Malaria Monday!

Monday was a great day. I slept so well that I pushed snooze and slept for an extra twenty minutes. Sleep for a lot of our group is hard to get because of the drugs we are taking and the noises in the night. I would ask that you pray for some of our group that really need some sleep! We had a pancake breakfast and then we packed Kaki Jakie with all the baby clothes donated (thank you) and then walked to the Havens. Ian showed us a short cut to the Havens rather that walking on the main roads. This short cut involves lifting part of a barbed wire fence if you are not small enough to fit through the little gap in the fence, and who better to lift that barbed wire fence than me? So I got to touch the awesome rusty barbed wire fence, and then Kara got a picture of me holding it and it looks like I’m striking a pose. Perfect. This “short cut” also involves us walking through the bush, which is exciting and a little frightening all at the same time. Lucky for us we make it to the Havens just fine. We first got out all the clothes and separated them in to piles of the same age group. Something new I learned today, baby clothes have sizes based on months and years. Who knew? I just thought baby clothes were baby clothes. After sorting we presented the clothes and tools to the works there at the Haven. They were so excited and thankful. They also got new scrub tops to wear.  Once everything was in its place we started working with the babies there at the Haven 1. (The healthy babies) We all grabbed a baby and starting working with them seeing what they can and can’t do and telling Dr. Weaver if they are fitting into their developmental mile stones. Since I have had less experience with babies, and fewer classes than my peers in graduate school it is a challenge to keep up, but I’m am learning quick, and I’m very thankful for the help and knowledge I am learning from them. After working with the babies we walked back for lunch, this time we stuck to the main roads. Lunch was great! Lenard made fried chicken and rolls. It was very good and much needed after all that walking back and forth and energy spent with the babies there. After lunch we had a short break and then headed back to the Havens to work in Haven 3 (Sick babies). At first I was a little nervous working with babies that had TB and HIV, but then once we all saw them and started working with them, most of the group forgot about it and worked great with the kids there. In the morning and afternoon we assessed the babies by seeing if they could crawl, walk, sit, hold their head up, babble, say one word or two word utterances, and some swallowing observations. Working with the babies was very fun and it was extremely rewarding to get them to babble and smile at us. I look forward to tomorrow working with in Haven 2 (toddlers). After working with the babies we walked back and most of us took cold showers and prepared for dinner. After I was finished with my shower there was a group of African girls and some of our group playing soccer, so I joined that group and had fun learning their names and interacting with the girls. We had dinner and then the group hung out and slowly split of into smaller groups, I watched the stars for a long time on top of Kaki Jackie. I can’t get over how beautiful the stars are here. God really has created a wonderful word full of many beautiful things. Babies and stars are what I enjoy most right now. I guess that’s all for now.

Thank you for all your prayers. We have had few illnesses so far and no injuries. Continue to pray for our health, sleep and our ministry to the people here.

Thank you.

Ben

First Sunday

Sunday morning we arrived an hour late to church. There was a miscommunication and we thought church started an hour later. Still the worship service was very enjoyable. The singing was great and we were able to sing alone to the ones in English and hum to the ones in Tonga. The sermon was hard to understand because of the thick African accent, but what I heard was very good. At the end of  the sermon we were told to introduce ourselves. We each went around and said are names and what we were studying. Meanwhile a lot of the church was giggling. After we handed back the microphone, the speaker said that he was very grateful we were here and that everyone should come meets us because all the heard over the microphone was shshshshshsh. Everyone laughed. I guess they can’t understand our English accent either.

After church we were in charge of making lunch. We kept it simple by making spaghetti and garlic toast. After lunch we unloaded the storage bin and got out all the CSD tools and books. It was like Christmas. We are all excited to take this over to the havens tomorrow so we can begin therapy. After our meeting we decided to go attempt to play soccer with the students. It started off with just Americans but more and more students came and joined us, and I’m sure some were just content with watching and laughing. Soccer was one of the most fun interactive activity I have had with the students thus far on the trip. I look forward to meeting more of them and creating relationships with the students here. After soccer, many of us cleaned up and prepared for dinner. I had my first shave in Zambia….it was cold.

