Day 9 - Green Eggs, & Ham

It's currently 6:00 pm local time (12:00 pm EST) on Friday, July 18th; however, this post is to share with you about yesterday (Thursday, July 17th). So here goes.

We had power in the morning so we took advantage of that to enjoy a hearty breakfast of eggs, ham, & toast with jam. It was very yummy!!! Then we headed up to the west wing of the dining hall for devotionals. David continued the study of Psalm 66 which was a very good message (as always). Some of the key points I noted include:

• Sometimes we tend to hide in the crowd (or even the church) but our relationship with God must first & foremost be personal & intimate (one-on-one)
• We are the "burnt offering" and must offer all of ourselves (continually) to God as a living sacrifice

Then the ladies headed off to GAMES and the men went off to work with Mike. As usual GAMES started with singing the theme song (His Banner Over Me Is Love) but Nancy also tried a new method to teach the childen the memory verse "I am the vine and you are the branches (John 15:5)" where each child was a different word. After a prayer of thanks to God each group went off to their first activity.

• Susan was with Caroline taking the kids to the library
• I was with Sara teaching the kids a streamer routine to go along with the theme song
• Melissa was with Vicky in the obstacle course

At lunch we sat with the cooks (Kennedy, David, & Clement) and were treated to kabichi (stew of cabbage, onions, & tomatoes) and nshima.

At 1:30pm we headed out to see Mike & Dave for our afternoon assignment. Michael & Todd went off with Mike to do more work on the playground while Melissa, Susan, Sara & I went with David to do some painting around the village. All was going well until I fell but (praise God) I'm all right and just walked away with a scratched leg & jammed finger.

For dinner we had stuffed pancakes (filled with an egg & soy mixture) and relish (which is a mixture of rape, lettuce, & ontions). I sat at Mama Florence's table (with Emmanuel, Mubiana, Ben, Zawady, Lemmy, Jack, & Salvio).

We were back at the guest house by 6pm and started planning for a scavenger hunt to play with the kids tomorrow. Tomorrow will technically be our last day with the kids as we are leaving on Saturday morning for a weekend trip to Livingstone and won't be back until Monday night (and then we are leaving on Tuesday morning to return home).

It's been an amazing two weeks and (God willing) we will return again!

So it's very bittersweet to be leaving but (God willing) we will return again.

The Doctor Makes a House Call

On Tuesday, July 15th, I spent the day with Nancy Writebol. Nancy and her husband, David, are the directors of the Rafiki Village here in Zambia. She and I spent the day doing a number of different things including stopping in Chongwe and Lusaka checking on children who may eventually come to the Rafiki Village.

We started our day in Chongwe, a small town about 10 miles from the Rafiki Village. We stopped by to pick up a local Pastor who accompanied us on our first stop so there was an African individual accompanying us. Nancy told me that there was a woman who was taking care of her twin nephews (age 2) and her niece (age 4) in addition to her own several children.

To get to where this family lives, we had to leave the main road and travel along a very windy dirt road. Then we had to park our car and walk down a hill about 50 yards through a corn field. Their home consisted of a few small buildings without access to water or electricity. Dogs, goats and chickens freely roamed the entire dirt area of their home. They brought a mat, normally used for sleeping on the ground at night, and placed it on the ground so I could examine each of the twins one-by-one.

The aunt had to hold each one for they did not like me examining them at all. Nancy had already given each one a piece of candy as a peace offering. While I sat on the ground in the morning sun examining each child, chickens ran along the ground beside me. To say it was the most unusual setting in which I have ever examined an individual is an understatement! It turns out that the 4-year old girl was at preschool, and we decided to come back later in the afternoon to see her.

Nancy then drove us into Lusaka to make a couple of more stops. Lusaka is the capital of Zambia, and it has about a million people. We stopped at two different “compounds” in Lusaka. A compound is a collection of dwellings of various sizes and shapes. In the states, I believe we would call it a neighborhood of a city. The first one was called the Presidential Compound although Nancy told me that the President of Zambia doesn’t live there. What struck me is that some of the town homes were quite new and even had landscaping. We stopped by to see a young boy about 4 years old who may be coming to Rafiki within the next week. When Nancy got out of the car, he ran and jumped into her arms!

