Living the life.

2 Nephi 5:27..."And it came to pass that we lived after the manner of happiness."

My friends I am here to tell you that I have and am living life after the manner of happiness. I just spent some of the greatest three weeks of my life learning from the beautiful children at the farm. I am now back in the city of Lusaka where I will join my sister and all the other American volunteers on an expedition. I'm sad to leave my little home in Kasupe. I love these kids with all my heart. They've taught me powerful lessons about finding joy in all things. They never complain about anything. The power goes out for the entire day and we have no water and they don't complain. I have felt so much peace living with these people. They have taught me how to be calm and live life to the fullest. I've learned that living life to the fullest doesn't mean I have to do a million things in a day. It means that I need to BE...find joy in everything...laugh...dance...sing...cry...sleep...eat...chat...love...and most importantly LIVE!!! They know God and trust him completely.

Thank you for your wonderful examples!!!

My last supper at the farm. It makes me cry thinking about not being there anymore so that's all I'll say for now. I walk the kids to and from school every day. On the way we pass some kids and every time they see me they start yelling "Muzungoo, Muzungoo" which means white person. I respond with my usual "Muli Bwanji" which means how are you and they giggle and laugh when the white person speaks their language. On Tuesday this little girl wanted a snap (picture) so we stopped and got a picture taken together. She was adorable. Note the house in the background. football pitch waiting for everyone to show up. After the little boys play the big boys play. It was so fun to watch them in action.
To all you parents out there I would urge you to please read to your children. I realized the other day that these precious children have never had someone sit down to read to them. My sister's read to their kids on a regular basis and the kids love it. When I got here and pulled out all my little books the kids looked like they had died and gone to heaven. They ate it up. They wanted me to read, reread, and continue to reread every book that I brought. They flipped through the pages over and over again. When I would finish one book they would hand me another. I don't even think they could understand what I was reading they just wanted to be read to. It made me cry to think about how lucky my nieces and nephews are to have good parents that will sit down and read to them. It made me sad for all the years that these kids have spent and not had one book read to them. Here's a picture of me reading to the kids. They've all got books in front of them. These are moments I will treasure forever.

This is Ms Carol Zulu that I posted about in my last blog. She's delectable. And that hair. It stands straight up at all times. Had to get a picture of it.

The other day I walked out of the house and saw Bwalia holding something in his hands. I was afraid to ask what he was holding but did so anyway. He found a bird, plucked all the feathers off, and was just waiting to cook it so he could eat it. I told him that was just gross and he smiled real big. He apparently doesn't think there is anything wrong with finding a dead bird and eating it.

This is a picture of the kids watching a movie from my ipod. They all sit on the table and watch a little tiny screen with no sound and think it's the greatest thing in the world. If only we were so easy to please.

Here's a snap of all the kids and adults living at the farm or more formerly known as the Mothers Without Borders Children's Resource Center. There are about twenty kids and six adults. They've been my family for the past three weeks and have treated me like gold. I will miss them.

Saturday's are wash day. That's a lot of wash to be done for so many kids. I walked out of the house and saw this mass of what looks like confusion. Come to find out it's a very orderly process of washing clothes. Look at the smiles on their faces. I do my wash on Friday's, let's be honest, I don't really do it. They laugh at me every time I attempt to wash my clothes and then just take the clothes from me and do it themselves. I certainly don't put up a fight. They tease me about our machines in America that do the wash for me. They think I'm lazy. They're right!

My running crew in the mornings. This is the most that have ever come with me. The numbers have dwindled considerably. On Saturday I couldn't get anyone to go with me. It was nice, however, to have the time alone with my thoughts. Haven't had very many of those moments living with twenty adorable, enthusiastic, energetic kids. On the fourth of July I told everyone that we were going to celebrate America's Independence Day. I pulled out all the toys that my nieces and nephews bought for the kids and we had our own little Independence Day. Connor, the kids loved the popping fireworks. Jaxon, Emily, and Abbie, thanks for buying the stickers, jumpropes, bubbles and other toys. They LOVED playing with it all. You guys made their day.

God is good!

I want to tell you all about my sweet little Carol. She is turning thirteen tomorrow and is one of the most remarkable girls I have ever come in contact with. She is a very happy but very sick little girl. She is slowly dying of AIDS and it kills me to see her suffer. She is my roommate at the farm and I am so blessed to have her near me.

The other night she and I were talking. She was telling me about how she was so sick before she came to MWB. She was telling me about how her father thought that she had died and her grandma rushed her to the hospital and she received two injections and then she came back to life. She told me about how her father kept saying that his daughter had died even though she was still alive. Her father had "refused" her because she was so sick. She sang me the song that her mother used to sing her when she was so sick. It is beautiful. I have it on video for you all to see.

