Well. Sunday evening brought our first batch of goodbyes. We had our last youth activity with the Kasompe congregation. While this hasn't been my favorite activity it was sad to say goodbye. We had a short bible study (we got there the same time we usually do, but of course this was the day they actually started on time..so we were late..) and then we taught them a couple songs, and they had one last question and answer session for us which mostly revolved around dating in our culture..which was awkward at times..At the end they presented us with wrappers-just fabric they wear as skirts and then we took a LOT of pictures. We got a good group picture and then they went nuts wanting us to take every pose possible, of them by themselves, in groups, with us etc. It went on until 6 when we were supposed to be done, but our driver, surprise surprise was late. So we awkwardly waited inside with the two leader until the driver arrived, said our goodbyes and headed home.
When we got home we were barely in the gate before Priscilla was there and somehow knew we had been taking pictures and wanted to take more. So we spent 20 of the best mintues of the trip outside taking pictures and laughing more than any other day so far. It got cold so we went inside and started making dinner.
Monday was a strange day. We made it to see the monkeys! We were supposed to leave at 9 but of course that didn't happen. Catherine had to go with the driver to get fuel and a permit because I guess we were going out of his registered range. Who knows, and she didn't leave until 9 and didn't come back until 11. So. But we left with Priscilla and drove for maybe an hour, had to ask for directions a few times, and finally made it there. It was this beautiful wooded area-we drove to the office, paid our entrance fee and then drove to the chimp section. A guy met us and started taking us around the different buildings that housed chimps, and then took us up to the roof to look down on them in the trees and watch them feed. He introduced all of them, I have no idea how he told them apart-but one of them was named BooBoo (family joke, sorry to those who don't understand) I started laughing pretty hard when he said the name and they all looked at me like I was crazy, but oh well. I got a picture-the similarities are uncanny...
He took us to this hut and we sat and watched as he put out food for another group of chimps, when we were done there we left. We headed back to Chingola but made a stop at the Congo/Zambia border to buy some fabric and then headed home. We made dinner, watched Scandal and a movie and went to bed.
Tuesday Ashley did laundry and when she was done we decided to go into town. We stopped by the bureau to exchange more money and then decided to make a trip to Nono's. We saw Priscilla sitting across the street so we went to say hello and she said she was waiting for her classmates so we invited her to come get ice cream with us. It was strawberry, a nice change. After ice cream we said goodbye to Priscilla went to Pie City, then the bakery for bread and finally ShopRite. Then we went home. We unpacked and watched a movie.
Wednesday morning I did my laundry and watched the end of a movie they watched the night before. I prepared for bible study in the afternoon-it was my turn...we ate lunch, watched a movie, I did some Sudoku and took my laundry down and then we left (way to early, but Catherine was ready...) for the church. No one else was there of course, so we just sat inside and I wrote out the words to the song I was going to teach on slips of paper while we waited. I was hoping to make it to 20 minutes but my whole thing ended up being about 40..I got lucky and people talked a lot. Not too bad though. It was after six when we got home and we made dinner and watched Scandal (tonight is our last episode!) and did the dishes.
Today we went to Kasompe to take some pictures of the school they have started for Jac and Sherri. They have three classrooms, and Catherine (who used to be a teacher) has been going everyday to help train the teachers. On the way there Catherine needed to stop to scan some documents and we got a flat tire. Luckily we were in town and it didn't take long to fix. Then on the way back from Kasompe the driver got stopped by some traffic guy, and didn't have his id to give to him..uh oh..the guy told him to drop us and then come back...when Catherine got home later they were shouting outside and then he drove the car into the gate, and they talked for a long time outside. Then he handed her the keys and left..not a good sign for him since it was only 2 o'clock and he doesn't usually bring the car back until 8ish.
We're waiting now to go to the our last women's group where it's Ashley's turn to lead it. Packing tomorrow, and our last trip in town. Kid's activity on Saturday and sadly our last choir practice. Bright and early Sunday we're on our way home! Only a matter of hours now...
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Well...let's see. I left off with Tuesday...we didn't do anything of great interest the rest of Tuesday..
Wednesday I woke up fairly sick so I slept and watched movies for most of the day. Ashley ventured to Bible Study in the afternoon, and that was pretty much the whole day.
Thursday we hung out in the morning, did laundry, and had women's group in the afternoon.
Friday we walked into town, got ice cream, bought groceries, got some lunch, and walked home. I journaled and read for most of the afternoon and hung out with Chilando a bit.
Saturday was kids activity day, we prepared BINGO cards to play with them, but our translator did not arrive right away, which was going to make it a bit difficult. We did what we could, and she came about half an hour into it so we could actually communicate the lesson with them. We played games and sang and then they preformed a traditional dance for us. And then we went home. We had lunch and watched Kung Fu Panda with Chilando and Maureen and then at about 4 we walked back to the church with the youth for choir practice. They were having a meeting in the church when we got there, so we hung out outside until they were done. For some reason Priscilla was pretending that she didn't speak English and would only speak to us in Bemba, which I'm sure is much more entertaining for her than it is for us...
They took us through the Chiwempala market on the way home which was cool to see, lots of staring though. We got back from practice and had dinner, and watched the Kids Movie of the night-Click. It's been an Adam Sandler film festival all month...Catherine said something about us preaching in church today, which no one had notified us of. And they joke with us so much we never really know if they're telling the truth or not, but this was something we really need to know if it was true, and by the end of the conversation we weren't preaching but we were leading the Wednesday bible study and the Thursday women's meeting..
Today was our last church service which was bittersweet. We sang with the youth as usual, and they made me lead one of the songs we taught them...which was confusing when Priscilla wouldn't speak English to tell us what was going on. The pastor got up and talked about us a little bit since it was our last service, I have no idea what she said because we were standing up with her and no one translated for us, and then she had us say a few words.
We came home and Catherine started making ALL this food, and all these people came out of no where when it was ready. I have no idea who half of them were.
This afternoon we're going to Kasompe for our last Youth Activity there. This week is made up of lots of random things. Tomorrow we're going to the Congo/Zambia border to buy stuff and we're also going to this animal orphanage about 40 minutes away. We're not really sure what it is, but it's been something we've been wanting to do all summer.
We have our typical Wednesday/Thursday activites, and then Friday will be a lot of packing. We'll go into town once or twice more and do a bit more laundry. And then a week from today we'll be coming home!
I am very ready to be home, but it really is amazing how fast the time went here!
Wednesday I woke up fairly sick so I slept and watched movies for most of the day. Ashley ventured to Bible Study in the afternoon, and that was pretty much the whole day.
Thursday we hung out in the morning, did laundry, and had women's group in the afternoon.
Friday we walked into town, got ice cream, bought groceries, got some lunch, and walked home. I journaled and read for most of the afternoon and hung out with Chilando a bit.
Saturday was kids activity day, we prepared BINGO cards to play with them, but our translator did not arrive right away, which was going to make it a bit difficult. We did what we could, and she came about half an hour into it so we could actually communicate the lesson with them. We played games and sang and then they preformed a traditional dance for us. And then we went home. We had lunch and watched Kung Fu Panda with Chilando and Maureen and then at about 4 we walked back to the church with the youth for choir practice. They were having a meeting in the church when we got there, so we hung out outside until they were done. For some reason Priscilla was pretending that she didn't speak English and would only speak to us in Bemba, which I'm sure is much more entertaining for her than it is for us...
They took us through the Chiwempala market on the way home which was cool to see, lots of staring though. We got back from practice and had dinner, and watched the Kids Movie of the night-Click. It's been an Adam Sandler film festival all month...Catherine said something about us preaching in church today, which no one had notified us of. And they joke with us so much we never really know if they're telling the truth or not, but this was something we really need to know if it was true, and by the end of the conversation we weren't preaching but we were leading the Wednesday bible study and the Thursday women's meeting..
