What Chanda Did In School

So, interesting day in school. We had a big adventure with little Chanda. We were outside doing 'bowling' on the grass. Emmanuel and Chanda decided to go kick over some of the pins, so they were told to come stand with me on the side. So Emmanuel comes over nicely and holds my hand as told. Chanda, on the other hand, decides to run around and be goofy. So I try to get Chanda to hold my hand, and he takes off running away from me. I figure he will stop soon so I just kind of walk after him. When it becomes clear that he is going to keep on running, I start running after him.
He got about 25 yards when he falls down on his face right as I am about to catch up with him. So I picked him up off the ground and he starts crying and crying. Then he proceeds to start scratching my neck with one hand, and pulling my hair out with the other hand. So I try to hold him in a way that prevents that and take him to Teacher Vicky's room.
I moderately succeed in getting him to Teacher Vicky, and she heard us coming since Chanda is screaming at the top of his lungs. She comes out and meets us at the porch where she tries to take him from me. He grabs at her glasses hanging from her neck and we had to pry him off of her glasses to try to prevent them from breaking. We manage to get him in the classroom and Teacher Vicky takes him to the time out chair. I sit down, exhausted at this point and kind of frazzled. Teacher Vicky comes out and I tell her what happened. I tell her that I do not think he should be at school anymore. She agrees and goes and gets him to come to apologize with me before he goes home. Needless to say, he does not stop crying long enough to apologize to me.
So Teacher Vicky has him by the hand and she starts walking him home. I walk behind her to go back to my class, which is still outside. When Chanda realizes that he is not going back to class, but indeed going home, he releases himself from Teacher Vicky and starts crying even louder. He tries to run away again but we both grab him. Teacher Vicky picks him up and Chanda proceeds to scratch her neck and grab her hair. So she puts him down and we each take one hand and try to get him to walk, which really resulted in us dragging him down the path, which is not wide enough for two adults and one child to walk across. We get about halfway home when trying to get him to walk is no longer an option. Teacher Vicky picks him up and he proceeds to grab at her again. I take one of his hands in each of my hands to try to stop this, which results in Chanda biting my hand. The rest of the way home, Teacher Vicky is holding his body at an awkward angle and I am holding his hands out away from his body to prevent further biting incidents from occurring. This was a moderately successful event.
Nonetheless, we got him home to his momma, where he screamed even more, probably out of fear of getting a spanking. Teacher Vicky tried to explain the situation to Momma Margaret and she took him in with apologies for his behavior, but he was still unable to apologize for himself. I could not help but laugh with Teacher Vicky on the way back to school and the silliness of the situation. Just the day before she commented on how sweet he looked walking home from school. He really is super precious and always smiling, so who knows what happened today.
He proceeded to avoid me later in the dining hall when he saw me which was even funnier for this little three year old to be doing.
Anyways, all is well and I thought the situation was funny, but it was interesting to say the least.
I hope everyone had a slightly less eventful day than that, but really great days for sure.
Peace and love.

One Little Pig

A taste of my day:

Song we sang in free play- A Song About Pigs

One little, two little, three little pigs
Four little, five little, six little pigs
Seven little, eight little, nine little pigs
Ten little pigs rolling in the mud

Song relating to our Bible story-Fishers of Men

I will make you fishers of men,
Fishers of men, fishers of men.
I will make you fishers of men,
If you follow me.

New song of the day-Climb up Sunshine Mountain

Climb, climb up sunshine mountain
Heavenly breezes blow
Climb, climb up sunshine mountain
Faces all aglow

Turn, turn from sin and sorrow
Look to God on high
Climb, climb up sunshine mountain
You and I

There was also much coloring involved, and the celebrating of the Passover Feast with unleavened bread and bitter herbs to eat. Hoorah. The kids were all pretty good today which was nice. The weather is starting to get warmer too which is always good.

Peace and love.

Philippians 3:14

As we drive in to town, we drive by the main hospital in Lusaka, University Teaching Hospital. This is not a hospital you would ever want to have to go to (even though I almost did!) and it is the reason our president is in France in a hospital and not in his own country. It is part of the college, hence the name. On one side of the hospital is the mortuary. There are always a lot of cars lined up outside the mortuary waiting to collect bodies. Saturday when we passed, there were atleast 30 cars waiting to collect bodies. They have funerals here by the hundreds daily. The cemeteries are so full. It is really sad and breaks my heart every time. AIDS and malaria are so prevelant, and are preventable with training and medication. Really sad. Really really.

