Snapshot

April Happenings

2011-06-05T02:19:00.001-07:00

Betty had her baby at the beginning of February and I finally got to meet the little guy and see my dear friend. It was so nice to visit with Betty. I definitely have missed her. Her sweet little boy is adorable.

Brent Weidman was here for about three weeks and it was absolutely delightful having him around. He is such a good man who never stops working. He helped a lot with Innocent’s house and then spruced up the new classroom.

We now have two bookshelves…

and a pencil sharpener. It’s the little things that bring so much joy.

Thanks Brent and Justin for all your hard work!

Lauren, from Zambike, is here helping us at the school. She’s fabulous. The kids love her. She’ll be taking over my job while I’m in India. What perfect timing!

We celebrated Lord’s birthday.

Book of Mormon Read-A-Thon

All of my Young Women came to my house and we had a nice little sleepover while we read the Book of Mormon. I was thinking that over the weekend we would be able to finish the entire Book of Mormon. I quickly realized that I would have to change my goal. Then I figured as long as we get to Alma we’d be good. Again, I changed the goal and was quite content with finishing first Nephi by late Saturday afternoon and sending the girls on their way to finish the rest on their own.

It was a great activity. I had about 15 girls show up. The girls asked some awesome questions while we were reading. These girls have such amazing spirits. I love working with them.

Here they are just chillin’ on the floor in the kitchen…

Preparing dinner…

Jacquie even came (notice her pregnant belly)…

Daisy trying to stay awake…

Mulenga just chillin’ on the top bunk…

Ida totally into the reading…Rozaria not so much…

Seke trying to find a comfortable position on the bed…

I feel like my bike is forever breaking down (probably because it is forever breaking down). This time it was my fault. I took my bike to the gas station to put a bit of air in the tires. Well that bit of air ended up being a bunch of air and my tube and tire blew up. I wasn’t close to home and wasn’t sure what I was going to do. As I was trying to figure out the next step, a woman, who had seen the whole thing happen, came to my rescue. She escorted me across the street to a bike shop. Wouldn’t have known it was a bike shop if she hadn’t been there. The shop repairs just about everything. As I sat there in this little hut, watching this man fixing my bike, it occurred to me how foreign my world is. I’ve grown so accustomed to this world that I forget how foreign it is until moments like this when I’m reminded that I’m absolutely not in America.

The younger boys got baptized on April 16th!!! Again, it was such a miracle watching these boys be baptized. It was such a blessing being a part of the whole thing. I love these kids and am so happy that they now get to enjoy the blessings that come from being a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

From left to right: Lovemore, Charles, Kennedy, Gift, and Harrison

Jacquie fixing Liseli’s hair. She doesn’t like it so much.

Lord teaching the girls from the For Strength of Youth Pamphlet. Lord has done wonders for these kids. He teaches them Seminary every day. He works with the younger kids on their Duty to God booklet. The kids can often be found walking around memorizing the Articles of Faith. On Monday the boys were in charge of FHE. They quoted, from memory, excerpts from their Duty to God booklet and then a bunch of the Articles of Faith. Bwalya gave an incredible lesson on obedience. I am so grateful that Lord is so dedicated to helping these kids know and understand the gospel.

Here are some random pics of the kids…

Bwalya and Lweendo…

Emmanuel…

Harrison…

Charles…

Robert…always praying…

Kennedy…

Festus…

Lovemore…

Blessing and Alice…

Jo…

Chanda and her super cute hair…

This is why I live in a tent…

2011-06-04T01:51:00.001-07:00

I walked into my bathroom to find this inside the toilet. I screamed and ran out of the bathroom to get the boys.

When I walked back in the rat was trying to jump out. Once again I screamed and left to let the boys handle it.

Went back into the bathroom to find the rat almost dead lying in its own blood.

Now my toilet is filled with blood and dead rat.

Lweendo put some gloves on and pulled the rat out of the toilet. When I saw the rat I felt just a tiny bit sad and then I remembered that I HATE RATS and got over feeling sad about it.

So grateful for my tent and the barrier it provides between me and all other rodents, roaches, spiders, lizards, frogs, snakes, and every other little creature that lives in the bush of Africa.

January –March Randomness

2011-05-30T02:42:00.001-07:00

Victor came to visit. The Sakala’s moved the beginning of November and I miss their boys a lot. Victor came to pick up his reports and stopped to say hi before he joined his family in Petauka.

My Dad bought all the kids at the CRC brand new books. They were so excited about it. Even now, they keep their books with them in their beds and love to look through them. Thanks Pops!

Valley High School from Salt Lake City prepared 60 Christmas presents for all the kids at my school. These are the moments when I wish every person who has ever donated to our little school could see what joy their donations bring to our students.

Two of my most favorite people in the world came to visit in March. If I could have just an eighth of the goodness these two have I would be forever grateful. BJ and Sandy are the most compassionate women I have ever met. I’m so grateful for their incredible examples.

Phillip the fix-it-man. It is sure nice having Phillip around to fix all the little things that have been broken since the last time he was here. Had to get a picture of his outfit. Hilarious!!!

Alice is super tired lately. She falls asleep in class frequently. One day she fell asleep and then fell right off the chair. So sad. Sweet little girl. She’ll fall asleep anywhere.

We had a District activity and Thelma and I made almost three hundred sandwiches for all who attended. We spent a good two hours just putting the sandwiches together. That’s a lot of food.

Phillip put in a zipline for the kids. Do you think our kids are spoiled?

One of the happiest changes at the CRC is having Ireen and her boys with us. Ireen and the family moved out here in December. It is such a blessing having her here. She is forever smiling and happy. She works harder than anyone. She is a dear friend. She’s always telling everyone how much she loves them. She keeps the kids clean. If it weren’t for her I would never have clean clothes. I LOVE having Ireen around.

Festus needed his picture taken.

Gift’s shoes. Do you think he needs another pair?

Game Night and Water

2011-04-02T05:35:00.001-07:00

Game Night

Once a week we have a game night. After dinner, we clean the common room and then I pull out all the games. The kids have their favorites and are easily entertained until bedtime.

Justina and Josephat LOVE playing memory. We have lots of versions of the game but their favorite is the I Spy cards.

Just a little twister action with Lweendo, Charles, and Gift.

Blocks and toy cars. The little kids love to play with these. Robert plays while he eats (it takes him FOREVER to finish his food). Emmanuel and his big grin.

Lovemore and Alice

They like to line up the blocks from one end to the other and watch the domino affect.

Rabecca and Kennedy playing Mancala. It’s definitely the most favored game.

Festose jammin’ to his little radio.

Robert praying…always praying. When you ask Robert to pose for a picture he immediately holds his hands up as if he is praying. He is always casting out demons and sending them to the devil. True Pentecostal blood. This boy makes me laugh.

Water (or lack thereof)

I would like to invite you all to join me in my pity party while I lament about the absence of water. For the past 6 weeks we have not had running water at the CRC. Do you have any idea how many things you use water for and how much water is needed to do all of those things? Let me just list a few things that come to mind…flushing the toilet, washing hands, brushing teeth, washing hair, bathing, drinking, washing plates, washing clothes, cooking, and the list goes on and on.

This is how I clean myself everyday. I squat in the tub (too scary to actually sit) and then splash water on myself. I don’t think I’ve been really clean for six weeks (thank goodness for the weekends and the chance to actually shower in town.)

This is where we get our water. We fill up all the yellow buckets and carry them back to the house in a wheelbarrow. We use this water for everything.

Here I am pretending to be pumping the water.

When in actuality this little boy pumps all my water. I keep three buckets outside my bathroom. When they are empty I stack them all up. A few hours later I come back and the buckets have been filled…it’s like magic.

Don’t know what I would do without my sweet Bwalya.

The good news: the pump should be fixed on Monday and we’ll have running water by then. The bad news: that’s what they said last week.

School Updates

2011-04-01T05:14:00.000-07:00

Parent Day

We started our second year at the school with another successful parent day. I think we had every parent show up (for the kids outside the CRC). I loved being able to introduce the new teachers and the new headmaster. I have loved working with these parents and their children.

Here they are waiting to get their reports.

Giving a thumbs up to Rozaria’s mom because Rozaria is doing such an awesome job.

We have parent day at the start of every term. It’s nice to be able to connect with the parents and let them know how great their kids are doing.

New Classroom

We have a new classroom and it’s beautiful. We’ve been meeting in the little hut on top of the termite hill and now we have an actual classroom with desks and everything. It’s such a blessing.

Before picture…

After…

The Teachers

Our teachers are absolute dynamite. I just can’t even begin to tell you how lucky I am to have such awesome teachers. They’ve made my job so much easier and I’m confident that when I leave in August the school will be in good hands.

From left to right: Lord, Thelma, Me, Brenda, Phales, and George

Lord is the headmaster. He also teachers a grade 1 math class and a grade 1 reading class.

Here he is with his reading class…

George also teaches one hour of reading in the morning.

Thelma teaches the Grade 1&2 class.

Brenda teaches the Grade 3&4 class.

Phales teaches the grade 5&6 class.

We had a wonderful volunteer from the States come and stay with us for a month. Austin was a huge help to us.

The whole school

Baptisms by Numbers

2011-03-28T05:05:00.001-07:00

In February, some of the kids at the CRC had the opportunity to start taking the missionary discussions. I was elated when I found out and made sure to attend the first discussion. The missionaries committed everyone in that discussion to be baptized and on March 19, 2011 they were all baptized.

It was an awesome event. There were eight others who were also baptized along with our eight. It brought me to tears seeing all those people in white starting on the path that leads to eternal life. It was such a blessing for me to be a part of it all.

The missionaries started making weekly visits to meet with us at the CRC. We also started a morning scripture study with all the kids preparing for baptism.

I had to take lots of snaps of everyone in their white clothes.

The girls…from left to right: Ethel (who was baptized in October), Bridget, Me, and Diana.

The boys…Festose, Josephat, Lweendo, and Bwalya.

All the kids.

Lord, George, and Innocent did the baptizing. Justin (one of the workers on the farm) was also baptized. I love seeing him come to church every Sunday. He’s a good man.

Here they are patiently waiting for the baptism to start.

These kids have been coming to church ever since I’ve known them. They’ve wanted to be a part of this marvelous work but have been unable to be baptized because they are orphans. As they were confirmed members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Days, I couldn’t help but be grateful for this miracle. They will now play a crucial role in helping to build the Kingdom in Zambia.

January 19, My Favorite Day of the Year

2011-03-27T03:39:00.001-07:00

Suddenly I realized that March is half over and I so desperately wish that I could hit the slow motion button and have more time to enjoy this incredible place.

This is the first of many posts with updates of the last few months.

I’ll start with my birthday (since it is my most favorite day of the entire year).

Thelma and I share the same birthday. In the morning, like 5:30 in the morning, she gathered all the kids together and they sang happy birthday to me.

I made the kids sing happy birthday to me and Thelma frequently throughout the day. I also got lots of really great homemade presents…those are the best kind.

My birthday dinner was so scrumptious…potatoes, green beans, and chicken (such a nice break from nschima).

(notice the bouquet of flowers…courtesy of the girls just for my birthday)

Exactly at 7 PM the birthday bash began and boy was it a party. We played games.