Today was our last church service which was bittersweet. We sang with the youth as usual, and they made me lead one of the songs we taught them...which was confusing when Priscilla wouldn't speak English to tell us what was going on. The pastor got up and talked about us a little bit since it was our last service, I have no idea what she said because we were standing up with her and no one translated for us, and then she had us say a few words.
We came home and Catherine started making ALL this food, and all these people came out of no where when it was ready. I have no idea who half of them were.
This afternoon we're going to Kasompe for our last Youth Activity there. This week is made up of lots of random things. Tomorrow we're going to the Congo/Zambia border to buy stuff and we're also going to this animal orphanage about 40 minutes away. We're not really sure what it is, but it's been something we've been wanting to do all summer.
We have our typical Wednesday/Thursday activites, and then Friday will be a lot of packing. We'll go into town once or twice more and do a bit more laundry. And then a week from today we'll be coming home!
I am very ready to be home, but it really is amazing how fast the time went here!
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Always Keeping Us On our Toes
We had another busy weekend! After our kids activity on Saturday we hung out around the house (still no water..) and eventually went to choir practice. Dinner was quick and then we watched Mr. Deeds on tv.
Sunday was church again, only one more church service left! We waited a long time after church while Catherine was talking so by the time we got home Priscilla already had the nshima done. We made a few other things and then sat down for lunch. The afternoon was just filled with relaxation and journaling. Then at 4 we headed off to our youth activity at the Kasompe congregation. We had our bit prepared as usual, and when we got there one of the leaders came and started talking with us. He had this pamphlet entitled "Christian?" and he started reading it. We thought he was just practicing his English because he would pause at certain words and ask us if he was saying them right. Then he handed it to us to finish reading. And THEN he said, so you'll teach this today. I hope our faces didn't show the shock. We hoped he was just translating wrong, and he was saying, he was going to teach this today. Nope. WE were supposed to teach this..so much for our preplanned activities...So we quickly tried to scribble out some notes on this pamphlet, discussion points, questions to ask etc. and then when everyone got there we started. I don't know how we pulled it off..but we did, and the "lesson" even lasted about 30 minutes which I was pretty impressed with. We went into announcements and then did the offering and then they asked us if we had anything else to say. We decided to teach them a song, and then they requested a second one when we were done. That pretty much wrapped up the event and we went outside to wait for the taxi (our original driver is back to work..) to take us home. When we got back Catherine was in bed, she hadn't been feeling well, so we started dinner, and still had no water...so no doing the dishes again. The Sunday night movie was Time Cop, which neither of us had ever seen, but it kept us enthralled trying to figure out who was where when.
Monday we still had no water-but somewhere in the morning it came back on! So Ashley did some laundry (much to her excitement..you'd be surprised at the things we get excited about here..) and I watched Meet the Fockers again for something to do. We again weren't sure how lunch was going to work, Catherine was still in bed not feeling well, so we decided to avoid the issue altogether and go into town for lunch. I had my first Vegetable Sharwama, which consisted of some cream sauce, fries, lettuce, green peppers and pickles wrapped in a tortilla. If you've ever tasted a fried pickle, the taste was similar, and it was another pretty exciting thing for the day. Ashley's meal didn't turn out to be so good, so we stopped by Pie City next so she could get a meat pie. Then we went to the bureau to exchange some more money, for the last time hopefully. And then we went to Nono's Ice Cream Parlor again-they had chocolate which pretty much made my day (up until that point). We sat and ate our cones and these two guys were outside the store with movies they were selling. We really wanted to look at what they had-but wouldn't you know, the one time we actually want to be bothered they ignored us and eventually walked away.
From Nono's we went to the post office, my mom had informed me she had sent a package and I had been anxiously awaiting it's arrival for about a week. And it was there! News magazines, pictures, cards (Thank you Stacie! I love it!!!), Twizzlers, and the glorious second book in the Twilight Saga. It was perfection in an envelope :) I had to force myself not to open it right there and wait until we got home-we still had a couple stops to make. We had to wait a while at the post office and they wanted ID-which luckily I had my school ID with me, and know my passport number by heart or I don't think they would have given it to me. We stopped at the bakery for bread and then moved onto ShopRite. Another mystery unfolded before us ( I think I could write a book about all the unsolved mysteries of this place..)-it was PACKED. More packed than we had ever seen it, and at first we thought it was just a busy time to be there. We went down our list getting our groceries, it was a bit difficult with all the people there, but we finally had everything we needed and went to find a place in the very very long lines. We realized that most people were paying with these vouchers-dozens of them. Worth up to 50,000 Kwacha (about ten US dollars). There was definitley some promotion going on that we didn't know about-but we could not figure out where people had gotten all these vouchers. We tried to ask about it later, but we had no luck, our host family had no idea..or we weren't explaining it so that they could understand..either way..we still have no idea. Add it to the list of unsolved mysteries...
We got home about 4:45 and unpacked all our groceries and then I allowed myself to open my package. I spent the evening lost in my book until dinner time, garlic bread and pasta again and we watched the new episode of Scandal! I don't know what we're going to do when we leave..we'll have to have someone email us updates... :)
Today is another pretty free day, we have to go in to town at some point to get Ashley's passport renewed for the last time, but nothing else too consuming!
Sunday was church again, only one more church service left! We waited a long time after church while Catherine was talking so by the time we got home Priscilla already had the nshima done. We made a few other things and then sat down for lunch. The afternoon was just filled with relaxation and journaling. Then at 4 we headed off to our youth activity at the Kasompe congregation. We had our bit prepared as usual, and when we got there one of the leaders came and started talking with us. He had this pamphlet entitled "Christian?" and he started reading it. We thought he was just practicing his English because he would pause at certain words and ask us if he was saying them right. Then he handed it to us to finish reading. And THEN he said, so you'll teach this today. I hope our faces didn't show the shock. We hoped he was just translating wrong, and he was saying, he was going to teach this today. Nope. WE were supposed to teach this..so much for our preplanned activities...So we quickly tried to scribble out some notes on this pamphlet, discussion points, questions to ask etc. and then when everyone got there we started. I don't know how we pulled it off..but we did, and the "lesson" even lasted about 30 minutes which I was pretty impressed with. We went into announcements and then did the offering and then they asked us if we had anything else to say. We decided to teach them a song, and then they requested a second one when we were done. That pretty much wrapped up the event and we went outside to wait for the taxi (our original driver is back to work..) to take us home. When we got back Catherine was in bed, she hadn't been feeling well, so we started dinner, and still had no water...so no doing the dishes again. The Sunday night movie was Time Cop, which neither of us had ever seen, but it kept us enthralled trying to figure out who was where when.
Monday we still had no water-but somewhere in the morning it came back on! So Ashley did some laundry (much to her excitement..you'd be surprised at the things we get excited about here..) and I watched Meet the Fockers again for something to do. We again weren't sure how lunch was going to work, Catherine was still in bed not feeling well, so we decided to avoid the issue altogether and go into town for lunch. I had my first Vegetable Sharwama, which consisted of some cream sauce, fries, lettuce, green peppers and pickles wrapped in a tortilla. If you've ever tasted a fried pickle, the taste was similar, and it was another pretty exciting thing for the day. Ashley's meal didn't turn out to be so good, so we stopped by Pie City next so she could get a meat pie. Then we went to the bureau to exchange some more money, for the last time hopefully. And then we went to Nono's Ice Cream Parlor again-they had chocolate which pretty much made my day (up until that point). We sat and ate our cones and these two guys were outside the store with movies they were selling. We really wanted to look at what they had-but wouldn't you know, the one time we actually want to be bothered they ignored us and eventually walked away.