My second group of housemates left today. That was also pretty sad! They were so great. There were five of them from Kentucky. They had been at Livingstone Saturday - yesterday so I had not seen them in a few days, and then they got back late last night and left this morning while I was at school, so I had to say goodbye to them before I went to school. Now I am all alone again. I guess I am getting to be a professional at living alone. It is not too bad anymore. I will definitely miss playing charades, worshipping, planning scavenger hunts, and just being goofy with them. They wrote me an awesome card that I found when I got home from school so that was fun.

Today is my 19 3/4 birthday! But more importantly it is Nancy Writebol's birthday, the childcare director of the village. She is really great. We are celebrating tonight so that will be really fun! And I am pretty sure there will even be cake :)

I am learning so much here and I can not wait for real life to resume so I can put it in to practice. But I know I am not done learning and that the Lord still has much to teach me in my days here. I long to be here but also to be home. I guess that is kind of how real life is anyways, we long to be with our Father in heaven, but we are on earth for a reason and until the Lord is finished teaching us, he will surely keep us here! He is so great and so faithful.

Well I am off to sort shoes. I have sorted a lot of things lately I feel like. I guess I am a professional sorter as well. Definitely good skills to have. Well I love ya'll. See you soon! Go make God famous!

Vitamin A

In Zambia, it is a law that all sugar has to have vitamin A added. This is because people drink a lot of sugar in their tea and such, and vitamin A helps prevent blindness.

This is for Rachel

Well, today I got up at 4:15 AM. That was pretty early. The group from Kentucky is headed to Livingstone today so they had to get up really early to go catch the bus for that so I woke up with them. I decided not to go back to sleep after they left at 5:30 so that at 7:00 I can go over and help make pancakes for the kid's breakfast. That should be good times making 70 or so pancakes with Kennedy.
I downloaded some David Crowder the other day. Definitely really good.
So I only have three weeks left here which is so crazy. I have been gone for ten weeks! It seems like so much shorter looking back on it. GAMES is officially over and we start school back on Monday. For a while I have been wanting to go home but now that there are only three weeks left, it is kind of real that I do actually leave soon. I can handle three weeks. I have done that before. So hopefully I can enjoy my last weeks here and gather everything the Lord has for me.
Yesterday the teachers had Bible study for the first time in a long time since school is starting again. That was good to get back in the swing of things and get back studying the word with others. We are back in Numbers which is an interesting book. Studying the Old Testament is interesting since I have never really done that before.
Yesterday at GAMES I helped with the obstacle course. That was really fun. First, they crawled under a table, then through a box, then walked over some chairs, then jumped onto a mattress, then had to do a sumersault, then log rolled on the carpet, then got this horse thing and ran with it around another chair, and then went through some tires, then had to pick up eight balloons and put them in a bucket, then crawl under another table, then take a spoon with a ball in it from one chair to the bowl on the other chair, then step through a ladder that was laid on the ground and then finally hit the table to finish. It was pretty awesome and there were no real injuries, praise God.
On Monday we get two new girls in the four year old class at school, Lisa and Gladys! It will be awesome. They are both so sweet. They have been here about six weeks now but have not been to school.
Today, we get two new kids at the village!! Their names are Gershan and Mpallo, but I probably spelled both of those wrong. Anyways, they will probably be starting school in a week or so and that should be great. I can not wait to meet them later.
Yesterday, the other mini-missionaries and I planned this big scavenger hunt that we took all the kids on. We divided them up, and Susan and I took the blue team. It was a lot of fun and at the end the kids all got sweeties (lollipops).
Well, that is all I can come up with now. I will try to be a better blogger, especially for Rachel. Hopefully I will not be too lonely with all of my housemates gone!
I love you all! Peace and love from across the sea.

Brrrrr

It is weird being in Africa and being so cold. Yesterday it was mighty cold out, probably the coldest since I got here. Fortunately we have plenty to keep us warm, especially at night.
GAMES is still going really well. Today I did music with the kids. One of the mini-missionaries Michael can play the guitar and he played it for the kids today and we sang a bunch of songs. We taught them a new one, Happy All the Time. It was a lot of fun seeing them learn it and do the motions with it.
This afternoon I started painting ceilings, which will be a several day job. I have a lot of skills to put on my resume. Some of them I had before and some I have obtained since I have been here. I have sorted beans, chopped up and cooked pumpkins, taught pre-school, made nshima, cooked many vegetables and other foods, painted walls, put putty on holes in ceilings, painted ceilings, made curtains, sewed serviettes, washed millions of dishes, set dozens of place settings, swept floors, painted murals, made tons of art projects, sorted and hole punched manuals, made play-dough, bargained in markets, gone to a church service in another language, learned some words in Nyanja, been a part of a team serving the Lord, met lots of new people, said good-bye to many people, had my heart broken by many children. That is only what I can think of now. It has been a busy and great time of learning and engaging people and seeing what the Lord has for my life and what He can teach me.
We have had a lot of power outages lately. The past few days it has been off a majority of the day. Two weeks ago we had power for a week straight! That was crazy.
I am still loving opening a letter every day. It is definitely a highlight to my days to get some encouragement from my friends back home. I got asked about my Zac Efron love today because of a post-it note I put up that has Zac on it saying I Love Sara. Good times right there. Gotta keep it real with Zac.
Pitt County is at Sharp Top Cove YoungLife camp right now! So exciting. So many of the kids from North Pitt are there learning about Jesus! That is the best thing ever. I pray they all fall in love with him and never let go.
I love you all and I will see you soon! Thanks for the prayers and the love. You are all so great. I can't wait to be home but it will break my heart to leave. Peace and love.

