldn’t be able to save it. After that, it was a lady who had had an incomplete abortion. The baby was out but the placenta and umbilical cord were still inside. So, an intern took this long metal thing and scraped the rest out and into a trash can.
Next was a skin graft on a little girl’s foot. Hot porridge had spilled and burned her foot. It was interesting. They removed skin from her upper thigh to use for the graft. To remove the skin, they used this thing that kind of reminded me of the side of the cheese grater that you use for slicing the cheese, only it had a motor. My job was to grab the skin with tweezers as it came through. They then put slits in the skin, stretched it, then put it in place with Vaseline gauze over it, after removing all the tissue that had grown since the burn happened. Finally, there was a lady with peritonitis. Her whole abdominal cavity was infected, filled with pus. As soon as the Doctor got into the cavity I had to start suctioning, and if he moved his finger the slightest bit, pus went spurting everywhere, like a drinking fountain that has just been turned on. And it smelled beautiful! It turns out the appendix had ruptured, causing the infection. So, he removed the appendix, cleaned her insides up with saline and iodine, then closed her up.
Friday I went on rounds with Dr. Fam again. It was just a quick trip around the hospital as it was preparation day and they try not to do any more work than they have to on Friday. There was a little baby boy with a herniated belly button. Dr. Fam pushed the hernia in with his finger. As soon as the baby started crying the hernia popped back out. So Dr. Fam had me push it in. It was fun to play with. Push it in, baby cries, it pops out, push it in again. I think Dr. Fam operated on him Sunday morning.
Saturday we went to church, of course. It was nice. The children had the program which means lots of special musical numbers. After church was potluck, then we went for a walk through the tea plantation. By the way, Malawi is beautiful! I need to get out and take more pictures.
Sunday I went on rounds with Dr. Christie. She is a family practitioner. Since the hospital here is a teaching hospital, she had a herd of students with her as she made her rounds. It was interesting, not quite as fascinating as surgery though. She did an ultra sound on one of her patients to see why she was having such severe abdominal pain (she wasn’t pregnant). In the ultra sound it looked like there was fluid around the uterus, and maybe an abscess in there somewhere. Every time you touched this woman’s belly she started crying, and I mean really crying. So, the only way to tell what was really going on was to perform surgery since they don’t have a lot of fancy advanced medical equipment here.
I got to scrub in for the surgery and assist. I was able to help more this time because there weren’t as many people in the Theater as there had been before. They weren’t especially happy to be opening her up because she is HIV positive and when you get opened up your immune system is affected, so they wanted to do this as fast as possible. Dr. Fam opened her up, I helped hold her skin so he could use the scissors, soak up blood, things like that. When he got into the cavity there, we were met with all the fluid that showed up on ultra sound. So, we soaked that up. Then you could see the culprit. Tiny little tumors coated her intestines, the lining of her abdominal cavity, we stuck our hands up and felt around the liver and there were tumors all over that too, same for the uterus, bladder, you name it. Dr. Fam just shook his head and said, “Only Jesus can saver her now.” Sad thing is, in opening her up, we decreased the amount of time she has left. After that, he started stitching the inner layers of her skin back together, then he left the rest of us to close up the outer layer of skin. So, I’m thinking I’ll be assisting the man to my left as he stitches her back together, but no, as Dr. Fam left he said Chaalie, teach Megan how to suture. So, I stitched her back together. Kinda freaky, especially when they told me she was starting to wake up. Yikes! I felt really clumsy because when you suture you don’t just use needle, thread, and fingers. You have to hold the needle with this special needle holder, and use another tool to pull the skin tight as you stitch. Twas interesting.
After that surgery, the man with the amputated toes came in, he has diabetes and the feet problems are the result of ulcers. He had some pus down in there somewhere, so Dr. Fam was trying to find the culprit. It was a simple, yet time consuming surgery as his foot kept bleeding and we had to keep waiting for it to stop bleeding to continue. Hopefully he got everything. To end with, he poured honey into all of the holes in the mans foot. He says that the sugar concentration in honey doesn’t allow for bacterial growth, or something like that. Quite interesting.
Anywho… I think this blog has gone long enough… more to come.

The Latest

Well, there hasn't been a whole lot going on to talk about lately. I'm still working at the clinic. Mostly counting pills, doing paper work, picking up whatever useful information I can. Three Wedesdays of the month we have bush clinics. Those are always nice. I especially liked going out to Lushomo, just because its home. Miss it. Tomorrow we head out to Shamilonga for a clinic.

I had thought I might get to go out on the next crusade and was actually planning on it, but then infection started to slowly creep back into my leg. So, I had to stay here because it is hard to keep things from getting infected in the bush, and the location for the crusade is even deeper in the bush than before (which actually made it even more appealing).

Last week there were some Malasian people here visiting from the Malamulo Mission Hospital in Malawi. I spent a few minutes talking to them. Three of them were students from a medical missionary training program and are doing health evangelism there at Malamulo. The fourth is in charge of the program, and he is surgeon at the hospital. He's a funny, energetic little guy with a huge smile constantly spread accross his face. Anyway, he invited me and the LIFE students to come visit. So, I talked to him and he said it would be perfectly alright if I just came and shadowed him. I could go on rounds with him visiting patients and watch him as he performs surgeries, etc... It's perfect!

Several months ago I had said that I would like to spend some time at a hospital before leaving Zambia. So, as I was lying in my hospital bed I remembered that and was like "Wait, this isn't what I meant!" haha... anywho looks like I may get to see both sides. So, it looks like its going to happen, just trying to work out some details. Then, when I get back Liz will be arriving, so we will visit Lushomo for a few days, then shortly after that I have to head back to the states.

In other news, as of yesterday I have started spending my afternoons at the Wellness Center. Its nice. The nurses at the clinic don't want me gone much, but I've managed to convince them to let me go under the condition that if they get swamped they'll call me back over. There are currently two guests up there. One lady is a stroke patient named Abigail, who's right arm is limp and leg isn't funcioning very well. She also has trouble speaking and has to learn how to read all over again. The other lady is a woman named Mercy. As far as I know her only reason for being there is she has a flu and a stressful job. She may have high BP or hypertension or something. I should ask.

So, I get to observe and help where possible. Yesterday was a Russian steam bath and enema (decided I won't be signing up for one of those any time soon). Today I helped give Abigail a whirlpool bath and helped her do some exercises on her right arm and leg. Its really nice to do hands on work with people rather than just count pills all day. And these ladies are so sweet! I'm especially fond of Abigail. Poor lady has trouble walking, dressing, can't tie her shoe laces, has difficulty communicating with us because she's still learning to talk (things we all take for granted) etc... but she is always so sweet and happy. She just smiles or laughs when she has trouble doing something. So yeah, I'm enjoying the Wellness Center, just wish I had started there sooner. Trying to soak up as much info as possible while there

Well thats all for now!

Victoria Falls

I felt like a penguin as I slowly shuffled toward the edge. Everything within me screamed "no!" as I looked down. Then came those fateful words. "5-4-3-2-1 bungee!" That's right. I jumped off a perfectly good bridge. Pushing all rational thoughts aside, I dove off the platform and began my 4 second, 111 meter plumet towards the rapids below, only to bounce back and free fall again. According to Alan you fall at about 50 mph, then on the bounce back its about 80 mph. Don't know about all that, but it felt pretty fast to me. It was really cool though, and definitely something I would reccomend.