The scream game…

Ultimate Ninja…

For sure Lord won…check out that Ninja stance…nobody could compete with that.

Bwalya spent the whole afternoon preparing a little somethin’ somethin’ for me. Love that kid!!!

He made me a purse and got me a box of mangoes. Loved it.

We had some popcorn…

And of course it wouldn’t have been a birthday without a cake. I have missed Stephanie’s cake but this is certainly an upgrade from what I had last year.

Thelma and I continued our birthday celebration with a dinner date at the only Mexican restaurant in all of Zambia.

Oh how I love my birthday!!!

November Highlights

2011-01-29T06:25:00.001-08:00

November was an exciting month. We had lots of visitors and it kept things real busy here.

Teacher Training

We started the month off with a teacher training. We hired three new teachers for the upcoming year. Before we made the hire, we had all potential candidates attend a training and then we chose our top three from the group.

Here I am teaching a reading group with the teacher candidates observing in the background…

Observing Thelma’s grade 2/3 science class…

Fortunately, we had Laura Campbell, Kathy Headlee’s sister, as our trainer. The school is modeled after her school in Utah. She trained everyone on how to use Direct Instruction. It was wonderful having her here.

George and Fred will be helping us at the school.

Raulyn (Innocent’s wife) and Phalus are two of the new hires. They are AMAZING!!! I’m so excited to work with them in this next year.

Brenda is also another full time teacher and Lord will be doing a lot of the administrative work for the school.

We practiced the program lots and lots during the training.

Telos Volunteers

We also had about 15 volunteers from Telos, a Boys High School Treatment Center from Orem, UT. There were about 7 boys and 8 adults. They stayed with us for an entire week out at the farm. They slept in tents underneath the warehouse. We loved having them here and we were so sad to see them go.

They planted trees, started the foundation for the school, and cleared ground for a beautiful garden.

They gave the kids lots of good hugs.

Did activities with them.

Sat and watched the beautiful sunsets.

Made the kids awesome balloon toys.

Played lots and lots of games with the kids.

Spent hours and hours making math flashcards for the school.

They also spent hours and hours making copies for me. The kids were fascinated by the printer. They had never seen anything like it before in their life. When I showed them what it did they were speechless. I had them put their hand in the printer and then printed a copy of it. Absolutely blew them away.

The night before the Telos group left they did a little performance for us. Here they are doing a little dance to “All the Single Ladies”…hilarious.

And then we ended the night with a little interpretive dance, taught to us by Josh. It was a great way to end a perfect week. We wish Telos would come back soon.

Visiting homes of students

We had the opportunity to take the Telos group to visit some of our students homes. It’s always so humbling and such a great reminder to me of why I’m here.

This is the home of Beauty Mushuma. She has three younger siblings and her mom and dad work for MWB.

This is their toilet. You can see behind Beauty a little hole in the ground. It’s kind of like an outhouse but with only three grass walls and no roof. Every time I see one of these it makes me so grateful to have a toilet, even if it doesn’t actually flush.

I discovered that Button and Dan (the two older boys) live right next to Beauty. Their mom had a week old newborn. She spoke no English and I had to have the boys translate for me. It made me so happy knowing that the boys were getting a good education and would someday have a job to help support the rest of their family.

Thanksgiving with Zambike

I spent Thanksgiving with my Zambike friends again this year. I was so happy to have a place to celebrate and to be with so many awesome people. So many people in this world doing such great things.

Sarah got baptized

One of my faithful Young Women girls got baptized. We’ve patiently been awaiting the day when she would get baptized and it was wonderful to witness. I sure do love this girl.

Some more or my Young Women and leaders. I’m so lucky to get to work with them.

Progress of the School

We ended the first year of the school at the beginning of December. It’s been a great year. So many great things have happened this year…

#1 - the kids are reading. I LOVE sitting next to them at their reading check outs and listen to them read those words.

#2 – The kids are learning. I reviewed some of the stuff we talked about at the beginning of the school year and they remembered.

#3 – I got to teach more than just the CRC kids. What a blessing.

#4 – The kids are speaking English. Even the grade 1’s can understand what I’m saying. They don’t always know how to respond back but they understand me. The grade 2/3’s are doing such a great job with their English. They came in so shy and apprehensive and now they’ll speak to me English, tell me what they need, and have really come out of their shell.

#5 – The school has improved. Looking at pictures from when we first started to now shows the vast improvement of the school. A new floor, lots of great supplies, maps and posters on the walls, a library, lots of curriculum, readers, flashcards, etc… A big huge thanks to all the volunteers who made it happen.

#6 – We had three awesome teachers who helped throughout the year, Jacquie, Thelma and Betty. Unfortunately none of them will be back next year but I really LOVED having them here and appreciated all they did for the school.

Lining up for Parade on the last day of school…

As the kids were standing in parade I just felt so happy to have completed the first year. I felt so happy to think of the progress that all these kids made. I felt so happy to have been a part of it all. I love these kids with all my heart. I love all their little personalities. I love how funny they are. The things they say make me laugh. I love how hard they try to please me. I love how hard they try to do well in school. It’s been one heck of a year and I truly have LOVED it!!!

Grade 1 class…

Grade 2/3 class…

Grade 4/5/6 class…

On the last day we got out of school a little early and played a little hockey.

Farewells

Betty’s last day. She’s having a baby in February. I was sad to see her go.

Dala came to visit for a week. He’ll be staying with an uncle over the holiday break. So good to see him.

I said farewell to the rest of the kids before taking my holiday in America with my family.

The Scorpion

The morning before I left the CRC we found a scorpion in the boys room. It was huge. The boys kept irritating it and its little pincers and tail kept flying up to get someone. It was creepy. We chased the scorpion out of the house and then Lord put it in a container to keep as a pet. Poor scorpion!

Lunch and a Movie with Grades 4-6

The day before I left, I took the older kids to lunch and a movie in town. It was an adventure.

They had one of these blow up play structures and the boys played in this the entire time. They loved it.

The girls, on the other hand, were way too cool to play in the blow up machine. They walked around and did some window shopping.

Getting a little ice cream.

Even Father Christmas was there and gave the kids lollipops. They loved sitting on his lap.

Random Pics with the kids

October Highlights

2011-01-22T04:02:00.001-08:00

The school now has a girls and boys football team. George is the coach and I’m the assistant coach (which means I just give support). We’ve been playing against other community schools in the area. The kids love it. They practice three or four times a week and are improving.

We had our first “away” game. The whole school walked about hour to the Chitukuko Village School. We lost both games but had fun doing it.

Here are the girls with their coach…

The boys on the sidelines cheering on the girls…

The coach…

Playing on the field…

Another eventful moment of the month was Ethel’s baptism. Ethel is the sweetest most helpful, not to mention, beautiful girl. She’s delightful to have around. She’s always telling me that she’s praying that I’ll find a husband. She’s incredibly dedicated to the gospel and I often find her studying her scriptures after everyone has gone to bed. I was so happy to be able to witness her baptism.

Jacquie and Lord got married in South Africa. I’ll include all the details of the wedding in a different post.

Zambia celebrates their Independence on October 24th. Faith was kind enough to put together an Independence celebration for the kids.

There was a competition in three different areas. Fagness and I were the judges and the winner received a prize.

The first category was dancing. These kids can dance. It was a tough choice but Ethel came out on top.

The next category was miming (lip sync) / singing. It was so fun to watch them act out their song. There was no question on the winner this time…Festos all the way. He’s fabulous.

The final category was a fashion show. These kids know how to strut their stuff. Diana was the winner of this event.

The rest of us enjoyed watching it all happen.

We ended the Independence celebration by giving the Sakala’s a big farewell. They’ve been with MWB for over six years and left at the end of the month. The kids all wrote them cards. We sang them a song and gave hugs to bid farewell to our dear friends. Not sure what I’m going to do without Victor and Vincent. They’ve been with me since the beginning. The Sakala’s will be missed.

September Highlights

2011-01-15T03:31:00.001-08:00

In September I began my second year as a Zambian. After spending an eventful month in America, I returned to Zambia only to be welcomed by an AWESOME volunteer team.

This picture was taken right after they added their “hands” to the wall.

One of my greatest delights upon returning to the school was to find a brand new cement floor. I can’t even begin to tell you the joy I felt when I walked into the school and saw dirt replaced with cement. Hallelujah!!!

Members of the September team sweeping the new floor:

Speaking of Hallelujahs…these little gems brought all sorts of them:

This group was here from Zimbabwe and they were delightful. They never stopped praising Jesus the whole time they were with us. I spent the night with them at the Volunteer House. At four in the morning I woke up to all sorts of commotion and thought the neighbors were in some sort of a fight. I listened more intently and realized that I wasn’t hearing fighting but a bunch of, “Amens”, “Hallelujahs”, and “Praise Jesus’”. My Zimbabwean friends were up in the wee hours of the morning speaking in tongues, praying to Jesus. Wow! The dedication of these people astounds me. It made me want to be more committed to what I believe.

Thanks to Debbie, the kids all got pictures of themselves.

And thanks to my sis, they all got sweets.

My boys just chillin’ with me in the school. Love these kids.

Before school started again, we had another “Parent Day”, otherwise known as parent teacher conferences.

This is the second one we’ve had and it went so well. We had even more families show up and I got individual pictures of each family. Many of the parents speak little to no English and expressed concern (through a translator) of their inability to help the children with their homework. It surprised me that even their first graders knew how to read and write better than they did. It once again solidified the necessity for the school and the education of these children.

The next few pictures deserve a bit of an explanation. One day the kids came to school talking about a dead body that they had found. Apparently, the dead body had black boots on its feet and eyes and everything. Of course I didn’t believe them and teased the kids about their dead bodies and witches that fly around (which they firmly believe and only the dogs can see them at night) and all the other stuff that they talk to me about. So the kids continue to talk about it and I catch bits and pieces when they happen to speak in English.

Finally, after a few days of dead body talk I decide to make the kids prove it to me. First I sent Farhai off to fetch the dead body but thankfully George stopped him before he actually did. After school that day I had my trusty guides take me to the “dead body”.

Andyson and Farhai leading the way:

I was a bit nervous because there’s a whole lot of witch craft that goes on here in Zambia and wasn’t sure what to expect with all that I’d heard thus far. I brought my camera so I could get proof. We walked along a path for a while and then started walking through the bush. Farhai points to a tree off in the distance and says, “It’s there at that tree”. For sure there’s lots and lots of trees so I’m not sure what he’s talking about but we keep trekking along. I’m still sort of anxious about the whole thing, walking around in the bush looking for dead bodies. We finally came to the spot and sure enough there on the ground in the middle of the trees was a human skull. It was black on the bottom because it had been burned and there was something in the eye. Who knows how long that body has been decomposing but I hope the rest of the skeleton is resting in peace. Only in Africa!

After our little adventure, I walked with the kids back to their homes.

Along the way we encountered…

a charcoal mound (this is where they make the charcoal we use for cooking)…

a random beehive…

“the mines” where the kids live and some of their parents work…

the dam, that the kids have promised me they will never swim in…

a disheartened child upon seeing a white person…

Farhai’s mom in the middle of a bible study…

the other members of the bible study…

the outside of Farhai’s home with his new puppies…

my dear sister Miriam…

more of my students on a task to find some vegetables…

the farm where they found the vegetables…

the shop where I buy my sweets and fritas…

and these little cuties walking home with the Chinese cabbage we would eat for dinner.