After dinner we headed over to church where we had another service. It was great. The singing was even better and we could understand the speaker as well. After the service the whole church came over to where we live and they had 7 young people baptized. It was really neat to see it all and experience that with me. The singing was so enjoyable and just a great experience. After the baptisms our group still needed to take communion since we missed it in the morning, so we took communion together and then went to bed exhausted.

Tomorrow we are all really excited to start working. Continue to pray for our work here.

Thank you.

Ben

I held a baby and the stars were amazing; a great day.

Day five started with a wonderful breakfast and promises to finally tour the mission and meet and greet with the children at the orphanage. We were all very excited. I started reading the book Transforming Discipleship. I just read the beginning but it really stresses that ministry is most effective by forming relationships. This gave me a clear mind set on my purpose here. I am supposed to make relationships that hopefully turn into spiritual growth.  Meeting with the babies was very enjoyable and I discovered that I do have some skills in holding and entertaining babies. This was comforting to me since we will spend a lot of time hold, caring and loving on them. After playing with the babies for two hours we walked back to where we were staying and had lunch. After lunch we went into town and visited the market and bought various items. Since it was Saturday many of the shops were closed, but we will have plenty of time to shop during our trip. After shopping I took my first solar shower. It was surprisingly warn after being heated by the sun all day. It was quite nice. After showering we had time to hang out for a while. On the men’s house there is a nice porch, so we sat on the porch together and I got to know the Pharmacy guys better, which is always enjoyable. Dinner tonight was great. We had spaghetti and garlic bread, and for desert we had banana pudding, which was delicious. The food is great here, we are very blessed to have such a great African cook here. Tomorrow we are responsible for making lunch as a group, so I am looking forward to that experience. After dinner the power went out. We all played Nerts with our head lamps on till we got tired of that, and then we went out to view the starts. The stars were amazing. I was able to lay on top of Kaki Jakie (Landrover type vehicle) and gaze at the stars. After we got tired of viewing the stars the group split up. My group played Phase 10. I was destroyed and Ashley won; apparently for the first time in her life. Great. It was intense game with many tears, knives, and dirty looks, but we are still all friends. Tomorrow is our first Sunday experience. I am very much looking forward to it. I’m not quite sure what to expect but I’m sure its going to be great!

Ben

Day 4

We finally made it to Namwinga! After eating a very nice breakfast we left our very nice hotel and started our six hour bus ride to the mission. For lunch we stopped at a place called Tooters. There for the first time many of us practiced using Zambian money. Charissa and I ate lunch for 49,000 Kwacha! Which is about 10 ish dollars in American money. We both ended up getting some chicken and chips (French fries) and a drink. It was pretty good food. Then we went back to get on the bus and found out it wasn’t going to start by itself So we had to push it out away from the wall where it was parked so it could coast a bit and then start. I’m not sure how exactly that works, but after doing so the bus started. Success! We traveled the rest of the way and reached the mission! We were all very excited! We greeted the people there. Got our room assignments and then moved in. Most of us moved in very quickly so we could go exploring as much as possible before dinner. We walked down to the college there and watched the students play soccer. Tessa, our GPS/ Tom Tom/ British Pirate/ tour guide navigated us successfully; however she was not successful in acting like a British Pirate GPS. Apparently there is more to come. After that we had dinner where we enjoyed some grilled cheese sandwiches, carrots, tomatoes, and some wonderful chocolate cake all cooked by Leonard who is our awesome cook while we are staying here.

After dinner, we played games and then spent two hours coming up with rapper names for everyone on the trip. There were multiple names that I was given, but I believe the official name is BenE G. which is appropriate. After naming everyone we split up and went back to our housing. I saw and killed my first Malaria mosquito. Its raining tonight…during dry season. We were told to be extra careful the next few days that way we don’t end of with Malaria. I’m glad I did a project on Malaria last fall in my Health Care Missions class. I know what kind of mosquito to be weary of and what the symptoms are.  Hopefully none of us get it. We all have mosquito nets in our rooms so hopefully we will be fine. That’s all for today. Can’t wait for tomorrow. We get to meet more people and we get an official tour!

Thank you for all your prayers!

Ben