Well, this weekend I went to Victoria Falls with some short time Volunteers that arrived a little more than a week ago. Two of them fly back to Europe next week. Apparently tourism is down a bit. That worked great for me. They put together this nice little package deal over at the bridge. With that package deal I was able to bungee jump, zipline, and go on the gorge swing for just $20 more than it costs to bungee jump. So, I did all three. The zipline was a nice and easy slide accross the rapids, you could probably sip tea as while crossing if you really wanted to. The bungee was amazing, pretty much pure adrenaline. But I would have to say the gorge swing was the most intense.

Basically with the swing you have a harness on and you just step off the bridge into thin air. Kinda freaky. You see, with the bungee at least you have something strapped around your ancles, and that heavy cord almost seems to hold you as you fall. I can't explain it, you just feel more secure. Wheras with the swing you are just free falling and the rope doesn't catch until you reach it's end. Pretty crazy.

The falls are amazing! Apart from flying over the ocean, I've never seen so much water at once! Since rainy season just ended, there is a lot of water shooting over the falls. You can see the mist rising from the falls a good five minutes before you enter the city of Livingstone! Its craziness! There is a bridge you can walk accross to view the falls, but if you walk accross it this time of year, you get soaked! Enrico and I went accross, Ingi and Tommy opted to stay dry. We were thoroughly drenched though!

In other news, I got to go on a Safari on Saturday. We saw a lot of elephants, giraffes, hippos, crocadiles, water monitors, impala and other members of the deer family, warthogs, some beautiful birds, etc... No kitties though. This actually isn't the best time of year for game viewing, so it was pretty amazing that we saw what we did. We saw over 50 elephants at once, all down at the water's edge. I got some pretty amazing pictures as we got pretty close to them. One elephant came prancing right by the vehicle, a roudy teenager, got within about 6 ft of me. We also got to watch this huge bull elephant swim accross the river a ways, then munch on some greens. The morning part of the safari was in a little boat, then the afternoon part was in a vehicle. So, we were right in the water with him. It was cool.

Things have been pretty slow here at the clinic, hence my failure to write as of late. I've been climbing the mountain here after work every day, getting my leg muscles back. One of the incisions on my leg is just a huge scar now, I'm waiting for the scab to drop off the other incision, should be any day now.

There are three new people here doing mission work for just a short time. Ingi from Norway, Tommy from Germany, and Enrico from Switzerland. They've been here about two weeks now I think? Ingi and Tommy leave next week, Enrico leaves sometime next month. They all speak German so that makes life interesting. Anywho, they are all in their 20's as well and they've been helping Alan put up an electric fence around the property.

I get to go out on the next crusade! Sometime at the end of this month. I don't know when or where it is, but Ernest has assured me that it is in the middle of nowhere, which is exactly what I like to hear. So, it should be good. I've gotta brush up on the health talks and VOP (Voice of Prophecy) Bible studies a bit. Fortunately, since things are so slow at the clinic I have plenty of time for things like that.

I had my first bush clinic without Darby this past Wed. It went pretty well, I think we saw 95 kids. This week it will be busier. Luyando. I guess it is farther out in the Bush, so we will be staying the night Tuesday night and hold the clinic Wed. I hear there are a lot of people that come to this one. That's kind of intimidating, gotta work fast and know what you are doing.

Well, it was a long day, what with plummeting to the earth and the long bus ride back and everything... so I'm going to bed.

RFI Clinic

Well, I sat around all weekend. Litterally. Darby wanted me to keep my leg elevated so I did. Didn't even venture out for church since it was a bit of a commute to get to church this Sabbath (it wasn't here at RFI). It was good though because I have some sermons on my laptop and listened to a couple. They were really good. The swelling went way down, almost to the same size as my other leg. Then I started working in the clinic on Monday. Swelling is going back up now... Gr.

Anywho, working in the clinic is pretty interesting. It is usually very slow, but it has been pretty busy the past couple of days. So, I've been counting a lot of pills, giving tetanus shots to pregnant women, doing paper work to close out the end of April, and yesterday I helped hold a baby's mouth open while the nurse excised its tongue. Poor thing couldn't stick its tongue out, which would cause speaking problems later. So, they just snip a bit under the tongue. It was interesting. I didn't realize babies had such strong jaws!

Paulene told me today that once my leg is healed Alan will let me go back out to the bush to help with the next crusade. I'm excited! Riverside is nice and all, but there's just something about the bush. The people are great, and freaky as it is to me, health talks and bible studies are really needed out there and its nice to be filling a need like that and see how your work is impacting people. Its also just nice to live simply. Sleeping in a tent, cooking over a charcoal fire, talking and reading for entertainment, surrounded by cows and goats and chickens and pigs and kids that are just dying to be played with. People think they have it made sitting in their big mansions with their big screen TVs and piles of money but hey, I'd take the African bush any day.

Darby, Alex, and Mark all left this morning. It was sad. They are all probably in the air or stuck in an airport somewhere right now. Tomorrow there are a couple of people coming from SAU, a guy and a girl. The girl will be staying in the house with me so I won't be alone for long. Anywho, not much else to tell so I'll say bye for now.

Well, the visit with the surgeon went well. He basically just asked if there was any pain, then prescribed an ointment and told me to clean it twice a day and apply the ointment then walked out. Very breif that man. So, apparently things are healing well. Its neat, because when I change the dressings I can see where the tissues are reforming... you know, whatch things grow back together. Tis nice.

In other news, I shadowed Darby in the clinic today since I'll be filling in for her as much as someone who isn't a nurse can do once she leaves Tuesday. Basically I will be counting out pills and running errands and sitting around waiting for a patient to come in. Its not a very busy place. Good thing is, the nurses that work there are very willing to teach you and let you sit in on things they do. So there is definite potential for some learning. Also, they'll let me help deliver babies. So, it should be interesting anyway, even though I'd much prefer the bush. Also, I'll be a big part of the bush clinics we do three times a week. So that should be nice.

The guys here left this afternoon to go do a building project out at Lushomo... I considered stowing away on one of the vehicles. Mark even told me which one would be easiest to hide in but... didn't happen. So, they are supposed to say hi to Lushomo for me. Alan and Paulene are taking the SMs camping this weekend, I can't go though because of my leg. So, I've decided to treat myself to haystacks Friday night (and by haystacks I mean dorritos, beans, and tomatoes... those are the only toppings I can come by, but its still a treat!), and maybe cookies. Should be good.

Last night was "family night" up at Alan and Paulene's. Twas nice. We ate a mean carob cake with some banana ice cream, fri chik (yes, real fri chik... don't see that every day in africa), and popcorn. Then we played Thump thump. It was fun, nice to hang out with 'the fam.'

Not much else to talk about... I do a lot of sitting with my leg propped up these days... no exciting stories there. So, I ttfn... ta ta for now!

crusade, demons, and hospitilization

Well, it has definetly been an interesting month. A little over three weeks ago Ernest, Chile, the new students from life (Alex, Raymond, Becca, and Camalin), Alex (yes there are two, this ones a girl, the other is a guy), and myself headed out to Changa, deep in the bush of Siavanga district. Chaanga is set a good 3-4 hours away from a paved road, so needless to say there was some off-roading involved to get there. We actually got stuck 3 times. And when I say stuck, I mean it is a miracle we got out! We had to cross a lot of really large mud puddles, so when we got stuck, it was burried up to the bottom of the truck in water. One time I was afraid the truck would tip. So, we all took a mud bath trying to push the truck. Fortunately, mud is great fly repellant (and there were a ton of flies).