From Nono's we went to the post office, my mom had informed me she had sent a package and I had been anxiously awaiting it's arrival for about a week. And it was there! News magazines, pictures, cards (Thank you Stacie! I love it!!!), Twizzlers, and the glorious second book in the Twilight Saga. It was perfection in an envelope :) I had to force myself not to open it right there and wait until we got home-we still had a couple stops to make. We had to wait a while at the post office and they wanted ID-which luckily I had my school ID with me, and know my passport number by heart or I don't think they would have given it to me. We stopped at the bakery for bread and then moved onto ShopRite. Another mystery unfolded before us ( I think I could write a book about all the unsolved mysteries of this place..)-it was PACKED. More packed than we had ever seen it, and at first we thought it was just a busy time to be there. We went down our list getting our groceries, it was a bit difficult with all the people there, but we finally had everything we needed and went to find a place in the very very long lines. We realized that most people were paying with these vouchers-dozens of them. Worth up to 50,000 Kwacha (about ten US dollars). There was definitley some promotion going on that we didn't know about-but we could not figure out where people had gotten all these vouchers. We tried to ask about it later, but we had no luck, our host family had no idea..or we weren't explaining it so that they could understand..either way..we still have no idea. Add it to the list of unsolved mysteries...
We got home about 4:45 and unpacked all our groceries and then I allowed myself to open my package. I spent the evening lost in my book until dinner time, garlic bread and pasta again and we watched the new episode of Scandal! I don't know what we're going to do when we leave..we'll have to have someone email us updates... :)
Today is another pretty free day, we have to go in to town at some point to get Ashley's passport renewed for the last time, but nothing else too consuming!
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Two More Weeks!
We're down to the two week countdown! Ashley and I have been having such a wonderful time, but we'll be ready to be home in two weeks.
This week we had the bible study on Wednesday which we planned quite quickly because as I said we weren't sure if we were supposed to plan it or not..so we just wanted it there in case they asked us. Turns out we weren't supposed to plan it..which is lucky because it was my turn to lead the bible study part and I planned it so fast it was really quite lame. So, I was happy to be given longer..if they ask us to do it again..we're not sure..as usual.
Thursday we hung out in the morning, then women's group in the afternoon. Sleepless in Seattle was on TV for the "chick flick" movie (which is every thursday) at 8 pm and that was a nice treat :)
Friday we had another survey day. We walked to the church at 9 am and people showed up when they felt like it...we stayed until about 3 when the last one came back with the completed surveys and then walked home. I made the mistake of going out to the outhouse while we were waiting at the church and the neighborhood kids saw that we were there and proceded to be as obnoxious as possible. They were banging on the door, slaming it open and running away yelling at us through the windows. We were trying to plan our weekend activities so it was really quite distracting but talking to them at all just made the game more fun. So we tried..kind of unsuccesfully to ignore them. Luckily the pastor came back soon and her very presence scared them away.
We came home and watched Shrek 3 then had dinner and went to bed.
Now today was another strange day. Yesterday we mentioned to the pastor that we wanted to hang some drawings up that the kids did last week-we wanted permission to do this in the church. It turned into a conversation about the kids activity and she was surprised to hear we wanted to do it again today, she thought it was just a one time thing. So she said they would have to announce it in church again on Sunday, and we'd do it next week-she said today we wouldn't have any kids because it wasn't announced last week. So that was a bummer, but then Ashley was worried some of the kids would show up since we told them to come back last week and Catherine assumed we would be going and told Chilando (her nephew) to get ready to go with us this morning. So we decided to walk down there and sure enough we had about 8 or 9 kids waiting for us. But no translator...and the REALLY weird thing was that the Pastor's children were there. We can't figure that one out-she told us no one would come because they didn't know about it so we cancelled it, and then somehow her children were there...they like to keep us on our toes..
Without a translator it was hard to do the full lesson Ashley planned, so we taught them some songs and played games, and talked a bit about the lesson, as much as we thought they would understand and then we went through some English words etc. Then games outside and then we went home.
We've been hanging out around the house most of the day-we have no water right now, so we went and bought some bottled water in the hopes it will come back on soon. Everyone in the area seems to have no water though-when we were walking to church we saw lots of people walking carrying water jugs etc. It's been two days now..so hopefully soon it will come back..
This week we had the bible study on Wednesday which we planned quite quickly because as I said we weren't sure if we were supposed to plan it or not..so we just wanted it there in case they asked us. Turns out we weren't supposed to plan it..which is lucky because it was my turn to lead the bible study part and I planned it so fast it was really quite lame. So, I was happy to be given longer..if they ask us to do it again..we're not sure..as usual.
Thursday we hung out in the morning, then women's group in the afternoon. Sleepless in Seattle was on TV for the "chick flick" movie (which is every thursday) at 8 pm and that was a nice treat :)
Friday we had another survey day. We walked to the church at 9 am and people showed up when they felt like it...we stayed until about 3 when the last one came back with the completed surveys and then walked home. I made the mistake of going out to the outhouse while we were waiting at the church and the neighborhood kids saw that we were there and proceded to be as obnoxious as possible. They were banging on the door, slaming it open and running away yelling at us through the windows. We were trying to plan our weekend activities so it was really quite distracting but talking to them at all just made the game more fun. So we tried..kind of unsuccesfully to ignore them. Luckily the pastor came back soon and her very presence scared them away.
We came home and watched Shrek 3 then had dinner and went to bed.
Now today was another strange day. Yesterday we mentioned to the pastor that we wanted to hang some drawings up that the kids did last week-we wanted permission to do this in the church. It turned into a conversation about the kids activity and she was surprised to hear we wanted to do it again today, she thought it was just a one time thing. So she said they would have to announce it in church again on Sunday, and we'd do it next week-she said today we wouldn't have any kids because it wasn't announced last week. So that was a bummer, but then Ashley was worried some of the kids would show up since we told them to come back last week and Catherine assumed we would be going and told Chilando (her nephew) to get ready to go with us this morning. So we decided to walk down there and sure enough we had about 8 or 9 kids waiting for us. But no translator...and the REALLY weird thing was that the Pastor's children were there. We can't figure that one out-she told us no one would come because they didn't know about it so we cancelled it, and then somehow her children were there...they like to keep us on our toes..
Without a translator it was hard to do the full lesson Ashley planned, so we taught them some songs and played games, and talked a bit about the lesson, as much as we thought they would understand and then we went through some English words etc. Then games outside and then we went home.
We've been hanging out around the house most of the day-we have no water right now, so we went and bought some bottled water in the hopes it will come back on soon. Everyone in the area seems to have no water though-when we were walking to church we saw lots of people walking carrying water jugs etc. It's been two days now..so hopefully soon it will come back..
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
We've had a busy last few days! It seems to be that our weekends are always the busiest here. Sunday was church in the morning...about 3 hours this week. We taught the kids Red Light Green Light last Saturday and when we broke for Sunday School that's the first game they wanted to play. They've all really warmed up to us in the last couple weeks and love to stroke our hair and skin..
Sunday afternoon we went to the other congregation for our youth activity. We got there about on time, but no one else showed up for about 20 mintues...When we first got here we used the taxi that Catherine's family owns. They employ the driver, so we've had a taxi to call whenever we've needed it. But a couple weeks ago he got arrested..for a reason we never fully understood...something to do with the car and running from the cops after breaking a traffic law-we think...so we've had to scramble to find drivers a few times. Our driver is supposedly working again, but I don't think he'll be having a job with this family much longer...
The youth activity went ok. We had a presentation about cultural differences ready but during the exercises we had planned they tried to answer the way they thought we would answer..so the differences didn't show up as dramatically as we had planned..but it still went ok. When we were done they played soccer for the remaining 30 minutes. Ashley played goalie..but in my skirt and flip flops I just watched and journaled until the taxi came to pick us up.