It was quite the eventful day.

Now on to a few more tidbits for September. I was called to be the Young Women’s president and I love it. I’m still teaching seminary and also loving it.

Here’s a pic of my two most faithful students, Christine and Emmanuel. They bring me much joy.

Here’s what my street (in town) looks like. The Jacaranda trees are in full blown and there’s purple everywhere. Beautiful!!!

And finally, Jacquie got engaged! I’m so happy for her and Lord. I had Jacquie’s family over for dinner so we could discuss plans for the wedding. I love her family. They’re forever making me laugh.

Life and Death

2010-11-07T02:29:00.001-08:00

(copied from a journal entry)

It’s all part of Heavenly Father’s plan. Where there is life there is also death. Some days are filled with life and some days are not. Today was a day filled with sickness and death and it has taken a toll on my little heart. Today I took my friends to the hospital. The hospital is something that every person visiting Zambia should experience and that’s exactly what it is, an experience that leaves an imprint in your mind forever. Today’s visit was no different and perhaps the most difficult of all five times I’ve visited this hospital. Charity was sweet and adorable as always when we arrived. She is the head nurse for the NICU and she is amazing. The sign before entering the unit advised us to remove our shoes so we obediently did just that. It always makes me somewhat uncomfortable to remove my shoes because the floors are usually not super clean. Charity greeted us and gave us our gowns. We started our tour with the most serious babies. The first room had 3 or 4 babies who were in serious condition. A few of them had incubators but there weren’t enough for all the babies so some of them were just wrapped up real good in blankets. The incubators that were being occupied are from the 1980’s and have lost most of the coverings, so of the four holes in the incubators usually two of them were open.

In the second room we found only one baby which is unusual for this unit. However, the baby we found was on a ventilator and the machine was beeping like crazy. There were two other ventilators in the room that were not functioning. They had been broken for a long time and because the ventilators were a donation from Spain they had no way of getting spare parts to fix the machines so there they sat in the room not being used. We stood in front of the ventilator for a few minutes while Charity explained the condition of the baby. She said the baby would probably not survive on its own so by law they just have to run the machine until the babies heart just stops. The baby was brought in that morning. The mother was a 16 yr old girl who was still recovering from the c-section so hadn’t even seen the baby yet. I asked Charity about the numbers on the machine. The bottom was the heart beat and the top was the oxygen intake. The machine was beeping away and while we were looking at the numbers the beeping suddenly became constant and the numbers turned to zero. I had only ever seen this happen in movies. This was the first time I had even experienced anything like this in person and was not prepared for the emotion it would cause inside of me. One of my friends immediately left the room to express her emotion in private while the rest of us just stood there not knowing what to do. Charity noted the time of death and we watched this gray tiny dead body for a few more minutes and then left the room leaving the baby there all by himself.

The next room brought more of the same from the first room. Tiny babies, not enough incubators, not enough IV’s, babies being fed by tubes, no diapers, no clothes, a few cockroaches climbing around the walls and cribs, open incubators, all in an extremely hot room. The fourth room we found four little babies. Two of the babies were teeny tiny twins and one of the babies had a cleft pallet. I have never seen a baby with a cleft pallet and it made me sad to see. Fortunately, there is a doctor that performs cleft pallet surgery so as soon as the baby weighs enough he will have the surgery.

The other side of the unit is where the not so sick babies stay. The mothers come in to feed their babies every two hours. These mothers stay in a shelter which is about a 5-10 min walk from the unit. The only times during the day that they do not come is at 2 and 4 in the morning because it is too dangerous for the mom’s to be walking back and forth from the shelters. The mom’s provide their own bedding and food and unfortunately many of them do not have the money to buy food so they suffer from hunger and so does their baby. We were there for feeding time and watched as the mother’s who had children in incubators and were still not strong enough to suck from the mother’s breast were either fed through a cup or they would pour their breast milk in a feeding tube that went through the babies nose. These mothers had to squeeze their milk out and then feed their babies. While we were there one of the mothers collapsed on the floor. The room is so hot and these women have just given birth and are still in pain that some women are unable to stand and feed their babies and therefore, as witnessed today, collapse from fatigue. There is only one nurse on this side to care for over 30 very sick babies so the mother’s do most of the nursing and were also there to assist this woman who had fainted.

During feeding time the nurses watch to see what babies are not being fed. Once they identify these babies they move them to the middle part of the room and put a sign on the crib. The sign is made from a random piece of scratch paper and on pen they write, “Please feed” or “Please feed, mum sick” or “Please feed, mum died” or like we saw today “Please feed” with the mum sick crossed out and mum died scrawled right below it. In this group of babies there can usually be found a couple of “dump babies” that were literally dumped in the compounds somewhere. Someone finds them and brings the babies to the hospital to receive better care than they would by lying in a ditch in some compound.

After looking at all the babies we sat for a moment to take it all in. We hadn’t even been in the hospital for 30 minutes and seen more sadness, sorrow, and death then my heart could handle. As we were sitting there Charity came over to chat with us. While she was talking to us a woman with a tiny baby came up to us and explained to Charity, in Nyanja, that she had no money for transport. This woman was being discharged with a baby that was too small and had no way to get home. This is the second child this woman has had. The first child is with social welfare. The woman was living in the streets when she had her first child and again when she got pregnant with her second. While she was pregnant she got off the streets, found a home, and was selling at a shop to support her. The father had disappeared back into the streets again but this woman promised that she would not do this. Because the baby is so small she’s supposed to come in every Friday. I gave Charity some transport money to give to the woman but once she leaves here who knows if she’ll end up back in the streets again and what will become of her tiny little newborn?

We walked back over to the other side and found a nurse wrapping up the baby that had died. They put a white blanket around the baby and then wrapped a piece of string around the blanket with two little pieces of cardboard that had been torn from a box. We were watching all this happening from outside the room but I wanted to know what was written on the little piece of cardboard so I walked in while the nurse was still wrapping the body and read the information on the cardboard. It had the mother’s name, date and time of birth, date and time of death, and a few other pieces of information. I asked the nurse what would happen to the baby now and she said that she would just set the baby on a cot outside until someone from the morgue came to pick the baby up. The mother was still sick from her surgery and did not know that her baby had died. The family would only discover that the baby had died when they came to visit and see how the baby was doing.

At this point my head is just swimming and then we went downstairs with Charity to see the rest of the babies. Oh boy, oh boy. I so desperately want to describe the circumstances of this unit but will never be able to put words to the feelings I felt as I walked from bed to bed offering my love and touch to these sick sick children. This unit is filled with the babies/children who are waiting or are recovering from surgery. There were thirty children from the ages of 1 to 16 and only one nurse to assist them. At the side of each bed was someone there to take care of the children, make sure they were fed and provide clean sheets and clothing for the child. Some women were sitting, resting their heads against the beds, no doubt exhausted and wishing for a little peace in their life.

We walked from bed to bed and I greeted each of the mothers and held the hands of each of the children. I looked in their eyes and told them they were beautiful. I inquired about their condition and the responses ran the spectrum. As I sit here writing this I see all the faces of these thirty children. I see their skinny frail bodies. I see their abnormally large heads. I see their deformed bodies. But what I see most is the pain in their eyes and kind of hopelessness but at the same time a will to survive. I hear their cries as they react from the pain. As I lean in close to them to offer my love I smell the urine from the sheets that have not been washed. I rub their arms and their hands and touch their heads. Some smile, some cry, and others just stare. The mothers and caretakers of these sick and dying children express their gratitude for our visit. Some ask for money and others are just content with the visit. We share with them our knowledge that God is watching out for them and He will bless them and their children. We wave goodbye, return to the NICU, and find that in the few minutes we were downstairs another “mum sick” had been crossed out and scrawled underneath was written “mum died”.

And that my friends is what this is all about. God is watching over us and He will bless us and our children. But He will not always take away the pain. Sometimes He chooses death over life and that is all part of the plan. Today was difficult for me and I was just visiting and was only there for less than two hours but in that two hours I saw why I so desperately need the plan of salvation to be true. I need to know that with death comes another life. I need to know that the hopelessness and despair I saw in these children’s eyes will be taken from them and replaced with glory and exhalation. I need to believe, as stated in Alma 7, that Jesus truly suffered the pains of all mankind and that all mankind will be saved through his Atonement. Today I need it all to be true.

Volunteers

2010-11-06T02:21:00.000-07:00

One of the greatest blessings of living in Zambia is getting to meet some of the most incredible people in the world. I LOVE THE MWB VOLUNTEERS!!! They bring me much joy. Please come back to Zambia and soon!

Visit to the West Side of the World

2010-10-31T06:43:00.001-07:00

My trip home in August was positively delightful. I loved playing with friends and fam.

The trip started with a nice homecoming at the airport and then we drove straight to my favorite mexican restaurant in Beaverton to have lunch with the fam. No better way to start a vacation.

With Steph here there were bodies everywhere. I loved every moment of it. We spent the first weekend doing what we do best, eating and playing games.

After a few days, Steph and I headed for Boise, her new home. Pops joined us as well. We spent some time at the pool, playing games, jumping on the tramp, eating froyo, shopping, and watching movies.

I loved spending time with this delightful little angel. She is certainly precious.

After a few days in Boise, I hopped a plane to SLC where Scott, Chloe, and Heidi picked me up from the airport and we headed to the Uintahs to hike the tallest mountain in Utah, Kings Peak. This would be the second attempt for me and Scott and this time it was successful. The weather was perfect, company unbeatable, and my knees gave me no problems. This was my first hike since Kilimanjaro and I had certainly missed hiking.

Highest point in Utah!

Nothing like ending a good hike with a late night meal at Denny’s.

I got to spend the next few days visiting with friends and family in Utah. I enjoyed seeing everyone but certainly wish I had more time. It was entirely too short.

I LOVED seeing my nieces and nephews again.

Mike is preparing the most divine CCC’s. Wow, they were good!

We played games and I laughed harder than I have in a long time. My brothers are hilarious.

Floated down the Provo River with John and Mirm’s kids. I think Zach is done going on adventures with his Aunt. There are usually tears involved. Poor kid. The rest of us had a wonderful time. Just barely missed the rain.

Loved seeing friends.

Breakfast with Dre…

Cafe Rio with Cindy…

Froyo with Tess…

Late night chat with Raq and Brian…

Lunch with Becks…

A tender mercy running into the women from my home ward. My “substitute” mothers sitting at the same table. Seeing these women just made the tears flow. Can’t express how grateful I am for all the women who took such good care of me when my mom died.

Dinner with Bryce and the fam and of course a movie afterwards…

A little meeting with my Zam friends off the freeway at Thanksgiving Point…

So many more people I wish I could have seen. I’ll just have to save it for my next trip to Utah.

Back in Portland the girls went on a dinner date with Pops.

The next day we headed out for a long awaited camping trip with the fam (of course that includes the Barker gang as well). The plan was to head up to Mt Rainier but the weather was so bad we ended up staying in a random campground on the way out to the beach. We spent the next day at the beach and the Tillamook cheese factory.