So, we finally arrived at about 8 Friday night. We were greated by a huge group of kids who were standing by the road, they came running after us yelling “Mugua! Mugua!” That’s their word for white people. So, I climbed out of the truck bed and was met by a huge crowd of people who simply wanted to shake my hand and greet me. “Kwasia buti” To which you reply kabotu kwasia buti!

So we set up camp and spent the next two weeks visiting people during the day, inviting them to come to the meetings and holding bible studies with them. We also had a number of people go through VOP lessons (when you’ve completed them you get a free Bible - one guy completed all 26 in one day. He was serious!) Then, at night I would usually give the health talk, then Ernest gave the message for the evening. We had a pretty good attendance. Maybe at least 500 each night, but I’m not good at guessing numbers.

It was good times. We met a lot of interesting people, saw a lot of interesting things. I got to meet the chief. He gave us a chicken. A very pretty chicken at that, she was grey and specked. I also met and talked with the chief head man (biggest guy under the chief.) Someone else was the spokesperson when we met the chief, but I was the one talking meeting the chief headman (Ai!) I basically went into my typical spiel presenting God as a loving, personal creator who wants to be your friend. Then, my translator started in on Sabbath and baptism. It was a good visit. We also met a couple of apostolic priests. My translator argued with them for about 2 hrs. Craziness. But, they invited him to come back and chat again so hey, you never know where this may go. We may have 2 more church members soon.

Witchcraft was a big thing in that area. We saw a lot of demon possession. Sometimes at night we would hear the elders praying and casting demons out of people. Then, the second Sabbath we were there, Ernest preached and gave an appeal. Three of the women who responded to the appeal fell to the ground and started writhing and making strange grunting noises. They just picked them up, carried them inside the church building, and started praying for them while the service continued. Then one of the women came running out, arms flailing, running quite funny with the elders following close behind. She ran out into the middle of a field, fell, and they gathered around and were shouting at the demons to get out, and praying. The other two women took their turns doing the same thing. Now, I have to bragg about my translator. He’s this tiny little thing, maybe 5 ft, 26 years old, and he was always the first to the person who is possessed, then he stands over them, pointing away from the person and yelling the loudest at the demon to get out. Good job Emmanual, good job. We also had about 6 women who had to be carried out of the water at the baptisms because they had demons in them and collapsed when dunked under water.

I believe we had over 75 baptisms though. God definitely blessed. There were a number of people who were not baptized but who were still thinking and studying when we left. So, the numbers may grow yet.

Also, the last Friday that I was at Chaanga I woke up with a very red, swollen, left knee. Painful too. As the day went on it grew more and more painful, gave me a fever, made my stomach upset, at one point I even had trouble breathing. So, I applied charcoal poultices, and took a lot of charcoal by mouth. It was worse Saturday, but I managed to make it to the church service and baptisms before collapsing under a blanket in my tent. Sunday morning we got up early and left. You notice how horrible and bumpy a road is a lot more when your knee throbs with each jolt. Just an observation I made. I would have liked to have gone straight to the clinic then, but it wasn’t possible because we had to pick up Ernest’s daughter at the blacktop and take her with us to Lushomo and whatnot. So, Monday morning I finally got to Riverside, so I was able to see the clinic. By this point, my leg was huge! We are talking more than double its normal size.
The nurses here took one look at my leg and said I needed to go to the Dr in Lusaka for better antibiotics and arranged for transport for me the next day. So, Tuesday morning I went to the clinc and had an appt. with a Dr. Lynen who took one look at me and said I needed to be admitted to the hospital. Long story short, I spent the morning and afternoon in the treatment room on a drip waiting for everything to get worked out so far as finances go and was admitted around 16 hours under the diagnosis of infected knee with abscess and cellulitis. Translation: not good. It could have easily gone septic - and killed me, or resulted in osteomyelitis, or I could have wound up with arthritis for the rest of my life. Fun. So, the surgeon came to look at me and told me he was going to operate in two hours. He’s Russian, very short with words, and not the most cheerful/friendly person I’ve met but he’s a good surgeon so I make no complaints.

All that was easy, hobbling around with an infected knee (walking the long ways to the hole in the ground we call a toilet in the bush - then trying to figure out how to squat on one knee), getting admitted, the IV, news about surgery, etc… Now came the hard part. Calling the parents. Needles to say I met with some unhappy responses. Given the circumstances, they handled it pretty well. Actually, I had talked to them the day before and told them my knee was infected and I had to go for meds, so mom just said “I knew it! I knew your knee was worse than you were telling me!” Yes mom, you were right. Congrats.

Anywho, the surgery went well, the incisions looked pretty nasty. They are good sized cuts. He left it open so that they could drain some more if they needed to. He actually put drains in to keep it open and make sure any pus left in could get out (these were interesting drains, they didn’t have tubes small enough for my incisions, so he cut the fingers off of a latex glove and put those in). Weird. It was very interesting looking. Quite creative. The first few days of wound cleaning were not fun. Since the incisions are so big, the person cleaning would just shove the syringe down in there and blast the wound with saline, then again with iodine. Can you say ouch? Then when the surgeon cleaned it…. *shudders* He was… thorough… yeah…. Thorough. It was funny though, because I didn’t realize the two wounds were connected until he squirted the stuff in one wound, and it came shooting out the other. That was funny. I laughed. He also gave me a big squirt of hydrogen peroxide. Lots of bubbles came pouring out both sides. At first I didn’t realize what he had put, so I thought it was pus and was slightly concerned…. It was funny though. Alex was there Wed night (she freaked out more than my family and myself put together when she heard I was all alone in a hospital going into surgery etc… so she came to visit the next morning and got to stay the night). Anywho, Alex found it all quite amusing. I’m not a big crier, so naturally I didn’t cry when they messed with the wound, even though it hurt like nothing else. So, Alex was there laughing at me saying “Just cry already!” Thanks buddy. The nurse said the same thing… But there weren’t even tears in my eyes to be cried people… what’s your problem? Fortunately the only time I’ve had a lot of pain has been during wound cleaning time. So… I was able to refuse all painkillers with the exception of the night of the surgery. I was so groggy I didn’t even know what they were injecting me with. I just knew it was time for a shot and I was supposed to hold still. Okay.

So, I spent five days in the hospital. Good times. I was so happy to leave though! I’m too independent for all of that sitting around with nurses doing everything for you nonsense. My first night back here the Director and his wife wanted me to stay at their house (she’s a nurse). I’m doing quite well though, so I got to come back to my regular Riverside home today since it isn’t necessary for someone to watch me every second. I just have to take my drugs morning and evening and clean the wounds once a day and rebandage them. The wounds are gaping, so you’ve gotta watch it, but they are very clean. The surgeon wants to see me again on Tuesday. Not sure why. Maybe he just misses me. He probably wants me to be his American granddaughter… yeah that’s it he misses me.

