Today is our last full day in Sikalongo…and this is very sad. I can’t believe its time to go already! In some ways it seems as if we have been here for a year, in other ways it seems we’ve only been here for a few days. Although in some regards I’m more than ready to get back home, in other ways I’m not ready at all. It feels as if we are a part of this place now, a feeling that took at least a month to create. We know people here. When we go into town, we see people we know, shopkeepers know us, the guys at Spar (the supermarket in town) know us. It’s a good feeling. What a ridiculous summer. I have learned so much about myself, about others, about God, about the world. In many ways its been like a crash course in humanity. Its had its ups and downs being here but I never really doubted that this was the place that I needed to be at this time. What an incredible experience. I’m so incredibly grateful that I was able to have the experience too. I’m pretty blessed.

Earlier this week we were in town which was really nice. It was good to try something different and meet some more amazing people. We went in and stayed with Ron Herr. He and his wife are from PA and they’ve been here for about 6 years doing work with teenagers and Ron does economic development work. We’ve gotten to know them pretty well this summer, they’ve been a real blessing. Tuesday morning we went out with Ron to a village where he is doing development work. It was interesting to see what he does. Basically he goes to villages and helps them problem solve. He asks them what is holding them back from being a self sustaining community. Usually they list things like clean water, healthcare, education, lack of food, and the like. Then he and his workers help them think through how they can use the resources at their disposal to create a more self sustaining community. He helps them think of how to plant in a way that they will have enough for a drought, how to think through water issues, and how to properly manage money and resources so schools and clinics can be built. It’s a very different approach than I think usually missionaries take and we really enjoyed being able to observe. Wednesday and Thursday we kind of just hung out around town and said goodbye to some of the other missionaries we have met in the course of the summer. I think for me that is one of the greatest things about travel and this summer, all of the absolutely fantastic people we have met. The last few days here have been filled with goodbyes and meals with families.

Two deep thoughts from this week….first, from the day doing economic development. The villagers were debating among themselves where to put three wells and one hand pump that were being donated. They were doing a good job trying to decide based on need but the whole thing troubled me. In the States, we take showers for 20 or 30 minutes if we want, with clean water free from parasites. And here these people were debating where to put some wells so that they didn’t have to drink dirty water or walk upwards of 5k to get clean water. This is the 21^st century people. That should not even be a debate anymore. How is it that these people have to vote where to put clean water? I don’t understand. There shouldn’t even be a need for voting where to put the wells, at least most of the people should have access to clean water. It was sobering. It explains why children still die from diarrhea and why most parents have to bury at least one child. Its disturbing.

Second deep thought is that maybe we should allow more interruptions in life than we do. I think so many times I am so focused on the task at hand or what I’m supposed to be doing that I don’t allow for what might be perceived as distractions. Someone comes and tries to talk to me and I feel slighted because I don’t have time. I need to be, instead of trying to do all the time. I would encourage you to allow those distractions on occasion; you might be surprised at what you find. I cannot even begin to list all of the wonderful people we have met or incredible experiences we have had here as a result of what might have initially been thought of as distractions. I’ve heard a saying that goes something like everyone you meet is another face of God. If we see most people we meet as a distraction though, rather than a potential face, we cheat only ourselves. Live in the present. Let yourself be distracted sometimes, ridiculous things might happen. And then like us you can look back and say, wow if we hadn’t allowed ourselves “to be” there in that situation we never would have met or experienced this or that. Just be. That’s probably one of the biggest things I’ve learned this summer…to live in the present, to be, and to allow God to reveal himself in unconventional ways.

So I think this will be the last post from “this side” as the Zambians say. Tomorrow morning we are headed up to Lusaka and Tuesday morning we will begin our exceedingly long exodus…Johannesburg, London, Newark, home.

Thank you a whole heap for the prayers as we’ve been here. God heard.

I guess we will see you all on “that side”!