Monday is usually our emptiest day, a lot of movie watching happens on Mondays, but this past Monday we went to Kitwe with Catherine and Bunda Chibwe to get the car fixed. Someone had tried to steal it at the border I guess and the cab was all messed up. We did a lot of sitting at first, and then ended up going to Ndola to check on Bunda's passport, we had a less than divine lunch at a place called Divine Foods, and then headed back to Kitwe where the unexpectedly dropped us off at a market. We knew we were going to the market, but not by ourselves. We spent the next hour and a half our so bargaining with many people to get some really cool stuff. After the trade fair we were very practiced on how to get these guys down in prices..and we also knew what stuff should be, so we knew when they were majorly taking advantage. They were really quite friendly to us, they helped us find a dvd stand after we were done in their area and talked with us briefly while we waited for Catherine and Bunda to come back. (they had gone to pick up the fixed part of the car) We drove home from there, but on the way I had requested we stop and get a watermelon. So. At this market we always pass where there are dozens of fruit and vegetable stands we stopped. We were instantly swarmed with people, pressing their noses against the window, holding up every fruit and vegetable you can think of. And once you roll down the window even a little bit they are shoving it in the car trying to get you to buy it.
Bunda's mother was in the hospital so before we went all the way home we stopped to visit with her. It was interesting to see their hospital, not quite what we would see in the States, but it was really quite nice.
We finally made it home around 7:30 and ate dinner and went to bed exhausted.
Tuesday was decently busy too. We had survey training in the morning for the Chewimpala congregation. We got there around 10 am..the starting time we had given, and one woman showed up around 10:20...another around 10:45 and then a few more a little after 11. So we went through our training and they decided to go out into the community on Friday, so that went pretty well.
We came back and watched a movie, then made lunch..sort of. We're never quite sure if we're supposed to fix our own lunch or eat what the maid prepares. And they don't fix lunch until about 2, so we get quite hungry waiting around to see what we're supposed to do. I waited until about 1:30 and decided I was going to eat- Ashley had already eaten. Sure enough about 2 she put a bowl of nshima and beans out on the table with two plates and two glasses of water...So we had our second lunch. It's become a bit of a joke -we get hungry now when we don't have our second lunch..
We walked into town to do some shopping. We decided to try ice cream at this place, Nono's Ice Cream parlor and supermarket. Ice cream parlor here means an ice cream machine with two flavors of soft serve. We both got banana, and it was pretty good..tasted like a banana laffy taffy.
We finished our shopping and then walked home.
We have been eating dinner later and later it seems, sometime past 8 o'clock, and last night we thought we would actually eat before 7:30-Catherine was in the middle of making dinner when we lost power. But it ended up being really fun, we made a charcoal fire and cooked everything outside over the fire. Catherine kept saying, "Now you're experiencing the REAL Africa..no electicity to cook...this is the real Africa."
Today I did laundry-probably the last big load of the trip and then watched a movie. Catherine is gone for the day so we're mostly just hanging out and then we have our Bible Study this afternoon that we're not sure if we're supposed to plan or not...so we'll see how that goes..
More soon :)
Sunday afternoon we went to the other congregation for our youth activity. We got there about on time, but no one else showed up for about 20 mintues...When we first got here we used the taxi that Catherine's family owns. They employ the driver, so we've had a taxi to call whenever we've needed it. But a couple weeks ago he got arrested..for a reason we never fully understood...something to do with the car and running from the cops after breaking a traffic law-we think...so we've had to scramble to find drivers a few times. Our driver is supposedly working again, but I don't think he'll be having a job with this family much longer...
The youth activity went ok. We had a presentation about cultural differences ready but during the exercises we had planned they tried to answer the way they thought we would answer..so the differences didn't show up as dramatically as we had planned..but it still went ok. When we were done they played soccer for the remaining 30 minutes. Ashley played goalie..but in my skirt and flip flops I just watched and journaled until the taxi came to pick us up.
Monday is usually our emptiest day, a lot of movie watching happens on Mondays, but this past Monday we went to Kitwe with Catherine and Bunda Chibwe to get the car fixed. Someone had tried to steal it at the border I guess and the cab was all messed up. We did a lot of sitting at first, and then ended up going to Ndola to check on Bunda's passport, we had a less than divine lunch at a place called Divine Foods, and then headed back to Kitwe where the unexpectedly dropped us off at a market. We knew we were going to the market, but not by ourselves. We spent the next hour and a half our so bargaining with many people to get some really cool stuff. After the trade fair we were very practiced on how to get these guys down in prices..and we also knew what stuff should be, so we knew when they were majorly taking advantage. They were really quite friendly to us, they helped us find a dvd stand after we were done in their area and talked with us briefly while we waited for Catherine and Bunda to come back. (they had gone to pick up the fixed part of the car) We drove home from there, but on the way I had requested we stop and get a watermelon. So. At this market we always pass where there are dozens of fruit and vegetable stands we stopped. We were instantly swarmed with people, pressing their noses against the window, holding up every fruit and vegetable you can think of. And once you roll down the window even a little bit they are shoving it in the car trying to get you to buy it.
Bunda's mother was in the hospital so before we went all the way home we stopped to visit with her. It was interesting to see their hospital, not quite what we would see in the States, but it was really quite nice.
We finally made it home around 7:30 and ate dinner and went to bed exhausted.
Tuesday was decently busy too. We had survey training in the morning for the Chewimpala congregation. We got there around 10 am..the starting time we had given, and one woman showed up around 10:20...another around 10:45 and then a few more a little after 11. So we went through our training and they decided to go out into the community on Friday, so that went pretty well.
We came back and watched a movie, then made lunch..sort of. We're never quite sure if we're supposed to fix our own lunch or eat what the maid prepares. And they don't fix lunch until about 2, so we get quite hungry waiting around to see what we're supposed to do. I waited until about 1:30 and decided I was going to eat- Ashley had already eaten. Sure enough about 2 she put a bowl of nshima and beans out on the table with two plates and two glasses of water...So we had our second lunch. It's become a bit of a joke -we get hungry now when we don't have our second lunch..
We walked into town to do some shopping. We decided to try ice cream at this place, Nono's Ice Cream parlor and supermarket. Ice cream parlor here means an ice cream machine with two flavors of soft serve. We both got banana, and it was pretty good..tasted like a banana laffy taffy.
We finished our shopping and then walked home.
We have been eating dinner later and later it seems, sometime past 8 o'clock, and last night we thought we would actually eat before 7:30-Catherine was in the middle of making dinner when we lost power. But it ended up being really fun, we made a charcoal fire and cooked everything outside over the fire. Catherine kept saying, "Now you're experiencing the REAL Africa..no electicity to cook...this is the real Africa."
Today I did laundry-probably the last big load of the trip and then watched a movie. Catherine is gone for the day so we're mostly just hanging out and then we have our Bible Study this afternoon that we're not sure if we're supposed to plan or not...so we'll see how that goes..
More soon :)
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Our Internet has Returned!
Catherine arrived back late late late Friday night and we finally have our internet back! I'm not sure where to even really start on an update, lots has happened in the past two and half weeks!
We started doing our survey work at with one of the congregations, and so far they have gone to about 100 houses, they had their third day in the community this week, so we'll see how many more survey's later today that they got done! We planned and executed our first bible study, as well as our first Children's activity. Both went well, we started out with 10 kids and by the end we had 27 (neighborhood kids came and joined) We taught them red light green light and they didn't want to stop playing! We colored and sang and had a blast with them!
We also ventured out to Ndola for the Trade Fair. We got up REALLY early to catch a bus to Kitwe and then another bus to Ndola. We got lucky because here, you get on a bus and just wait until it's full before you leave. So you could be sitting there a mighty long time but every bus we got on left pretty quickly! We got to Ndola at about 9:30 and had to find are way a bit and ended up at Muso's (Catherine's son, who went with us) aunt's house. We visited with them for a bit and had tea and watched part of the Devil Wear's Prada..and then at about 11:15 we took a taxi to the trade fair. At first it didn't seem like much, there were lots of people but no booths or anything and we were confused on what it even was. But the longer we walked around the more stuff we found-we bought a LOT of stuff by the end of the day. They had cotton candy and horse rides and a train driving around for the kids and ice cream-it had a lot of the components of a fair-even a couple little kid rides, but it would not be recognized as a fair to anyone from the States. We had a really really good day though! We had to wait a bit for our bus on the way back but we arrived home about 6:45 and started making dinner. It was the 4th of July and Ashley and I decided to try and make some celebration foods. We managed hot dogs, creamed corn, fruit salad, baked beans, and brownies for dessert. Everyone here seemed to like the food..but we'll never know for sure. We made garlic bread for them one night and they loved it!