Other than that the only other news is that I have been moved to Riverside now. Permanantly. Bummer. I really like it out in the bush, I would have liked to get to help out with the other two crusades they will hold. Also, I miss my Zambian family. Especially Chile. He’s like my cousin or something. We’d just sit up late at night talking at the crusade since the message was in Tonga and I couldn’t understand, and it was his dad talking so he’d heard the same sermons before. We had some good times. The student missionaries here will be leaving next week. So, then I will be working in the clinic here.

One of the girls here told me she wrote back home about my leg and so her whole town was praying for me. Haha. I guess a lot of people have been praying. I know it has been healing quickly. Even the doctors at the hospital were surprised at how quickly the swelling went down. And the gaping wounds are healing nicely. Its cool to watch how the tissues are reforming already. I think God and my guardian angel have definitely been working over time here lately.
Well, I think I’ve made this blog long enough. That’s all

Speaking of Flexibility

Well, Sunday after posting that blog, all of us Student Missionaries got invited to take a boat down the Kafue river with this bunch of people that are here for the one day church that was put up yesterday. Anywho, there were some big guys in the Adventist world there. Dick Deurkson, who is the host for Maranatha Mission Stories, was there... shook his hand... that's right. Haha. Also the man who invented the one day church was there, didn't meet him though. And they brought their wives along too. They were nice ladies. So, the whole ride the men had their cameras out (you know, the kind with the mile long lenses), the women all sat in a corner and talked, and the student missionaries played Rook and Thump Thump (except me, I wanted to enjoy the scenery). It was a nice boat ride. We saw some locals fishing, one guy was transporting tomatoes in his little dug out, there were hippos, eagles, parrots, lots of other birds I can't remember the names of etc...

Monday morning Liz and I left for town at 5 hours. We dropped her at the airport at 6:30, then the driver (his name is Oliver, he's a local) went to get supper. I got dropped at immigration at 9:28 where I stood in line with a bunch of people until 9:30 waiting for the doors to be opened. I checked the book to see if my name was in it and low and behold it was! Meaning: Megan has her study permit. So, I got in the line waiting to see the guy that gives those out. The whole process took about an hour, standing in line, getting the permit, sigining papers, getting stamped, etc. Then I went back out and called oliver to let him know I was ready, then waited 1/2 hr for him to pick me up.

So, then Oliver dropped me at Manda Hall. This is the little bunch of stores we shop at for food, books, they have a subway etc... Anywho, he told me he had a few errands to run and he'd come pick me up at 14 hours. (He dropped me at 11 hours) So, I'm not a big shopper and wasn't too thrilled at the 3 hours I had to shop but figured I might as well become well acquainted with the book stores, after that I visited game (kind of like a miniature walmart, minus the food), got me some subway, checked out the Pep, went back to the book stores comparing prices this time, got my groceries at shopright, back to the book store (bought a book on birds), then sat at a table outside at about 14 hrs and waited... and waited... and waited... He didnt come until 16:30. That's 5 and a half hours. Good thing I had a book with me... Great Controversy, nice long read. I also pestered my dad by way of text messaging.

So it was an interesting day. I did meet a really nice Australian couple while sitting and waiting. They are volunteering in the Lusaka area at a place that teaches widows tailoring so that they can make a living for themselves. I liked them. And of course, Australians have great accents. Anywho, Oliver came and picked me up and we made about five more stops before leaving town. We passed a bunch of drunks going through Kafue. One was just lying around on the ground... goofy people. So by the time I got back to Riverside it had been 14 and a half hours since we left. Craziness.

Today I just studied the lessons for giving Bible studies and the powerpoints for Health Talks. Tomorrow we head back out to Lushomo, then Thursday we start off to the crusade. Should be interesting. I'm looking forward to it. I miss trapsing through the bush to visit people.

I went for a hike up on the ridge here at Riverside today. I saw a water monitor according to Alan. Or, as I like to call it: The mother of all lizards. If I had been thinking I would have gone all Steve Irwing and tackled it... all 12 inches of it. It was pretty cool.

Anywho... later peoples... pray for the crusade. From what I understand there are a lot of people in that area so yeah... pray they'll be reached.

Flexibility

One thing you have to learn here is flexibility. The schedule is tentative and constantly changing. My permit didn't come in last week. So, I found out that if it didn't come in by April 3 I would have to be issued this special peice of paper by immigration that says I have permission to stay in the country longer. So, I headed back out to the bush expecting to come in and get that paper later this week. Fortunately it came in on Friday. Huzzah! Now, I just have to go get it tomorrow. Anywho, we were supposed to head out to the crusade today. But, since their are these four Americans coming on the 2nd of April, Ernest said it would work better to just wait for them and then go out. So yeah, the schedule is always changing.

Alex, one of the Student Missionaries here at Riverside, will becoming out to the crusade with me. So that will be fun. I think she'll probably be helping me with the health talks a bit too (not sure about that one though). I do know she will be going visiting with me in the mornings. I'm excited to have some company.

Well, Wednesday I headed back out to the bush with the bush clinic. That was good because it gave me a chance to learn some more about how things work with that. Darby went over all vaccines with me, explained how she usually packs up the container for the clinic - what poisons... errr. drugs she takes, etc. I weighed babies and recorded their information, gave some shots (I got to stab Liz! Tetanus shot.), made some babies cry, etc. It was good. I'm really not looking forward to coming back in from the bush, I like it out there. But, going on the clinics will be nice once I get the hang of it.

It was cute, when we pulledup to the Lushomo clinic, Mezinga (Ernest's granddaughter) saw me in the window of the vehicle and and went Mega! So, I called out Nana and waved (everyone calls her nana - it means baby). So, when I got out she came over and found me and held her little arms up to be picked up (so cute!). She's freinds with me now. When I first arrived she was terrified of Liz and I. She would hide behind mom/dad/grandma/grandpa/chile and start crying every time she saw us. So now everytime she sees me she calls out Mega! And I reply with Nana! We have fun going back and forth.... and she is ticklish. Cute little thing.

We spent Thursday cleaning up the buildings we've been painting a bit, sanding and varnishing shelves, and organizing books in the old office and moving them into the new office. Its going to be a nice office. Friday we hung out, did laundry, worked on the office a bit more, made pancakes (amazyingly enough you can do that in the bush). Liz was supposed to ride into town on Friday since she flys out on monday, but since I was going to have to find my way in to get my permit (they were going to drop me at the blacktop Monday morning and I was going to hitch in) we decided to just hitch in on Sunday instead. But, we wound up coming in on Saturday because the Nzalas (the fam we are staying with) have a funeral that they have to attend today, so they came in yesterday, dropped us at Riverside, and went on to Lusaka. See... flexibility...

Friday evening when the family came back from town they had a big speaker and a couple of microphones with them that have to go out to the crusade. They spent a lot of time working on setting them up and playing with them. It was cute, they are so proud of that thing. It pretty much made their month. Chile was testing the microphone out, he has quite the singing voice (the kind that belongs in the shower). Anywho, Mezinga (little 2-3 yr old girl) was terrified of that thing! She was balling her eyes out. She was screaming at the top of her lungs and Chile put the mic up to her mouth.... it was funny... So, I wound up taking her into the kitchen with me while I cooked some beans for suppoer, and holding her for a while to try to calm her down.