The beautiful beach…

The Octopus tree…

Pops enjoying his smores…

Robin and Steph also enjoying…

Sagie sporting her new implants…

Celebrating Pops birthday…

Roasting baby Hazel…

These two mischievous girls…

Enjoying the water…

Steph being obstinate by not looking at the camera after several attempts I finally gave up…

Nothing like singing with the sisters…

The biggest marshmallows I’ve ever seen…probably my most favorite part of the camping trip…

The orange burrito…

Jaxon…self-explanatory…

Hiking with the kids…

The babies…

Lighthouse…

After the camping trip, I got to spend time with some Oregon friends…

Sweet adorable baby not pictured here…

Love that my dear friend has herself a little belly. Can’t wait to meet her little one.

I got to play mom while Rick and Heidi took a weekend getaway to the beach to celebrate their anniversary.

Of course we made cookies…

Went for a bike ride/walk…

Got injured and then had to show off the injury…

Sat around on the kitchen floor…

Enjoyed some great bowling…

The dreaded trip to Oaks Park actually turned out quite delightful. The weather was perfect and I loved hanging out with Heidi, Brenda, and all the kids.

Apparently I was too big to go on this ride.

We spent the couple days before I left celebrating Heidi’s birthday. Spent some time bowling and soaking up the sun at Battleground Lake. It was the perfect way to end a month of bliss in America.

Just hoping to make Steph jealous with this pic…

My Pops’ Visit Part 3

2010-10-30T01:19:00.001-07:00

Lusaka

I took Dad to visit my sweet little son Evans. I thought he would be quite content with the public transport situation but I was wrong. It wasn’t the most comfortable ride for him but we survived.

Here’s just a little sidenote for you about this visit (I didn’t find this out until a few months later)…everyone in the picture below was sick sick sick. Evans said they all had malaria. It made me sad that they were so sick. I found out later that it wasn’t actually malaria, the sister-in-law had poisoned the food. She was pregnant with another man’s child and was trying to abort the baby so she poisoned the food without anyone knowing. She did kill the unborn child and almost killed everyone else in the process. Fortunately, Evans is no longer staying with his brother. Not a good situation.

We got home to find Febby plucking chickens.

Later that night we attended the wedding for Fred Likonge’s son. I was so happy that Dad got to see an African wedding with all the dancing and food and festivities. It was a fun evening.

The next day we went to the hospital. I hate this hospital. I’ve included a separate blog about the hospital but here are some pictures.

The signs above these babies say, “No Mum, please feed”

The hospital charts all hand written.

Charity the head nurse.

Outside the hospital.

After we left the hospital we headed over to the Kabwata Market. This is a quaint little market in the city of Lusaka. I love this place. It’s filled with so many fun things. Dad also enjoyed himself. It took us forever to decide what to get the nieces and nephews but I think we did a great job gathering everything.

We visited with my friend Matilda. I love this woman.

We went and saw my dear friend Thelma at Kilimanjaro Cafe (she is currently working as a permanent sub at our school…I love having her around everyday).

Alice also came and visited while we were in Lusaka. It was fun having her around.

On Monday we headed out to the farm. We made a stop at Jacquie’s mom’s shop to pick something up for Jacquie.

We stopped at Zambike so Pops could meet my favorites, Chrispen and Benjamin.

Made a trip to see Miriam and Elizabeth, my dear sister and her daughter.

Stopped at the shop where I buy all my sweets and fritas and so I could greet Livenice.

Took some pictures of the charcoal men.

After a few hours we finally around at The Farm where we spent the next couple of days with the kids. Out of the whole trip, I think this was Dad’s favorite part. He loved spending time with these kids. He loved seeing the school.

I can’t even begin to tell you how much I loved having Dad there. It was wonderful sharing my African life with him. I loved that he got to see all I’ve been doing these past couple of years. I loved that he got to meet all these kids that I consider my own. I can’t begin to tell you how many times the tears flowed down his cheeks. It was a miracle and blessing to have him there with me. I can’t wait for him to come back.

The kids

Dad fell in love with this little Justina. It’s hard not to, she’s so adorable and she loved Pops.

The kids did their program for Pops. I loved watching them dance and sing.

The school

There was a snake in the Insaka so we moved school to the warehouse. Everyone is so afraid of snakes in this country. It took a while to coax them back into the Insaka.

The dead goat, just chillin’ out in the kitchen. This is what they had for dinner that evening. As always, I declined the food.

My Pops’ Visit Part 2

2010-08-13T05:59:00.001-07:00

South Luangwa

Next stop on our adventure was South Luangwa. The plane ride was awesome. It was a little fifteen seater plane and Pops and I were right at the front. I could reach out and touch the pilots. Dad was convinced they had no idea what they were doing. I loved being able to look at the front window of the plane.

We landed at the Mufwe “International” Airport. Awesome! Smallest airport I’ve ever been to in the middle of nowhere.

We stayed at Kafunta Lodge…Highly Recommended. This place was unreal. Granted we had frogs join us every night but other than that I felt like I was in heaven. We spent three nights in this glorious haven. I had to keep asking myself, “Is this for real?”

I love having a schedule and I pretty much think we had the best schedule while we were here. The morning began with a light knock on our door at 5:30. At six we were out the door to enjoy a light breakfast. At 6:30 we piled in a real safari vehicle and headed out to the park. It was gorgeous in the morning. Everything seemed so calm and quiet. We rode around the park for the next two hours encountering all sorts of animals and then we’d take a tea and biscuit break in a very picturesque location. The safari would continue for another two hours and then we headed back to the lodge. We’d arrive around 11 and have a 1/2 hr break before lunch (I always took a quick nap during this time). At exactly 11:30 the drums would play letting us know that our lunch was ready. We were greeted by the friendly Kafunta Staff that made us feel like we were all related. The food was amazing. After lunch we’d have siesta until 3:30. I’ve decided that a 4 hr siesta in the middle of the day is exactly what everyone needs in life. I loved it. I used this time to go for a little jog, use the Internet, and shower. Dad slept. At 3:30 the drums would play again and we would meet for a snack and head out on our evening safari. Again, we’d ride around for a couple of hours, have a tea and biscuit break, watch the sunset and then finish off the last couple of hours in the dark watching the animals movements through a spotlight. We’d get home at 8 and have a 1/2 hr before dinner. At 8:30 we would sit on the veranda, eat incredible food, talk with awesome people, and watch and listen to the the hippos grazing in the pasture. After dinner we’d retire to our lodge and quickly fall asleep with smiles on our faces knowing we got to do it all over again the following day. Ahhhh…sweet bliss, my friends.

Rene, Pops, and our amazing safari guide Martin

Martin was always telling us some story about an animal that almost attacked him. He was fascinating and hilarious.

Irma and Rene became our dear friends. They are from Switzerland and joined us for most of our safari rides. The trip wouldn’t have been the same without them.

Martin and Anka, the Kafunta owner. A delightful woman from Germany.

Dad and I enjoying our biscuits.

Our first night out on Safari we encountered a pride of lions. There were eleven in all. We saw them all lounging around before it got dark. Some were laying in the streets and some were laying the bush. It was awesome to watch them.

This little fella was very obviously the leader of the pride.

After our tea and biscuit break, when the sun was down, we headed back to the lions and watched for the next hour as they hunted a buffalo. At one point we were between the pride and the buffalo. It was awesome to watch every move of the lions. They were all in sync. They all moved at the same time, turned their heads in the same direction, walked in a formation, with the leader behind. We heard the lion attack and heard the buffalo get away. We watched as the lions retreated in defeat. The next morning we saw the leg of an impala that the lions had killed instead of the buffalo. Certainly not the buffalo they had wanted but at least they got a kill. AMAZING!!!

Elephant encounters! The elephants were out to get us on this trip. The first day we got in the way of this elephant and he was MAD!!! I think Martin purposefully cut the elephant off so we could have ourselves a show. I was terrified so mostly I just hid under the blanket and every once in a while would peek to see how close the elephant was to us.

Showing us who’s in charge

Down on his knees

Flapping his ears waiting for attack

This elephant is angry

Another too close encounter to an elephant. I’m once again hiding under the covers while Irma is chanting to me, “If you can’t see the elephant the elephant can’t see you.” Martin, our safari guide, has now pulled out his camera and is taking pictures, as if he’s never been this close before. In my head I’m thinking, “Get me out of here, we’re going to die.”

We did have some positive encounters with elephants. The little babies were adorable.

Birds, birds, and more birds. I’ve never seen so many incredible birds and so colorful. My Dad takes amazing pictures.

The landscape…there are not words to describe how incredible African sunrises and sunsets are. The terrain was spectacular. Even without the animals this would have all been worth it to see the beautiful landscape.

Irma loved the hippos. Every time we’d get close to them she would mimic their sound. It made me happy.

Reptiles and plenty of them. I love crocodiles. They fascinate me.

On our last morning of safari we saw one buffalo off in the distance so we decided to get a little closer. We pulled up to see three buffalos and just sat there watching them. Off in the distance we could see a few more buffalos trying to cross the water. They started to cross the river and following them we watched a herd of 200-300 hundred buffalo cross the river. I’ve never seen anything like it.

South Luangwa became a National Park because of this giraffe. It’s only found in South Luangwa.

Zebras

Is that a leopard I see? Nope! That would just be the kill of a leopard. Is that the same thing as actually seeing a leopard?

Fire Ants

My Pops’ Visit Part 1

2010-08-07T19:46:00.001-07:00

My Dad came to visit me in April. I loved having him here. I can’t believe he actually got here. His trip started off with a missed flight in Johannesburg and lost luggage for a few days but the rest of our holiday was fabulous.

Victoria Falls

We met in Livingstone and I was so excited to see him again. The night before felt like Christmas Eve and I was waiting for Santa to show up. Show up he did and it sure made me happy.

Day 1: Fawlty Towers and the Falls –

Good ‘ol Fawlty Towers has really improved their accommodations since I was there last. It looks great and somewhat clean. I was a bit worried about Dad staying there but it ended up being great.

After we dropped some of Dad’s stuff off (his luggage was lost so he didn’t have much with him) we headed over to the falls. I’ve never been to the falls in April and I was amazed by the amount of water they produced. The sound of the falls was powerful. I loved feeling the power of it all.

Dad and I rented raincoats and were drenched within the first 5 minutes of our walk. Raincoats were pointless. There was so much water. It was crazy!

We came back from the falls to find our friends taking a dip in the pool. Bwalya, Diana, Bridget, Jackie and Liseli joined us in Livingstone. They loved swimming in the pool.

Day 2: Rhino Walk, little Safari, and lots of rain -

Top priority on Dad’s list was to go on a Rhino Walk. We left bright and early after a random breakfast (have I ever mentioned how hilarious my Dad is about everything…the whole breakfast thing was so weird and he was so funny about it). The only problem with our whole Rhino Walk was the rain. It started raining just as we entered the park. We attempted getting out of the van a few times to start our Rhino walk in the rain but it was just too wet. We went back and forth on whether we should just continue to wait it out or cancel and go the next day. We decided to wait it out and we were not disappointed. The sun broke through the clouds long enough for us to get a good look at the massive Rhino. Dad was in heaven!

Just had to get a picture of our Safari vehicle. Here they are removing the windows. I thought they just clipped on and off. Nope! Had to pull out the tools for this one. Pretty top notch if you ask me.