Today is our last full day in Sikalongo…and this is very sad. I can’t believe its time to go already! In some ways it seems as if we have been here for a year, in other ways it seems we’ve only been here for a few days. Although in some regards I’m more than ready to get back home, in other ways I’m not ready at all. It feels as if we are a part of this place now, a feeling that took at least a month to create. We know people here. When we go into town, we see people we know, shopkeepers know us, the guys at Spar (the supermarket in town) know us. It’s a good feeling. What a ridiculous summer. I have learned so much about myself, about others, about God, about the world. In many ways its been like a crash course in humanity. Its had its ups and downs being here but I never really doubted that this was the place that I needed to be at this time. What an incredible experience. I’m so incredibly grateful that I was able to have the experience too. I’m pretty blessed.

Earlier this week we were in town which was really nice. It was good to try something different and meet some more amazing people. We went in and stayed with Ron Herr. He and his wife are from PA and they’ve been here for about 6 years doing work with teenagers and Ron does economic development work. We’ve gotten to know them pretty well this summer, they’ve been a real blessing. Tuesday morning we went out with Ron to a village where he is doing development work. It was interesting to see what he does. Basically he goes to villages and helps them problem solve. He asks them what is holding them back from being a self sustaining community. Usually they list things like clean water, healthcare, education, lack of food, and the like. Then he and his workers help them think through how they can use the resources at their disposal to create a more self sustaining community. He helps them think of how to plant in a way that they will have enough for a drought, how to think through water issues, and how to properly manage money and resources so schools and clinics can be built. It’s a very different approach than I think usually missionaries take and we really enjoyed being able to observe. Wednesday and Thursday we kind of just hung out around town and said goodbye to some of the other missionaries we have met in the course of the summer. I think for me that is one of the greatest things about travel and this summer, all of the absolutely fantastic people we have met. The last few days here have been filled with goodbyes and meals with families.

Two deep thoughts from this week….first, from the day doing economic development. The villagers were debating among themselves where to put three wells and one hand pump that were being donated. They were doing a good job trying to decide based on need but the whole thing troubled me. In the States, we take showers for 20 or 30 minutes if we want, with clean water free from parasites. And here these people were debating where to put some wells so that they didn’t have to drink dirty water or walk upwards of 5k to get clean water. This is the 21^st century people. That should not even be a debate anymore. How is it that these people have to vote where to put clean water? I don’t understand. There shouldn’t even be a need for voting where to put the wells, at least most of the people should have access to clean water. It was sobering. It explains why children still die from diarrhea and why most parents have to bury at least one child. Its disturbing.

Second deep thought is that maybe we should allow more interruptions in life than we do. I think so many times I am so focused on the task at hand or what I’m supposed to be doing that I don’t allow for what might be perceived as distractions. Someone comes and tries to talk to me and I feel slighted because I don’t have time. I need to be, instead of trying to do all the time. I would encourage you to allow those distractions on occasion; you might be surprised at what you find. I cannot even begin to list all of the wonderful people we have met or incredible experiences we have had here as a result of what might have initially been thought of as distractions. I’ve heard a saying that goes something like everyone you meet is another face of God. If we see most people we meet as a distraction though, rather than a potential face, we cheat only ourselves. Live in the present. Let yourself be distracted sometimes, ridiculous things might happen. And then like us you can look back and say, wow if we hadn’t allowed ourselves “to be” there in that situation we never would have met or experienced this or that. Just be. That’s probably one of the biggest things I’ve learned this summer…to live in the present, to be, and to allow God to reveal himself in unconventional ways.

So I think this will be the last post from “this side” as the Zambians say. Tomorrow morning we are headed up to Lusaka and Tuesday morning we will begin our exceedingly long exodus…Johannesburg, London, Newark, home.

Thank you a whole heap for the prayers as we’ve been here. God heard.

I guess we will see you all on “that side”!

So begins our last week in Zambia, which is quite odd to think about. It hit this morning sitting in church that we are only going to have one more Sunday here. I can't believe it. Time has gone so fast, and yet so slow too. It seems like we just got here, and yet it seems like we've been here forever...not really sure how to explain it. Amazing how many incredible experiences you can pack into almost 3 months, how many interesting people you can meet, how many wonderful things can happen. Fantastic summer.

