A few Pictures....

Kids sitting in the front with their notebooks at church.

Cute girls giggling about something:)

Bath Time- She was the one that felt sick and they gave her the medicine.

I love this picture, if I may say so myself. Pretty Girl.

One of the baptisms.

Happy 4th of July! We celebrated to the sound of 15 shotgun shots:)

Happy 4th!

I have looked at some of my past posts and I must not be pushing the spell check button- sorry all of you english/grammar weirdos:) I am one too, but these late nights and early morning cause me to do crazy things. AND Sorry I did not write last night! We were up late because of church then we watched Finding Nemo with all the kids. I am still pretty exhausted, their services last a longggg time with 3 sessions every day. They were good though- 5 baptisms this morning. I will talk about yesterday since I did not post..

Yesterday was pretty much filled with church. I sat in the front with all the little kids. I also had the joy of putting Baby Joyce to sleep. I need to get some mom arms, because my arms were falling asleep 5 minutes into the hold. Not good, she slept and snored for a good hour.

Some of my students donated Spiral Notepads which I handed out to some kids and they all took notes, which was very cute. I took notes and they all copied mine. That afternoon I made the mistake of whipping out some stickers for the kids. I tried to tell them to get in a line, then I gave up. Most of these kids had never seen stickers, and so they were fighting for them. I told the kids only one sticker, but problem was I could not tell which kid had a sticker already. I would walk around and see some kids with 5 stickers all on their faces-haha. Here is a picture of me getting mobbed.

Find the stickers...ha

I really had fun passing the stickers out, even though it got a bit crazy, and kids kept lying and telling me they did not get one yet:) Kids will be kids.

That night I went to talk to the women who were serving the food to all of the people (about 300 people) and they asked me to help them serve. It was a very fun experience- I was the bean girl. Boy do these women know how to cook for large groups... Here is a picture of them cooking.

After church I played volleyball with the young kids- that felt a lot like home, so that was good:) But then I went over and saw kids plucking feathers off of dead chickens(does not feel like home) haha. I am sure anyone who has done foreign work is used to kids running around all in church. It's something that would take me a long time to get used to. Kids as young as 7 carry their baby brothers/sisters on their backs in slings, and it seems like they just run wild. A few times I saw kids running with sharp objects... it is just funny how different our parenting styles are in America. I feel like I need a heavy dose of anxiety pills every time I see those kids playing around dangerous things or with dangerous objects. It's the mother in me. Everyone is really nice though...Very kind. They all ask how America is doing- never really know what to say to that one.

The lights went out... around the whole house and church- but the stars were amazing! You can actually see Venus really well- I love how they have different stars than us! I was enjoying the stars when Lyton jumps out and scares me (thanks to Duane all the kids find that funny:) He got me good...and luckily the lights came back on. I took a video of some of the singing, I thought you might enjoy a taste of Zambia.

Today ....No we did not have fireworks, but instead we got some gunshots- Before I go into that let me set the scene for you.... It is really cold here- like 50 degrees, and sitting outside can be painful, so a few of the men noticed that we were freezing and put a fire right in front of us. It was really nice of them, but just funny to sit in front of the campfire in a tabernacle. Anyways at the end of the service we heard a few gunshots in the distance- it was kind of creepy....then we kept hearing more and more getting closer. I was nervously laughing- if you know me, you know the laugh. Anyways it was pretty funny because we were singing and then you would hear a gunshot in a pause. The gates to the yard were locked, and nothing ended up happening, but it's just one more experience I will not forget.

Tonight I sat by the campfire with some kids and I listened to them sing, just having a connection with Christians around the world is such a blessing and joy! Then they started to ask me lots of questions. I think they way the do marriages and engagements is fascinating. They have to offer the girls family cows, chickens, or something like that to be engaged. A few of the guys said well I guess I need to go to America with only a ring. Another cultural difference is that the boys do not really talk with the girls, but since I am American, they can talk to me. The first few days the guys would not look me in the eyes or talk to me much, but now I just go up to them and they are getting more comfortable. You do not really see the teenagers talking to the opposite sex because it is inappropriate. I guess I was a rebel, but Duane said with me it is fine because I do not know their rules being an American.

That is most of it...I think I left a lot out, but I cannot think. It's 2:00 a.m. right now- Night!

Campfires, Outdoor Kitchen, and Lots of Walking.

Today has been a great day. We went to eat breakfast at a very cool place, and then we stopped at a few shops. They had the CUTEST baby shop ever! Everything in there was handmade and I wanted to buy it all. I am waiting though, until I go to the market. On the way to the breakfast restraunt were many photo opportunities. I am a weirdo that thinks everything is cool and unique so I take a million pictures. Thanks Alisha for posting some of my pictures! Most of them are either from the school, the church that is being built, or just around the house I am staying at. I have taken many more, but with the internet being slow, I might not get to download them.

After eating this morning Duane took us the back way- meaning dirt bumpy road- through the "compound-" meaning neighborhood with houses right next to each other. These are the places that you see on T.V. and they are asking for money. It is just so crazy to see it in person. It is actually even worse that the commercials. What I cannot get over are the little kids that are carrying babies on their backs. I also cannot get over all of the kids that are just running wild in the streets. Today we saw kids who were filling up a coke bottle with creek water- aka. sewer water- I wanted to yell out the window- STOP, but I refrained. Everyone here is so nice, we drive through these compounds and just wave and say muli bwanji (hi) not sure about the spelling. They always wave back and say hi. We stopped at a sister's house and she let us come in her home (the home of the baby at the top of my blog), it was very simple but nice. On the side of the road they sell anything from little dried fish, to gum, cooking oil in bottles, or vegetables. The dried fish totally gross me out.