My Dad took some awesome photos of the animals we saw after our Rhino walk.

As soon as we got in the car to head back to Fawlty Towers it started pouring and pretty much rained the rest of the night. We were all drenched just form walking from the “Safari Van” to the hotel.

Day 3: The Falls again, Helicopter Ride, the zebra and baboons, good food and dear friends -

Just some fun photos of the kids and the team.

The kids loved the Falls. They were terrified to go anywhere near the edge. That’s probably a good thing.

We snuck into the ritzy Hotel grounds near the falls so we could see the zebras. Emily and Jackie were fearless and just kept getting closer and closer.

While Emily was trying to get the zebra to eat out of her hand the baboons were busy stealing her video camera. I wish I could describe how hilarious this whole thing was. The story has a happy ending…the camera was returned to the rightful owner. Those pesky little baboons. Dad kept chasing them all over the park and the rest of us just ran from them.

Dad forced me to get this close to the zebras. I was afraid they would flip out and take me out.

Dad “Keep going girls. Just a little farther. One more step back. Just keep going.”

Sweet little Mackay.

The highlight of my whole Vic Falls experience was the helicopter ride. First of all, I’ve never been on a helicopter and it just so happens to be on my bucket list. Secondly, Jackie got to come with us (thanks to my generous Pops) and she was so excited. Thirdly, the view from the helicopter was SPECTACULAR. Never seen anything like it before in my life. Definitely the only way to see the whole falls. AMAZING!

Later that evening we had dinner at an African restaurant. I loved being with the team. Gordon and Betty (pictured below) were so so good to me. They brought me all sorts of goodies from the states when they came. I just love them to bits and pieces.

Day 4: Bus ride home.

6 hr drive listening to super loud music and watching super violent shoot ‘em kill ‘em kind of movies with a few pit stops to pee in the bush along the way. Always glad to have that ride over with. However, the terrain is beautiful.

We have a library!!!

2010-08-04T03:32:00.001-07:00

Thanks to this little gem and all her expertise…

and to these awesome volunteers that helped label all the books…

and to this beautiful woman who looks like she helped a lot but really just came in to get a picture of herself with a book…

we have ourselves a library!!! All the books are colored coded into different levels. It’s even grown since this picture. (Please take note of the fact that I also have a “uniform” just like the kids…love my school skirt)

Library Day!

Sixty kids in one room and they were all captivated by the books. I love my library. Thanks to those who helped me get it all set up.

Chapter books in my office.

Here are the kids just enjoying a PP&J. They forgot to bring their lunch when the volunteers came so the volunteers sacrificed their PB&J’s for these little morsels. They loved their sandwiches. Never seen so many different and unique ways of eating a PB&J.

Family Day, Uniforms, Baptisms, and Donations

2010-07-04T03:29:00.001-07:00

This past month has been full of adventures. Well this past year has been full of adventures but I’m just going to focus on the June adventures for now (adventures with my Dad post coming soon…).

The volunteers are here in Zambia which means I get lots of people to talk, laugh, and cry with. I love the volunteers. I love the friendships. I love their hearts and all that they give to these wonderful people.

Mothers Without Borders School had our very first Family Day on June 17th. It was amazing! We invited all the families of the students that attend MWB school. The turn out was great.

We had a medical screening where Dr Brian and our highly qualified nurses checked every adult and child that showed up to the CRC.

I was in charge of collecting the cards from everyone and sorting them into families. As I stood at the door of the school, which had been transformed into a medical clinic, I looked outside at all the people and my heart just swelled. The CRC has always been dear to my heart and seeing the progress of the land brought me great joy. There were groups all over the land learning about brushing their teeth and washing their hands. We had an obstacle course and circle games. I saw all this from where I was standing and just kept thinking about how much life there was here. The place was on fire and I loved to see my two worlds working together to bless each others lives. What a miracle!!!

After the activities were done, we had everyone sit in the amphitheater as families. Then we passed out a little bag full of medicine for each family. We thanked them for coming and everyone went home happy.

After the families left the volunteers gathered together to watch the kids at the CRC perform.

While we were waiting we got to add our handprint to the warehouse wall (my second handprint for the wall). It didn’t turn out the way I was expecting but it’s certainly unique.

When the kids were ready we were treated with a remarkable performance. I cried for the first 15 minutes. I love these kids so much. Seeing them perform made me realize how grateful I am to be here with them. I’m a lucky girl.

The July team also brought lots of good things with them. The team came out on Thursday and with them came uniforms for the children. Not just any uniforms but each one (over fifty) was hand sewn by incredibly lovely women. We took a before and after picture. Just this week I was looking at the clothes the kids were wearing and was trying my hardest not to burst out in laughter. They wear the most outrageous things and as cute as they are, I am sooo grateful for these uniforms.

Don’t they look sharp? Such a huge difference.

Of course I cried (since when is that new?) when I walked in and saw them sizing the kids for their uniforms. I was just in awe at how amazing some people can people. Below are the women who headed up this huge project. They are amazing!

Another huge miracle, Nchimunya got baptized! Nchimunya and her siblings have been with MWB for a long time. They’ve always gone to church and believed it but weren’t able to be baptized until they were 18. Nchimunya turned 18 in March, took the discussions, and was baptized in June. It was beautiful!

All the kids were able to come witness the baptism as well. Nchimunya’s a great example for the others at the farm.

These kids have been spoiled this past month. Bob and Christy donated a brand new TV/DVD player and the kids just love it.

Speaking of donations…people are wonderful. I’ve been so grateful for the kindness of all the volunteers. I was in need of some new backpacks so a friend of mine whipped out fifty of them. The kids love them.

More adventures to come…

Johannesburg

2010-05-19T07:13:00.001-07:00

The school year in Zambia starts in January and ends in December. They’re in school for three months and take a month off in April, August, and December.

I love having breaks from school and this holiday I got to visit Johannesburg (and play with my Dad but that’s for another post). Because I was alone and everyone tells me horror stories about how scary Johannesburg is, I just stayed at the temple patron housing for most of the time only venturing out to go jogging. Of course there was lots and lots of World Cup propaganda everywhere.

I was shocked at how developed South Africa is. There are paved roads everywhere with sidewalks and shopping malls and freeways and nice cars and zoos and big buildings and a city and most importantly washers and driers.

It made me realize how third world my little home is in Zambia. The temple patron housing was so nice and clean and for the first time in 9 months I walked around without shoes on. It felt so good.

The highlight of the trip was the opportunity to attend the temple. The familiarity of it all brought me to tears. I felt like I had come home.

I had lots of little miracles happen to me while I was there. One of them was sweet little Ursha and her son Lincoln.

I met her in the temple Friday night and she took care of me from then on. She arranged to have the older sister missionaries pick me up for church on Sunday morning. I spent the day with Sister Lee and Sister Dollinger and loved it. Then Ursha had me come stay at her home about an hour south of Johannesburg. It was delightful spending time with her and Lincoln and getting to know them better. She lost her husband and daughter in a tragic car accident five years ago. She’s a strong woman with a lot of spunk. I was so grateful for her hospitality.

I also got to meet Sister Sithole who is the mother to the sister missionary serving in Zambia that I have become dear friends with. This woman is a pioneer in South Africa bringing many souls to Christ. She has an amazing spirit.

I also wanted to include a few pictures of all the donations we got from the volunteers. Thankfully for good people who traveled all the way across the world bringing lots of great things, we have two well stocked cabinets full of school supplies.

This and That

2010-04-11T05:00:00.001-07:00

We just finished the first term at the school and all went well. We started with 15 kids and now have 40 kids coming full time and another 10 that come every evening for an extra reading/language study session. Unfortunately there are still many more that we’re unable to educate because we don’t have enough teachers or space. I’m hoping we’ll be able to add another 10 for term 2 but there are 300 – 400 in this area that need the education. We’re busting at the seams in our two classrooms so Innocent made me a little reading hut. This is the view I have every morning when I wake up. I love my new little classroom on top of the world. Isn’t Africa beautiful?

My sweet little 6 yr old Alice is sick, sick, sick. The other day Ethel said to me, “Auntie Heather, Alice is melting.” My response, “She’s what?” “She’s melting,” Ethel repeated. I smiled when I heard the word she used to describe Alice’s condition. This poor girls skin is so bad that she is oozing puss from every pore…hence the melting comment. She’s so swollen. Her legs and arms are huge and in the mornings her poor little face is so puffy her eyes are little slits. She wants to be held constantly and most of the time won’t eat unless somebody is feeding her. Somehow she is still smiling and I love when she is cuddled up in my arms.

The American volunteers are here and I’m so happy to have other Americans to talk with and share experiences with. They brought me so many wonderful things for the school and all I can do is cry about how grateful I am to have so many awesome supplies. I’m so grateful for the sacrifice they’ve made to come here and for their efforts at gathering much needed supplies.

Having the volunteers here means that I’ve been kicked out of my weekend home so I’ve been staying at the Chikusu’s for the past couple of days and they have treated me like a queen. Yesterday morning someone came up to tell me that my breakfast was ready. First of all, I didn’t even know I would be getting breakfast so I was pleasantly surprised when I heard there was something to eat.

I walked downstairs to find this…all just for me. I’m being well taken care of and I love it.

Dinner and a Movie Anyone?

2010-03-27T03:41:00.001-07:00

Every Tuesday night the kids and I watch a movie on my laptop. Unfortunately because we have no electricity at the farm, we only make it through part of the movie to conserve the laptop battery. I have to bring the laptop into town on the weekends to recharge and the kids look forward to finishing the movie the following Tuesday.

Last Thursday I came back from my run to find that the kids had set up their own dinner/movie theater. Who needs a laptop/TV when you can watch a shovel?

Here’s a video of the kids singing a song they learned about the skeletal system.

February Pictures

2010-03-06T02:40:00.001-08:00

I’ll start with some school pictures.

Preschool Class

(from left to right: Veronica, Blessing, Abby, Joseph, Alice, Taonga, and Taonga)

Grade 1

(Melody, Emeldah, Mapalo, Beauty, Monica, Friday, Ives)

Grade 2

(Ireene, Lozaria, Chanda, Ives, Emmanuel, Lovemore, Kennedy)

Grade 4

(Lucky, Charles, Kennedy, Bwalya, Gift, Diana, Rabbecca, Treza, Rachel, Makupa, Harrison)

Grade 6

(Falai, Chola, Salome, Golden, Bridget, Lweendo)

Grade 7 & 8

(Ethel, Vincent, Choolwe, Victor, Raymond)

Teachers

(from left to right: Betty and her daughter Veronica, Me, Liseli and Jackie)

The whole school

Here are some other random pictures:

One of my dearest sweet mission companions had her ward do a sub for santa for these kids. Here they are in their brand new clean clothes. They were so happy to have new clothes and they all looked so good.

Liseli was our guest speaker during Science class a few weeks ago. We were talking about babies and their needs. I love having that little morsel around.

My sister sent me an awesome package (happiest day of my life when I got it) and inside she put some Valentine’s for the kids. This was the Friday before Valentine’s Day. They thought these little cards were amazing!

I went to visit my sweet little Evans. He stays with his Aunt and Uncle and their family. Sweetest people in the world. It was so nice to finally meet them.