So, they used the mic for church the saturday too. Everyone that went up front wanted to use it. It was so cute, when Demus lead out in the song service he had this big grin on his face and a bit of an extra sparkle in his eyes as he held the mic. Its funny how something so simple that you see all the time in the states is such a big deal here. It was a long church service. The preacher was a guest preacher... and he really had a lot to say. the woman sitting next to me kept looking at my watch, the woman behind me fell asleep and had her head resting in the center of my back, the girl on my other side dozed off on my arm, and Mezinga was in my lap and got squirmy and cranky about the time church usually lets out and had to be passed off to mom. So, the sermon ended at about 12:45ish. Then we had communion. So, church didn't let out until maybe 14 hrs.

Communion was interesting. Liz didn't stick around for it, so I had trouble finding someone to practice with because I don't exactly speak the language and I didn't know how things worked, where to go... Then I sat down in the wrong spot in church. You see, normally women sit on the left and men on the right. But... apparently for communion those who are not baptized sit on the left and those who are baptized sit on the right, women in front and men in back. So it was ammuzing. It was like all the women of Lushomo banding together to help this poor ignorant white girl figure out where she is supposed to be.

Well, that's all folks. I need to go study health talks and whatnot for the crusade.

The latest from Lushomo

There are a few things about the trip to Zimbabwe that I forgot to write about last time (actually, I'm sure there are more than a few but hey...).

When I was at the border, about to go into Zimbabwe, I got proposed to! Some random guy was sitting there and asked me if I liked Zambia. I said yes, and he then asked if I'd like to stay in Zambia and genrously offered to marry me so that I could stay. How thoughtful of him! I'm sure it was my citizenship he was thinking of too... Anywho, I never even caught the guys name, much to my mom's dismay.

Then, while at the orphanage in Zimbabwe I picked up a little todler named Mary-Belle. She sat in my arms just staring at my hair. So, I pulled a little bit out from behind my ear for her to see. Her face lit up! She started running her little fingers through it and her big brown eyes just danced. It was the cutest thing.

Anywho, I haven't been out visiting since I got back from Zim because our translator has been busy over at the place where the crusade will be setting things up there. Also, there were some meetings held at Lushomo for a long weekend. Liz and I got asked to teach some classes. So, we taught on Health Evangelism. Basically talking about the importance of Medical Missionaries and how you can use that to reach people, then going into the basics like water, cleanliness, diet, some hydrotherapy, etc.

We were scheduled to talk at 10:30 last Friday morning. So, we were happy to be able to sleep in a bit, then make our lesson plans that morning. So I got up at 7:45, went out to wash my face and get a drink and whatnot. Then, when I came back into the house I met a frantic Liz who told me that Godfrey had just come and asked if we could speak at 8:00 instread of 10:30. It was exactly 8:00 when he came to the door! Ai ai ai! So, we grabbed our stuff and ran down to the classroom.... Stress! Kinda scary... so the rest of the weekend we were constantly on the lookout for Godrey to come ask us last minute (and overly prepared, just in case...)

Pathfinder Sabbath was a couple weeks ago and we had about 70 kids in our Sabbath School class because of it! It was kinda crazy. I started handing out stickers as a reward when kids answered questions correctly and nearly lost my life. Seriously, I almost died. These kids love stickers. It was cute though.

Last Sabbath we had some baptisms in the afternoon. 21 baptisms to be exact. Abishy and his wife Eunice were among them. They are a couple we had been giving Bible studies to. If we had been able to go out more often, Godfrey says we would have had more baptized but whatever... its not about numbers anyhow. So yeah, it was cute. Here, when you are baptized you fold your hands on your chest. So, she folder her hands on her chest, and he wrapped his arms around her and they were dunked together. It was sweet. Also, Chile, the youngest son of the family we live with, was baptized. So was Sarah, the wife of their oldest son and Rita, a local girl that sometimes helps out at the house. It was a good day. Abishy had mentioned he would like to have an English Bible because the Tonga translation can be a bit rough at times. So, I was able to give him an old Bible of my mom's. He was super excited about that one.

Other than all of that, we've mostly just been painting, hanging out with Chile, studying, and baking. There are some great places to swim out in Lushomo. One of them is at the base of the waterfall, and you can actually climb up part of the waterfall and sit on the ledge with the water crashing down on your shoulders. Good times. I've been experimenting with baking. I really want to get my hands on a good whole wheat bread recipe. In the meantime, I've been experimenting with cookies, coffee cake, made a loaf of banana bread... pretty successful attempts actually. We've also made pancakes a couple of times. The ingredients are a tad different from those in America but hey, they are wonderful.

I've also found myself to be Ernest and Christine's secretary. They have had a lot of reports they have needed typed up to send of to the higher powers, and for the board meeting that Ernest is here for tomorrow. It's funny, they are in awe of how fast I can type. Liz and I had to explain how in America computers are used for everything, and they start you early etc... Its been interesting.

Liz leaves a week from monday for Kenya, and a week from Sunday I head out to the crusade. I have to do home visits and give health talks in the evenings at the crusade. I may also get roped into helping with the kids corner, although I really don't think I'm the person for that job. Anywho, good news... there are four americans coming April 2nd. They will be helping with the crusade, then taking over at Lushomo. This makes me happy. I hated to start visiting then stop because Riverside needed me. So, this works out great. And, they have been through an Evangelistic training school. Meaning: they know what they are doing. So, this works out perfectly!

Anywho, I'm just in for a few days. Hopefully my Student Permit has come in, we'll be checking on that Monday or Tuesday. If it doesn't come by the middle of next month I'll have to leave the country, so hopefully it is here.

One last thought that occurred to me as I sat in church today. Metal roofs are wonderful, they really are... especially if you get a good quality one like the ones my dad sells (yup, just let me know if you want to get in touch with him... ) They last forever, they hold up better than shingles, no leaking... I'm sure if I were my dad I could go on and on. But, if you are using it on a church in Zambia where there is a rainy season that lasts for several months consisting of many a torrential downpour, and the church doesn't have a sound system, please insulate it so the congregation can hear the speaker... There you go, my thought for the day.

Well, I may write more later before heading back to the bush, who knows. But TTFN, Ta ta for now! :)

Zimbabwe

So, we made the trip over to Zimbabwe. It went well. It was a long trip. About 9 hours from Lusaka to Harare. The bus wasn't in the best shape, and it took the hills really really slowly. But we got there so it's all good. When we arrived at the orphanage we went straight to our rooms in the dorms. That was quite the experience. There was a large room with a bunch of bunk beds in it, a large bathroom with a row of toilets but no doors on the stalls, and showers without curtains. I figured out really fast what times the girls were up and in the dorm and what times the dorm is empty.

The girls are really nice though. Very freindly. They are a lot more touchy too... Here in Zambia there isn't a lot of touching and hugging going on, just polite hand shakes and gestures. But in Zim they hug. That was nice.

While we were there the girls painted several rooms in the little boys dorm and the guys put up gables (? I think that's what they did...). We also got to transplant some tomoatoes and the trees. The orphanage had the church program Saturday. Lots of singing. Really good singing. They also did a skit on Job. It was really nice.

Learned how to play Dutch Blitz one night. We all sat down as a family (yeah, we've formed an SM family) one evening. It was fun, looking forward to playing that again.