Lisa

Have you ever watched someone learn how to smile? This girl did not know how to smile three weeks before this picture was taken. This is Lisa. She has changed so drastically in her time here. She is absolutely beautiful. Her story is long and heartbreaking, as is every child's here.
We have children from so many different backgrounds. Many of them would be on the street begging right now if not for the Lord's provision of Rafiki and this village for them to come to and learn what love is and how to smile. God is awesome.
Go make Him famous.

Zambia

So, it has been a while. The last group of mini-missionaries left two weeks ago. I miss them! Megan, come back and live with me again please. It was really hard after they left to go back to living by myself. It got really lonely and sad there for a while. That week there was also no school and no GAMES yet, so I did odd jobs and spent a lot of time in the kitchen and making curtains, but there was a lot of down time with not much to do so I got bored and lonely pretty fast.
There is a new group of mini-missionaries here and they are all really sweet, but it is not the same. They are only here another week and then they go to Livingstone for a few days and then they leave. I will have another week and a half or so by myself and then I believe one girl comes and then I go home August ninth and get home the tenth!
We have been doing GAMES the past few days (games, art, music, enrichment, sports). Wednesday was our first day, and I helped out with outdoor games doing hopscotch and frisbees. Yesterday I was in the games section again, doing musical chairs, moon man, and duck duck goose. Today was awesome because I got to help make fruit-ooos necklaces which I did a lot of prep work for so that was really fun and the kids enjoyed being able to eat their necklaces at snack time.
Well I am just living life here in Zambia and trying to learn as much as I can in my last time here and soak up everything the Lord is trying to teach me.
Go make God famous.

Triangles

So today, I made 34 peanut butter sandwiches for the kids and mommas for lunch. It was pretty fabulous. I got to thinking while I was doing it, which is always a bad idea, and I realized that sandwiches are ten times more fun to eat if they are in triangles. So, what did I do? I cut them into triangles. It was probably the best thing I have done yet. One of the cooks even told me it reminded him of his childhood, which was the entire point, to enhance the childhoods of these children by giving them sandwich triangles. It was a highlight of my childhood as well.
That is all for now. Much love from Zambia.

Red Dye

So, I am moderately positive that I am now allergic to red dye. So don't go trying to give me any or anything.

Recitation tomorrow. That should prove interesting. The rehearsal today was...fun. And apparently kindergarten had a really awful rehearsal. Oh man. Hopefully all will be fine and God will be glorified which is the whole point anyways.

Half-way done eh? Pretty crazy. It feels like it flew by, which it really did I suppose. Between getting over the time change, being sick, traveling to Livingstone and getting used to everything going on here, I feel like I just got here last week. My two roommates leave on Sunday which is sad. I just got used to having people in the house. They are super awesome and so much fun. Lots of new things will be occurring. Tomorrow is the last day of school for the four year olds, and it is not even a full day. Then there is the recitation and the three year olds do not come to school at all. Then we pack up the school and it is over! So crazy. Ah.

Well, to God be the glory. I hope everything is well with you!

Listen to Phil Wickham or Shawn McDonald if you get a chance.

Crazy Fun

Nsync dance parties are crazy fun.

It is the last day of school! Eek. Recitation tomorrow. Then three weeks off. Wahoo. We will see how that goes.

More later.

Much love.