Then when the conversation was ending she said to me, "Sometimes I am sitting and I think God is good, but then I wonder why I can't see out of my eye. I want to be able to finish school." She has lost sight in one of her eyes and is starting to lose sight in her other eye as well. She knows God is good but she wonders why she can't see. Well Ms. Carol Zulu you are what we call a remarkable woman. As I went to sleep that night I felt that I was truly in the presence of a spiritual giant. I am living in a home with many spiritual giants. I am humbled by the capacity of endurance these souls have. I am humbled by their ability to cope with whatever circumstances they are in. I am humbled by their resilience. I am humbled by their constant happiness and joy. They KNOW adversity and trials at a greater level than I will ever experience but they somehow come off as conquerors. They rise above it. They truly are spiritual giants and I feel very blessed to be in the presence of such amazing children.

Yes, Carol, God is good. I don't know why you can't see out of your eye or why your life has to be shortened because of another's agency... but I know He loves you and He's in charge and He wants you to find joy. Thank you for your wonderful example.

Happy Birthday Emily!!!

It is my sweet little Emily's birthday tomorrow and I just wanted to wish her a happy one. I have done well at living in the present but every time I think about missing this little girls birthday for the third year in a row it makes me long to be home.

I miss you and love you Emily and hope you have a wonderful birthday.

Give Abbie, Connor, Holly, Jaxon, and Sage hugs and kisses for me. I love you all!!!

Life back at the farm...

I came back to live in "civilization" last Thursday and was planning to head back to the farm (orphanage) on Tuesday. Saturday night I started going a little crazy and realized that living this civilian life with warm showers, grocery stores, cars, and white people was just not doing for me. I decided to go back to the farm with the kids on Sunday after church. Boy was I glad I did. Life out here is bliss.

On Sunday's the kids practice their dancing, singing, and drumming. I was getting my things organized and suddenly heard their beautiful voices and wandered outside to listen. When I walked outside all I could see was fire everywhere. As Americans, we might have panicked at this point. Everyone was sitting around as if nothing was wrong. I asked George about the fire and what in the heck was going on. Apparently there had been several sightings of snakes in the bush or the cornfields behind the house. When this happens they burn down the fields to eliminate the homes for the snakes. The fire burned all the way to the neighbor's farm. I asked George if the neighbor would be mad about the fire and without hesitation he said, "yes, but what can we do?" I don't know...maybe not burn the whole field down. There are snakes all over the place here. The kids don't like to take any shortcuts to school because they are afraid of the snakes.

This pic doesn't do the fire justice but it gives you an idea. These two women Catherine and Fagness are making bags out of corn stalk. There amazing. I'll be bringing one of these bags home with me.

After the burning of the field and the performance practice we baked a cake. It was so fun to watch some of these kids that have never had cake before partake of the goodness. They were all amazed that I could bake. They kept saying, "Auntie Heather, you can bake!" As if they were surprised by it. Little did they know all I did was pour a mix in some oil and eggs and stick it in the oven.

Monday and Tuesday were spent with the regular studies. I decided to go with the kids to school on Wednesday to get an idea of what goes on there. I had been a few times last year but was hoping things had changed a bit. I was wrong.

Here's a little excerpt from my journal yesterday, "Right now I am sitting in a grade 5 class with almost 100 kids. There aren't usually this many kids but the teachers have all gone to town to pick up something. Bridget showed up to no teacher at 10 and then knocked off at 12. Moses is walking around like a stranded puppy because he has no teacher. This is day 2 for him without a teacher. He looks so lost. I don't evern want to think about what he's been through since his parents passed. I don't want to think about what he went through before they passed. I worry about the older kids. It's almost as if they have to become somewhat hardened to combat with the evil that is constantly in front of them. The first chapter of the grade 4 book on social development was on AIDS. The whole first chapter out of five dedicated to AIDS - how it's contracted, how to prevent it. It spoke of teenage pregancy, sex, how babies are made. Did you know Zambia has a law that you can't have sex before you are sixteen? What???? A law has been passed listing the age at which sex is legal. As LDS people we have a "law" stating not to date until we are sixteen. I just can't think about the power the adversary has here. Grade 4! I don't even want to look at what's in the grade 3 book." The school's here are crazy!

I want to mention a brief experience that I had with Kennedy (he's six and just deluctible) the other night. It was as if all barriers were stripped between us. It was as if there was no differences between the color of our skin, the language we speak, our ages, the backgrounds we've come from. It was as if our souls connected and we understood each other. I know it sounds crazy but it was beautiful.

Kennedy is the boy on the right. This is a picture of us playing UNO, our Sunday afternoon activity.

I love these kids. They are amazing. I pray every day that I might have the capacity to love them the way they need to be loved. They go without so many things but what they need the most is love. We all need that. God can and will supply us with the love we need to share with everyone we come in contact with. It's called charity and we've been promised that as we pray for it, charity will come. My prayer this week is to have a greater amount of charity so that I might give these children the love that they are so desperately seeking.