Anywho... Zimbabwe is a lot more developed than Zambia. The buildings are like the buildings you would see in a city in America and things are a lot cleaner. Economically things are very unstable. The country has pretty much collapsed and inflation is insane. About 300 50,000,000,000 dollar notes equals approximately 50 cents. They've changed the currency a bit. They are using the U.S. dollar now. Its not so bad as the news makes it look. At least not all over. In the more rural areas things are still quite bad from what I hear, but Harare for example (which is a big city) is doing better now.

The last night that we were there they had a little farewell thing for Luke (he's a volunteer there, he actually was a student missionary here at Riverside a few years ago and he came back with us). It was sweet. Lots of singing, a skit, and many thank you's and tears.

The ride back was... interesting. We arrived at the bus station at 5:30 AM to make sure we were able to get tickets because these buses fill up fast. We were the first ones there. The bus didn't depart until about 8:30, although it was scheduled to leave at 8:00. Then, we had to pull over several times because it was having some mechanical issues. We finally pulled off at the scheduled pit stop and they informed us that another bus was coming from Harare to take us through. We all knew that by the time that bus got to us, picked us up, then got to the border, the border would be closed. So, we took turns standing out by the road trying to flag down a ride. Several people stopped, just going to the wrong places. We finally got someone going to the right plae just as our replacement bus showed up.

Then, once we got loaded in and on our way again, some men who had been drinking decided they had to pee... more precious time, then we got a bit overheated and had to pull off, then we got held up because a truck spilled tires all over the road... We began to get the idea that maybe weren't supposed to cross the border that night. We finally pulled up to the border at exactly 6:00 PM, which happens to be the exact time it closes. Apparently, no exceptions are made. So, we hiked back to a hotel that's near the border and spent the night there.

This morning at the border we found ourselves racing two other buses full of people. When we pulled in the people literally ran off the buses pushing, trying to get through customs first. It was funny. Everyone was pushing and shoving and stressing and our group was playing the name game. Hah. There are lots of baboons at the border. Some of them very big. While we were standing in the long line snaking its way out of the building and down the ramp, they provided us with some entertainment.

One of the baboons got a hold of someone's coke and had the bottle in its mouth and was running as fast as those legs and arms allow. Then it dropped the bottle and the bottle started to spray everywhere. It jumped back, then started lapping at the coke puddle on the ground and tried to pick it up again, dropped it, and it started to roll, still spraying. So the baboon followed after close when the spray was squirting away from him and jumping back whenever it pointed his direction. Finally, he just started following several feet behind and licking up the coke off of the black top. It was so comical! If we hadn't been at the border I would have taken pictures... but they aren't especially fond of cameras at the border.

Then, as we were filing out of the building after going through customs, we saw this baboon sitting on the cement wall we had to pass to get back to the bus. It was holding a huge chunk of bread and its cheaks were absolutely stuffwed with bread. There is no way that boy could have sqeezed any more bread in his mouth. We laughed and wondered who the genious was who gave him the bread. Then we got back to the bus and someone asked Luke if he had any apples or oranges. He said yes and asked if she would like some. She said no, but that the baboons had gotten into them. Sure enough, the basket that our bread, apples, and oranges had been in was sitting on the seat in the bus, next to an open window. So, our hairy little freind just reached in and helped himself. All but one of the apples had a huge bite taken out of it and nothing was left of the bread but the plastic bag it came in. Those crazy baboons.

The rest of the trip went over without a problem. So now we are back at Riverside. I guess we will be heading out to Mukuyu Friday to visit Hein and Melissa, provide some help/encouragement since they are having so many problems out where they are. Then Liz and I will either get dropped at the entrance to the long road to Lushomo Saturday on the way back, or come back to Riverside and wait for the Lushomo vehicle to make another trip into town.

Oh yeah, forgot to mention that I saw some elephants yesterday on the Zim side of the border gathering at some water. Very cool.

Speaking of cool, apparently we have snow at my house back home... 9 inches! Figures... I've been waiting for a good snow and it comes as soon as I leave. Oh well... I'm in Africa. So take that... hehe.

So, things have been going pretty well. We've started holding meetings with the workers ate Lusyomo during lunch time now and then. Basically, we do a Bible study, then sometimes go into some health related topics. That's going pretty well. The state of the dead is a huge topic for them. They believe that if a man's wife dies, her spirit stays there with him, and he has to go through this ceremonial cleansing that basically involves him sleeping with another woman. So, it's been a hot topic. We've had two meetings on it and things still aren't as clear as we'd like.

We also had a meeting this week on the other side of the mountain where the people we've been visiting live. Apparently, some of the people we haven't been visiting have been complaining because we haven't spent any time with them. We've just been singling out those who our Bible worker feels need the visits the most. They are the people who are interested in learning more about God but are not in the church. So, we decided to start having meetings over there as well. Bible study, then some health related things as well. The water source over there is really bad this time of year, and there are a lot of people who are sick. With the same symptoms. So, we've been addressing the whole topic of boiling your water, drinking lots of it, and how to use and make charcoal.

We've got a lady named Esther who we've been visiting. She has been sick for about five years now. She's pretty well convinced she isn't going to live much longer. Godfrey (our bibleworker/translator) has really been urging her to get serious about Bible study and prayer... she has like six kids and is super skiny. So yeah, if you could add her to your prayer lists that would be great.

The lady who had the bad infection after giving birth to a stillborn child is doing much better now. She has regained most of her strength. Unfortunately, her husband went and married another woman and she hasn't seen him since. We're not sure if that means they are still married or not... he could just have two wives now. Anywho, she had been having trouble feeding her kids, especially as she was recovering. So, we gave her some mealie meal (ground up maize used for making porridge and nshima), and beans. She has two of the most adorable little girls you will ever meet. Big smiles. We also spend some time sharing encouraging Bible verses and gave her a Tonga Bible. Godfrey said that was a good move because she's an active church member and will put it to good use. She really liked John 16:33. It's a great feeling to watch someone's eyes light up like that.

It's been great to go visiting. When you approach a hut, the people just bring these tiny little stools out to you, you sit down and start sharing. People are very happy to see you coming, whether they listen to all you say or not is another matter entirely, but hey... they're nice. We have a couple of people that are very serious students now though. We have given out 6 Bibles and have requests for 3 more. After we finished visiting this man named Boyd today, he hurried off into his feild and came back with a big grin on his face and his arms full of corn. I'm just waiting for someone to offer me a chicken.

So yeah, I'm just kind of rambling here... one day I'll learn how to write a nice blog for you all.. Haha... Tomorrow morning all of us student missionaries are heading to Lusaka, from there we'll catch a bus down to Harare, Zimbabwe. We are taking a long weekend to help out at an orphanage/school/clinic that a former student missionary is currently working at. So, that should go well. It sounds like we will just be doing a lot of maintenance down there.

I just found out that Hein and Melissa (the couple that runs the project down in Mukuyu, where we held a dental clinic) are having a lot of trouble. They are having some land disputes with the local cheifs. One of the cheifs had given them land for the mission they are running (actually I think they gave it to his brother, but his brother died and left it to him). Now, this dishonest cheif is claiming he didn't and is saying he traded it with this other cheif, or something to that affect. So, they are all fighting and they camfe for Hein and beat him up and took him off somewhere. He's back now, but I guess they ruffed him up pretty good. Also, they broke into the house and stole everything of value and have started poisoning their animals now. So, Hein and Melissa are trying to raise money to hire a laywer so that they can scrape their lives back together. They've got a good work started there with an orphanage that is about to open this year and everything. So, if you are interested in helping them with some funds to keep this mission project going, you can send a check to OCI (Outpost Centers International) Just make a note that the money is for Hein and Melissa's project in Mukuyu, Zambia. You can get the mailing address at www.outpostcenters.org

Anywho, I think I'm done rambling on for now. :) Later.

