March 30 "Kids do the Darndest Things"

Alright, I’m going to start off today telling you about a few things I forgot to mention in the past week but wanted to bring up. The first is about scorpions. One walked through tutoring last week and I was like what is that? And R, an 11 year boy, was like well that’s a scorpion, like it was completely normal. I told him we don’t have those where I come from! Secondly, in frequenting different markets, I have now had three men try to get me to barter with my hair band for something they are selling. Even when I am wearing it! They always say they want the nice American made hair band for their sisters. Hey, I’ll trade one for some of your goods! But it’s not actually an even trade, unfortunately. They always want kwacha with it, too, so I’ve learned to ignore it now. But it’s pretty random.

Anyway….on to today. The morning was pretty typical. Spent the extra time this morning prepping for tomorrow. In ESL, we read for the entire period. The women seemed more into the book this time than the last day we did this, so that’s encouraging. Then, over the lunch hour, I finished prepping for tomorrow! Mrs. A had left us a tasty treat of fritters on one of the desks, so we had the oh so healthy lunch of fritters…..Then a run was in order. It’s still hot outside in the daytime, but I can tell the cooler weather is coming because a few days ago I would not have tried running outside in the noontime heat. Today, however, it was ok.

Kids are funny. And cute. A lot. Here are just a few cute/funny things I saw some youngsters do today. P, a little boy aged 1.5 put on his mom’s shoes in English class and walked around the church for quite some time with them on. I had that same boy cracking up while tickling his feet and playing peek-a-boo while the women were busy writing a response to our novel reading today. I saw preschoolers climb on top of each other just to see what I was doing through the window. I saw S, a preschool boy, wearing a fuzzy vest that reminded me of Big Bird to church tonight. I was used as a roadway today for many of my preschoolers’ toy cars during playtime. I saw little kids look around in confusion as I bopped them on the head lightly and pretended that I didn’t. I saw a little girl’s face light up as I gave her part of my offering money to place in the offering bag at church tonight for me. I saw kids get really excited at taking a picture of them and showing them on my camera and then follow me around asking me for "snaps" (pictures). I heard several kids laugh as I called one of my 11 year old boys by the new nickname I've given him. J

That being said, preschool was a bust today. The kids were little angels to start off the day, but things slowly slid downhill. But every teacher has those days. It definitely means that T and I will need to regroup and rethink our preschool game plan so that we are still being effective and teaching our children. A lot of correcting was done today, and the kids—as kids anyway—didn’t like that. These children are smart, though, because they will pretend they do not understand English for that part of the conversation. Tricky, tricky. But I love em still. There’s just something VERY different about living on campus with the children you teach. I see the preschoolers multiple times each day and they can kind of act however they want when they are running around campus since they are not watched that closely, so why should the “school time” with Miss A and Miss T be any different? Why should they have to act differently? Oh, I can almost see their little brains thinking these things….But, chin up, next time will be better, if T and I work hard to make it better.

After preschool I blew off some steam with a bike ride. Unfortunately, I was creepily followed home by a man in a truck who stopped to talk to me…I like the friendliness of the people here when I’m running or biking, and I even sometimes like their frequent compliments, even if they do go too far sometimes, but I can do without strange men following me to someone else’s house and waiting for me there for a few minutes. No thank you. I hightailed it out of there and ran back into my preschool kids on campus who were once again as loveable as they were before school today. J

T and I headed off to church at 18 hours for Lenten service. It’s week four and we haven’t been in an actual church for Lent since week one! It was good to be back. J All the missionaries go to the church on campus for Lent, too, so it’s like an even bigger family than normal. Plus Pastor DS of the D&L bunch preached tonight, so it was nice to hear him preach. After church, we went out in the reception line and greeted everyone in the church, as is custom. I’m really going to miss that when I leave!

After church, T and I enjoyed a later supper from Mrs. A. We must have been hungry….there was a ton of food and it was all gone in a flash! The evening was spent preparing for teacher training on Friday and talking/planning our upcoming trip to Malawi.

March 29 "Nest vs. Nast"

Oh the joys of sleep. J All my tutoring kids were scheduled for the afternoon, so while T had a one on one with one of the girls, I was able to a)print off and cut all my English materials, b)print my tutoring materials, c)create certificates for ESL for when we leave, d)catch up on one of the strategies we are using for teacher training, and e)prepped all the preschool materials. Wow, it was a productive 75 minutes!

ESL was GREAT today! The ladies took strides in our novel. Usually our comprehension isn’t quite up to snuff, but they answered all my questions correctly and know what’s going on. Good thing, because tomorrow we’re reading all day! Then, for the lesson with my lower level ladies, I had set up a store with pictures of food and prices on the board, gave them an amount of kwacha, and made them go shopping. Then they had to explain what they bought and why, give the total, and give each of the prices. I love doing activities like this; I was leery of them at first because I assumed the women, who are always laden with children (who are most of the time screaming or running around the church bumping into things) wouldn’t want to get up in front of their peers and do something. But they like it. J It’s cute to watch them pass the kids around to each other so they can get up and get to the board for their turn. And they ABSOLUTELY love calling each other out and picking who will go next. J I think a variation of this activity is on the agenda for later in the week!

Lunchtime was spent being productive, eating a TON of food since we had made our lunch and then the guests at the other guest house gave us some of theirs, and chatting with the ladies at the other guest house. This is the third week since we’ve been here that they have been here, too. One of the men on campus runs the health aspect part of the LCCA, so he’s got a group here building water filters from cement and pipes and such. They made six their first week and apparently have 24 to go, so we’ll be seeing them a lot! But it’s awesome that they will be able to take these to the villages to provide clean water. And Mr. AB said T and I could probably bum along when they go out to Mbeji sometime! J

Afternoon tutoring was unpredictable. It’s exam week. So I was supposed to have all 7 of the upper kids instead of 4 and only 4 showed up. I guess that’s to be expected since some kids were at school later than normal. Oh well. Those 4 girls loved the America lesson though. J T was supposed to have 2 of the lower level kids at the same time and they didn’t show! But then she had one girl come early for her second afternoon slot and the other didn’t show. And 2 of the 3 of my second slot came an hour early. One stayed and waited, and the other left and then came 20 minutes late. Gotta love Zambian time. J That group (one boy and one girl) was especially funny today because I usually have them both one on one and seeing their dynamics together. “Nest” is a difficult word to say here and it just so happens that it’s the “N” word for our flashcards. So one of them has been saying nest and the other has been saying a mix between nest and nast, so when they got together today they were almost shouting at each other trying to say it correctly! So funny! Then they would try to beat each other and say the correct answer first (Frog starts with f, f says fffff). And we “read” a story today, too, with a lot of action words so the second time through they got to run around and act it out. It was hilarious! Great day. J

After tutoring, T and I decided that tonight would be an easy planning night, so we took a walk and picked up a few things from the market before lesson planning and dinner. Afterwards, planning for Friday’s teacher training was in order before tonight’s double Robin Hood feature: Princess of Thieves and Men in Tights.

