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.