As I type we are having a massive downpour here at Riverside. We (Liz, Mark, Jeremy, and me) wanted to climb the mountain today, but then we looked up and saw some huge rainclouds headed this way and changed our minds pretty quick. So, Liz and I came to the internet.

Yesterday’s trip to Lusaka was pretty good. Still no student permit. One of the guys that works at the office there is supposed to be hunting for it for me now, because it should be here by now. So, just had to go to immigration and get another stamp in my passport. Meaning I’m still technically visiting the country. Other than that, we bought a lot of groceries, some air time, and went shopping for chitenges (wrap around skirts – more or less). The guys got the girls flowers for Valentine’s day – pretty sure Alan was behind that one, but it was sweet either way. Then of course last night was vespers at church, then we went up to Alan and Pauline’s house for popcorn and visited for a while which was nice.

This morning the guys made pancakes for everyone at Alan and Pauline’s as kind of a Valentine’s Day treat. They were good! Alan made this mango topping (it had something else in it, just don’t know what it was) that was really good as a smoothie or on pancakes, then there was peanut butter and syrup and nutella and peaches and… we were stuffed. Then we had church and potluck with more amazing food and now its internet time.

There’s a pretty good possibility that Alex, Darby, Liz, Jeremy, Mark, and Myself will be heading down to Harare weekend after next to help out with some stuff that needs done at a place that a friend of Alex, Darby, and Jeremy’s is working at right now. Liz and I would have to talk to Ernest and Godfrey to see if that’s alright, since they are the people we work with in Lushomo and we’ve got a commitment out there, but we’re really hoping to get to go. And, Liz needs to take a few things down to give to a Doctor friend down there so that would work out perfectly. We’ll spend a weekend there and take some stuff down because the situation in Zimbabwe isn’t great right now and stuff is either ridiculously priced or unavailable. So that would be really good. They basically have stuff like tiling, building, painting, repair work, and 14 infants that need to be cared for etc… I’m excited at the thought.

Still don't know how we are getting back to Lushomo... that woud be good to know. Anywho... gotta run.

Lushomo

So, I'm back at Riverside after spending two weeks at Lushomo. Liz and I have visa stuff to take care of Friday so we're in town for the weekend.

Lushomo is great. The day we went out we held two bush clinics. Darby introduced me to the whole administration of shots, vitamins and worm tablets thingy. So, I got to stab a few screaming kids. Then, I learned how the card system works and took some blood pressure readings which was really cool. After that, we started getting settled into our new home.

Liz and I share a little room with two beds complete with mosquito nets and a dresser of sorts. The house is nice. Surprisingly modern. They don't have electricity, but they have a generator that they run about once a day or once every other day. They have a TV, and every evening we sit down to watch the news and the hope channel (Adventist TV). The shower is a cement building with a tub that has a hose running in the side. The toilet is another little building with a rectangular shaped hole. We call it "the pit."

The family we live with is wonderful. Ernest and Christine are the parents, their oldest son is married and I'd put his name down but I haven't learned it yet because its a hard one. He and his wife have two kids: Nana (the nickname for his approx 2-3 yr old daughter) and Smart (little boy, just over a year old). Then there is their other son, Chile. And they have a daughter but she is off at school.

Sundays we paint the new buildings for the Bible school that will be starting up in July (maybe). Monday-Thursday we go visiting the villages just up over the ridge (we are up in the mountains, in kind of a pocket with ridges all around. So we hike up over the ridge to visit). Friday we don't have a set job. Its kind of like Sundays are back home - slow day. Saturday we have the job of teaching Sabbath school.

When we go visiting what we basically do is come up to a hut, or someone working in the feilds and visit with them. If they have any medical issues we'll try to help, then we'll give a short Bible study. Some are church members that just need encouragement, others are not and we are teaching them (so far, everyone is asking us to please come back and share more). It's kind of awkward, because neither of us have had any training for this sort of work, but its good. We are learning and enjoying the visits.

So far, we are studying with Abishy, who's wife just recently died from an infection she got when she had her stillborn child. He is eager to learn more and has told us he wants to come to church and he wants us to keep visiting. His neighbor (who also happens to be related to him) just recently gave birth to a dead baby. When it came out, chunks of the baby's skin was missing when it was born (meaning its still inside). He told us about her, it had been a week since the baby had been born and her infection was really bad. So, we had to arrange transport to the hospital and pay for the hospital visit because they weren't able to get the money together. We have also been able to clean up a little girl's infected toe and show her how to care for it, and begin giving Bible studies to a large family. We have another family we need to start with when we get back.

So, that's what I'll be doing until the end of march. The last week of march I'll head out to a town a ways away where there will be a big crusade. What they want me to do is pitch my tent there are week early and go around and invite people in the community to come to the crusade, giving Bible studies if need be. Then, the crusade starts in April, and they want me to give a health presentation of sorts each evening. Godfrey (the Bible worker who goes out with us when we visit) told me that there could be as many as 600 people! Yikes!

Then, of course in May I'm back at Riverside taking over Darby's place in the clinic. So that's kind of the situation right now. I'm sure there are important details being left out... I'll probably post again before I head back out.

Just finished a big bowl of Nshima and relish. Yummy. Nshima is basically maize ground into meal and then made into big blobs. If you were to make cream of wheat as thick as play dough, it would be something like it. It's really good. What you do is you take a bite of that mixed with relish. Relish is usually a mix of cabbage and rape (rape is a green veggie - and yes I've heard a lot of jokes about the name...), and either beans or soy chunks or tofu or eggplant. It seriously is good stuff. That's what we have for lunch every day. Breakfast is porridge, scones (more like cornbread), tea, and bananas. Then for supper they serve scones, bananas, and tea, though we usually just make something at the house instead of going.

They have cats wandering around the education building! That makes me happy... :) The one that is currently in my lap is white with some black markings on her face, bum, and tail with huge green eyes. Don't know the name, but she's a sweetie.

Not much to tell right now, meetings in the morning, studying and visiting with some of the local kids in the afternoon. Looking forward to heading out to Lushomo Wed so we can get to work.

Well, we went on the big trip to town on Monday to do all our shopping for supplies for Lushomo. I was able to get my other bag from the airport! Woot! We got a bunch of groceries, I bought a phone for $25, and got a couple of chitanges (Yeah, I probably slaughtered the spelling of that word, basically its a peice of cloth that women here wrap around and use as a skirt). And Alan had a lot of stops he needed to make in town. Driving here is quite amuzing. It's backwards, of course, driver's side is on the right, and people drive crazy here! Much like my dad... On the way back we got to see an Impala as we drove by an area that's a sort of game reserve.

Tuesday, Liz and I sat in on some Bible worker's meetings (all the work here is covered, so there isn't really anything for us to do). Basically, they have Bible workers spread out all over the country, and they are here for two weeks to recieve some training. Don Miller from Uchee Pines is the teacher. They are really good meetings.