Friday morning I made all the kids go on a run with me and then we did some “training” on the football pitch. It was raining, wet, and muddy and we all had a blast.

The Vision

2010-02-21T04:38:00.001-08:00

Back in November I had this amazing “vision” of the school. Please indulge me as I include an excerpt from a couple of my journal entries:

November 3, 2009:

…a few minutes later I finally put all the pieces together and Heavenly Father opened the door and let me see a little piece of what this could become (I’m referring to the school). We are surrounded by wonderful beautiful children that all need an education. This is just the beginning of something grand. It’s not just the MWB kids that will be educated it will be the children of the workers of the nearby farm, it will be the neighbors in the nearby hut, it will be the kids that came jogging with me today, it will be the children that can’t afford to go to school. Someday we’ll have a real school that will educate the children of Africa the way they should be educated…what I saw in my head was wonderful and beautiful and gave me so much hope that my meager efforts are not in vain. Heavenly Father truly does have a plan and it’s much bigger than what I’ve been able to see…There are people (not just those at MWB) who want and need this school. There are people (not just those at MWB) who are expecting their children to go to this school. There are people (not just those at MWB) who will benefit from having a school so far out of the way from everything…Today I had a glimpse into the future…

Here is a picture of the kids we started the school with:

Now to another journal entry from last week:

February 9, 2010:

…so remember the “vision” I had a few months ago in regards to the school, anyway, it’s starting to come true. The kids are coming and I love it. We now have 9 extra kids from the surrounding areas. I LOVE that the parents can just come, drop their kids off, and we’ll educate them. How wonderful is that? I feel like my heart is going to burst. I just want them to keep coming. I want to have like 50 kids before we finish the year… the Lord has sent his little children to be taught in our school and taught they will be. I just looked at all the kids today in their raggedy clothes and halfway done hair with their flip flops and just had to smile at how exciting it all was. Sometimes, I get a little glimpse of how great this all is and it just makes me want to do cartwheels…so there you have it we’ll just keep filling up these classrooms and be grateful to have so many to love and care for and TEACH…

Here’s a picture of all the new kids that have come since we started the school (there are two missing from this picture):

February 21, 2010

We now have almost 40 adorable children starting from the age of 3 on up to 15. We keep having parents come with their children and I finally had to start turning people away because we just don’t have the resources we need to be able to educate all the children out here…but…soon enough…little by little…we’ll continue to grow and the vision will become a reality.

More pictures to come…

Farewells, New Beginnings, and Birthdays

2010-01-31T08:48:00.001-08:00

This past month has been filled with lots of farewells, new beginnings, and birthdays.

Farewells

During December all the kids at Boarding School come home and it brings me great joy. However, when January comes they all leave again and it makes me sad. Also, as Zambian government policy when the kids turn 18 they can no longer stay in an orphanage and have to be released to live somewhere else.

I decided to take all the kids that were leaving into town to have lunch, watch a movie, and get some ice cream. I loved spending time with these kids. They’ve all been around for so long and I am always sad to see them go. Fortunately, I still get to chat with them on the phone and we talk about once a week.

Here they are waiting to see the movie:

In the movie theater (we watched the movie Avatar which the boys just loved):

Josephine turned 18 and went to live with an Aunt.

This is Josephine saying goodbye to Nchimunya. It’s always hard to say goodbye because you just never know when you’re going to see someone again.

Dala went back to boarding school (the girls plaited my hair…I kept it in for about three days and then couldn’t handle it anymore).

Moses came to visit on a rainy Saturday. It was sure fun to see him again. I wish he was still living at the farm.

Chi Chi turned 18 and will be going back to boarding school (we just found out she passed her grade 9 tests…hooray!!!). When she’s finished with boarding school she’ll be going to stay with her mom in the Northern Province.

Chi Chi and Choolwe (brother and sister)

The missionaries moved out. I was sad to see them go. However, I do love having control over how clean the house is. I still see them every weekend and last night we went to dinner together. Sure love these girls. They’re the best.

New Beginnings

The school is now opened and has been for the past three weeks. It’s so wonderful. I love it. I love teaching and I especially love teaching these adorable kids. We’re teaching about 25 kids. We have 3 preschool children and then a grade 2 class and a combined grade 4 and 6 class. We had a neighbor boy join us and also one of the workers has 3 children that he brings every day. The first week of school was so fun. I feel like I’ve been consumed by this whole school thing for a year and a half and now it’s finally started. It’s like a dream come true. There are lots of challenges with the school and teaching these kids but they’ve been good challenges and we’re all learning a lot.

We have the kids in school from 8 AM – 4 PM with an hour lunch break at 12 PM. This is a huge adjustment from what they’ve been used to. I’ve spent lots of time in the classrooms here in Zambia and have found that on average they receive about one hour of instruction a day. That’s not an exaggeration. We’ve had to do a lot of training on the proper way to behave in a classroom and how to sit and learn for six hours and an hour study break. There’s still much to be learned and sometimes I feel quite inadequate but again feel so grateful to have this opportunity.

There are three teachers: Jackie who teaches all the math, Betty who teaches the Zambian curriculum and preschool, and I teach reading/language, history and science. We let the kids out early on Fridays for their “sports afternoon” and then we have a teacher’s meeting and I head into town for the weekend. I still cherish my weekends in town and was just called to be the Seminary teacher so I spend my Saturday mornings at the church doing that. I love it.

This is what it looks like every morning. The kids line up and we check to make sure they’ve brushed their teeth, cleaned their nails, combed their hair, cleaned their clothes, and shined their shoes. We then give any announcements and offer a prayer before we start the day. This is a traditional Zambian custom.

This is inside my classroom. The biggest class size I have is 12 and the room is big enough that I can put a semicircle of chairs in the back for reading groups. I love my classroom. It has big open windows that allow plenty of fresh air and also a great view. I love spending time here preparing and getting things ready.

This is the second classroom where Jackie teaches math and Betty teaches the grade 2’s and grade 4&6. Because there are only two classrooms the preschool is done inside the house, along with the study breaks.

Jackie and Betty are fabulous teachers and I’m so grateful to have them. I’ll continue to post updates on the school and how things are going. For now, we’re just plugging along doing our best to give these kids an education.

Another new beginning in my life was my move to the tent underneath the warehouse. I finally decided that I couldn’t handle the cockroaches anymore so I had Innocent put up a tent for me and now I’m almost cockroach free. I say almost because my bed still had cockroaches in it but I think they are slowly dying with all the chemicals I continue to spray on them and traps I’ve set out for them.

I love my little tent and having a bit of solitude at nights.

Birthdays

I love my birthday. It just so happens to be my most favorite day of the whole year. I kept reminding everyone at the farm that it was my birthday and to be sure they got me presents.

I was awakened early by a phone call from my dear friend Suz. I was eager to talk to her and quickly unzipped my tent to take a walk outside and chat.

This is what I saw when I opened my tent. Yep, I was just as confused as you are. Outside my tent were a bunch of plates, cups, bowls, and containers filled with water. I wasn’t sure when they had been placed there and frankly I wasn’t sure why they were there. I knew it had something to do with my birthday but wasn’t sure what.

I chatted with Suz for about an hour and then came back to find all the culprits hanging around my tent. They all sang a nice and loud Happy Birthday to me and I was so grateful for the birthday wishes. I later found out that it’s Zambian culture to throw water on the birthday girl/boy and that’s exactly the point of all the water outside my tent. It was meant to be a trap and I was supposed to step into it. Thankfully nobody poured water on me but they certainly tried.

My family called me after that and wished me a happy birthday. It sure was fun to talk with them.

At lunch, Ethel and Nchimunya gave me their gifts. They gave me a card that all the girls had signed. It was so thoughtful it made me cry.

They also bought me little cakes, white and chocolate. I was so sad that I wouldn’t get one of Stephanie’s fabulous cakes for my birthday and didn’t think I would get any cake so I was pleasantly surprised when I unwrapped my gift and saw that I would end up getting cake for my birthday after all.

During school the kids were great and kept wishing me a happy birthday. After school while I was teaching the grade 7’s the boys brought me this nice beautiful bowl full of mangoes and sang me happy birthday. It made me so happy. I love mangoes and thought it was so thoughtful of them to go and pluck some for me and bring them to me as a present.

I also got many great birthday wishes from home. I love facebook on my birthday because it does the reminding for me. Heidi took a picture of the kids holding a sign that said happy birthday (again it made me cry). And Stephanie sent me 33 emails with 33 reasons for why she loved me. How awesome is that? I also heard from all three of my brothers.

What a fabulous day!!! I love birthdays and this one was wonderful.

To My Dearest Most Wonderful Sister

2010-01-24T04:04:00.001-08:00

Here’s the deal…for Stephanie and I birthdays are a BIG deal…especially our own birthdays. We were fortunate enough to both be born in January so once New Year’s is over and January 1st comes along the focus turns to our birthdays. Fortunately, mine comes first :). Stephanie’s follows a week and a day later on January 27th. Instead of celebrating birthDAYS we celebrate birthWEEKS.

Here’s my dilemma…Stephanie is so much more creative and fun and better at planning things than I am. She goes all out for my birthday and I’m always left in awe at how I can ever top what she’s done for me. I never do and the same goes for this year. As a matter of fact, I usually just end up copying what she does and doing it to her…which is exactly what I’m doing now.

On my birthday she sent me 33 emails (I LOVE getting emails) listing 33 reasons why she loves me. It was so nice of her and I appreciated it so much. So as my tribute to my dear little sis and best friend Stephanie I’m going to broadcast to the world (or the few of you who actually read this) 28 things I adore about Stephanie.

1. Her love for pajamas

2. She’s BEAUTIFUL

3. My eye fits so well in her forehead

4. Her kettle corn

5. The new clothes she’s always buying and then returning

6. Her incredible cakes (especially the ones she makes for my birthday)

7. She doesn’t stress out

8. She has the most beautiful angelic voice of anyone I’ve ever heard

9. She creates the most adorable children…I can’t wait to see baby #3

10. She has always supported me in everything I do

11. She’s the best party planner

12. Whenever I don’t want to exercise I just call her and she tells me I don’t have to

13. She lets me be me

14. The love we share for birthdays

15. She listens to me go on and on and on and on…

16. She’s hilarious and makes me gut belly laugh every time I talk to her

17. She’s super patient with my never ending mood swings

18. Movie nights at her house

19. She cooks me dinner…a lot

20. Her uncanny ability to just be

21. Her love of the gospel

22. She’s always up for anything

23. Shopping excursions

24. She never swears

25. Game nights with lots of yummy treats

26. Our sleepovers…highlight of my life

27. She’s my best friend

28. And finally I love Stephanie because she loves me just the way I am. She accepts everything about me…good and bad. I go to Stephanie when I need to know that I’m OK just the way I am. She has the power to help me see life from a different perspective…a much more calm and peaceful one. She helps bring me back to reality and helps me see what really matters. Her love means more to me than she’ll ever know. I’m so blessed to have her as my sister and dear friend.

Happy Birthday Chews!!! I love you!!!