We also had an adventure going to Ndola this past Friday to train another congregation to do surveys...but that story must be told in person..
Really we never know what's going on. When you don't speak the language it leaves you in the dark a lot, and there are times when we'll show up for some event and it will just not happen. No one else will show up and you'll never know what happened. They keep us on our toes though!
We've had two youth group acitivities now, our third one will be today. We had planned a "lesson" last week and then we offered the opportunity for them to ask questions about our culture and it ended up taking up the entire time!
We're having such a great time, and it's hard to believe that we're only three weeks away from coming home! There is more to write, but it's time for breakfast!!
We started doing our survey work at with one of the congregations, and so far they have gone to about 100 houses, they had their third day in the community this week, so we'll see how many more survey's later today that they got done! We planned and executed our first bible study, as well as our first Children's activity. Both went well, we started out with 10 kids and by the end we had 27 (neighborhood kids came and joined) We taught them red light green light and they didn't want to stop playing! We colored and sang and had a blast with them!
We also ventured out to Ndola for the Trade Fair. We got up REALLY early to catch a bus to Kitwe and then another bus to Ndola. We got lucky because here, you get on a bus and just wait until it's full before you leave. So you could be sitting there a mighty long time but every bus we got on left pretty quickly! We got to Ndola at about 9:30 and had to find are way a bit and ended up at Muso's (Catherine's son, who went with us) aunt's house. We visited with them for a bit and had tea and watched part of the Devil Wear's Prada..and then at about 11:15 we took a taxi to the trade fair. At first it didn't seem like much, there were lots of people but no booths or anything and we were confused on what it even was. But the longer we walked around the more stuff we found-we bought a LOT of stuff by the end of the day. They had cotton candy and horse rides and a train driving around for the kids and ice cream-it had a lot of the components of a fair-even a couple little kid rides, but it would not be recognized as a fair to anyone from the States. We had a really really good day though! We had to wait a bit for our bus on the way back but we arrived home about 6:45 and started making dinner. It was the 4th of July and Ashley and I decided to try and make some celebration foods. We managed hot dogs, creamed corn, fruit salad, baked beans, and brownies for dessert. Everyone here seemed to like the food..but we'll never know for sure. We made garlic bread for them one night and they loved it!
We also had an adventure going to Ndola this past Friday to train another congregation to do surveys...but that story must be told in person..
Really we never know what's going on. When you don't speak the language it leaves you in the dark a lot, and there are times when we'll show up for some event and it will just not happen. No one else will show up and you'll never know what happened. They keep us on our toes though!
We've had two youth group acitivities now, our third one will be today. We had planned a "lesson" last week and then we offered the opportunity for them to ask questions about our culture and it ended up taking up the entire time!
We're having such a great time, and it's hard to believe that we're only three weeks away from coming home! There is more to write, but it's time for breakfast!!
Friday, June 26, 2009
Update
Well, I really have way more to write than I have the time for, and tomorrow Catherine leaves for Malawi and takes her computer with her :( So I'll try to hit an internet cafe for an update while she is gone.
Tuesday we made our first trek into town by ourselves. It's about a thrity minute walk, and we made it with little problem. We got our groceries and loaded up but the taxi driver was not answering his phone...so we walked back with all our food... Tuesday afternoon we were supposed to go to choir practice at church for a special service on Wednesday. It started at 3. Well we're in Africa so naturally we didn't go on time, we got there maybe 15 mintues late. No one was there, so we waited...for about 30 minutes and then gave up. We met one of the choir members on the way back and she said oh yeah, it started at three. We said, there is no one there, and she just looked at us like, well it's only almost four now..We gave up and went home.
Wednesday we had a very lonnnnng day. Some church members from the states and England were here and they gave a seminar for surrounding congregations. We got to the church around 8 a.m. and left after 8 p.m The seminar ended around 5:30 and then we had a closing service at 6. It was really nice, just veryyyy long. We got back to a house with no power and lit some candles to get something to eat quickly and then fell into bed.
Yesterday we woke up to a house still with no power, so we made our breakfast over a charcoal fire. I sat outside and journaled for a bit and we both did some laundry. Then in the afternoon we were supposed to go to the women's group bible study. Again, we left a little late and again we arrived at the church with no one there...we sat and waited...and gave up. Africa is frustrating....
Today we went into town again to make some copies for our survey attempt tomorrow and got some more groceries. Our phone stopped working again...oh joy..so we tried to find the store to fix it but had no luck. Muzo (Catherine's son) took us to these rocks nearby, big huge boulders that we climbed and hung out at for a while. We had a really great view of the city and it was nice to do something different.
We'll have our first youth activity on Sunday..we'll see how that goes...and then we found out today about this trade fair going on in Ndola next week. All of Zambia has four days off school while this fair is going on. The way they described it to us, it sounds like a renaissance fair, so we're going to try and go to that! Otherwise it's the same schedule, we should be having our first bible study session on Wednesday, but I'm not holding my breath that people will be there when we get there...
Tuesday we made our first trek into town by ourselves. It's about a thrity minute walk, and we made it with little problem. We got our groceries and loaded up but the taxi driver was not answering his phone...so we walked back with all our food... Tuesday afternoon we were supposed to go to choir practice at church for a special service on Wednesday. It started at 3. Well we're in Africa so naturally we didn't go on time, we got there maybe 15 mintues late. No one was there, so we waited...for about 30 minutes and then gave up. We met one of the choir members on the way back and she said oh yeah, it started at three. We said, there is no one there, and she just looked at us like, well it's only almost four now..We gave up and went home.
Wednesday we had a very lonnnnng day. Some church members from the states and England were here and they gave a seminar for surrounding congregations. We got to the church around 8 a.m. and left after 8 p.m The seminar ended around 5:30 and then we had a closing service at 6. It was really nice, just veryyyy long. We got back to a house with no power and lit some candles to get something to eat quickly and then fell into bed.
Yesterday we woke up to a house still with no power, so we made our breakfast over a charcoal fire. I sat outside and journaled for a bit and we both did some laundry. Then in the afternoon we were supposed to go to the women's group bible study. Again, we left a little late and again we arrived at the church with no one there...we sat and waited...and gave up. Africa is frustrating....
Today we went into town again to make some copies for our survey attempt tomorrow and got some more groceries. Our phone stopped working again...oh joy..so we tried to find the store to fix it but had no luck. Muzo (Catherine's son) took us to these rocks nearby, big huge boulders that we climbed and hung out at for a while. We had a really great view of the city and it was nice to do something different.
We'll have our first youth activity on Sunday..we'll see how that goes...and then we found out today about this trade fair going on in Ndola next week. All of Zambia has four days off school while this fair is going on. The way they described it to us, it sounds like a renaissance fair, so we're going to try and go to that! Otherwise it's the same schedule, we should be having our first bible study session on Wednesday, but I'm not holding my breath that people will be there when we get there...
Pictures
The top picture is our bedroom, then the kitchen, the outside of Catherine's house, the gate to the yard and the last one is nshima.Monday, June 22, 2009
Dreams
We have to take Malaria medication while here, and it is causing some of the most ridiculous dreams of my life. I've taken Malaria for other countries before, but I have never had this intense of an experience with the dreams side effect. The most random dreams ever! Sometimes I can trace parts of dreams back to something that acutally happened that day or a few days ago, but most of the time they consists of random people and random events. I've been trying to write them down, but there are so many it gets tiring.