March 28 "Sleep in!"

Well, I woke up at 5 am today to attempt to Skype with the fam. Attempt failed. But we did type chat for awhile, so it was worth it. I did my daily ritual of turning on the water heater light and went back to bed until 7.30. J Even got a run in and a relaxed morning before class at 9.30. I could definitely get used to getting rid of morning tutoring for the next month! We shall see….Besides that, today was so normal and routine that it seemed easy. With all our travels the past two weeks and the week prior to that we were running around visiting schools and the immigration office, so it’s been awhile since we have had a normal day.

Anyway, this week’s theme in ESL is the market. Food shopping that is. The ladies are actually pretty decent with this topic and communicating, so we are pushing them to speak in sentences and such. We went through words like cost, buy, purchase, total, receipt….all useful things. That’s definitely the bonus with doing topical weeks. Everything is immediately applicable and the ladies see that. With my higher level ladies we are about halfway through our novel on Mozambican/Portuguese/South African politics and murder. T’s reading group was laughing a lot during their reading session today (fi-fie-fo-fum was involved, how can you avoid laughing!) so I asked the ladies in my group if they were enjoying the book and they said yes, so that was encouraging. Yes, we don’t get to do fun story tales, but I think they enjoy that they are reading an adult book all in English about romance and murder, since books here are kind of a commodity. Parents don’t read to their children or tell oral stories, so I don’t think they have books around their houses. So reading is good. Hopefully they will continue after we leave. If they have access to books, that is.

Preschool was fun today. It’s always fun, but sometimes it gets frustrating because I was not there at the beginning of the year to solidify procedures and routines in their heads. But today anyone could plainly see that our methods and meticulously correcting things has paid off. Kids know they won’t get called on to go to the board unless their hands are up, their mouths are quiet, and they are in their seats. It’s taken awhile, but we’ve gotten to this point. J The pounding rain on the tin roof at the end of the lesson today did interrupt our flow, but we persevered. It did cancel our kickball game we had planned though…. L Hopefully Wednesday will be even better!

After lessons today, I planned lessons for tomorrow (tracing America, finding clipart pictures of food, and looking up famous American sights were all involved) before apartment searching (because yes, unfortunately, I need to find a place to live when I return to the States) and a bike ride before dinner. After dinner T and I started laying out what our first teacher training day is going to look like (thank you Teach like a Champion!) and listened to some comedians. We ended our night with the movie The Outsiders, which I brought along here since my kids from student teaching at home were reading it and coincidentally, T is having our two high school girls read the book here. So it was kind of educational, right? J

March 27 "Goggles? Swim cap? What is this!"

After a well rested night, I was up early unpacking and trying to convince my Internet to work (it usually takes a lot of convincing, but especially today!) before church at 9. The question of the morning was, would I be playing keyboard for the service, or no? I had no word after 4 pm yesterday, so I was assuming no….but you never know! Thankfully, I wasn’t blindsided and was able to enjoy the service as a regular parishioner. One of the soon-to-be-vicar-graduates preached today and the choir outdid themselves by learning about 6 new songs. One of the kid’s songs was even in English, too. Score! One of the regular choir’s songs was stuck in my head all day. Something like: kay ka nock kay kay, kay ka nock kay kay, kalumbuwa mwansa ah-ay, ay-yay ay-yay! I found out it means something like we must praise the Lord in heaven. The song is beautiful, as are all their songs!

After church wasn’t too exciting. I finally got my computer to work. I went through all my purchases here and delineated which ones were gifts. I lesson planned for a bit outside in the nice weather and ate some of the trail mix I made for lunch. I found myself tracing an outline of America as our kids are going to learn about American customs and life this week. We have topical weeks for tutoring and the kids always want to know about America, so we figured we’d throw it in there, so not as self-centered as it seems. (I hope!) T came and found me around 1:30 because I had gotten a call from D&D, so we scurried off with them to the pool at the American International School.

So, for the first time in my life, I swam laps in the pool. Boy, is it difficult! Especially since I don’t remember a thing about breathing from my lessons 12+ years ago! So, why the reason for trying now? Well, T and I are CONSIDERING a mini triathlon in a few weeks. Yeah, really crazy. Especially since I hate running and can’t swim. And the biking which I thought would be ok, is through a pretty beaten path. So, we’ll see. …But, I survived the swimming extravaganza. Hopefully we can make it to the pool one more time before signing up so I can see if I can actually do this or not….

After hitting the pool, T and I came back and continued lesson planning for the week. No early tutoring tomorrow so we get to sleep in! Reason being that all our kids have exams this week. In Zambia, the school year is a calendar year. Term one is Jan-March; term two is May-July; term three is Sept-Nov. Sounds like a pretty good system. At least that’s one thing they have correct about schools here! Since we were gone most of the week and our kids didn’t have their exam schedules last Tuesday, we had to find each and every kid for tutoring, ask their exam times, and make up a plan for tutoring on the spot. Surprisingly, it worked pretty well. Result: tutoring on T/TH only this week.

Mrs. A had a delicious supper again for us this week. She always makes so much. We asked her why today and she said that we don’t eat enough during the day apparently. Guess that means I need to stop skipping lunch! After supper time, T and I finished catching up on things that we left off while we were gone, chatted with some loved ones, and watched Walle before hitting the hay later than usual tonight, about 1:30. We’re such rebels when we don’t teach until 9:30. J

March 26 "Liwa and Nandi"

So, again, we had an early morning. This time to be up and ready and packed to check out by 6:30 am. Hurray! We did get picked up! A girl from our cruise last night was with us, and we picked up some Germans and a very nice couple from Chicago. They were really interesting to talk to…they were rich doctors who came to Africa for vacation and now want to help out. Plus, their son is a cinematographer in Hollywood who just was on the Price is Right and they all went to the Oscars together. Crazy. Since they wanted to help, it did give me a chance to make a plug for our program. J We exchanged emails in the end, so hopefully it’ll work!

The elephant safari was AWESOME. T and I shared the elephant named Liwa. She was one of the mommies, so three year old Nandi followed along, too. There were 9 elephants in our group. We rode for an hour on these magnificent creatures through the Mosi-O-Tunya National Park, which means, the Smoke that Thunders (aka, the Falls) past hippos and impala and we heard the lions roar. Our elephants walked through the Zambezi and grabbed tree branches along the way to nibble on. After our ride, we were able to feed our elephants and take pictures with them. So fun. J Then, the safari group fed us breakfast and showed us a DVD they had taken of the ride. The safari was definitely worth the money!