Once we got back to the house we found many new visitors in the yard. Many people came 2 hours from Chockoma balancing suitcases on their heads. The women immediately started to cook for the people in the Outdoor kitchen. Babies were bathed in little buckets. I took pictures of this one little girl who had been crying most of the day because she was sick, I felt so bad for her. Julia translated for me and said that her mother can only get adult pills for her, and they just dissolve them with water. I am not a nurse of doctor, but I am thinking that is not so safe ..Oh well they do what they gotta do. There are many kids here now and so I have been taking many pictures. I love taking kid pictures. Most of them do not know how to speak good english because they are "from the Bush." Everyone is staying outside tonight, and the women are sleeping in this hut thing that they made. Most of the men are sleeping in the church on homemade benches. Duane does not try to "Americanize" them, instead he just lets them do their own thing. It is weird that they do not eat as much, they take baths with sponges and a bucket of water that they warm on the fire, that they sleep outside, that flies always surround their food, that they wear clothes that I saw in America 10 years ago, that they do not expect or like the same food as us, that the men do not really look me in the eye, or that the kids do not say anything or complain even if they are starving. I asked Collins tonight what he ate, and he said he had just had breakfast- it was about 7:00 p.m. when he said that. They just don't say anything.

The service was good! There was a big crowd for the first night. It will last until monday evening. This will be a long weekend. We will have church all day tomorrow, since so many people walked long distances they expect lots of preaching! The services are always so awesome, and full of joy. I will video some of the singing, it is something that I cannot explain.

After church we went to eat, because we might get sick if we eat their food, and the world cup was on. It was fun watching it with true Africans- since Ghana played and all. Ok, that is all for now... Check out the new pictures below- thanks again Alisha!

Photos!

Hey everybody! It's Alisha, bringing you a photo update. I haven't talked to Lana so I can't really specify what's going on in every picture, but I think if you've been reading along you can get an idea on most of them. I'm just going to post a bunch and if she wants to go back and talk about any of them, she can. I'm uploading them small so if you want to see one upclose, just click on it! Enjoy!

Popcorn, Movies, and Finished Church

Once again I just want to thank everyone for your encouragement! Some days are pretty hard, and I miss home, BUT your encouraging words keep me going. Today was a very mellow day. I taught the boys a little bit of english, and then helped with lunch. The lunch and dinner situation has been somewhat stressful. There are so many people to feed, and we have no idea what they like to eat. We have gone to the store many times, and they do not have the same brands- at all! We tried to find cream cheese so I could make fruit pizza, and nope no cream cheese- just cream cheese that had a sausage flavor. I think that would be nasty on a sugar cookie with fruit. We are trying to think of things to make- if you have any suggestions PLEASEEE let me know:) They eat a lot of nsima with this soup stuff (tomato/onion mixture).

Today they finished the church, it was amazing watching the process! The ladders they used were handmade...well everything was handmade. They made 17 benches (actually using an act to cut the wood and make it thin). These guys really know how to work hard!

Today Wes went to the "Bush" to slaughter a cow for this weekend. Well I decided to stay at home, because I would have barfed, but they decided to bring the cow back with them (two hours of driving) for the revival this weekend. The brought out a black bag and pulled out the parts of the cow and put them in the kitchen. Well we were in the middle of cooking lunch and some of the cow juices got in the noodles and meat we made- So I decided to not eat lunch... None of the Americans ate- we just waited around until 5:00 p.m. to eat supper. I know that sounds bratty, but you had to have been there. It was disgusting, the tongue was HUGE. I went in there and gagged and became not hungry for hours. If you want to lose weight just see a nasty cow. Then I went outside to see where the little boys were and they were playing with the intestines and guts- I yelled, "Collins! Go wash your hands with soap, don't touch your face, and go change." Haha I can't help being a Mom sometimes, and maybe that is what they do for fun, but I had to say something. Oh man.

The past few nights we have watched movies on the projector in the living room- it is fun. We alwayssss have popcorn, they fix it every night. We also turned on some music and they were all dancing it was so fun...I taped a little bit of it, I will post it at some point. I have many pictures to post, but it takes a very long time to update them, so unless Alisha does it, you will not see pictures until I get back to the states- sorry!

A few people have asked about ways to help the schools here... this is the address of the school that I visited Mumana Basics School: P.O. Box 310050 Lusaka, Zambia. You must put it in the attention of : Headmaster- Kampwita Henry 1. A few people have asked if they could send money...I do not think that is a good idea, because they might use the money for other things- the best thing would be to send materials by mail (yes, it is expensive). I hope to have a book drive/ fundraiser next school year...If you would like to donate anything just contact me. Duane also mentioned that he could use some more children's books or bible books for his office. Many people use his office, and especially if he leaves Zambia, they will still have the resources. Let me know if you want to help with that, they appreciate anything you give! With the pen pal activity, a few people have said that they want to send letters too- Just let me know. I have a lot on my hands, I know, but I hate seeing resources in America not be used when they would love to have them!

I will have some interesting stories from this weekend- I know it! Love!