Christmas and New Years

2010-01-04T03:50:00.001-08:00

Spending time with my boys

My Christmas present came two days before Christmas when I got to spend the whole day with my sweet, adorable, wonderful boys. We decided that we were going to visit Evans. We set off on our journey at 8:30 AM. We walked for an hour until transport picked us up, rode on the bus for 10 minutes, and then walked for another hour until we finally reached Evans. It sure was good to see that boy again. He’s just as happy as he always is with that big huge grin on his face.

They think they’re so cool.

My boys Evans and Dala

After we found Evans (he was at work where he makes ice cream) we walked for another hour trying to find some place to get a drink. It was a hot day and we were hungry and tired.

Then we walked another 30 minutes so we could catch a bus home.

Here are the boys just waiting for transport to take us home.

Thunder and Lightning Storms

We got back from our visit with Evans around 2:30 and by 4 PM we had ourselves a nice big thunder and lighting storm with lots and lots of rain. While everyone was running for cover I decided to become one with the rain. I love these crazy storms and today I just couldn’t stay inside and watch it fall.

Rolling in the mud

Finally after about 45 minutes of everyone just watching me from the windows Vincent joined me. It was nice having someone else to join in the fun. After Vincent, Choolwe ventured out and we eventually ended up playing soccer with ten of us. It was so fun slipping in the mud and splashing in the puddles and just getting drenched. Happy Memories!!!

Dala and Nchimunya decided to have a little photo shoot with my phone and camera while I was playing in the rain.

Scorpions

My little nephew, Jaxon, has a slight obsession with scorpions. I told him we have many scorpions in Africa and he keeps asking for pictures. These pics are for him. I usually see the scorpions while I’m sitting on the toilet at night. Needless to say, my time on the toilet has decreased considerably.

Christmas Celebration

My Christmas this year was wonderful. I loved being with my kids. We spent Christmas Eve preparing for our Christmas Celebration that evening. I gave invitations to everyone with their part in the nativity. That afternoon we went through the program three different times making sure everyone had the correct lines and positions. It brought tears to my eyes watching these kids act out the events that occurred at the birth of our Savior. It was beautiful. I wish I could describe the feeling I felt as we were preparing and then when we performed. I just kept thinking how incredibly lucky I was to be with these beautiful children celebrating the birth of Christ. My life is forever filled with tender mercies and this was one of the greatest.

Me with a Shepherd boy and Mary

Jackie and I singing “Oh Little Town of Bethlehem”

Mary and Joseph talking to the Innkeeper

Shepherds with their sheep

Wise men bearing gifts

Everyone singing “Joy To The World” at the end of the program

Baby Jesus

Everyone in the program

After the nativity we had drinks and cookies…something these kids never get.

Then there was dancing. Another one of those moments where I just sat and thought, “I can’t believe how lucky I am to be sitting here watching these kids dancing, drumming, and singing.” It was so fun.

The kids wanted to stay up all night but by 11:30 PM we ran out of things to keep us awake so I sent everyone to bed. Then I got to play Santa Claus. I drew a little Christmas tree on our whiteboard and then set out gifts that my Aunt and cousins had sent for the kids and each kid got a bag (courtesy of the LDS church) full of school supplies and other fun little treats. I was so excited for the kids to wake up and see all the gifts. I went to bed after 1 and was up by 4:30. The kids finally got up around 5:30 and they were all real curious about the table full of little presents. None of them know that there are supposed to be presents on Christmas morning. I kept singing the song from Annie where they say, “Santa Claus, what’s that? Who’s he?” These kids have no idea who Santa Claus is and weren’t real sure about the gifts.

We finally got to open presents after breakfast at about 8:30. Here they are all waiting to get started.

Tradition in my family is to start the gift opening with the youngest. Each child got to open one present. I don’t think some of these kids have ever even opened a present. We had to show sweet little Alice what to do.

The kids loved their little bags and it was so fun to see them get excited about the few things that were inside (notebook, colored pencils, regular pencils, pencil sharpener, ruler, scissors, sweets, picture of the Savior, and Chico biscuits).

One of the gifts was dice so I taught the kids how to play farkle. We also played a bunch of card games. It was nice just lounging around in my pajamas all morning playing games with the kids.

In the afternoon I headed into town on my bike. Vaughn, my Zambike friend, picked me up and we went to have dinner with a bunch of Americans and a girl from London. The food was amazing and it was fun to be with my fellow citizens. It was a great ending to a most wonderful day.

I also got to talk with my sisters and Pops which is always a real fun treat.

New Year’s Eve Party

I love celebrating the New Year. It’s always been a big deal for me to have a big party and this year was no exception. I made a little schedule of all the events that were supposed to happen throughout the night. The party started at 8 PM and went until 1 AM.

We started the night off with blowing bubbles and applying tattoos.

Then we did the traditional African dancing and drumming. After that the boys put on a little skit for us. It was hilarious. Victor (the one in blue) was supposed to be from Utah and his Utahn accent put me to tears.

After the play we had ourselves some cookies, popcorn, and drinks while we watched Shrek on my laptop. Then we played some games.

At about 11:45 I got all the drinks ready for our toast at the New Year.

We listened to the radio for our countdown and then we all ran outside a yipping and a hollering to bring in the New Year. We banged our pots and pans, lit our fireworks, danced some more, and played a little soccer.

It wasn’t quite 1 AM yet so we went inside and played the look and scream game then we cleaned up and everyone went to bed. The whole night was a blast!

The following morning Dala killed the duck that was living in the bag since the day before so we could have it for our New Year’s lunch. We also had chicken (I couldn’t bear trying the duck after I had seen it walking around the house the day before and the chicken was terrible…my New Year’s lunch ended up being a cliff bar).

Josephine plucking feathers off the duck and removing intestines.

What Happens Between Thanksgiving and Christmas?

2009-12-20T22:43:00.001-08:00

Each one deserves its own post but who has time for that?

WEDDINGS

My first experience at an African Wedding. Wow! There was dancing and more dancing and some food then some dancing and as soon as you thought the dancing would end they would start dancing again. The dancing is only done by the wedding party and watching it brought on a whole new meaning of dirty dancing, for sure had to close my eyes for some of it. Lots of yipping and hollering. Quite the experience.

CONTAMINATED WATER

What’s that you ask? That is the corpse of the dead rotting maggot covered owl that was living and dying in the water that I was drinking, bathing in, washing and cooking with and I live to tell about it. Oh Africa, how I love thee.

Here’s a few more pics just in case the first wasn’t enough for you:

And the heroic men who finally removed the owl from the water tank. Thank you Paul and Martin.

View of the land from the top of the water tower (much more pleasing to the eye than the owl):

SCHOOLS

My school is finished. Well…in Africa that means…there’s just a small portion of the roof that still needs to be put on…the doors are coming soon…a medal grate still needs to be put on the windows…the floors and walls need to be cleaned…still need electricity…and on and on. But we’re starting Jan 4th, roof or no roof and I’m so excited. I can’t wait to start teaching. We still haven’t hired a Zambian teacher but we’ll be holding interviews next week and will have someone before the 4th. I feel like I’ve been waiting for this moment to happen forever and I can’t believe it’s finally here. Yippee!

My Office:

ARM WRESTLING

You can see how this one turned out. Moving on…

CHRISTMAS PARTIES

For the MWB Christmas party we went to an Amusement Park. In Africa this means there are two amusement park type rides to go on and once everyone is on the ride someone stands at the bottom and pushes the ride as if it were a swing. Never seen anything like it but it works and the kids LOVED it!

After 2 1/2 yrs I was finally reunited with my sweet little (he’s not so little anymore) boy Dala. I will never be able to describe the love I have for this kid. I just want to take him and Evans home with me in August.

The kids got to go on a waterslide and play in the water at the bottom. Pretty sure some of these kids have never been in more water than what a bathtub can hold. It was so fun to watch them splash around.

Couldn’t have a party in Africa without a little dancing. Had to put some videos of Choolwe and Alice dancing. Adorable!

We ate lots and lots of good food courtesy of Rhapsody restaurant who donated the money for our little party.

Just a few more fun pics from the party:

ISLAND IN THE INDIAN OCEAN

I decided to go on a little vacation before I started teaching and wouldn’t have another break until April. I took a 2-day (so it was 1 1/2 days but saying that just doesn’t do it justice) bus drive from Lusaka to Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania. It was by far the worst road trip of my life. I was so happy when I finally got off that dang bus and decided that there was no way I was going back to Lusaka the same way so I flew. Much better!

If it hadn’t been for my new friends Bryan and Able I never would have survived the two days.

We took a ferry from Dar to Zanzibar only to find that the entire island of Zanzibar had been out of power for two days and would probably be out of power for the next four weeks. Some places were using generators but mostly there was just no electricity anywhere. However, Zanzibar is beautiful with or without power.

We spent the first day in Stonetown. Here’s some pics from our tour of the city:

We walked around the streets in total darkness trying to find a place with a generator that we could get food.

The doors are incredible and since the majority of the population is Muslim there are Mosques everywhere.

My new favorite drink: Sugar Cane

The crazy crazy market.

After our walk through the city we headed to Jambiani Beach on the Southeastern part of the island. I just can’t begin to describe how beautiful it was. The water was amazing. I felt like I was swimming in a hot tub the size of an ocean. I used to love the Pacific Ocean but my heart now lies with the Indian. Pure heaven!

Unfortunately the trip didn’t end well. I got some major food poisoning that pretty much knocked me out for the next four days. I flew home in the middle of the sickness and was happy to be back in Lusaka with some antibiotics to hopefully kill whatever bug decided to make a home in my stomach.

FRIENDS

Matilda

This woman brings me joy I tell ya, pure joy. She sells biscuits, nuts and sweets at the end of the road I use to get to the Internet Cafe. I started buying things from her when I first arrived in October and we’ve become dear friends. She only has the use of one leg because the other one is paralyzed. She walks everyday to her little corner of the road to sell her things. I brought her back a chetenge from Zanzibar and I’ve never seen anyone so grateful. Today she wore the chetenge and was so happy to show me how nice she looked. She’s one of the highlights of my weekends in town.

Osward

I met Osward in Livingstone the last time I was there. He was visiting Lusaka for a wedding so we went out for ice cream. It was fun seeing him again.

Sister Missionaries, Tandi, and Mavis

Who said missionaries can’t dance? I sure have loved having these gems as my roommates. I’m sad they’ll be moving out at the end of the month. I’ll miss them.

Thanksgiving in Zambia

2009-11-28T22:19:00.001-08:00

On Monday I headed back out to the CRC on my bike. I made my usual stop at Zambikes to bring all the men sweets and get my bike tuned up. I also wanted to see if the owners (who just so happen to be American) were back from Mozambique. I walked into the house and sure enough they were home. I proceeded to invite myself to their Thanksgiving feast and fortunately they approved of the idea. I was bound and determined to eat something other than Nschima and beans for dinner on Thursday.

I offered to bring mashed potatoes because frankly without any electricity or ingredients there’s not much else to offer. So I’m going to walk you through my Thanksgiving Day.

Here’s the bag of potatoes that Innocent brought for me the previous day. At this point it’s about 8:30 AM and I’m already starting my preparations for a dinner that starts at 5:00 PM.

Thankfully Jackie helped me peel the potatoes. First time I’ve ever used a knife to peel them. It took me almost two hours to peel and cut all the potatoes. Good thing I started early.