T and I got back to the hostel in time to finish packing and check out. After relaxing for a bit, we headed out to lunch at Kilimanjaro and to the bus stop for our 13:30 departure. Good thing we booked tickets yesterday because our bus was PACKED! The return ride seemed longer, especially with the minimal sleeping, no video, and smaller seats. Our bus driver was a speedy one, though, and we made it all the way back to Lusaka in 6 hours. Bags took awhile to gather and guys trying to get us to take their taxis had to be avoided, but we eventually made it to D&D’s vehicle. On the ride home we exchanged stories of the past few days and headed to the B’s house for a party that was happening earlier. SB had tacos and cake—yum! We chatted for a bit, enjoyed our food, watched some Scrabble, and headed back. I was so wiped after the weekend, but I don’t know why! An early night was in order after unpacking. It felt good to be back in “my” bed!  

March 25 "Change of Plans"

Wake up call at 5:45, but no ellie ride. L The hostel that our hostel booked the elephant safari through forgot to put the hostel we were being picked up at, so we weren’t picked. L And there was no hostel staff at our hostel until 7 am, 15 minutes after we were supposed to leave, so they couldn’t rectify the situation in time. All other rides were booked for the day, so we were lucky to be able to rebook for the next day! This safari goes fast! So Instead, T and I watched some BBC news (I know little of what’s going on in the world and whenever I see BBC international news on, I watch because I think it’s good) with a UK couple before going back to bed for awhile. With no more plans for the day until 4 pm, T and I snoozed and restarted our day at 10.

Take two. T and I walked around town, back and forth for 2 hours. Good thing it’s not a big town because the places we wanted to go to always seemed in the opposite direction, so we walked past the same buildings numerous times. The theatre was closed down, the other market didn’t exist or had moved, and we didn’t feel like going to the museum. So walking it was. We got bus tickets for tomorrow. And telling the same taxi drivers that we walked past 4 times that no, we still didn’t need a taxi! We did end up at a gift shop to browse before going to VJ’s for lunch. We both had yummy French toast and smoothies. Nutella and banana toast with peach smoothie for me and chocolate chip smoothie (yuck?) and cinnamon sugar toast for T. We chatted a bit with the barman before walking back to our hostel.

We planned on laying out by the pool for a few hours to catch some rays, but it decided to downpour on our walk home. So laying out was not an option. Thankfully, I borrowed a beloved childhood book from the H’s house and read it instead. We also met B and T, from the UK and chatted with them for a bit. Awkward moment: I was reading in my room with my window open. There are no screens. B came to hang up his shirt on the line outside which happened to be right outside my room. So he awkwardly watched me while I laid on my bed and read in a not very flattering position! And later, the wind blew his shorts off the line and into my window! It definitely made me jump! And laugh! Well, T joined me in our room too as the downpour continued ( had had braved the weather outside to read for a bit) and we BOTH JUMPED out of our skin at the loudest thunderclap ever! It just so happened that a telephone pole on the hostel grounds was struck by lightning! I saw it happen! Creepy. We were hoping the weather would cooperate for our cruise at 4 pm, but we weren’t too optimistic….

Well, the weather did end up cooperating very nicely for our sunset cruise. J T and I fancied ourselves up a bit and joined 20 other people our age for a wonderful cruise of drinks, food, chitchatting and a gorgeous sunset. We saw hippos hiding in the water and opening their mouths at us for food. J We were a very international bunch: Americans, Brits, Germans, Canadians, Dutch, Polish, South Africans, Swedes, Asians, and Nigerians. I met a guy whose name is surprisingly like mine, except it starts with an E. And I learned about the group African Impact which volunteers in the area, too. And I just got to hang out with some people my age, which doesn’t happen often. J By the end of our cruise, we were all best friends. J After the sunset cruise, we headed back in town to VJ’s to keep up the merriment where we talked with some more locals. They invited us out, but with the ellie ride for real in the morning, we again opted out. It would have been fun though! On our short walk back to our hostel, a man stopped us and chatted with us about American for 15 minutes. Strange, but very common in Zambia. He was enjoying himself, but T and I excused ourselves for bed, which is where I went!

March 24 "Jumping off a Bridge"

Readers, beware. Today’s entry is very long. But that happens on vacation.

T and I had some much needed sleep at the H’s house and had a nice and relaxed morning (with full power!) getting ready for the Falls! Pastor and Mrs. decided to not only bring us to Livingstone, but to hang out with us for a few hours, too! They informed us about their lives in Zambia on the drive; it was nice to get another perspective, especially since they live in the rural countryside and everyone we know lives in the city. Definitely a VERY different lifestyle.

First on the docket today was to hit Victoria Falls (or the Falls, or Vic Falls as locals call it). WOW! You can definitely tell after seeing them why they are one of the seven natural wonders of the world! Being the wet season, you can barely even SEE the Falls; there is THAT much water. We could see the spray as we were driving into Livingstone, up to 30 km from the actual waterfall. Crazy. From what I did see, however, they were much bigger and grander than Niagara Falls. And on the paths, you get really close. Well, not really close, but closer than at Niagara, as close as you’d get to Niagara on a boat. Now Pastor and Mrs. H have lived near the Falls for 17 years and they’ve been to the Falls NUMEROUS times (when all the tourists come!) and they said this is the most water they’ve EVER seen there. Good thing we wore ponchos and had umbrellas. We were still drenched walking along the paths. There is a bridge you can cross, too. I couldn’t even look at the falls there though (not like you could see them, so much water!) but I felt my contacts coming out, my umbrella flipping inside out, and my flip flops sliding off (one almost went over the falls! T saved it though.). That’s the magnitude of water. It’s crazy. After getting drenched, we walked through the paths and saw the big bridge spanning the Bakota gorge and connecting Zambia to Zimbabwe. The paths are like you’re in a rainforest; Vic Falls creates its own climate. Next, we walked up above the Falls by the mighty Zambezi River that feeds the falls. And we’d heard several stories about the curious baboons by the Falls who steal anything and everything from tourists. Well, nothing was stolen, but they certainly aren’t afraid of people! Baboons would be sitting on the sidewalks and we’d walk within a foot of them. Crazy, but cool.

So next on our list was to walk halfway across the bridge going to Zimbabwe so we could say we were there. They let you walk the bridge for free without going through customs and normal border crossing procedures, so we thought it was a pretty sweet deal. Now I can say I’ve been to Zimbabwe! Ok…here’s where we got a bit reckless. As T and I were planning our Vic Falls trip, we thought about doing a “gorge swing” through the Bakota gorge. I had imagined something like getting harnessed at one side of the gorge, swinging to the other, and back. Well, nope! It’s an 111 m (333 feet or just over a football field worth) jump and freefall off this bridge before you swing back and forth. Similar to bungee (or bunji as they spell it here) except feet first instead of head and only one drop instead of the elastic making more drops and you swing instead. Well after watching one girl do it, T and I looked at each other and decided, let’s try it! (After a bit of freaking out first…) Honestly, I was more scared watching her than doing it. T and I went tandum which was nice. We practiced once and then they say 3-2-1-jump and we jumped! It’s a few second freefall (feels like the part on the roller coaster when you’re coming out of your seat and going down the hill) and then we went into the swing part. We got to see the Zambezi River up close, as well as the gorge walls, and the circular rainbow made by the falls. Quite an experience! Then they hoisted us back up, where a few guys sweet talked us and told us how brave we were. One guy gave each of us an old K20 bill, too! Hey, it’s only a fraction of a cent, but it’s the thought that counts. J We were hoisted up and walked up on the Zimbabwean side, so now I can say I’ve been on the actual land, the bridge part, and have swung between the two countries! J And now, if anyone ever says, would you jump off a bridge if someone told you to, I can answer YES!