We had a pretty busy weekend! On Saturday we spent the whole day at the Kasompe congregation for a youth activity. The youth of both the local congregations came together and the pastor gave a seminar on "How to find your partner." It was a bit challenging for us to contribute anything because there are so many cultural differences in the way they date and the way our culture dates and we didn't want to be offensive to them. It was quite long though...Pastor Jenny went through 12 conditions you should have for your partner and then took questions. Then about 2 we took a break for lunch. Catherine had packed us a lunch but then I guess they had prepared something for us and we were supposed to eat with Jenny as the "guests" but there was a lot of confusion and we didn't really understand what we were supposeed to be doing. Eventually we went back and ate with her and then at about 3 we started the seminar again for more questions. They sing a lot. Lots and lots of choruses they call them. They probably sang at least 15 throughout the day. At about 5 we started to head home. Catherine's family owns a taxi so we call him when we need to go places. He picked us up and we came home and started dinner.
Lots of pasta, we haven't had Nshima that much really, but lots of pasta and vegetables. Catherine makes really really good scones, and she's made those for us a couple times so far.
Then Sunday we went to church, their system is a bit different then ours. An opening prayer, a few choruses usually-the song "There's No One, There's No one Like Jesus" is from here..I think that's what they said. But the other language that it's in in the Sing a New Song hymnal is their language, so I acutally knew that song when they started singing it yesterday! :)
They do Sunday School in the middle of the service (not a bad idea to get people to go to Sunday school...) During Sunday school we went out and worked with the kids..really we just watched..and then played games with them. We went back into the service for announcements and then the sermon.
Yesterday we also had our first training session with community people for the surveys. It went pretty well I think..we had to have a translator but I think they got everything we were saying. We scheduled our first day to go out into the commnity for this Saturday, so we'll see what results we get.
Today we just have an easy day to relax! Maybe try to do a bit more laundry....
We had a pretty busy weekend! On Saturday we spent the whole day at the Kasompe congregation for a youth activity. The youth of both the local congregations came together and the pastor gave a seminar on "How to find your partner." It was a bit challenging for us to contribute anything because there are so many cultural differences in the way they date and the way our culture dates and we didn't want to be offensive to them. It was quite long though...Pastor Jenny went through 12 conditions you should have for your partner and then took questions. Then about 2 we took a break for lunch. Catherine had packed us a lunch but then I guess they had prepared something for us and we were supposed to eat with Jenny as the "guests" but there was a lot of confusion and we didn't really understand what we were supposeed to be doing. Eventually we went back and ate with her and then at about 3 we started the seminar again for more questions. They sing a lot. Lots and lots of choruses they call them. They probably sang at least 15 throughout the day. At about 5 we started to head home. Catherine's family owns a taxi so we call him when we need to go places. He picked us up and we came home and started dinner.
Lots of pasta, we haven't had Nshima that much really, but lots of pasta and vegetables. Catherine makes really really good scones, and she's made those for us a couple times so far.
Then Sunday we went to church, their system is a bit different then ours. An opening prayer, a few choruses usually-the song "There's No One, There's No one Like Jesus" is from here..I think that's what they said. But the other language that it's in in the Sing a New Song hymnal is their language, so I acutally knew that song when they started singing it yesterday! :)
They do Sunday School in the middle of the service (not a bad idea to get people to go to Sunday school...) During Sunday school we went out and worked with the kids..really we just watched..and then played games with them. We went back into the service for announcements and then the sermon.
Yesterday we also had our first training session with community people for the surveys. It went pretty well I think..we had to have a translator but I think they got everything we were saying. We scheduled our first day to go out into the commnity for this Saturday, so we'll see what results we get.
Today we just have an easy day to relax! Maybe try to do a bit more laundry....
Friday, June 19, 2009
Getting Settled
We've been at Catherine's house for a week now, which seems kind of crazy, but we still have a long way to go!
On Tuesday we hung out most of the day, Catherine had to go pick up some church people from the airport and take them to the border so they could have their own adventures getting into the Congo. So she was gone most of the day and we hung out with the family here and just did random things. Then on Wednesday we did laundry. A simple process you would think, but we were new to it and they found the way we did it, VERY funny and Catherine kept saying, no no, that's not how you do it and she would laugh. Sigh. We took turns and by the end it had taken us both about two hours to wash, rinse, and hang up, but we're learning...
In the afternoon we went to Margaret's house-she is very active in the church and will be heading the orphan program down here. The two pastors of the local congregations were also there and we discussed what we can do to help them and then what the next steps in the orphan program process will be.
We ended up with quite a few things on our plate.
Sundays we will be helping out with Sunday school for the kids and then of course the service. Then in the afternoons we will be putting together a youth activity for one of the congregations.
Mondays and Tuesdays will be our planning days as well as the days we work on the survey materials. Wednesday we will hold a bible study, Thursdays we go to a women's group, which we experienced for the first time yesterday and it was similar to a bible study. Friday's are for planning as well. Then Saturdays, we will be going to a youth activity from 10-3 every saturday. This weeks topic is preparation for dating and marraige..so that should be interesting..
We've been runnning into many cultural differences that are causing a bit of stress..but it's all in the experience I suppose. And we're slowly figuring things out, though there are many things I don't think we'll ever understand :)
Yesterday we went to the immigration office to get Ashley's visa extended, they only gave her two weeks (me they gave four weeks..no idea why..) and told us to just get it extended when the time runs out. So we walked to immigration and sat there forever until someone showed up (most of the time we have no idea what's going on....) but then they said, nope come back tomorrow because her visa doesn't really expire until Sunday, but they will be closed, so they want you to come on the day closest to the date on the passport. So we went back today and got everything taken care of.
We did go to the women's group in the afternoon and it was lot of singing (songs we don't know) and then it was similar to a bible study and then they had announcements and things got kind of heated. All in a different language, so we just sat there, again, having no idea what was really going on..but as I said..that's typical. We watched Meet the Fockers with the family last night, and then our soap opera. Scandal! has become our favorite...it's quite horrible.
Today, like I said we got the immigration stuff taken care of, and we don't have much else on the agenda for the rest of the day.
On Tuesday we hung out most of the day, Catherine had to go pick up some church people from the airport and take them to the border so they could have their own adventures getting into the Congo. So she was gone most of the day and we hung out with the family here and just did random things. Then on Wednesday we did laundry. A simple process you would think, but we were new to it and they found the way we did it, VERY funny and Catherine kept saying, no no, that's not how you do it and she would laugh. Sigh. We took turns and by the end it had taken us both about two hours to wash, rinse, and hang up, but we're learning...
In the afternoon we went to Margaret's house-she is very active in the church and will be heading the orphan program down here. The two pastors of the local congregations were also there and we discussed what we can do to help them and then what the next steps in the orphan program process will be.
We ended up with quite a few things on our plate.
Sundays we will be helping out with Sunday school for the kids and then of course the service. Then in the afternoons we will be putting together a youth activity for one of the congregations.
Mondays and Tuesdays will be our planning days as well as the days we work on the survey materials. Wednesday we will hold a bible study, Thursdays we go to a women's group, which we experienced for the first time yesterday and it was similar to a bible study. Friday's are for planning as well. Then Saturdays, we will be going to a youth activity from 10-3 every saturday. This weeks topic is preparation for dating and marraige..so that should be interesting..
We've been runnning into many cultural differences that are causing a bit of stress..but it's all in the experience I suppose. And we're slowly figuring things out, though there are many things I don't think we'll ever understand :)
Yesterday we went to the immigration office to get Ashley's visa extended, they only gave her two weeks (me they gave four weeks..no idea why..) and told us to just get it extended when the time runs out. So we walked to immigration and sat there forever until someone showed up (most of the time we have no idea what's going on....) but then they said, nope come back tomorrow because her visa doesn't really expire until Sunday, but they will be closed, so they want you to come on the day closest to the date on the passport. So we went back today and got everything taken care of.