Trip to the Falls

So, the past few days were spent at the Falls. Victoria Falls to be exact. One of the seven natural wonders of the world, and rightly so. The Falls border Zambia and Zimbabwe, and technically I have now been to Zimbabwe (and yes, I made it back fine).
The other four mini-missionaries and I started off Thursday morning at about 4:00 am. We left the village at 5:00 am, got on the bus at 6:00 am, and left Lusaka at 6:35 am. We pulled into Livingstone at 1:00 pm, and were met by the owner of the lodge we would be staying at, Richard. He drove us the five minutes back to Chanter's Lodge, where Megan and Katie shared a room, and Melissa and Kristi and I shared the other. We got unloaded and soon headed to the market in town. We bought a few things, and hopped into taxis to go to the Royal Livingstone Hotel. There, we had High Tea! Interestingly enough, none of us got tea, which is kind of regrettable, but I have had a whole lot of tea since I got here, so I tried an espresso. There were desserts galore, and I tried a little bit of everything. I hardly ate all day to save up stomach room for that. It was an amazing experience. Then, we went outside and sat on the deck on the Zambezi River and watched the sun set, and saw a whole lot of monkeys playing in the yard of the Royal Livingstone. We let our food digest and just lounged on a big couch outside. Then we got back in a taxi and went back to the Lodge. I fell asleep pretty early since we had just an early start to the day.
On Friday, we got up and ate breakfast at the Lodge, which was included. Since an English man owns the Lodge, we had toast and tea and cereal and eggs, and there were other things offered like mushrooms, bacon, sausage, beans, and tomatoes. Then we were all picked up at 8:30 to go to the Falls. Once there, we paid our way in and headed to the poncho stand. We got our ponchos and headed out on the trail where we would get pretty wet if not for the ponchos. The views were amazing and we had a really good experience viewing the Falls. We then returned the ponchos and went on a few other trails that did not take us as close to the water so we did not get wet. We went on the upstream path, which put us right on top of the Falls, so we sat and watched the water tumble over the edge for a while. There were also some pretty spectacular rainbows that we viewed. At noon we headed over to the bridge that goes across the river and goes between Zambia and Zimbabwe. Megan decided to bungee jump over the bridge, so we played on the bridge while she did that, and got to technically step into Zimbabwe and take our picture there. The land between the two countries, about a meter wide, is called ZimZam. We saw some zebras at the Falls that were in the yard of the Zambezi Sun Hotel, and Melissa got in trouble for taking pictures of them for some reason, but we talked our way out of it and promised not to tell anyone about it. So then we went to the market at the Falls for a few minutes until our taxi driver picked us up at 1:00 and we went back to the Lodge to get ready for our game drive. At 2:00, we got picked up to go to the national park. In the park we saw baboon, impala by the dozen, buffalo, warthog, wildebeast, monitor lizards, bushbuck, lots of birds, zebras from afar, the one rhino named Fwanya, and a family of giraffe! There was a mom and a dad and three children. That was definitely spectacular. We got to see the mom run too which was an amazing sight to behold. After the game drive, we got dropped off in town and went out to dinner at a local restaurant. The food was really good, but the service was not great. All I know is that I got a waffle with ice cream and chocolate on it. We walked back to the Lodge afterwards in the dark and thankfully made it safely.
On Saturday, we got up and had breakfast at the Lodge and then headed into town again. We went through the market a little bit, went to the Livingstone museum which was kind of boring, lots of history and such, and walked around for a while and got some ice cream and went in to a bunch of stores in town. Then we headed back to the Lodge, finished packing, and went to the bus station at 1:00. We left Livingstone at 1:30, and got into Lusaka at 8:15. By the time we got back to the house it was 9:30, and we were all really tired. It was Melissa and Kristi's last night here so they packed and we made popcorn on the stove and stayed up for a little while.
This morning, we took Kristi and Melissa to the airport on the way to church, and off they went. There are three of us in the house now and it is quieter. Tomorrow starts the last week of school until late July. Hopefully everything goes well and that we can prepare for the recitation on Friday.
Well, I am glad to be back at the village because it kind of feels like home now after six weeks of living here. Oh man. It was a great vacation and I am really glad I got the opportunity to see God's marvelous creations. Much love from Zambia!

40 Days and 40 Nights

So I counted today and I have been gone for 40 days! So crazy. I remember when I was counting down to leave and getting to the 40 day mark. I thought it was pretty cool. That is about the time when Lynn Sonnenleiter was really encouraging to really rest in the Lord and seek his guidance and protection.
The past 80 days have been a whirlwind of emotions and crazy events. The first 40 days were spent finishing up school, getting my professors to move my exams, studying for exams (kind of), taking exams, running back and forth to Raleigh to see people there, getting placed at North Pitt for YoungLife, getting involved in and finishing out the year at NP, saying "see you later" to tons of people (last of all my family right before boarding my first of many planes). The next 40 days involved flying to DC, flying 16 hours to Ethiopia, spending a night in sketchy sketchy Ethiopia (ah, sketchy!), finally arriving in Zambia after throwing up twice on planes (ew), meeting all the people that live here and the kids, spending 5.5 weeks in school figuring out how to deal with 3 and 4 year olds that know little or no English, getting adjusted to living in a house by myself that seldom has power at night, growing to love reading by candlelight, going shopping in markets and going on all-day grocery shopping excursions, lots of picture taking, lots of tears, lots of smiles and love, new housemates, lots of food, reading lots and lots of books.
The one thing that has been consistent through everything has been the Lord's presence with me. I have been placed in many situations throughout the past few weeks and months that have been new and scary and sad and happy and everything. It has been so comforting to be able to access the internet and talk to people at home, but above all else, it is a huge comfort to know that no matter what the Lord is with me. Although I fail many times to come to him in good times or bad, He is always with me and consumes my every moment. His blessings have been huge during the times of sadness, of happiness, of transition, of longing for something, anything. There is no doubt in my mind that this is where the Lord has me at this time. I am learning so much about myself and about who I am in the Lord and what He may have planned for my life. It is exciting and nerve-wrecking at the same time! Oh man.
Well this is a little bit of what has happened in my life. I am almost at the half-way point in my trip which is scary and exciting. When I get back, I want a Moes burrito and a Cook Out milkshake. I have it all planned. I go to Livingstone and Victoria Falls in two days! Hoorah! There will be many exciting things for us to do and I can not wait. Yay for awesome opportunities that are once in a lifetime.
Thanks for the continued love and support. I miss all of you. Peace and love from Zambia.