Hard to believe all that was done before lunch, but it was! After having several guys try to sell us their loot, the H’s took us to the restaurant Spot where ¾ of us got tuna salad. Not tuna salad on a sandwich, but, as we found out, tuna on a salad. It was still good. The H’s dropped us off at the wrong hostel first, and after a bit of miscommunication with the hostel staff, we were directed in the correct way. Thanks for a few time, H’s! We stayed at a backpacker place for $8 a night! Love it! Met some cool people, too. T and I settled in for awhile and then realized it was only 2 pm and we had nothing planned for the day!

We walked around to get our bearings and ended up at Mukuni craft market. The Mukuni village members take transportation into town for 30+ minutes each day to sell their crafts. We were warned that we might get ripped off, but considering we know the Lusaka prices for things, it was pretty comparable if not better! They had some different things, too, which was nice. My $25 went a LONG way as I came home with 7 souvenirs! My bartering skills are improving all the time, especially when they gave us “local” price for being from Lusaka. I’m sure they were still ripping us off, but I didn’t pay half of their starting price for anything! J I heart shopping.

After shopping, we wandered around some more and head back, dropped off our things, and headed to Kilimanjaro for supper. There’s one in Lusaka, so once again, we left like locals. J The peanut butter banana milkshake must have been good the first time around because I had it today, too!

We ended out the night but wandering around Spar a bit, and heading to our hostel’s bar for the night. NO ONE was around, but T and I enjoyed kicking back, having sand between our toes, and chitchatting with the barmaid. She invited us out after work, but we turned in early for our elephant safari in the morning!

March 23 "Zimba, Zambia (It's fun to say)"

Hello readers of the blog! Our trip to Livingstone began early in the morning. We left campus around 6:20, got to the bus stop by 6:35, and were comfortably seated and on our way to Livingstone by 7:45. Minimal heckling and pointing happened today, too. I had expected much more with the events at the bus stop yesterday, but maybe it was too early for the rowdy bus crew to talk to us too much.

The coach bus was really nice. Less than $20 to ride 450+ km. There was music, a few music videos, and they played Once upon a time in Mexico, too. That was weird. We arrived in Zimba in one piece after 6 hours with only one hitch. Pastor and Mrs. H graciously opened their home to us to spend the night at before heading to Livingstone. They told us to get off the bus in Zimba, the last stop before Livingstone. And the bus stops only every hour or so. Now, our tickets were for Livingstone since we thought we just got off when they stopped at Zimba as we were told to just yell out our destination. Since we didn’t hear any of that, we just assumed they’d stop and we’d get off. That’s where our mistake was made. Well, Zimba came and went in a blink. With a quick call to Pastor and T’s awkward and rushed conversation with the bus attendant, they informed us of our error (our tickets didn’t say Zimba on them, but Livingstone) and promptly stopped on the side of the road. T and I were left 30 seconds later with our bags next to a charcoal stand, 5 km past Zimba in the middle of nowhere. And man, was it hot! (Thankfully the thunder and rain held off for a bit!) It was quite hilarious, actually. J But, Pastor found the two Mzungus quite easily on the side of the road as he came and picked us up. (And I hope you, dear readers, are laughing at the silliness of the situation just as much as we were!)

The H’s house is GORGEOUS! It reminded me of a really nice American house decorated with African decorations. Their daughter, C, was in my class at college, and I got to sleep in her room. J It’s amazing how much C’s parents look like her (or the other way around actually!), especially her mom. They rent a house on a tobacco and beef farm run by a Brit. The H’s also have chickens and recently started with pigs. They had their first batches of piglets, so T and I got to play with the one month old piggies, too. So cute! All the big pigs had obvious personalities, too. It was quite entertaining. We spent the rest of the afternoon watching the usual afternoon rainstorm from the veranda. The thunder and lightning were extremely close, though….We enjoyed some nice chat time and planned our morning for tomorrow.

T and I had wanted to go to a bush church for the Lenten service, but the H’s don’t go to church on Wednesdays for Lent since all the congregations are 2.5+ hours away. So after dinner, which was a lovely meal of French dip sandwiches, pasta and veggie salad, and chocolate nut brownies, we had a “Lenten service” aka, Pastor read a few Lenten readings from the Bible by light of the flashlight. (The power had decided to go out midway through our meal…) We are getting VERY used to power shortages here. I’ve lost track. They always seem to happen at night, too….After dinner and Lent in the dark, we moved to the living room for some chatting by the light of a bigger battery lamp. We all jumped when this went out too and we were in the complete darkness! Before turning in, Pastor walked us over to the guest house where we were staying and pointed out the Southern Cross. T has been wanting to see the Southern Hemisphere constellations for some time now, so it was nice to see it tonight, since there was no light whatsoever. J

March 22 "Shingamoot"

Tuesday dawned a bright and sunny day as we prepared for the long day. Tuesdays are the busiest days from the number of hours we teach (5.5) to the amount of lesson planning that happens (usually 1.5-3). So we’re busy. But today the latter didn’t need to happen because this is the end of our work week! But, we were busy over the lunch hour with running down to immigration for the fifth time, only to leave empty handed—again. Hopefully this won’t mess with plans to cross into Zimbabwe or Malawi! We also picked up our bus tickets for tomorrow—the bus stop can be a scary place to visit! So many people up in your face trying to sell you a ticket! And we picked up windows from a “workshop” on the side of the street. I watched a man eyeball the lengths of metal he was cutting and then cut it with an electric saw without any measurements taken and with no protective eye wear. Things are very different in Zambia.

Highlights from teaching today:

1) R and J, my T/TH morning kids did a spectacular job of doing the addition chants today. Everyone likes the 5’s chant (If you’re alive, gimme a five! with corresponding high fives). These two boys were very meticulous about their drawings for the flashcards they were making, too.

2) The same R, has been teaching me some Nyanja. My favorite is shingamoot. I thought it meant summersault, which it does, but it also means to fall down, which I think is the more common meaning. I think the word sounds funny so I say it often and R then falls to the ground in a funny manner. Man, do I love kids!