While I was peeling the potatoes I realized that I was also going to need some milk and butter. The nearest shop is a 30 minute bike ride so around 11 AM I hopped on my bike and rode to the farm shop.

On the way I ran into these beauties. The one on the right is Miriam who’s married to Martin (works for MWB) and her baby Elizabeth. I also finally met Gertrude, Lubinda’s wife (also works for MWB) and her two kids, Jacqueline and Joseph. It was so fun to visit with these gems. They live nearby each other so I paid a visit to both homes. Miriam loves to dance so while we were at Gertrude’s home we put in some music and danced for a bit. These Zambians know how to dance. I’m hoping that it will rub off.

While Miriam and Gertrude were escorting me back to the main road we passed this woman plowing a filled. They wanted me to stop and do some plowing myself and just laughed at me when I made my futile attempt.

I finally made it home around 1 PM and had some beans for lunch. I put the potatoes on the fire around 2 PM and studied with the kids for a bit. At 3 PM I prepared the mashed potatoes.

At 4 PM I was ready to go. I put the potatoes in a big container which fortunately fit in my backpack. I was worried about carrying them on my bike but it all worked perfectly. It took me about 45 minutes to get there with a few stops along the way to visit with friends.

When I reached Zambike, I was pleasantly surprised to find a full house with a kitchen bustling with women preparing the feast we were about to partake of. I didn’t know anyone but my two white Zambike friends that I had only met two other times. It was fun talking to all these white people and finding out what they were doing in Zambia on Thanksgiving Day.

At about 6:30 PM the food was ready so we prayed and began the feast and boy was it a feast. I hadn’t seen this much food for a long time. I was in heaven. I LOVE FOOD!!! Of course I had a big grin the whole night. Here’s the line up for food.

See how happy I am with all this food.

Once dinner started I sat by all the Zambian guests. For some reason I feel more comfortable with them than the muzungoos. I loved chatting and laughing with them. There were so many people and they just kept coming. It was quite the party and I was so glad I invited myself to the occasion.

For sure this was my favorite part of the night. Look at all those pies in Zambia. It’s like manna from heaven.

A little after 10 PM my new Zambian friends gave me a ride home. It’s not safe to move around at dark so I was grateful for the ride. I also got to talk to my sisters. They were so nice to call and it helped me feel not so far from home. It was a wonderful Thanksgiving and I was grateful to be so fortunate.

Visiting Teaching in the Compounds

2009-11-22T22:43:00.001-08:00

On the weekends I stay in the guesthouse of the Relief Society president. Because I’m around on Sunday’s she asks me to accompany her when she goes visiting teaching. Today’s visiting teaching was rough and I want to try and describe it. I don’t have any pictures because who takes their camera to visiting teaching appointments? Sure wish I had today.

Most of the members live in Garden Compound so that’s where we visit teach. It’s quite a long walk through all sorts of little shortcuts. I always have to mentally prepare myself when I know I’m going to a compound. They are worse than the slummiest slums in America (not that I’ve been in the slums of America but I can’t imagine anything worse than the compounds here in Africa). The majority of Zambians stay in these compounds. They are huge and are stacked with tons of people. I feel ill just walking around in them looking at the way these people live. Then I enter the homes of the wonderful members that I see every Sunday at church with their big smiles and strong testimonies and it’s all I can do to not burst into tears right there in their home (I wait until I get home to do that). After the first home Mavis kept saying how nice of an area it was in. I looked at her in disbelief because I’ve never seen a worse area until we went to the second and third home.

The roads and passageways between the homes are all dirt which is fine when everything is dry. However, the rains have come and now the dirt has turned to mud. There are pools of dirty muddy water everywhere making many areas impassible. Today we had to jump over big wide cracks in the path that were filled with water, trash and who knows what else. We walked along the edges of these big pools holding onto the trees so we didn’t fall in just so that we could reach a member’s home. We walked around the piles of trash that are everywhere. I’m paranoid the whole time that I’m going to slip or that I’ll get any dirt on my feet and then I look around at all the people we’re passing and find that nobody is wearing any shoes and they don’t seem to mind.

There are people everywhere doing wash, cleaning dishes, fixing food, drawing water, buying things at the shops, playing soccer, drinking beer, playing in the mud puddles, and just sitting around. We finally reach the members home and they always welcome us in with big smiles. The houses are dark, small, and uncomfortable for me as an American. Sometimes they don’t have a place for both of us to sit so they pull up these little stools to sit on. The members in the second home we visited had just moved into their home and were grateful because now they had electricity. That’s about all they had in their little tiny home.

It’s one thing to visit these homes when they are complete strangers and I know I’m not going to see them again. It’s quite another when I visit the homes of the members that I have grown to love and look forward to seeing every Sunday. It gives me a whole new perspective on their lives and to be honest it’s a perspective I’m not sure I really want to have. Sometimes ignorance is much sweeter than reality.

This was my favorite question from our little visiting teaching experience… Mavis: “So is this how visiting teaching is in America?” Heather: “No Mavis, it’s quite different than this.” Understatement of the century.

My sweet African children

2009-11-15T21:38:00.001-08:00

I just wanted to post some pictures of all the kids that I live with at the farm and include a few details about how they came to stay with us at Mothers Without Borders.

These are the three smallest of the bunch. From left to right: Blessing age 3 (F), Abby age 4 (M), Alice age 5 (F).

Blessing is the daughter to Faith and George who are caretakers. Abby is the grandson of Fagness and Boxen who are also caretakers. I mentioned Alice in my previous post. She’s only been with us for a few months and came to us as a favor for the AIDS organization we work with.

Next comes Emmanuel age 7 (M) and Kennedy age 8 (M).

These two little morsels, both in Grade 1, are connected at the hip. Emmanuel has been with us since 2006. I was here the day they brought him, his brother Charles, and sister Exildah to the orphanage. I remember standing outside the closet-sized home where the kids were staying with their grandpa, listening to the social worker tell us about how the kids were being abused and only receiving one meal a day and had no education and on and on and on. It was only the third day that I had been in Africa and after we left the home I just lost it. I couldn't believe these beautiful children were being treated so badly. Since then, I have visited many more homes like this, and heard even more similar stories to that of Emmanuel, Charles, and Exildah. It never gets easier and sometimes I just want to shut my eyes, plug my ears and make it all go away.

Kennedy came to us sometime in 2007 with his other siblings Bwalya and Bridget. They had another brother, Moses, come in 2008 but he is no longer with us. Kennedy and his siblings are double orphans, meaning that both parents have passed away. Their older sister was trying to earn money, by being a prostitute, so she could care for her many younger siblings. This happens to too many young girls here. They have no other alternative; their parents are dead, siblings are hungry, so they turn to prostitution to help pay for food and shelter.

This next bunch of boys are fairly new to Mothers Without Borders (MWB): Gift age 9 (M), Lovemore age 9 (M), Harrison age 10 (M).

All these boys were street kids before they came to us. There are many of these sweet little kids that become orphans and are then forced to live on the streets and fight for their lives. All three of these boys were picked up from the streets and sent to a transit home. The transit home then contacts MWB and asks if we can take them in. Fortunately, we were lucky enough to inherit these handsome boys. Street boys come to us with a lot of anger and a desire to fight for everything but I’ve found that a little love can go a long way with these kids and now that they are receiving proper food and shelter we can start working on mending the wounds of their heart.

This next group of boys are all in grade 3. They are bright, happy, active boys. Bwalya age 11 (M), Makupa age 9 (M), Charles age 10 (M), and Lucky age 12 (M).

I’ve already told you a bit about Bwalya and Charles, and Kupa is George and Faith’s (caretakers) son. Lucky came to us some time at the beginning of this year. He’s a double orphan who was living with the grandmother. One day, a few years ago, she left to visit another city and never returned. Lucky was forced to stay with his sixteen yr old brother. He was found by social welfare and they sent him to us. He’s probably the best student I have. He works so hard.

Bridget and Diana are two peas in a pod. Diana age 12 (F), Bridget age 13 (F).

Bridget is Kennedy’s sister and came in 2007. Diana came to MWB in July of 2008. I was living at the CRC the day she came. I remember walking home from school with the kids and they were all talking about the new girl that was coming to live with us that day. That was the first I’d heard of it and sure enough when we got home there was sweet little shy quiet Diana who couldn’t speak a lick of English. I can’t even begin to tell you the progress she’s made in the last year. She’s now the one who translates for me when I don’t understand what the little kids are saying. She is also reading a few words and doing very well in school. Before she came she was living at Julius Village and had a huge problem with her eyes. Although not perfect, her eyes are much better than they used to be. Both she and Bridget are such a delight…they are always telling some kind of exciting story that happened that day.

Choolwe age 13 (M) has been with MWB for more than five years now.

He was living at the house with his four other siblings when I arrived the first time in 2006. Every year another one of his siblings leaves for one reason or another so now Choolwe is the last remaining of his family at the CRC. I miss his siblings as I’m sure he does as well. I talked about his story before coming to MWB in my blog last year (What Do You When You're Hungry? August 2008) Besides the caretakers children, Choolwe is the only child that has been at the CRC from the first time I met all the kids. This boy is dear to my heart.

Ethel age 14 (F) has been with us for almost two years now.

She took care of her sick mother up until the day that she died. She was left with nothing and no one. She was living with a friend but was kicked out and sent to live on the streets. A friend of Josephine’s (MWB staff) had told us about Ethel and we found her and brought her to MWB. She has the best voice of all the kids. I love to listen to her sing.

Josephine age 18 (F) has been with us for a few years.

She’s a cousin to another girl that used to stay with us. She is so so sweet and very mature. She’s leaving us this December because she’s 18 and it’s government policy that when they become an adult these kids are no longer allowed to stay at the orphanage. She hardly feels like an adult to me and it makes me sad to see her go. I will miss her dearly.

Raymond age 11 (M) and Chanda age 7 (F) are, along with Makupa and Blessing, George and Faith’s children.

Raymond is the smartest out of all the kids. He’s always asking me a million questions that I never have the answers for. However, just this week we had a wonderful man from the states come and bring us a whole brand spanking new set of Encyclopedia Britannica's. I was so happy when I saw them I started crying. Who knew that one day I would cry over receiving a set of encyclopedias? Now I can give Raymond the answers he’s always searching for. Thank you Val Stokes.

Chanda hasn’t lived with us for long. I’m not sure where she was staying before but I’m happy she’s with us now. She’s a feisty girl who won’t be pushed around but somehow she always finds my hand during our evening prayer. She’s beautiful with a wonderful smile and she’s always by my side to give me the love that I need.

Victor age 15 (M), Vincent age 15 (M) (they are twins), and Chola (he’s the one on the left in the picture at the bottom) age 13 (M) are Boxen and Fagness’ children.

Victor is quite the preacher and is always telling the kids to be good and speak English and clean the dishes and all this other good stuff. He always says it in the most kind and gentle manner. All three of these boys are so very polite. They treat me like gold.

There are so many others who have come and gone. A few that I will gratefully see again and others that I must wait until the next life to see. Life here is never constant. You never know when another child will come or when another will go. I’m learning to never miss an opportunity to kiss, hug, and tell these beautiful children how much I love them. I’ve learned that with love comes pain but the blessings that come from loving these children far outweigh the pain when they’re no longer around to hug.