We did go to the women's group in the afternoon and it was lot of singing (songs we don't know) and then it was similar to a bible study and then they had announcements and things got kind of heated. All in a different language, so we just sat there, again, having no idea what was really going on..but as I said..that's typical. We watched Meet the Fockers with the family last night, and then our soap opera. Scandal! has become our favorite...it's quite horrible.
Today, like I said we got the immigration stuff taken care of, and we don't have much else on the agenda for the rest of the day.
Monday, June 15, 2009
Adventures in the Congo
Well. Last wednesday we ventured into the Congo for a few hours to cross over back into Zambia, it saves some time to cut through the Congo, and it's less money for gas. However the Congolese were not so keen on these white people with no transit visas coming into their country. The way it works is, we get to the Zambian border, all get out, go in and they write down our passport numbers like four times or something ridiculous, then Catherine has to negotiate and convince them to let us through (sometimes the occasional bribe is required...) so we stand there and get stared at for a while (it's a whole new world being gawked at all the time...it's more stressful than you'd think..) so we made it through Zambia. When we had gone to get this magic letter from immigration we were told a man would escort us through the Conogo border so we didn't have any problems. Well. The letter did nothing for us. The man didn't even show it because he knew it wouldn't work. So we walked across the zambian border to the congo border and we stood there and stood there while all the locals just passed through. They did not like us white people just passing through. So the man from Zambia tried to reason and eventually it got through to them that hey-these white people, if they see how bad the road is, they'll fix it! So they let us through. So we took the 2 1/2 hour journey across (the road is only about 40 miles, and it took us that long..that's how bad it is. I gave up trying to read because my book kept getting thrown out of my hand from all the bumps and stops etc.) So after what felt like a year, we made it across and then we have to go through the Congo border again. They didn't want to let us through without visas. So they called their friends back at the other border and they said, oh no! Don't give them trouble, they're going to fix the roads! So then with a little bribe, the guy said ok. But then his boss came in, and said the same thing, so they called the other border again, and they told them the same thing, and he finally said ok. So we walked over to the Zambian border and waited while Catherine worked her magic, and then finally got into the car and drove the last hour and a half to Mansa. The end. It was an exhausting day.
However. Not as exhausting as the women who met us there had. They got up at four a.m. walked 17 km, then took a canoe across a river, got on bikes and road many km and then took a several hour bus. So..I do think we had it a little better than them.
We did decide to come home the long way though..12 hours vs. 8, but much much less hassel and no bribing and waiting at borders.
We got back from Mansa on Friday night and Ashley and I spent our first night at Catherine's house. Things are going quite well so far. We watched Spiderman 2 last night, and they love to show wrestling here..so we've watched some of that too...
Today we drove to Kitwe to take Jac and Sherri to the bus station, so Ashley and I are on our own from here on out. Then we went to visit Catherine's daughter at her boarding school and then we stopped for lunch in Kitwe. We went to this place, After Ten, where we have now eaten at three times in the past week. But I'll take all the falafel I can get :)
Then we went on our first grocery shopping adventure and stocked up for the next couple of weeks and then headed back to Catherine's. Kitwe is about 45 mintues from Chingola. Oh! and at the grocery store, I found veggie burgers! I was amazed-they had burger and hotdogs and ground "meat" all vegan in fact, not just vegetarian. So, we'll see how these Zambian veggie burgers taste... We'll have another low key day tomorrow, and then starting Wednesday we'll be working with the local pastors to get something going in their churchs, as well as starting our survey work.
I've been trying so hard to put pictures up, and I'm still having no luck, the internet comes and goes here so it's hard to get something uploaded before the connections goes. So. Still working on that...maybe someday...
We've also made good friends with Catherine's niece, Maureen, she is wonderful!
She is four years old and has become an awesome play mate :)
Ok. That's all for now. It's about dinner time!
However. Not as exhausting as the women who met us there had. They got up at four a.m. walked 17 km, then took a canoe across a river, got on bikes and road many km and then took a several hour bus. So..I do think we had it a little better than them.
We did decide to come home the long way though..12 hours vs. 8, but much much less hassel and no bribing and waiting at borders.
We got back from Mansa on Friday night and Ashley and I spent our first night at Catherine's house. Things are going quite well so far. We watched Spiderman 2 last night, and they love to show wrestling here..so we've watched some of that too...
Today we drove to Kitwe to take Jac and Sherri to the bus station, so Ashley and I are on our own from here on out. Then we went to visit Catherine's daughter at her boarding school and then we stopped for lunch in Kitwe. We went to this place, After Ten, where we have now eaten at three times in the past week. But I'll take all the falafel I can get :)
Then we went on our first grocery shopping adventure and stocked up for the next couple of weeks and then headed back to Catherine's. Kitwe is about 45 mintues from Chingola. Oh! and at the grocery store, I found veggie burgers! I was amazed-they had burger and hotdogs and ground "meat" all vegan in fact, not just vegetarian. So, we'll see how these Zambian veggie burgers taste... We'll have another low key day tomorrow, and then starting Wednesday we'll be working with the local pastors to get something going in their churchs, as well as starting our survey work.
I've been trying so hard to put pictures up, and I'm still having no luck, the internet comes and goes here so it's hard to get something uploaded before the connections goes. So. Still working on that...maybe someday...
We've also made good friends with Catherine's niece, Maureen, she is wonderful!
She is four years old and has become an awesome play mate :)
Ok. That's all for now. It's about dinner time!
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Quick
So much to say, so little time, and I've been on the internet for waaay more than my share talking to parents, but I just wanted to put a quick update, and I'll go into more detail hopefully tomorrow (with pictures..cross your fingers...) but we're in Chingola! At Catherine's, they have so generously given us our own room, with our own beds! It's very nice, we're having a great time with Catherine, our host, she is wonderful! We've visited many congregations here, went to church this morning...which was an experience, and tomorrow..well we're not really sure where we go from here. We start our work on this orhpans program, and we're not sure how we're really going to start that off. Mostly by talking to communites and going into homes to get statistical data about them. So...more tomorrow hopefully!
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
a little more
ok in response to comments
dad-yes i can use word and just copy and paste but at internet cafes they charge you as soon as you sit down, but once i get to catherines for good (friday) then i can do that and it will save lots of problems :)
katy-nshima is the traditional staple here in zambia, it is cornmeal and water cooked and cooked and cooked and it turns into almost a really really thick cream of wheat. they serve it to you in patties and then you pull a chunck off and roll it into a ball and the press down to make it into a spoon like contraption and then use it to eat the other food.
again, i'll post pictures when i can, but it has not been easy..hopefully at catherine's house i'll be able to!
so...i don't really remember where I was.
oh. we ate lunch and then headed of to chingola. We got in and settled at the hotel and then grabbed a lite dinner since we ate lunch at about 3:30. Then (it was only like 7 o'clock) we went to our rooms and tried to find things to do until we were tired. Journaling is taking over my life..it never ends sigh.
Backing up a little...when we first got here (zambia) we realized after we were at our hotel that we were only stamped in for two weeks (ashley) and 30 days (rachael) which was a problem since we are here until august... so we had to go back to the airport and after some problems we discovered that we have to get our stay extended in chingola..so we were ok, but then we also realized that our visas are only double entry, not multiple. So if we left the country to travel through the congo, and then came back in we would have used our two. And we would have to buy another visa to go back the same way two days later, and at that time we thought we were going to have to pay for congolese visas as well, so it would get quite expensive. BUT. we didn't have to pay for visas for the congo because of the letter we got the immigration office to write for us saying we are just passing through, so now we'll just have to buy new zambia visas....oh well...
alright..we're off to the congo! more when I can :)
dad-yes i can use word and just copy and paste but at internet cafes they charge you as soon as you sit down, but once i get to catherines for good (friday) then i can do that and it will save lots of problems :)
katy-nshima is the traditional staple here in zambia, it is cornmeal and water cooked and cooked and cooked and it turns into almost a really really thick cream of wheat. they serve it to you in patties and then you pull a chunck off and roll it into a ball and the press down to make it into a spoon like contraption and then use it to eat the other food.
again, i'll post pictures when i can, but it has not been easy..hopefully at catherine's house i'll be able to!
so...i don't really remember where I was.
oh. we ate lunch and then headed of to chingola. We got in and settled at the hotel and then grabbed a lite dinner since we ate lunch at about 3:30. Then (it was only like 7 o'clock) we went to our rooms and tried to find things to do until we were tired. Journaling is taking over my life..it never ends sigh.