3) In ESL with the ladies, we played a matching game where they had to make corresponding sentences. It also involved them getting up, physically matching words, and them choosing their friends to answer their questions. I learned today that students, no matter their age, like activities like this where they get to pick on their friends. And they’re so giggly, so they seem like older children at times. We have a lot of fun in English class. J

4) The girls in afternoon tutoring finished their travel books. M wrote about how Miss A and Miss T like to run (NOT!). M also wrote about me in her paragraph for visiting Vic Falls. While some of the girls were finishing their coloring, I had M and G write now some more Nyanja words for me. And this is totally butchered, but I can now say a fake sentence: Napapata shingamoot manshay zdikomo. Aka please fall on the down now thank you. Or this one: Imwe iwya manzi. You drink water. Saweet!

5) My favorite teaching time out of all the tutoring groups, ESL groups, and preschool is my time with A, my second grade friend. She is just so adorable and I can see the most retention and learning from her each time. She correctly spelled 15 words today AND successfully did all the letter recognition, sounds, pictures flashcards! I also got her to say shucky darns, time her while she ran to the bridge to refocus, teach me some more Nyanja, make her laugh when attemping Nyanja and saying random words, and tell her I was putting her in my suitcase and bringing her back to America with me. J

After classes, T and I went for a bike ride where we felt like celebrities. Once again, I ran into E, one of my tutorees, but also a teacher from the campus, three of the sem wives, a minibus driver I’ve seen three days in a row, several kids leaving school I saw yesterday, and a flock of high school boys who decided that they wanted to watch me run for awhile and awkwardly talk about me in their language. Nonetheless, I felt like a celebrity with paparazzi.

Mrs. A outdid herself today. We didn’t have time for lunch due to the visa trip, but she had made fritters (aka donuts) for us to much on. Thank you! AND, she complied to my request for some nshima tonight. A very traditional meal of nshima, chicken, gravy, and pumpkin leaves relish. YUM!

T and I whiled away the evening hours catching up on emails and packing for our trip to Victoria Falls in the morning! Vacay number two, here we come!

March 21 "Things that don't work...."

Back to normal. For a day or two at least. Today’s theme is things that are broken/don’t work.

Item #1: The water heater. I couldn’t pull myself out of bed at 5 am to turn it on. While I was only twenty minutes late, T and I had to suffer the consequences with chilly showers. It ran almost an hour and a half though, so I hope it’s not broken! I hope it works tomorrow!

Item #2: We threw in our mountain of laundry before tutoring this morning, only to see that the dryer was once again broken. L We ended up using Mrs. A’s clothes line, but since that wasn’t long enough, we ended up using most of the rooms in the guest house to hang our clothes so they hopefully dry!

Tutoring was fun…we got to see our kids again! While T was running around with (surprise, surprise) visa issues again, I got to teach all ten math addition chants to the kids. J Then, after T and I split up our groups, I worked with my group on finishing their travel books they made. After tutoring came English class. It was short because their Bible study right before it went long, but it was still beneficial. There are ten sem student’s wives on campus, and we have 9 of them in our class. It was a pleasant surprise to see the tenth lady today, as she had off of work and still decided to come to class! That made my day. J And so did some of the ladies asking how the trip was. J And many people on the campus asked, too. J

Item #3: The clothes washer. I ended up with a hole in a pair of capris, stains on two shirts, and white detergent marks on two pairs of shorts. L

Items #4, 5, and 6: The bread, peanut butter, and mango. The mango had gone bad over our absence, so no mango for lunch. Shucks. And the peanut butter did not spread AT ALL on the bread that broke when you picked it up. So, instead of PB&J sandwiches for lunch, we had PB&J sandwich salads, which we ate with forks. Never done that before!

Afternoon brought preschool. You know you’ve been missed when all the students run out of the classroom across a field to give you hugs. J So cute. This definitely made my week! And they were so good in school today. J You just gotta love those days! After school while T and I were meandering the campus doing random errands, we found preschoolers holding our hands each step of the way. Cute. J

After preschool, it was time to get up and do something. I settled on a 12K bike ride followed by a 2K walk/jog. It was supposed to be more of a jog than walk, but biking followed by running feels funny, and I happened to run into two of the campus kids walking home from school at 17 hours, so I walked home with them instead. However, I do need to get in shape, because T and I might be partaking in an athletic adventure in a few weeks. I few more things have to fall into place first, but we’ll see….

Item #7: The tongs for our fish tonight broke somehow and I have NO idea how. We managed, but I hope they can get fixed tomorrow!

The afternoon and evening were caught catching up on things we missed while we were gone, a meal of fish and chips from Mrs. A, trying to figure out the dried laundry to put it away, and lesson plans for tomorrow.

March 20 "Hitchhiking'

Today on the docket was driving from Chipata to Lusaka, a 7 hour journey. Most of the journey was similar to the ride there: I watched the tiny huts and villagers and slept a lot. Since it was Sunday, we also grabbed a tape—yes, a cassette tape—and listened to two church services from the States on the Transfiguration and the first Sunday in Lent. Thank you to the pastor from Atonement in Milwaukee for preaching on February 22 and 29 (Leap Day!) in 2004 and sending the tape to Chipata so that I could have “church” today. Random, but worship, nonetheless.

We got back to the Seminary around 3 pm, but all T and I could do was drop off our things and head out the door again! We needed to buy new Internet bundles today as they expired while we were gone. So a venture on the minibus into town was on the agenda. We prayed they would still be open, because you never know! They were open and our trip was successful, hence my blogging updates. J Since it’s Sunday, too, the Sunday market was still around! T and I browsed for a bit to get Mrs. D&D and birthday present. I also bought a few souvenirs for a few lucky readers. You’d be proud of my bartering skills: talked one thing down from K80,000 to K35,000 and another from K100,000 to K75,000 to K30,000. J I heart shopping! Oh, and the sudden downpour helped that second purchase. T and I were soaked by this time and hopped on a minibus back home, seeing another gorgeous double rainbow on the way. After getting off the bus (I’d be angry if I was the person to sit in our seats after us!), we began our 15 minute walk back to the Seminary in the rain. Shortly after we began our walk, a young gentleman in a very nice vehicle pulled up beside us and offered a ride. Along all instincts were telling me not to get in a car with a young gentleman stranger in a foreign country, I did it anyway. I was surprised T agreed, but I suppose the rain was getting to us. So yes, we arrived in one piece at the Seminary a few minutes later, and I survived my first hitchhiking experience! I hope he doesn’t end up coming to the grounds again because he knows where we live now, but he wouldn’t be the first. I’ve had two random guys stop me while walking or biking and know where I live. Creepy. Or maybe it’s because there are not many Mzungus around and most of them come from the Seminary. Oh well, we still survived. J

Mrs. A was back from her journey. Hurray! We haven’t seen her in a week and a half! She cooked us a DELISH dinner in the evening. I had really missed her meals for the past few days! Nighttime included lesson planning and catching up on the powers of the Internet. We unpacked, but not much as we will need to pack again on Tuesday night for Vic Falls!  