We got back this afternoon from our village stay! It was quite an experience. We stayed with an absolutely fantastic family, the Chindolo's, in the home in Mboole, which is a village about and hours walk from ours. We made nsima, the traditional staple food, baked a cake over a fire, visited a few local churches, went for a nice walk through the bush, hung out with a ton of kids, went to a great church this morning, and had a wonderful time. The family was fantastic. They were really into teaching us Chitonga, the local language. But they did it in such a way that didn't leave your head fried at the end of the conversation. Good teachers. Mrs Chindolo would simply say various phrases in Chitonga to us with maybe one or two English words so that we could take a stab at figuring out what the heck she was talking about. It was great fun attempting to guess. They were all very patient, and very willing to help us learn. I think if we had stayed with them for the summer we would all know Tonga very well! We were there Friday afternoon, Saturday and then today. This morning we went to the local church. Its a bit smaller than the one we have been regularly attending and it was packed. The local womens choir sang as well as the womens choir from our village. The service was incredibly long, but the singing was phenomenal! It's nice to get to the point where you can understand bits and pieces of the language and all of it no longer sounds like complete gibberish. After church we had a huge lunch and trekked back home. Excellent weekend.

This weekend we'll be heading into town for our last week. We've met some fantastic people from all over the world at these fellowships we have gone to a few times. We're going to hang out with a few of them in an orphanage, doing economic development projects and anything else we can figure out. It should be fun and another great experience! Its going to be good to be busy the last week too because it could be a really long with no teaching or anything and the promise of home next week.

So...one more week. 19th we shall be home. I could really go for a cheeseburger with a whole lot of cheese one it...like a block of cheese on top of the burger...yes...

Well, last week was Macha and it was pretty fantastic! Both of the guys and I managed to come down with something or other entailing fevers and some intestinal distress the morning we were to leave which made for a slightly uncomfortable 5 hour drive on mostly bumpy roads, but we made it! We had a great time. There was another group from Messiah there, a summer missions team, and we knew some of the people. It was crazy reuniting with friends from Messiah all the way over here in Zambia! We had the opportunity to relax a bit on Saturday and Sunday was at the Brethren in Christ Church there in Macha, which was fantastic. Monday Ian and I were able to go on rounds in the pediatric ward of the hospital with Dr. Thuma. Macha has a mission hospital there that was founded by Dr. Thuma's father quite a while ago. Its the nearest hospital for quite a ways for many folks and so it sees quite a bit more action that the little clinic here. They also have an outpatient clinic, and operating theatre, mens/womens/peds wards, a TB facility and a malaria research institute. It was great to have the opportunity to go around with Dr Thuma and to see some of the other great work that is going on there. There were a few other American doctors there who were also pretty interesting to meet and hear their stories of how they ended up in Macha. We met some very interesting people! Tuesday we got to go into the OR which was amazing! We were able to see two sets of women have their tubes tied, one man get a chest tube put in to drain the fluid that had built up from TB, and then just as we were leaving we saw a C-section! That was pretty amazing also and we didn't think we were going to get to see it so it was an unexpected surprise.

I think one of the hardest things about going around in the hospital and seeing the patients was seeing them die or knowing that they soon would probably die. I don't know if death comes more frequently here or maybe it is just less messy at home usually. I guess its that people don't usually die from the things they die from here in the States. Most people die from old age, or heart problems, or cancer. People don't usually die from diarrhea or TB or AIDS (or both combined), or an infection of a wound, or malnutrition, or things of that nature. Death is so common here its a part of life. Women have 8 children, 4 or 5 die from things like pneumonia or diarrhea or malnutrition. Its really heartbreaking. We saw some kids on rounds that died. A few of them have stuck in our minds. One child, about 4, was severely malnourished, had diarrhea, TB, looked like a stick, and probably weighed no more than the average American 2 year old. There was a child less than a year old who had come in complaining of uncontrollable diarrhea. His parents had taken him to a traditional healer who had given him an herb which had actually stopped the diarrhea but in the process had caused his kidneys to begin to shut down. So do we get angry at the parent for taking the child to the traditional healer trying to save their child? Do we get angry at the lack of a healthcare system which caused the mother to try herbal remedies instead of walking for 2 days to get to the hospital? Is the government to blame? How about God, why would he allow such a thing to happen? I don't know the answer, but its hard to witness. There are no dialysis machines here. Either the childs kidneys will work to get the herbs out of his system or he will die. Mmmmm.