Busy, busy, busy

Well, I surely have been busy around here. On Monday, two people from the home office on staff with Rafiki came and are staying in the Koch's house because they are not here. Then, on Tuesday, Linda's daughter, son-in-law, and two grandchildren came. The daughter and son-in-law are staying in the guest house, so all six beds are full in here and there are people coming and going a lot!
Today, I finally got to butcher pumpkins. We cut them up and pulled out the seeds and goop and cooked them so that we can get the meat out and freeze it. Super exciting.
We played with shaving cream in school today which was awesome. The kids were kind of rowdy today and we had a few discipline issues, but that is kind of typical. I don't like being the one who usually has to take kids to time-out though. After tomorrow, we only have two more weeks of school and then there is a three week break so I can have lots of fun! Yahoo! Then there is three more weeks of school before I return home.
It is really awesome having people close to my age here. I am growing close to the other mini-missionaries which is so great. We talk about a lot of things and do a lot together. We are all going to Livingstone and Victoria Falls together next week so that will be awesome! It will be like a vacation within a vacation!
I am kind of struggling a lot with home sickness right now. This is definitely the longest I have been away from home and it is dawning on me how long I still have to go. It is frustrating to be so antsy about getting home when I want to be in Africa so badly as well. Ah.
Your prayers and love are much appreciated. It is getting pretty cold here so I am having to bundle up a lot every day! It is really dry as well and the threat of fire is more eminent.
Every day is an adventure! Peace and love from Africa.

The Craziest Day Ever

Today has been just really crazy. First, I got a call at 9 am from one of the staff telling me that from 10-12 I was supposed to play soccer with the children. That was fun. I played with the older boys and tried to teach them a few things.

Then, we had new children come! Lisa and Gladdis are 4, and Agrippa is 2. That was surely big news around town. The girls live with Momma Florence and Emmanuel, Ben, Salvio, and Mubiana. Agrippa is living with Momma Mwanza and Joseph, Happy, Jeff, Rachel, Samuel, and Mirriam.

Then, we had three new mini-missionaries come! They are staying with me! Wahoo! People around here! It has been quiet in this house for four weeks (yes, I have been gone for four weeks!) and it is good to have company. My roommate is Megan and she is 23 and an art teacher! This will be really fun getting to know her and Melissa and Kristy and showing them the ropes and introducing them to the children. They will help tutor and paint and do things around the village.

Well this has been a fun filled and exciting day and I am glad that new adventures will be beginning! I feel like I am at camp sometimes now. I do feel at home here but will be glad to return to my home in the states, albeit really sad to leave the children I love here. The longer I stay the more attached I get. Oh man...

All my love. Thank you for your prayers and support.

Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these

Well, not too much is new here. I have been sick and out of commission so I missed two days of school which is sad. They carried on without me however and now I am good as gold.

The school building process is carrying along smoothly, the walls are going up still and there are many more blocks awaiting to be put up! God is a great provider!

Lackson, a kindergartener, has taken to me after I spent a week eating at their table. He is SO sweet! He does get in trouble at school sometimes though. But he lost another tooth! I saw him today and we hugged and he showed it to me. He has taken to giving me kisses, as does Emmanuel and Grace.

We might be getting kids soon! As soon as the paperwork goes through I guess they will be coming. I hope and pray it will be soon.

We got a new momma, Momma Rachel! Yay. Now we have a child and a momma named Rachel, just like my older sister. What a good name.

New mini-missionaries come on Saturday, so I will have three new housemates, including a roommate, so that will be really different. I have gotten used to being on my own and doing my own thing, but having people around will be really exciting! And plans to go to Livingstone seem to be coming together so hopefully I can do that as well in the next few weeks.