The Presidential compound was much different than the compound we saw after lunch called Gombe. This compound was extremely crowded, dirty and not maintained in any way. Nancy met with a Pastor and an elder from a church there to check on some children for possible adoption by Rafiki. The most heartbreaking moment of the day came when a man stopped by and basically begged us for 30 minutes to take his son because he was too ill to care for his son. The father said that he had some joint problem and could only do odds jobs. As a result, he was only able to feed his son once a day if that. He also shared with us that his wife died from malaria leaving him alone to care for his child. Nancy explained to the man that the policy at Rafiki is to only take children who have lost both of their parents so as to not separate children from their parents.

While we were still there, an elderly grandmother stopped by to see Nancy hoping that her 5-year old granddaughter could be adopted by Rafiki because she was trying to care for several of her grandchildren without any money or help from other relatives. Nancy said that she would have to check with the Rafiki home office but that it might be possible for Rafiki to adopt the little girl. As they walked away, the little girl began to cry because she could not go home to Rafiki with us that day.

After we left Lusaka, we drove back to Chongwe and picked up the Pastor as we returned to the rural site we’d visited in the morning so I could perform a physical exam on the 4-year old girl who had been at pre-school earlier in the day. Unlike her twin brothers, she was perfectly behaved and never cried as I examined her on the ground with the chickens running around. She was quite a beautiful young lady. The one thing I found, while doing her physical exam that afternoon as the sun was setting, was that she had a number of enlarged lymph nodes in her neck on both sides. Nancy told me that she would return later in the week with a local nurse who would draw their blood in order to complete the medical examination. Nancy decided that it would be best if I did not attempt to draw blood on a potentially malnourished, screaming child (like the twins that morning). I agreed with her that that was a good decision!

Even two days later, I continue to process all the things we saw on Tuesday. The poverty and disease are overwhelming; yet despite this, many of the people we met appeared to be truly happy proving that the owning of “stuff” does not bring happiness to one’s life. In every area, children ran though the streets playing with one another whether it was a real toy or one that they’d created out of the objects in their lives. It was also great spending the day with Nancy. She is amazing! She is part doctor, nurse, social worker and negotiator. Throughout the day, it was obvious that Nancy loves what she does at Rafiki. She took some amazing pictures of me examining the children, and I will post those once I get a copy of them from her.

I continue to feel extraordinarily blessed to be here in Zambia at the Rafiki Village. I have learned so much in just a short time, and I am already looking forward to the next opportunity to return to Zambia to serve again.

Day 8 - Br-r-r-r

This morning was our coldest...isn't that strange..being in Africa in July and being cold! It was 43 when we woke.
We were planning to prepare a big breakfast of bacon, eggs and toast....but the power went out.
So off to our morning Bible study with the staff without coffee and quite cold. This makes us appreciate what we take for granted everyday at home.
Bible study was wonderful....from Psalm 66. David talked about how God uses suffering in our lives for His good purposes.
Off to GAMES. We loved doing relays, singing, stamping and playdough creations. Michael played the guitar for music. The children had never seen a guitar and they loved it. Mirriam prayed at closing thanking God for teacher Mike and his "banjo".
Melissa, Linda, and I sat at the cottages after lunch while the children napped and mamas had training with Nancy.
After dinner we got to read in the cottages. The children love reading! They are so attentive and are interacting more with us now. They're tugging hard at our hearts.
In the front of one of the books, someone had written the verse from Jeremiah..."For I know the plans I have for you", declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."
Its exciting to think of the plans God has for these precious children, whom He has called out of dire circumstances to His wonderful provision for them here at Rafiki.
Thanks for remembering us!

With love,
Susan

Meet The Kids

So I've compiled individual pictures of all the kids so you can see for yourself how adorable they are.