Here's a picture of us roasting marshmallows. Marshmallows???? What are those? It's so much fun to share these crazy American traditions. I've got to teach these kids how to smile when someone is taking a picture. I rarely see them without smiles.

Here's a few pictures of our walk home from school yesterday. Raymond bought us some sugar cane. Sure is good stuff. Hard to break the skin off but once you do it the inside is amazing. No wonder these people are always sucking on sugar cane.

And this is how an American carries water in Zambia. Thank goodness for bottled water.

Last story...the morning jog. Four of the boys joined me for my run this morning. I never know who's going to join me but I'm always happy to have the company. They keep me safe. This morning was unique. We ran the usually route passing the usually people along the way. There are a lot of kids that walk to school in the mornings that we pass. This morning we were running and a couple of the school children joined us in their uniforms. We passed a few more kids and they joined us as well. We passed more and soon the running pack had grown to about 15 kids. It was so funny to me. In all, there were twenty of us, 15 in uniform on the morning jog. I couldn't wipe the smile from my face.

I love this place!!!

Zambian Pictures

Doing the dishes.


This is what it looks like every morning at breakfast time. The kids sit outside with their "Samp" and eat. I just loved this moment so I had to capture it.


I found these little boys playing in the dirt on the way home from school one day. They were being so cute throwing dirt on each other and fighting over the sticks. The one boy looked so sick but seemed to be having so much fun. It reminded me of when Holly had her goopy eyes and nose and was still herself.



Evans, his brother, nephew, and sis-in-law (8 months pregnant), outside his house. I sure do love that boy.

Our "classroom", also the dining room where the kids eat every night. There's about ten more kids but they weren't in this picture. Love it!

Some good 'ol fashion African dancing.

This is how the kids are transported to church every Sunday. There are about fifteen of them in the back of the tiny truck. Crazy!!!

Eric and I preparing our hands for dinner. The Nschima is the white stuff and the relish was a yummy soybean something or other. Yummy!!!! Really it was super good.

Eric and his sweet little wife, Patricia. It was so fun spending the day with him. His wife is two months pregnant. So excited to see the little morsel next summer when I come back.

I LOVE THESE PEOPLE!!!

Time...so precious...but not our own.

Her bucket of time has been filled because she's given it all away.

What if time worked like tithing. The more we give, the more we receive. I am a time nazi. I am very careful about how I choose to spend that time but never seem to have enough of it. Last night, at our meeting, my team leader said the above quote about Josephine who is Zambia MWB staff. She works so many hours doing so many different things. She gets up in the fours to do her studies, starts working by about 6:30 AM, finishes work at about 5:30 PM, goes to school at night, gets home at about 10 PM, and then she works on whatever housekeeping things she needs to complete and finally gets to bed after midnight. What??? I thought my life was crazy. The difference with Josephine is that she never seems to be rushed. She is always so calm and happy to help us whenever we need it. She seems to have all the time in the world when we're with her...as if we're the only person in her life. She is not the exception. Most of the Zambians are like this. They work countless hours, up early to bed late, but when I'm around they act as if I'm the only thing they have going on. They treat me like gold and make me feel a million bucks. So my question is, what if we stopped hoarding our time and didn't worry about not having enough? What if we just gave it away? Would our bucket of time be refilled? Would we end up having more of it than we started with? I've seen it work in the lives of these wonderful people. I can only imagine that I would be just as blessed.

Things are so well here. I've had a million thoughts and have a million things I'd like to say. Fortunately for all of you I don't have enough time to say them all. I just got back from the farm yesterday and this morning had my first warm shower since I've been in Zambia. It's nice to be back in civilization again. I want to give you a brief description of the life at the farm. We wake up at 5:45 or 6:00. Me and a few of the boys go for a 30 - 40 minute jog in the morning before breakfast. These kids are amazing. I need to take a picture of the shoes they run in. Most of them don't have shoe laces and they are wearing the wrong size. But do they even think twice about it? Of course not, they're just happy to be out for a run in the morning. They think it's the greatest. Some of the smaller boys usually end up walking at the end but they still continue to come. The sunsets and sunrises in Zambia are incredible. It is BEAUTIFUL here. In the mornings it's especially gorgeous. The sun rising over the African bush, running on dirt roads, wishing other passerbys a good morning, with my sweet boys. Does life get any better?