Wednesday we held a bush clinic at Shimilanga (or something like that). My job was to weigh babies (I know, I know, poor me). We saw about 78 babies I think. Anywho, I weighed babies, Liz recorded the weight on the baby's card (each baby has a card where you keep track of their weight so you can see if they are growing well, or losing weight...), Alex looked the cards over to see if anyone needed any immunizations or if there were any kids to be worried about then recorded them all on a chart, Darby gave immunizations and pills, Evelyn did prenatal, and Alan was crowd control and photographer. It was a good day.

Thursday was much like Tuesday and we didn't have a whole lot happening here on Friday either except tidying up, vespers, and hanging out at Alan and Paulene's house that evening. They make wildwood popcorn. Yummy.

Today was church. They had a nice service. It's in English and Tonga. Don Miller spoke. After church was a potluck at Alan and Paulene's

It turns out we won't be going out to Lushomo until Wednesday now because there will be a bush clinic there that day, so there is no point in Alan making two trips out there. He gave us a laptop and some health powerpoints and scripts to begin studying so we'll be ready to give health talks when we get out there. So, until Wed there will just be a lot of studying and attending meetings.

Someone here needed an injection yesterday and Darby let me give it. Apparently I did pretty well because she asked me if I liked giving shots, and of course I said yes, so she said I could give shots at the clinic Wednesday! So yeah, they're letting me stab people now! :)

The people here are great, all smiles and very freindly. I've been enjoying trying to follow along in the hymnal when we sing at the meetings. Fortunately, unlike the English language, things are spelled the way they sound. They all have great singing voices too, they don't have much in the way of instruments, but they sing acapella and everyone knows their part. The language is very interesting. Saying hello is not as simple as I'd like for it to be. There is a morning hello, an afternoon hello, and an evening hello. The morning hello is "mwabukabuti." That's like saying "Good morning, how are you?" Then you respond "kobotu," "fine." You have no idea how long it took this one guy to teach me that much... they talk fast... and it almost sounds mumbled.

In the villages, when people say hello, if they are not shaking your hand they will sometimes clap three times or tap their chest a couple of times as a greeting. When we held the dental clinics and handed toothbrushes out they accepted it with both hands, bowed their head and gave a slight curtsey while thanking you. They are so sweet!

Ryan and Ean, a couple of little boys who came over and played uno with me the other day, tried to teach me the hello for the afternoon... didn't work so well. But they've decided they are going to teach me Tonga so I can understand them. They're cute. They got a hold of Liz and I's cameras and were posing for and taking pictures like crazy, they really got into it! It's really easy to get to know the guys here, but the girls and women are more quiet and withdrawn.

The country is beautiful! It's very green right now, being the rainy season and all (and thunderstorms come up fast! Out of nowhere!). But, it looks similar to something you would see on the discovery channel or national geographic when they are doing a study on gorrillas or something I don't know, can't really explain it well. There's a nice mix of flat land and hills, rocky hills. When we go to nearby villages it becomes obvious why Alan drives a Land rover. On the way back from the clinic at shimilanga we all had to get out and push to get the vehicle up through some thick thick mud.

Anywho, poor Alex probably wants her computer back so I better go.

God Bless!

So... we went camping Friday and came back Saturday night. It was at a little outreach called Mukuyo, they have a church and an orphanage there, and a South African (as in from the country of south africa, not the southern part of africa) couple have a nice little house there on the bank of the Zambezi river. It's cool. You can sit down on the lawn and play with the dogs while watching the Hippos in the water. We held a dental clinic Friday, I got to pull another tooth, but spent most of the time holding a flashlight while someone else pulled a tooth, giving meds and instructions for them, handing out toothbrushes, fanning the people pulling the teeth so they didn't sweat into the person's mouth... stuff like that. Then after that we took a walk over to the orphanage. The kids were handed a frizbee to play with the whole time (we had about 20 kids hanging around, following the white people everywhere). It was really nice.

There's nothing quite like laying in the tent at night and listening to the hippos making their strange grunting noises, monkeys plaing in the trees etc... (Don't freak out on me, we were in the missionary couple's yard, which has an electric fence around it)

Then Saturday some of us went for a walk at 6:30 around the place we were staying at. We saw some cool birds, got really muddy, saw a spot where a croc had been sitting on the bank, saw a bunch of hippo tracks (then realized they were all heading into the field we were walking towards, meaning they hadn't moved back out to the river since the night before - not to mention it was so muddy that each time we took a step we sunk down in deep), then turned around and went back. We just lounged around and visited the rest of the day, then drove back to riverside.

Today we got a tour of Riverside farms, then after lunch (which consisted of nshima - made from mealy meal which comes from maize, kinda playdough like, you use it to scoop up the other stuff-, eggplant, and cabbage) we went out to Lushomo to see where we will be living and figure out what needs to be done to get the place ready. It's probably about an hour and a half from here. Its really pretty out there! And about 15 km of the trip is a really really bad dirt road, nice four wheel drive. Anywho, there's a really nice waterfall back in there and stuff. We will be living with a Zambian family, cooking our own meals, all that.

The schedule has changed a bit now, we'll be moving out there next Sunday. Tomorrow we go shopping in Lusaka for supplies, Tuesday we do whatever Alan finds for us to do on campus, Wednesday will be a bush clinic, Thursday we will do whatever Alan tells us to do again, and Friday and Saturday are the days everyone around here is off.

So yeah, that's what's happening right now. Have a good one!

I'm Here!

Alright peoples... I'm in Zambia! I got in last night, minus one of my peices of luggage. Fortunately, that's basically standard procedure here and its probably at the airport waiting for me now.
Tomorrow we go camping! I forget the name of the place we'll be at but we'll be having a clinic there Friday and then spending the day with them Saturday for church. Then Sunday and monday we'll be checking out lusyomo and making a trip to town to get everything we need. And either Tuesday or Thursday Liz and I move out into the bush (Alan's not sure yet because he'd kind of like to have us for a clinic Wednesday).
Anywho, so here's what I did today: Woke up at 6:00, went to breakfast, went to meet with Alan and get the scoop on what the schedules is looking like so far. He told me Liz was coming at 10 and he'd meet me at either the clinic or the house about 10 and give us a tour of campus or whatnot and I was free to wander around or do whatever in the meantime. So, I wound up at the clinic helping the oral surgeon who is here visiting his son (and doing a lot of tooth extractions).
I got the gloves, mask, goggles on and mostly just handed him gauze and instruments and whatnot and helped set up for the next patient, holding the flashlight, handing out toothbrushes and toothpaste, and eventually giving instructions to the patients on when to take the pain meds and sometimes amoxacillin. Stuff like that. Pretty cool stuff. Aaaaaannnnndddd I got to pull a tooth! Woot!
The clinic wound up open from 9-12, 1-7 today because there were so many teeth to pull. Then, after we stopped taking patients, a couple of the people who work here started to sneak people's names in. Jeremy (the guy who's dad is the oral surgeon) basically knows how to numb people and pull a lot of the teeth. So, he had me come out and hold a flashlight while he started numbing people out in the waiting area so his dad would have to see them... It was great. Good fun.
Well, tomorrow I need to be ready to leave at 6:30 so I'm thinkin' I'll go now.
-Megan