The Two Year Olds:

Agrippa

Loveness

The Three Year Olds:

Ben

Chanda

Emmanuel

Joseph

Mubiana

Salvio


The Four Year Olds:

Gladys

Grace

Happy

Lemmy

Lisa

Luka

Purity

Richard


The 4 & 5 Year Olds:

Bupe

Edda

Eva

Jack

Jeff

Lackson

Mirriam

Shadrack

Zawady

There are currently 27 children at the village here in Zambia but it has the capacity for 320 (once it is fully built & staffed).

day 7... end of week 1

michael and i with the masks we bought at the market... bargaining was so much fun! (and i really didn't think i would like it!)
the girls last night... pajama party
a flower outside of linda's house

after we got off the airplane from south africa... welcome to zambia!!!

salvio showing off his painting today :)
one of the kids paintings... i absolutely adore all of them!
salvio... again. (i might be a little biased)
team africa outside of the rafiki village! this was right before our amazing walk a few days ago :)

i can't believe our first week is over... it's gone by so fast! it's been REALLY great.. and i sort of don't want to go home (at least not yet). (although i do miss all of you :P)

today was a lot of fun! especially since i spent the entirety of yesterday in bed... really - i slept like 18 hours. but, i'm feeling so much better today... jesus is taking care of me :) todd thinks i probably just caught something from being in the market the day before. but, anyway! i feel better and it really helped me to appreciate today since i wasn't in bed for all of it. so woke up this morning around 6.30, still felt a little sick - but just being out and about really helped... but we did bible study - today is was about psalm 66. david always does a really good job of explaining things. today one of his examples was if an ant were to say to us that he was going to tear down our building all by himself... we would laugh at him. (and i'm sure everyone sees the parallel to christianity). anyway, i just really liked that part.

on a personal note (i feel like everyone has been posting something personal) i have kind of a weird analogy, also, this is the kind of thing that goes on in my head... most of the time. so, let's just say our hearts are nets (like fishermans big nets) and i feel like when i first got here satan was only letting bad fish in my net and i just couldn't shake them out... and jesus would put a few more good fish in my net, but the bad fish were just too overwhelming. and then just as the week has gone on jesus has overflowed my net with good (really good) fish! and has completely reliquinshed the bad fish. (i most always have a lot of imagery in my head, and this is how i make sense of some things)

but moving on to whats happened today... after bible study.

sara and i did painting with the kids... it was so neat! just being about to see the lord's creativity through these kids was really incredible! i put up a few pictures at the top of this, but they are from today. we took pictures of all of the paintings the kids painted... and are even taking some back home with us :) the kids here are so sweet... it's unbelievable!

after painting we just came back to the house and then we helped mike spackle the ceiling in the dining room (we'll paint it tomorrow).

susan and linda finished up the cooking for when the home office comes and michael helped mike work on the playground some more. i think it's a bigger task than they had orignally planned. but, they are doing a really great job with everything! and michael is realizing he actually is pretty handy :)

and todd had the most exciting day out of all of us! he got to go into chongwe (the nearby village) to examine some kids with nancy. except i won't explain it because that is going to have to be his job :) but it was sooo neat hearing about his day tonight!

we're just been sitting around the house tonight, we made popcorn and i think we're going to catch up on crossroads sermons online after i finish this... and then we'll probably sing. we always find something to entertain ourselves with at night.

i hope you liked the pictures! i only put up a few random ones, but i hope they make you smile :)

as always, thank you so much for praying for us... and i love you!

m.

Day 6 - Pick up stix... and build a playground with them!

Monday night has wrapped up and there is so much to talk about! But I swear to you, tonight I keep it short.

The power was out nearly all day. It came back on just in time for lunch (around 11:45am), but by the evening we were reading, conversing, and showering by candlelight.

The morning began as any other thus far, with groggy eyes heading toward the kitchen to pour a cup of coffee, eat a cup of yogurt, etc. By 7:30am we were in the west room of the dining hall singing and listening to David's message on Psalm 66. Just a brief sidenote: during the school year the ROS, local employees, and children all study a book of the Bible based on their Rafiki Bible study, but while school is out they go through the Psalms.