There is one little girl who has haunted both Ian and I since we saw her. She was 6 years old. She weighed 22 pounds. She looked like a Holocaust survivor. Eyes completely sunken in and a stick. HIV positive. All of the doctors were encouraged by her progress and commenting how much better she looked since she came in. The next morning she was dead. The wailing of the women that accompanied her body being removed was enough to send chills down one's spine. I don't know. Somethings got to change, thats not right.

Enough of the sad things of life. Monday of this week we drove up to Lusaka to pick up some items that our professor had shipped there. It was quite a journey! And it was really crazy to be in a city instead of in the middle of no where. The most exciting part was that we went to a place to get burgers and chicken sandwiches and let me tell you they were pretty darn amazing. complete with cheese on top. Yes please.

In two weeks time we will be home! That is so insane! Our time has gone so incredibly fast...and has been so incredibly wonderful. I think we would all like to stay and teach another term and continue to get involved in the community. Its a great place. Its going to be pretty hard to say goodbye, but...it will be good to see the family and the friends and we are all looking forward to food ( a whole lot)!

So, this week was the last week of teaching, which is saddening. All three of us have really enjoyed it, I think much more than we thought we would. Looking back to the first day we taught, we were so terrified, and now we are all not wanting the term to end! What a great experience. Another one of those that I'm really glad I was challenged to do. We are going to be sad to see the students go. All three of us told our classes goodbye earlier this week which prompted good bye songs and notes and letters. I'm not sure how much we actually taught them about the subjects we were teaching but what a great opportunity for us to learn from them and about them. Hopefully they learned something or other from us!

The deep thought of the week is about school and education in general. The basic school here is in dire straights compared to the secondary. Don't get me wrong, they both have needs, but the basic I think has a few more. A lot of the kids don't have shoes, pencils, pens, enough clothes to wear when it gets cold, basic things like that. They are intelligent kids. Sometimes its not reflected in class mainly I think because of the language difference, but if you sit and talk to them or ask them questions and get to know them they are fantastic. And most of them want to be there, and most of them try pretty hard, though there are exceptions of course. I have a child that I sponsor with Compassion International. Here's my soapbox...a lot of times I kid myself into thinking that I don't have the money to sponsor that kid. This is not true at all. If I didn't go buy coffee in the morning at McDonalds or Starbucks, or didn't stop for that ice cream cone, or didn't go see two movies in one week, or just paid attention a little more to the way I spend my money I wouldn't have that problem. Its not that I don't have the money, its that I choose to spend it elsewhere. So, I'm sure some of you have the same problem, I can't be the only one who does that. Take a look at where your money goes, you might be surprised, I sure was. Sponsoring a kid with Compassion or World Vision or a bunch of those other organizations is only about $30 a month. Thats like a cup of coffee a day. Most of us can do that, lets be honest. Kids here drop out and then come back to school a whole lot, many times its because they don't have money for school fees, others because a choice has to be made between feeding the family and school. That's not right. So no guilt trip though. You can't give out of guilt, thats a terrible motivator. Its between you and God what you give and how much and all of that. I'm just saying, take a look at where your money goes and then take a look around and see where it needs to go. I need to work on this one too. There's nothing wrong with going to see a movie, but I think we should learn to be good stewards of what God has given us, whether that be money or time or relationships. Off the soapbox now.

We're off to Macha today (where I went last time I was in Zambia)! We are all pretty excited. There is another group from Messiah there also which will be great to see our friends! Hopefully we can get in a little bit at the hospital there also, that would be swell.

So, I think I need to go pack and make copies of the final exam for our students...ta ta for now.

Hello Hello Hello.

Its been a while...lets see.

We've mostly just been staying in Sikalongo the past few weeks which has actually been pretty nice compared to the ton of traveling we were doing in the beginning of the summer. Its been nice to be around and teach and get to know the students more. They come by a lot in the late afternoon or evening and we sit around and talk, its been really nice to be around for that. The Bible Institute and Sikalongo (SBI) has also restarted. Originally we were going to be teaching there but it wasn't up and running when we got here due to a whole lot of different things. Its up and going now though and that has been a new activity I think we are going to get involved in during the weeks to come. Right now there are 5 pastors in their third and final year at SBI . We are going to be teaching English to the wives of these pastors starting next week which I'm sure will be another great experience! We had a big welcome dinner last week for all of the pastors and thier families last week (about 60 people) which turned out to be a really fun evening. There was, because this is Africa, a whole ton of singing and dancing. I'm going to miss that when I go home!

