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!