Well, all is well in Africa! Much love.

Matthew 19:13-15

School

Our school looks like a castle! The walls are going up speedy fast.

The three year olds are awesome and so funny. The four year olds about drove me up the wall today.

I am eating with a new table today! That is exciting. I do not know many of the kids at that table because most of them are in kindergarten. I think there is Jeff, Eva, Edda, Lemmy, Loveness, Bupe, and Zawady, five of which are in kindergarten, and one is two. Momma Beznert is so sweet though but she is feeling a little under the weather right now.

We are under a period of increased load shedding this week so it is even more of a mystery of when we will have power.

I read in the Sunday Post yesterday that Obama is doing better than Hilary, praise the Lord. The people here love our politics, and they love Obama as well.

I got to take a nap this afternoon but it is off to dinner! I love you all.

Love Song

I got to go in to town this weekend, exciting times for sure. I bought a lot of presents for myself and others and spent a lot of money! It was good to get out again though. I went to Kabwata Baptist Church this morning in Lusaka, where the service is in English and the pews are made out of wood and not rocks, so that was good.

There is not much new around here. All the cooks are back in action thank goodness. Friday when I was helping in the kitchen, the cook Kennedy told me his testimony and life story basically so that was really awesome.

I am doing really well and I feel really at home here. I get a roommate on Saturday though so things will be changing around here! I will be glad to have some company out here in my little lonely house!

Thanks to everyone for the continued love and encouragement. We will probably be getting new kids this week so that will be really awesome!

Go out and make God famous.

It has been a long time coming

Well, it has been a long time since I have had power and enough time to sit down and write. One of our cooks is out with the chicken pox, so I have been doing a lot in the kitchen the past few days.

Back to the weekend though. Saturday was a day of rest and I got to hang out with the children some and do my own thing for a while. Sunday I went to church with the mommas and children. That sure was an adventure. I had seen the church on Saturday when I went on a walk down the road, but I failed to look at the inside. Oops, should have done that. So I get to the church on Sunday and realize that the pews are no more than rocks. Granted, they are rocks cut in the shape of benches. No backs. No glass in the windows. No doors. No lights. No AC. Just a pulpit and some rock pews. A good number of people showed up, maybe 75 including our kids and mommas. There were a lot of kids running around during the service. This church also does not have a pastor. The speakers were this elderly man and one of our mommas. Somehow I got volounteered to pray at the end. That was awkward.

Another big thing happening at our village is the construction of our new school building. This is a slow process mainly due to a lack of being able to obtain concrete. This is not because there is not enough concrete is Africa, but due to the World Cup 2010. As many of you probably do not know, as neither did I, the World Cup is being played in South Africa in 2010. There are massive construction projects going on in South Africa to prepare for this event. The stadium must be built, hotels are popping up all over the place, new roads, new restaurants, the whole works. So, they get priority on concrete, and the rest of everyone else gets hardly any. So that is making our building projects go kind of slowly. But on a good note, the walls on the school started going up today! It is wonderful to see. We had a slab of concrete for a while, and now there are the start of walls! Hallelujah.

On Monday we celebrated Africa Freedom Day (I am not sure what this is exactly) and there was no school. I helped out in the kitchen and the laundry room, and I sure felt like I was back at Rockbridge on work crew! It was a good day.

There sure is a lot going on here in my village and around us. It is the time of harvest for the maize. The teacher I work for spent her long weekend harvesting corn, I felt bad that she could not get a break from work. She also told me today about how she washes her own clothes by hand. I am so grateful to have machines to do that for me! I am still learning a lot about the culture here and it is making so grateful to live in America.

Some of you might have seen news about Zimbabwe recently. Since March, there have been huge political battles and oppression. The ruling party for the last many years got overthrown and ever since the parties that are involved in the run off in June have been oppressing their opponent's supporters. Many people have fled to South Africa, but there have also been riots in Johannesburg because of the South Africans not wanting the Zimbabwens in their country. Oh man. I am 38 miles from the border and in no danger from this but it is so sad to hear about it happening.

I am still loving opening my letters and occasionally getting to talk to some of my friends online when I have power and internet and a break from work! I have finished sewing all of the serviettes and am waiting on further instruction to start carving out pumpkins to freeze the pumpkin meat until next year! I can not wait to do that. Tomorrow we will prepare for next week's unit on body parts. Four more weeks of school until we get a four week holiday.

Well I need to get back to cleaning this place up. I love you all very much! Thanks for the prayers and support!