Backing up a little...when we first got here (zambia) we realized after we were at our hotel that we were only stamped in for two weeks (ashley) and 30 days (rachael) which was a problem since we are here until august... so we had to go back to the airport and after some problems we discovered that we have to get our stay extended in chingola..so we were ok, but then we also realized that our visas are only double entry, not multiple. So if we left the country to travel through the congo, and then came back in we would have used our two. And we would have to buy another visa to go back the same way two days later, and at that time we thought we were going to have to pay for congolese visas as well, so it would get quite expensive. BUT. we didn't have to pay for visas for the congo because of the letter we got the immigration office to write for us saying we are just passing through, so now we'll just have to buy new zambia visas....oh well...
alright..we're off to the congo! more when I can :)
Chingola!
We made it to Chingola! For one night...now today we're off through the D.R. Congo (should be interesting...) to go to Mansa still in Zambia, it's just much faster to drive through the congo, so that's what we'll be doing!
Grandpa and Grandma! I meant Samuel! Unfortunately, I didn't realize it was him until after! I was looking at the stuff you gave me grandpa the night after i spent all day with him and I realized it was him! He moved to the Ndola area, and I was expecting to see him in Mansa, but I met him, he's wonderful! I left the pictures with Catherine (our host) and she said she would get them to him, but I was so sad when I realized I didn't even know who I was with :(
Yesterday we spent the day in Luanshya with another Community of Christ group and then we headed out of town and got lunch in Kitwe, the first restaurant I've seen to offer a vegetarian burger. I however had the falafel, it was delicious...ok i'm worrie about the internet i'm going to try and publish this and then write some more.
Grandpa and Grandma! I meant Samuel! Unfortunately, I didn't realize it was him until after! I was looking at the stuff you gave me grandpa the night after i spent all day with him and I realized it was him! He moved to the Ndola area, and I was expecting to see him in Mansa, but I met him, he's wonderful! I left the pictures with Catherine (our host) and she said she would get them to him, but I was so sad when I realized I didn't even know who I was with :(
Yesterday we spent the day in Luanshya with another Community of Christ group and then we headed out of town and got lunch in Kitwe, the first restaurant I've seen to offer a vegetarian burger. I however had the falafel, it was delicious...ok i'm worrie about the internet i'm going to try and publish this and then write some more.
Monday, June 8, 2009
Zambia
iWell I just typed a very long post and then the internet quit..so I'll recap and write more details later. made it to zambia, Catherine our host while in chingoloa met us at the airport and took us to our hotel. We had to change rooms about three times until we settled and then we went out looking for water but ended up back at the airport because we discovered the airport had stamped ashley and i in incorrectly. So after lots of hassel we discovered there was nothing we could do and we had to get it extended once in chingola. So we went back and got water and then hung out at the hotel until dinner, we met the Matthews for Indian, which was wonderful. TOday we went to exchanged money and went on a quest for visas so we can get across the D.R. congo's border on wednesday (more on that later..) we were basically successful and then we went to a community of christ congregation in town where they welcomed us and then prepared lunch for us. we had our first nshima experience! so far so good :) our cell phone does not work...so we will have to get one in chingoloa (mom that was mostly for you..this internet is bad and i don't want to waste time typing an email...i'll let you know when we have a number you can call but it looks like it will be friday at least unfortunately..) so now we have an easy evening and off to chingola briefly tomorrow.. hope this posts...
Saturday, June 6, 2009
"Tresspassers will be shot...survivors will be shot again.."
The billboards and signs have got to be one of the most hilarious things about this country. We saw that sign on the way to the bus station on Wednesday along with many many others..I've started a list...
The trip has been going so well! We spent the last two days in Botswana meeting with NGO's to learn about their programs and to get ideas for the program we are going to be starting in Zambia in the coming weeks. There are really no words to describe the people we've met and the things they have achomplished. They have bulit the most amazing programs by themselves from the ground, we saw programs for all ages. One was run by a minister and his wife for preschool aged kids. The couple gave us a tour of the place and as soon as we went over to see the kids playing on the playground they ran over as fast as they could and almost tackled us to the ground. They wanted to be picked up and given high fives, so much love immediately, it was really something. And as soon as I got my camera out they all started screaming "Cheeeeese!!!" and putting their hands up, they were so much fun. The program we visited last night was started by an American and she is working with teenage kids. We were lucky enough to be there on the last day their Peace Corps volunteer was going to be there so we got to be part of her going away party and interact with the kids. The generosity we have been shown by everyone everywhere is really something, I've never seen anything like it.
We've also met quite a few Americans working at these programs, we've had dinner the past two nights with Americans we've met during the day, all just a matter of chance-it seems to happen a lot down here! We also got to site see a bit but it was a pretty short visit.
Tomorrow we fly to Zambia, and we'll be traveling around the country for about a week before finishing up in Chingolo. I"ll try to post pictures sometime this next week, South Africa has such low bandwith that you get charged by your MB usage not by time, so uploading pictures is not even a remote possibility!
The trip has been going so well! We spent the last two days in Botswana meeting with NGO's to learn about their programs and to get ideas for the program we are going to be starting in Zambia in the coming weeks. There are really no words to describe the people we've met and the things they have achomplished. They have bulit the most amazing programs by themselves from the ground, we saw programs for all ages. One was run by a minister and his wife for preschool aged kids. The couple gave us a tour of the place and as soon as we went over to see the kids playing on the playground they ran over as fast as they could and almost tackled us to the ground. They wanted to be picked up and given high fives, so much love immediately, it was really something. And as soon as I got my camera out they all started screaming "Cheeeeese!!!" and putting their hands up, they were so much fun. The program we visited last night was started by an American and she is working with teenage kids. We were lucky enough to be there on the last day their Peace Corps volunteer was going to be there so we got to be part of her going away party and interact with the kids. The generosity we have been shown by everyone everywhere is really something, I've never seen anything like it.
We've also met quite a few Americans working at these programs, we've had dinner the past two nights with Americans we've met during the day, all just a matter of chance-it seems to happen a lot down here! We also got to site see a bit but it was a pretty short visit.
Tomorrow we fly to Zambia, and we'll be traveling around the country for about a week before finishing up in Chingolo. I"ll try to post pictures sometime this next week, South Africa has such low bandwith that you get charged by your MB usage not by time, so uploading pictures is not even a remote possibility!
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
We're Here!
We got here last night at about 7 pm, and met Jac and Sherri Kirpatrick at the airport. We were picked up by our hotel hosts and arrived at a wonderful hotel! It's so beautiful here, but quite cold! Not a lot of time to write at the moment, but everything is going well, we're off to Botswana today by bus and then we have meetings with NGO's for the next few days. We got a decent amount of sleep last night but both Ashley and I were up for several hours during the night wide awake. But the plane ride was fine, we had a delayed take off due to mechanical problems...just what you want to hear before a 15 hour flight, but it was the first non stop flight for Delta to Johannesburg, and we were on a brand new plane, which was kind of cool. They did a ribbon cutting ceremony and everything...which was amusing..anyway. Everything is great so far..more later! :)
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Here we go!
We leave tomorrow! I've spent the past few days in Independence for training sessions etc. and tomorrow my partner Ashley (picture below) and I head off! We'll fly to Atlanta, then after like a five hour layover or something horrible, we take off for Johannesburg, South Africa! Fifteen hour flight or something...get excited right? :)
I'll post again when I can once we're there!
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