The exciting activity for last week was a student, Ashley, who came to visit us. She has been here for a year teaching with a mission organization and is just preparing to leave. We were all really glad to have her visit us. It was sooooo nice to have another person around our age! We even made pizza for dinner one night she was here, which turned out amazingly. We visited her village where she was staying at the end of last week. They had this huge assembly of all of the students and teachers and a bunch of peole from the community for us. It was cool to see where she had been staying and to see a some schools that are very different from where we are teaching. We were pretty sad to see her go. This week our exciting activity was joining one of the student choirs up at church! It has been a blast so far. Not only are we singing but its in a foreign language and we dance at the same time. Its pretty funny. The choir is so incredibly good though, its pretty fantastic just to be a part of something like that.

Deep thought for the week--get up early tomorrow and get your coffee and go watch the sunrise. its pretty fantastic and I rarely have time for it.

Until next time!

Happy Fourth of July!

I can't believe its actually July, what in the world happened to June? I guess time flies when you are having fun...

So lets see...last weekend we went to Livingstone to pick up Mrs. Thomas, our professors wife. While there we did the touristy thing too...we went to see Victoria Falls and went on a Safari in Botswanna and all that good stuff. Victoria Falls is amazing, there was a whole lot of water this year so it was even more spectacular than last time. We hiked down to the bottom again which was great and got soaked on the bridge across. Saturday we went on our Safari which was great! We saw tons of elephants, giraffe's, hippos, monkeys, and we even saw some lions! We were right at the turn around point and we turned a corner and there were four lions, two males and two females. It was absolutely amazing, our hearts were beating out of our chests. One of the males did not appreciate our presence and growled at us and half lunged our direction so we high tailed it out of there. It was amazing though. Monday we all went and did the gorge swing. There is this huge gorge and they have rappeling (no idea how to spell that) and a zipline across and then they have the actual gorge swing. So we progressed gradually up to that. The gorge swing is literally stepping off a 53 meter cliff into thin air and freefalling. It was INSANE!! You can't help but scream in the beginning and then when you think about screaming you can't. It was amazing...crazy crazy crazy. We have excellent video and pictures of all of us dont you worry!

The teaching is going really well. We gave our first test this week. The kids did pretty well, a lot of very decent grades which is always good when they understand what the heck you are talking about. Especially if this is my first time teaching and we were simply handed a textbook, told to invent a ciriculum and teach in a second language to all of these kids with minimal English skills! I'm having a blast teaching, the students are really fun, after the test we just talked about all sorts of stuff from food and marriage in the States to music and holidays.

So since today is the fourth...we decided to celebrate a bit! We're having some quality dining options tonight. Fried chicken (we bought and killed a chicken yesterday), mashed potatoes, apple pie and potentially ice cream which we are currently trying to figure out. It should be delicious and a nice change from our usual diet of rice/corn based products and veggies, which is delicious, but there's only so many ways in which to combine such ingredients!

Deep thought for the week--I believe I sell myself short a great deal of the time. I don't do things because I am too scared. Too scared of what people will think, of how I will look, of the fact that maybe its too hard or I am under-qualified, or maybe that I will look foolish, or maybe just scared because its out of my box. There are so many things here that I have done that are sooooo far out of my box its not even funny. Teaching is one. I hate standing up in front of people, I hate hearing myself talk that long, and I never thought I would be remotely good at it. Or jumping off a cliff, which was terrifying but fantastic. Don't sell yourself short on experiences just because they are scary. Yes people will laugh (here they laugh at us allll the time, pretty much everytime you open your mouth), but maybe you should learn to take yourself less seriously. Yes things will stretch you, but you don't know what you are made of until you do something you thought you previously couldn't. Yes maybe things will be hard but push yourself, you might surprise yourself. I mean don't go crazy, but don't wimp out and then regret that you did later. Carpe diem my friends because you might not ever find another time where you are at the same place as you are now ever again.

And now...the apple pie is calling to me...