GAMES was a lot of fun. The kids made paper mosaics, played with bean bags, and did "table games" (matching games, card games). The girls are really starting to find a groove with the kids, and they love being able to spend time and teach them!

Todd and I had an interesting experience today. We worked on the playground some more: finished the ladder and started the deck by nailing in the support boards for the deck. Tomorrow the deck should follow, considering we have electricity to power the saw. On another, more troublesome note (those with weak stomachs, please skip this part!) we went with Mike and Dave to check the sewer system the was laid out in the village. Apparently the construction workers who put it in were less than careful to keep a downward slope on the pipes, so things weren't... well... flowing. When they lifted up the lid on one of the sewers the smell was pleasant (just kidding, no it wasn't). Inside were lots of little things, including the surprising (here it comes)... worms. The ones they warn you about in biology class and in the med center when you're getting your shots. A quick disclosure, we are not in any danger! They were there from long ago, staying in the sewers, and the ROS are NOT worried about them. However, I'd never seen them before and I recommend you never try to see one (or drink water that would grant you the pleasure of living with one). They're the most horrible things I've ever seen!

Melissa had an interesting day. She woke up not feeling too good, and after the good doctor (Todd) had a look at her decided that she should stay in bed while we went about our morning activities. Her throat was sore and her head was hurting. She slept nine hours today in addition to the nine hours she got last night! I'm happy to report that tonight she is feeling much better, and the benedryl she took will guarantee that tonight's sleep goes unbothered ;-P

On a personal note, I wish we had more time. The second week has proven to make me feel at home here. I like the cleaner smell of the air, the beautiful blue sky, and the unadulterated silence that surrounds the village. Most importantly, the people here are so friendly, and the kids are very special. Tonight we read to them-each of us in a seperate cottage-and I read to Mama Florence and Mama Rachel's kids. They had a wonderful time, and were probably more interested in naming the animals in the book than the story itself. That's alright with me.

But now it's bedtime in this sleepy African village just south of Lusaka, Zambia. I'm going to bed so that tomorrow can be another productive (and always educational) day.

(The sun setting over Zambia a couple nights ago)

Day 5 - Sunday Blessings

I wanted to share with you what I did yesterday (Sunday). Most of the Rafiki Village staff and the rest from Crossroads went into Lusaka for church services. Lusaka is about an hour away from the Rafiki Village.

Instead of going with them, I decided to stay here and attend a local village church which is located just off the Rakifi property. (A photo of us in front of this church is on the blog under Day 4. We'd visited it on Saturday during a walk off the property.) This particular church has no windows or doors, and you sit on concrete benches without backs. The men sit on the right side as you enter the church and the women sit on the left.

Vicky Koch, one of the Rafiki staff members, went with me. She had warned me that it was very likely that the local town people would ask me to deliver the message; and sure enough, they did ask me to deliver the message to the congregation. All 27 Rafiki children and their Mamas (women who function as their Mama once they come to Rafiki orphanage) were there plus about 30 people from the nearby village.

Luckily for me, we had begun a study of Romans, Chapter 8, at Crossroads Church before leaving Lexington; and the 4 others from CCC and I have been discussing it this past week at the guest house in the evenings.

My message came from that study (thanks Griff!) and focused on reading from the Bible to the congregation plus sharing my own thoughts and some of the discussions we'd had this week about the book of Romans. Mama Mwanza from the Rafiki Vaillage translated my talk for the congregation. Although English is the official language of Zambia, there are many native languages here, too. The people from the nearby village speak Nyanja and some English.

We sang songs from their Baptist hymnal in the language of Nyanja. The good thing is that the language is very phonetic so that, if I could understand what song number to look up, I could actually sing along with everyone at church. I didn't recognize the songs until the offering when I knew we were singing "Brining in the Sheaves." The harmonies of the voices were amazing as everyone sang.

The 27 children from Rafiki also sang a couple of songs that they had learned at school including "Great is Thy Faithfulness." Although the service was just under 2 hours, the time just flew by. What a blessing it was to worship God here in Zambia!