Waiting for Meeshack and Abednagoh

The new kids started school this week! In the three year old class we have Joseph and Chanda. Joseph is either a really old three year old or a four year old, but he is really with the program and usually knows what is going on. Chanda is a really young three year old and he does not really know what is going on and is kind of off in his own little world a lot of times.

In the four year old class we have Richard. The first two days he was fine, then, as people around here like to say, the honeymoon was over. He started acting out in class and had to have some time outs. He got talked to this morning before class by two of the teachers and two of the mommas and then today he acted really well! The three year olds were also really well behaved today.

The kindergarteners got three new kids, Mirriam, Zawady, and Shadreck! Hence the title of this blog. I do not know much about them except that they know zero English, like our new kids, and sometimes Zawady can get overwhelmed with all of the new things going on around him when he does not understand any of it.

We went to the new school building to pray over it again today and that was a nice treat. The weather was pretty chilly in the beginning of the week but yesterday and today are beautiful!

I have been really encouraged by the staff here and by the teacher I work under, Teacher Maureen, and by all my friends at home and my family, and all the letters that I have with me here. Thank you to everyone who is doing such an awesome job of encouraging me as I do get lonely here being the only teenager. I will get new roommates on June 7th I believe.

We have been without power a lot lately, and many times when the power is out so is the internet, so I have not had time to sit and write a post in a while due to those things.

We will get ready for next week this afternoon at the school. Next week our unit is on colors! This week we learned about shapes. Most of the kids can identify oval, circle, heart, square, rectangle and triangle pretty well now. I think we might have Monday off of school due to a holiday, but I am not sure yet.

I will not get to go in to town this weekend, I will be here with the kids! Hopefully we can do something fun on Saturday. Sunday I get to go to church with the kids and the mommas, but the service will not be in English so I will not really know what is going on. Oh well.

Back to work :) All my love from Zambia!

Happy Birthday Rachel Marie Jennings!

Happy 21st birthday Rachel! I hope you made many good choices ;) Linda and I ate ice cream today to celebrate from across the ocean.

A big shout-out to all my wonderful sisters and friends who wrote me so many encouraging letters to read while I was here. I am having a hard time spreading them out over three months but hopefully I can make it happen. They are so fun to open! A huge thank you to the lovely Ms. Sandy Urko who gave me so many envelopes filled with really awesome Bible verses and quotes and such. That is so great and I love them very much.

Somethings I read today:

"Every day we are called to small things with great love" Mother Teresa

Love...fears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

So sweet. New kids start school tomorrow! Oh man... Good thing Teacher Maureen knows Bemba because I sure do not!

I now have Zambian currency, Kwacha. 1 US dollar is about 3,500 kwacha, so I feel very rich. It is fun trying to convert everything to compare prices and figure out what you are really spending. Today, I bought two pairs of earrings for 12,000 kwacha! I felt like I was spending a whole lot, but really it was really cheep.

Much love from Zambia. Thanks for reading and for your support and prayer and love!

Trolleys and Tills

So I am learning new words every day! Today the words were "till" and "trolley." In Zambia, these mean "cash register" and "shopping cart." And yes, I got to go to Lusaka today to shop! It was quite an adventure.

Starting off our journey down our long dirt/rock road, we encountered many goats, pigs, and chickens. (On the way back we saw some oxen as well!) The driver sits on the right side of the car, so I felt as though I should be driving as I sat on the left side of the car! That was interesting to get used to.

We went to several different shopping centers and stores. Some were more Western and some were more Zambian. There is a store here called "Game" which is kind of like Wal-mart, but it does not sell clothes, and everything is way more expensive. We went to two grocery stores, Melisa's and Shop-rite. Shop-rite was a lot like Harris Teeter or Food Lion. I got many good fruits and yogurts and cereal and pasta so I am excited about my new foods. I also got a "flat" of eggs, which is a flat unit with 36 eggs in it. The milk and juices here come in boxes, so that is a fun adventure. The missionaries shop for usually two weeks at a time since the shopping is so far away, unlike in America where there is a grocery store on every corner.

We also went to a "boot sale" which was essentially a yard sale. We got many crayons and stickers and paint for the school at very good prices. It was nice to get out and see what was going on around this country I am now living in.

My heart breaks a little more every day as I find out more about the children and where they come from. It is so hard to look at them as orphans. Here, they have Mommas, Uncles, Aunties, Ami and Papa, and Teachers that love on them. It is hard to see them as any different, as coming from awful situations and living on the streets. Many children are orphaned due to AIDS, as is the common perception. There are also 100,000 people that die every year from Malaria. Many people are dying from very curable and preventable diseases. In many cases, if the mom dies, there is a good chance the father is long gone or has never really been around. We have one little boy in kindergarten (he is five) who used to make gravel for a living before he came here. Make gravel you might ask? Yes. By that I mean, sitting on a rock all day, holding a hammer, pounding on more rocks to make them in to smaller rocks, gravel. I saw people doing this today. To imagine a four-year-old doing this is unthinkable. To think that this is the only way that he would eat is unfathomable.

