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)!