March 19 "Elephant Encounters"

Today I awoke to the hippo grunts and I realized it was our last day in the park. L Good thing we weren’t in a rush today, as with the power still being off, it made preparing breakfast and running debit cards to pay for the trip difficult. I had the “healthy breakfast” (only because they were out of bananas for the banana pancakes—eh sis?) and it was DELISH. A masterpiece. Homemade museli/granola layered in a fancy dish with yogurt and apples and honey drizzled on the top. A cup of tea topped it all off. I wish my breakfast was like that daily. Yum.

Anyway, after we left camp, Mr. D&D took us on a self drive through the park. We didn’t get into the park until 10 am, when the morning drives are ending from the lodges as the animals start settling down in the shade at this time, so we had the park to ourselves. We wandered around a lot. Our goals for the day were to see greater kudu and a lion. I wanted to see Simba really badly. We saw the animals we had seen on previous trips, but didn’t stop unless they were really close. We ran into two large herds of elephants—about 20 of them in each one—so we stopped. There was one point where I think if I would have stretched out my arm and the elephant stretched out his trunk, we might have touched. So neat. I was really thankful for all the wonderful elephant encounters we had. Much better than I would have thought in the wet season! We also got trumpeted at by an elephant hiding in the bushes twice! He was hiding from us and all of a sudden he charged at our vehicle from out of the bushes! We started to leave since he was angry, but he started chasing us! It was pretty funny, actually. Don’t worry; no elephants were harmed in the writing of this blog.

We searched high and low for kudu and lions. There were several almost spotting of the lions, especially by a pond we stopped by. There was saw the hippo trails to and from the water up close. They stay in the water all day and leave at night to eat the vegetation. Man, are their feet large! Alas, no lion sighting, but we did see kudu. They look about the size of a moose, but gray, with spiraled horns. Very pretty! I’d say the trip was a success!

We stopped for a quick lunch at Flatdogs, another lodge, before heading back to Chipata. Mrs. D&D intervened for us and got the Mr. to stop at this cool tribal textile place. There was so many beautiful African fabrics there, so naturally, T and I had to buy something. J The rest of the ride back to Chipata was similar to the way to the park: lots of potholes, puddles, and construction. Our three and a half hour drive got done as my motion sickness was reaching its breaking point, but again, I survived.

After meeting up with another local pastor at the house to let him switch vehicles, we headed to the new Spar grocery store in town to buy some supper. We enjoyed some funny conversation time with D&D over supper and afterwards, T finally taught me to play Set. It’s a fun game; I just wish I would have let her teach me years ago! Mental preparation for the car ride tomorrow was in order before hitting the hay.

March 18 "God's Awesome Creation"

While I spent around 7 hours in the car on Wednesday and about 8 hours in the car today, the 9 hours today were definitely the best, because that’s how long we were on game drives! It was an early start as we were out of the campsite by 5:45 to head into the game park. This time we were joined by P, a Swedish man living in Japan and working in Zambia teaching technology to the villagers and making paper from banana leaves. That being said, we heard some interesting stories from him!  Since it’s the wet season and animals are not as easily seen, the morning drives turn into more of bird watching events, but it was still really neat because the storks and hornbills and spar winged geese and Egyptian geese and hamerkop and  lilac breasted rollers are all beautiful. That doesn’t mean we didn’t see big game though! All the animals were very close today; most were less than thirty feet away! A large herd of impala, a big group of baboons, and giraffes were seen before we even got to the park! On this drive we saw: impala, baboons, giraffe, puku, a herd of about 10 zebra up close, lots of elephants, vervet monkeys, bushbuck, and waterbuck.

This ride was different from the first as we saw a herd of over 100 cape horn buffalo from far away and a herd of about 40 or 50 up close. Also, on one of the roads, a few elephants decided to step out and block our way for a few minutes, so we got to watch the two big ones and the baby for a bit. J There was another elephant sighting up close on the drive back to Wildlife camp, as well as a hippo sighting (they’re not usually out of the water in the daytime because of their skin), and I spotted a monitor lizard 5 feet from our chalet porch.

BJ was again our driver. Today’s jokes included: “There’s the largest snake in the park! An anaconda!” while talking about a hose that goes across the bridge. Also, why does the waterbuck have the white ring on his backside? Because when all the animals were on the ark, Noah told them not to go to the bathroom until the paint was dry. The waterbuck couldn’t wait, so now he has to live with the consequence!

Lunch consisted of delicious kebabs and cuscus. Very good. After lunch, we all laid out by the pool and hopped in a few times to cool down. Man, can the African sun be hot! But I got my tan back now. J T and I explored the area a bit. We checked out the tents we were supposed to stay in and watched the local women fish with just a line and hook. Oh, and I followed a baboon along the shore for about 10 minutes and saw the pet mongoose.

The night drive, our last with BJ, was not fruitful in quantity, but in quality. We started off the trip with a bang before entering the park: we had an elephant about 20 feet away from the vehicle for 10 minutes! Mr. D&D might have played a part in getting him that close….. J Right after that sighting, we ran into a herd of 12 giraffe—my favorite! They love those acacia trees, which are prevalent around our camp. In the park we once again saw zebra, buffalo (from afar), a few impala and puku, lots of scrub hare, and several elephant sightings. We did see a warthog family crossing the road (Pumba) from a distance. And then we didn’t see anything for a really long time. I was hoping to see Simba or Mufasa, but we ended up even better than that….we saw the elusive LEOPARD! They are pretty rare to see in the park, and we followed ours with the vehicle for about 10 minutes. Plus, he was walking less than 10 feet from the vehicle, so we got to see the gorgeous coat up close. SO COOL! Wow, God’s creation is AWESOME.

The rest of the evening involved more elephant and hippo sightings, a break with popcorn and cider under the baobab tree, and playing around with an old giraffe skeleton. We headed back to camp around 9 pm where they had prepared a three course meal for us! Heck yes, full board! J Too bad I was way too full to eat it. But, there was butternut squash soup (yum!), a very German main course (as I butcher the words) of schnitzel and pork wrapped in bacon and biscuit breading, followed by apple strudel for dessert. And all this was done without any power, as the camp had lost power a few hours back. A shower by the light of the paraffin (this book comes up repeatedly in the novel I’m reading with my ladies in English class, so I decided to throw it in there) lamp (minimal light and no glasses or contacts on…..makes for an interesting shower…) before bed. What a spectacular day!