The smiles on these children's faces would melt your heart, as it does mine every time I get flashed a smile. I am so glad that Rafiki has come to take these children in, provide a home for them, feed them (as many of them used to fight for food or not get many meals) and give them an education and teach them the love of Christ.

Pray for the children of Zambia. They are beyond adorable and they are so loving and so smart. I wish I could take them all with me!

Jersey Day

Today, the kids wore their jerseys to school. Now, you must understand that our children wear uniforms to school. So when I heard they were wearing their jerseys, I was confused. Then I was informed that jerseys were what we in America call sweaters. Then I understood!

Today was a bit chilly out, with a high of only seventy, and the first clouds I have seen since arriving here. It is very dry here, so seventy is rather cool.

The children behaved better today than they did yesterday which was good. We have new kids coming to school next week! This afternoon we will prepare for that to happen. Thank God it is Friday though! Yay for the weekend! I get to go to the market tomorrow which is exciting.

Two of the missionaries leave tomorrow on furlough, where they will spend time with their family (including THE fattest grand-baby on record) and travel around America telling folks about the kids in Zambia! They will be gone for about eight weeks though which is sad.

Today, we went out to pray over the new school building, which is currently a cement slab, but it is growing rapidly! The kids all got their picture taken standing on the building. Then the kids sang Praise the Lord. Seventeen children ages 3-6 standing there in nice rows in their uniforms singing to the Lord. It was beautiful.

Back to work to get the school ready for the new children and the new unit next week!

Much love from Zambia!

He is Like The Light of Morning at Sunrise

sun in the morning!
a pretty gazebo in the village!
my classroom building
an insufficient image of the gorgeousness of the sunsets here. also, this is the view out my front window.

the sun setting - taken off my front porch

Sometimes I do not think it is fair that I am surrounded by this much of God's beauty. But I enjoy it anyways!

Power Outages

Mark 10:29-31 "'Truly I tell you,' Jesus replied, 'no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, and fields - along with persecutions- and in the age to come eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first.'"

How encouraging is that??

I am here in my second night, of what promises to be many to come, of power outages. Essentially now, I wait. I have candles and a torch. The power will be out for about three hours before returning. To me, turning the power off from 18 hours to 21 hours when the sun is not out seems silly, but oh well. The power company is called Zesco, so everyone refers to the outages as Zesco and it makes it kind of fun.

I figured out that I do have a roommate afterall! It is a salamander that I saw crawl under my refrigerator earlier, and that I learned lives in this house. How fun.

Some of the new children will start school next week! We will get two new 3 year olds and two new 4 year olds. That will be challenging for sure.

Last night I had dinner with one of the missionaries here, and it was good to get to know her some. We played Phase 10, and I forgot to warn her that I happen to be a very good card game player, oops!

Well I am off to roam in the dark! Hopefully I will not fall asleep too early, but the early wake up call makes it tempting.

Much love from Zambia.

Toilets and Torches, Grace and Happy

Hello from Zambia! This is my second full day here. I arrived in Lusaka on Sunday afternoon after having to spend the night in Ethiopia due to a plane delay, and the missing of a connecting flight. I had dinner with the six long term missionaries that live here and was welcomed with open arms in to their village. The next morning, after trying to get rid of my jet lag, I started work! I met the teacher I will be assisting, Teacher Maureen. Teacher Maureen is a Zambian. She teaches the three and four year olds. At seven, the teachers all arrive to start preparing for the day. At seven thirty, we have teacher devotions. At eight, the four year olds and kindergarteners come to school. The four year olds (Grace, Purity, Luka, Lemmy, and Happy) come to school from eight until ten in the mornings. Not that I am playing favorites, but since grace is my favorite word, and Grace happens to be adorable she might just be my favorite girl here. And who can resist loving a child named Happy?! At ten fifteen, the three year olds (Mubiana, Emmanuel, Ben, and Salvio) come until twelve hours. There are twenty-four children at the village right now, with plans to bring more in soon! By the way, a lot of things are more European here, so time is in 24 hours, bathrooms are called toilets, and flashlights are called torches. The torches come in handy when the power gets cut off for a few hours in the evening a few days a week. The bugs and critters are not too bad, and the village has very few mosquitoes, especially it is the dry season, and it will not rain here again until October. I have been learning a lot about the culture in Zambia and the people here. It is great to be here serving the Lord and I can tell that I will be of great help to the staff here. They will be rotating in and out going back to the states for a few weeks so I will help fill in where needed! Thank you all for your prayers and support!