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.