March 17 "Getting stuck and Game drive"

Happy birthday to Mrs. D&D! And I got to spend it with her! Oh, and happy St. Patty’s Day, too. Anyway, after a quick breakfast, we were on the road again by 8 am. Driving from Chipata to South Luangwa National Park was pretty much the same: more bumps, more construction, more puddle potholes, more village huts, more kids waving hi while walking to school and shouting Mzungu!, and more animals crossing the road.

Once we got to the park, we had to find Wildlife Camp, where we’d be staying the next few days. Before you enter the park, there is a game management area, which isn’t national park, but it sure looks like one. On the drive through this area to our camp, we spotted giraffe! My favorite! It was really cool to see them up close and in their natural habitat.

Next on our to do list was finding the camp. All four of us spotted the Wildlife Camp sign, yet all four of us missed the arrow pointing in the opposite direction. Mr. D&D took the truck down the dry season path where we found a log covering the path and more giraffe. Did that stop us though? No! After a few more minutes, we realized the water on the road was steadily turning into a stream and then a river. Lo and behold, we got stuck in the mud. In the game park area. With no way to contact anyone. After Mrs. D&D blew the horn several times and Mr. D&D tried to push us out, eleven Zambians working at a nearby camp heard our distress honks and pushed us out of the muddy watery hole. I wish I had 11 men walking toward me every day! J We were lead along the proper path—the wet season path—to Wildlife Camp. We had reservations for the ensuite tents, but because of all the rain this time of year, they bumped us up to the chalets for free! Sweet! The chalets look like bigger versions of the village huts from the outside and fully furnished rooms complete with African textiles and mosquito netting inside. T and I were living the good life! We were even greeted by a green mamba snake on our front porch upon arrival. We explored the area a bit before getting ready for our first game drive!

BJ was our driver for all our game drives and boy was he funny! He did a great job! Anyway, we left our camp around 3:45to head into the park for an evening drive. We saw lots of baboons along the way and some vervet monkeys (like Rafiki from Lion King). They came up right by the truck! We also saw some antelope type animals—impala, puku, and bushbuck. Here’s how you tell them apart: impala are smaller with the black markings on their butts (McDonald’s M’s according to BJ, even though they don’t have McD’s here), puku are larger and are all brown, and bushbuck are shy and have white spots. We saw a monitor lizard basking in the sun on a rock. We saw elephants a few times. We ran into a few herds of zebra. Nighttime brought on more impala, giraffe, and shrub hare. Also a long-spotted genet (looks like a baby leopard according to BJ), a Nile crocodile, and lots of hippos (they only leave the water at night). We saw way too many birds to remember, but my favorites were the hornbills (Zazu from Lion King), the lilac breasted roller (gorgeous aqua and black feathers), the “go away” birds (that’s what their call sounds like), the Jesus birds (because it looks like they can walk on water), and the guinea fowl aka suicide chicken (because they run in front of the safari vehicles). I was amazed at how close we were to some of the animals. We were definitely less than 30 feet from some zebra and impala that night.

My favorite part of this drive happened early on. We turned a corner and we were all looking at some zebra when I turned my head and saw an elephant walking down the middle of the road towards us. It walked right up by us and passed us and then stopped. It must not have been too happy because it proceeded to run a bit at our vehicle, trumpet at us, hide behind the bushes, come out, get stuck in a tree a few times, and chase the zebra across the road. It was pretty funny!

After returning at 8:30, we had a nice meal—I had pesto basilico noodles—while listening to the hippos grunt and the lions roar before turning in. I fell asleep to the sounds of the hippo once again.

March 16 "Cows, goats, and monkeys, oh my!"

Today began our adventure! After spending the morning squaring things away before our trip, we were on the road to Chipata by noon. The road is a bumpy and windy one for the better part of 7 hours. Windy because we drove through many hills/mountains. Actually, the scenery and the landscape and the hills reminded me a lot of driving through West Virginia. Wild and Wonderful West Virginia. Bring back memories, sis? Anyway, and it was bumpy because of the potholes and the road quality. Now, all roads in Lusaka have potholes, so I’ve gotten used to them. But these “potholes” can cover the entire road, which is a dirt road. They can also be a few car lengths long and filled with water that comes up to the hubcaps. All very normal. Also, the road to Chipata is under construction (and has been for a few years, it seems), so the frontage road alongside the road being torn up is not very good quality either. My motion sickness did not like me on the trip, but I made it there in one piece.

One good thing about driving to the game park instead of flying was being able to see Zambia. Not even 20 minutes after we left Lusaka, I was seeing the houses and villages of the Zambians who don’t live in the city. They live in tiny thatched roof houses; so quaint, yet everyone you see looks so happy. There was a lot of waving going on during this trip, too. Life is so different from Milwaukee to Lusaka, but even more different from Lusaka to the bush. Seeing the houses made me think of all the blessings in my life….Also, another neat thing was to see the first wildlife of the trip! (Besides the snake on campus.) A baboon happened to cross the road. In fact, these were all the things we had to beep for in order to continue down the dirt road: herds of cows, LOTS of packs of goats, several chickens, a monkey, and some people taking a nap in the road!

Other notable happenings during the car ride: we saw the slashers working all over. Slashers are people who cut the grass, and they do just that—slash! They have long blades that look like swords and slash the grass away! Also, we met up with one of the pastors in Petaulke. It’s good to see the products of the seminary.

We stayed the night in Chipata, at D&L’s old house before continuing the journey. Here we had a delicious meal with D&D, enjoyed being out of the car, played with Marley the dog, and thanks to T, figured out how to work the TV so that we were able to watch Top Chef and Without a Trace! Wow! Unfortunately, we couldn’t get the VCR to work, so the Spongebob VHS tapes were out of the question before turning in for the night….

March 15 "All set Georgette!"

Are you watching your back? Because it is the Ideas of March….

Anyway, today was a pretty typical Tuesday by our standards. However, I will fill you in because a friend (J!) said that I needed to go and blog and tell the world of my wonderful children stories, so here goes. I only had one tutee this morning because J was sick, but R was doing an AWESOME job with the letter sound flashcards, addition math chants, and READING! YES!

English class was spent reading our novel about the Mozambican political system/murder story with the uppers. Today I had the privilege of describing coup d’état to the English language learners. Yes, French in ESL class. The rest of the time I was working with the lower group on writing their pen pal letters. We successfully described their houses, the weather, and answered their pen pals questions in the letters.

Lunch time was spent perusing things to do at Victoria Falls, as we’re leaving for the falls three days after getting back from the game park! And we leave for that tomorrow! Yippee! We looked up some pretty cool things, but I’ll keep you in suspense until we actually do them….Leftover pizza was on the menu as Mrs. A is still gone. Miss her!