We get back from our run and we usually have breakfast...corn called samp. They eat corn for every meal just different forms. I can't believe how many different ways corn can be eaten. You'd think you were getting some different nutrients but then you realize that nope you're still just eating corn regardless of what form it comes in. I usually skip the breakfast and make myself a pp and h in my room so the kids can't see. I feel bad eating a sandwich in front of them. After breakfast I bathe. Now this is quite the adventure. Not something I look forward to. It consists of a bucket and splashing cold water on myself to try and get clean. What kind of bath is that? These crazy Zambians. After bathing we start our studies at about 8:30 AM. I tutor about half the kids in the morning and then half the kids in the afternoon. I take a break at about 10:30 and walk the boys to school at 11. The school is about a 45-minute walk. We hang out until 12 when some of the girls get finished. I say hi to my sweet boy Evans and then I walk back home with the girls. We have lunch at 1 and start studying at 1:30. There are about twenty kids at the orphanage and they come and go from school all day long. So from 1:30 until about 5:30 I sit in the little dining room and work with whoever is around at the time. It's been quite the challenge trying to teach kids from kindergarten to 8th grade. I don't have enough materials to do what I need to do so I mostly just pray that whatever it is I'm trying to do will be of some benefit to them.

After studies we have dinner, Nshima with some kind of relish. We eat Nshima for lunch as well. Lunch and dinner everyday of these people's life is Nshima. What is Nshima you ask? Corn mashed up to a thickness that is kind of like mashed potatoes but not. It has no taste. Just there for filling. We use our hands to eat the Nshima and dip it into a relish. The relish changes on a day to day basis. It comes with vegetables, beans, chicken, beef, or capenta (gross fish that I won't touch).

After dinner and dishes we play. This is my favorite time of the day. We'll sit around and sing songs, tell stories, chase the rats which there are plenty of, walk around with torches because they power has gone out, laugh, hug, chat, and pray. Bedtime is at 8:30. The kids go into their rooms at this time where they proceed to laugh and giggle for another hour while I finish up writing notes on how the kids are doing and do a little studying myself. I then crawl into my little bed, tuck the mosquito net tightly around me, pray that the rats don't get me, and thank God for yet another day in Zambia.

I wish I could post some pictures but it takes so long to upload them that I would be here until morning. There are so many other things I'd like to post about but I have a minute left so I'm going to say goodbye for now. Hope you are well. Love and miss you.

Learn from the past...Plan for the future...LIVE IN THE PRESENT...

I think President Monson mentioned that in one of his talks recently. This is my motto for the day/week/month/year/whatever. I'm finally here in Zambia and have a lot of mixed feelings. I've waited an entire year to be back here and now I'm here. The thoughts I've been having are, "Okay, so what now?" I'm a teacher, thus I crave and seek control. I like to have everything planned at all times. I like to know what I'm doing, when I'm going to do it always.

Today is a different day. Today I am living in the present. Today I am going to be what God wants me to be. I'm not going to try to plan it, I'm just going to be it. But how do you be it, if you don't know what it is you're supposed to be? That's where faith comes in. You don't have to plan to be you just be. Makes perfect sense right?

We have no control of the past and no control of the future. We have control of the present. We are powerless in the past and future but have complete power in the present. We can accomplish much in the present. We can change a life in the present. We can love a child in the present. We can play marbles with a bunch of street kids in the dirt in the present. God wants us to be in the present.

Today we visited a facility that supplies food for some of the street kids here. I asked them where they lived. They all looked at me like I was crazy. "We live in the streets," they said. Then they proceeded to describe what area of the street they stayed. I asked about their families. Some have none and some have relatives. I asked how old they were when they started living on the streets. I asked about their schooling. I asked every question I could think and the responses overwhelmed me. This is their world. This is how life is. This is what they do. When I got on the bus after talking with them I broke into tears as I do most often when we leave a village or compound or pretty much anywhere we go. I, once again, tried to make sense of it all. I can't. I don't have the power to fix it. I can't make it better. But HE can and HE will. I thought about how much I loved dancing with them, playing drums with them, playing marbles in the dirt, throwing the frisbee around. The smiles on my faces and their faces. We were happy. Do you know why???? We were living in the present. At that moment all was well. Our spirits were being fed by each other and we found joy because we chose to live in the present. Think about the times when you are happiest in life. It's not when you are thinking about what's going to happen next. It's not when you are thinking about what happened before. It's when you're chillin' on the floor next to your child playing leggos...It's when you are taking a walk in the park enjoying the beauty around you...It's when you're talking on the phone to a dear friend...It's when you're driving to the bank to make a deposit...It's when you're putting on your shoes to go for a run...It doesn't matter what you're doing as long as your doing it at that moment.

Well, that's enough for now. No pictures, haven't taken any since I've been here. Life is good. God is in charge. Let's let Him be in charge and keep a prayer in our heart at every moment so we can be what He needs us to be at that exact moment.

Tomorrow I will be going to stay at the orphanage for who knows how long. It might be a night, might be a week, might be a month. I, unfortunately, do not have access to the internet while I'm there. The only thing I will have access to are the rats that run around me while I sleep...AND my sweet wonderful kids. I can't wait to see them and be with them. It might be a bit before I blog again.

Love you all!!!