Afternoon tutoring part one was fun: we made the travel story books again today. The girls did spectacularly, but my favorite sentence was still D’s sentence yesterday using “minibus”—“Spiderwoman steals the minibus.” Love it. Part two of afternoon tutoring was spent with my second grade pal, who is running along splendidly with letter sounds and recognition. She’s a tiny 9 year old (she looks like she’s 6) and was carrying her almost 2 year old sister on her back with a chitenga wrapped around her. I don’t know how these women do it…and teaching A at such a young age! Oh, and I taught little A to say "All set Georgette" after I say "Ready Freddy?" each time. (As everyone knows, I always say that....) Love it. J 

After tutoring, I headed out for a quick spin on the bike before T and I met D&D for a trip to the meal. Last minute provisions were in order, along with a yummy dinner and dessert. After sustenance, T and I decided we should finally start packing for our 4 or 5 day excursion to the South Luangwa game park. Boy, do I hope it all fits in the bag! Wish us luck at the park! Hopefully we’ll see many different kinds of animals on our safari drives!

PICTURES!

It is high time for some pictures. See facebook for more. Enjoy! 

Homeless man. He always sits in the same spot.

Teaching the preschoolers

Some of the campus kids playing

Mrs. A teaching the kids how to stir nshima

Local women

A compound near where we live

Some of the kids at Matero school. This boy drew my tattoo.

Kids at Matero School eating porridge aka their version of free and reduced lunch

March 14 "Caramel Carrot Catastrophe"

Happy Pi Day to you all! Ahhhhh, does it feel good to get back into a normal teaching rhythm again! Last week was great and all to break up monotony, but I sure was happy to follow the schedule we have laid out for our time here to a T today! The morning began with my lesson with the uppers in tutoring. We defined different modes of travel and made a story book with a sentence about each transportation mode today. After that, it was time for ESL with the ladies in the church (we haven’t been able to get in our “classroom” the church for two weeks!) where I started with my reading group with the uppers and worked on sentences about household chores with actions with the lowers. And we worked on our pen pal responses. Thanks WLC! What a great idea that was R!

I did not spend our lunch time break breaking for lunch today, but instead I went to replenish my talk time and go for a run. Remember how rainy I was telling you it was? Well, the noontime heat when I was running definitely made up for it today!

Preschool continues going well. The students are learning their letters quickly, and are even beginning to learn things like sharing and sitting still. J Lots of sending kids to stand in the back today, but eventually they all came around and fixed their problems. J I even got a big hug from M, a picture with L, held hands with J and I walking around campus, and four kisses on the hand from i. Yes, I know he’s three, but it still melted my heart that a boy kissed me on the hand. J After preschool, P and R are popped their heads in T’s window—literally. This could get interesting as they have now found out how to find us easily when we’re not teaching outside….

We are missing Mrs. A and her delicious cooking, but that gave us a chance to try out hand at cooking in Zambia tonight. A package of soup turned out to be a quite nice sauce for our noodles, if I do say so myself. However, the delicious sautéed carrots that my mother makes with the brown sugar turned into the caramel carrot catastrophe of 2011. I will still be cleaning up from it the day I leave, I believe! The CCC was the highlight (or lowlight) of the evening, but lesson planning was done and power outage 11 occurred before turning in early.

March 13 "No food and K12 on the phone..."

Well, today was the day you were all waiting in anticipation for, I’m sure, as today was my Zambian musical debut. J After Pastor M had pleaded for a pianist last week, I stepped up to the plate and played for the service this week. With a keyboard that didn’t connect to the amp until half way through the service and a G note on the main octave that didn’t work, it was quite an experience. But considering the members thanked me and invited me to play more in the future, I would say it went swimmingly, even those few times it seemed like T was the only one singing to my notes……hahah. Besides that, church was very enjoyable, as always. The choirs just sing so beautifully, and I convinced T to record some of their songs for me today. J The message seemed very fitting, as well, as it was about how God never forsook or left Jacob, even when he went far away from his home country…

After church, again the weather decided we didn’t need to tan or bike, so it decided to rain most of the day. This limited us to lesson planning and hanging out inside. T and I came up with some spectacular addition chants to teach our kids this week, if I do say so myself! Brace yourself for a few of the introduction line examples: “If you’re alive, gimme a 5!” “When you’re in a fix, here comes six” and “Ten, ten do it again!” Don’t worry, your wait is only a few months before you can hear me perform these renditions in person. J Also, since we were completely out of food and Mrs. A is gone, a venture to the market in the rain was a must. Our successful trip to the market meant that we now have food to eat! And the rain was minimal on the walk! Hurray!

The evening was a bit more entertaining than the afternoon, but not much. Since we were out of food, we ventured into pizza delivery in Lusaka. Success! We even got garlic cheese bread. J Ahhh, the comforts of Americanish food in Zambia! And we had not one, but TWO power outages for a few minutes tonight. There was also an international toll free phone call that needed to be made because my silly debit card thought it was stolen when I tried to book a hostel online. My mother investigated for me and found out that the card thought it was being used in Ireland instead of Victoria Falls! Silly debit card, Trix are for kids! hahah J When I finally connected to the phone number via my Zambian telephone and almost had everything squared away, I ran out of talk time. Lovely. My phone currently has K12 on it. For those of you who are not extraordinary kwacha convertors, that’s about a fourth of a cent! Oops…..I guess the calls will have to be continued tomorrow!

March 12 "Saturday = Sleep, Singing, Skype, and Sunsets"

Well, today my plans were to relax, lay out and tan in the sun, read a bit, and take a bike ride. The weather had other plans for me, however. Today the rainy season was back in full swing, so T and I spent a lazy Saturday inside after a hectic week. We had a nice, restful morning planning our trip to Victoria Falls which is coming up in a few weeks, and we did some of the work on the setting up the pilot program here end of things. We’re keeping a sort of journal for the next group that comes so they can learn from our mistakes and laugh at them, too. J

Grilled cheese for lunch, laundry in the afternoon (and our dryer broke for the second time, which can be quite a problem on a rainy day!), pizza for supper, and a night of movies. The day was pretty blasé, except for a few random happenings: our friend M, who is a computer science major (for all those who know me, that’s my favorite subject of course) brought over her IT homework so we could help her, and Pastor M walked the piano keyboard for church over in the rain because the regular pianist is gone and guess who’s stepping in tomorrow! Now, I’ve only played for the entire church service once before, and that was with five minute’s notice, so this time at least I have a bit to prepare! T helped sing so I could practice a bit before my musical debut in Zambia tomorrow. J

One last fun thing for the night: as I was trying to Skype call a toll free number in the States (I know, random), I caught a glimpse of the sky outside and squealed because the sky was so beautiful! J T gave me a weird look until she turned around and saw it too. It was one of the prettiest sunsets I’ve ever seen! T and I grabbed our cameras and our umbrellas to document the experience, and as we walked outside, facing the other direction was a gorgeous double rainbow! Spectacular view after all the rain today! We meandered the campus to get a better view of the sunset, which proved quite dangerous as the mud was slippery and we both almost wiped out a few times. Not that that would not have been fun, too!