Saying Goodbye

I leave tomorrow for the U.S. Going home from Zambia is always bittersweet, as so much of me just wants to stay here. I sobbed today as I hugged and kissed each toddler goodbye, not knowing when or if I would ever see them again. I'm sure it will be the same tomorrow as I leave my parents.
Thanks to everyone who kept up with my blog this summer, I appreciate your support and look forward to seeing you soon!

Clinic Report #2

The last three days of clinics went well - in all we saw over 15,000 people, and had 134 baptisms. Here are a few shots from Mabuyu and Nazibbula.

Clinic Report

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Last week we were out in the bush holding our first three days of clinics. We spent three nights at a village called Njabalombe, which means "the village of the strong boys," so named because of the difficult living conditions there. We held two clinics there, and then traveled to Katungu to hold the third clinic. We have already treated over 6,000 patients, who were either seen by a dentist, doctor, or nurse, or were fitted for glasses in the eye clinic. I have been working in the pharmacy, which is housed on a big yellow school bus. Trunks of medicine are placed on each of the seats, and the patient brings their prescription to the front of the bus, we fill it with medicine from one of the trunks, and then send it out the back to a Zambian nurse, who then instructs the patient on how to take their prescription. It's actually a very efficient process, and having it on the school bus allows the buildings to be used by the dental and medical personnel. We leave today for another round of clinics and three nights in the bush. Please keep us and the Zambians we will meet in your prayers.

My African Home

Judy Treat asked where all the Americans are staying when they get here for the medical mission, so I thought I'd show you where I have been staying, and where some of the other Americans will be staying when they get here also. This is my parents' 3-bedroom home. It was mistakenly built larger than my parents' plans, but the mistake in size has turned into a blessing because they have been able to host many people that visit the mission in their home. Currently we have 7 people staying here, but by Sunday night we will have 18 total. The rest of the Americans (about 100 in all) are staying in Zambian homes on the mission. Then when we leave on the medical mission we will sleep in tents out in the bush for three nights at a time.

Zambia Medical Mission

Next week the medical mission begins, so there are about 40 Americans here right now getting things ready for when the rest of the team arrives from America on Sunday. Once the medical mission begins on Monday I will not have regular access to the internet since we will be out in the bush for 4 days at a time. If you would like to follow along with the medical mission, you can visit its blog site at www.zambiamedicalmission.info/ There are already several entries posted.

Baby Mobile

On Thursday my dad was out with the vehicle, so my mom and I brought Bernard and Kathy home for lunch in this little wagon. The orphanage is about a mile away from my parents home, so my mom and I got a good workout pulling (and sometimes pusing) these guys on the bumpy, sandy road.

News and Notes

Sorry for the lack of posts recently; we have had limited access to the internet. I have still been taking care of the toddlers this week, and also made a trip to Lusaka, the capital city of Zambia. The Americans are starting to arrive for the medical mission that will occur in July. I will put a link to the Medical Mission Blog soon for those of you who are interested. Here's a picture of me at the orphanage with Adrian, Kathy, Brandon, Cynthia, and Jason.

This Little Light of Mine

Here is a picture of Cynthia shining her light while singing "This Little Light of Mine." The toddlers love to sing songs with hand motions. One of their favorites is "Roll the Gospel Chariot Along," and they enthusiastically roll right over the devil when it comes to that part of the song.

Adventures in Babysitting

Good news! The pink eye is all cleared up and the babies are doing much better! They have been singing, dancing, playing, and wearing me out all week. They all want to be held ALL THE TIME, so I usually have three or four in my lap or two in my arms. I brought a different toddler home each day for lunch, and even kept Kathy overnight since she was feeling ill from an ear infection. Brandon figured out how to take his cloth diaper off this week, so I think it's time to potty train! Yesterday Jason came running in from the dining room holding Brandon's diaper up to me and giving me a look that said, "Look what Brandon did!" They have enjoyed playing with the toys that Trey and Melisa Goodwin sent with me, although they are very afraid of the McDonald's lion toy that winds up and jumps. They are also deathly afraid of my parents' cat. Yesterday when Adrian was home for lunch, he got so scared of the cat that he wet all over the floor! Pictured are Adrian, Kathy, and Brandon, from left to right.

Nchimuny

Nchimuny is a tenth grade student I am sponsoring at a high school in the nearby town of Zimba. She is an orphan who is cared for by her aunt, a subsistence farmer with several children of her own. I received this letter from Nchimuny last week.

“Dear Sponsor,
I would like to thank our Lord our God. I am very thankful for your help. May the Lord be with you. …..
My sponsor, here at Zimba it is very cold. So I am asking if you have a spare bedspread or blanket. If you have one, please I am requesting you to do if possible. Even an old one, I can use it as long as it protects me from coldness.
School work is going well and everything is under God’s care.
Love and care.
Yours,
Nchimuny Mooya”

After reading the letter, my mother and I, choking back tears, agreed that we had to get this girl a blanket! We left the next morning with a bedspread and blanket, clothes, food, soap, lotion, sheets, and school supplies for Nchimuny. We found her at the school and she showed us her classrooms and a garden project she was working on before we gave her our gifts. She was very grateful and hurried off to her dorm room to make her bed for the night.

Trip to Chiili

On Thursday my parents were scheduled to drive Mrs. Kapaale, a teacher at George Benson Christian College, to a remote village school called Chiili so that she could observe a student teacher. I had heard my mom talk about this school a lot, so I decided to go along for the ride. It took us four hours to get there because of the condition of the road (in the U.S. on a good road the trip would have taken about an hour and a half). The road to the school is so bad that the only transport in and out of the village is a truck that comes twice a week to deliver supplies.

When we arrived, the students were getting ready to have sports practice. My mother and I walked with them down to the field and watched as they ran the 200 meter dash. We noticed that only one out of ten of the students had a pair of shoes, but they ran as fast as they could on the rocky dirt path anyway! We also watched as they played soccer with a ball made out of string and plastic bags.

Jason

This week I have been the only makewa (the word the Zambians use for white person) at the orphanage. The other girls are on a medical mission up north, so its been left up to me. I have lots of help from the Zambians employed there, though. About five of them have come down with pink eye, so we have been trying to get that cleared up, but I'm afraid it will spread to the others before the week is over. At lunch time I have been bringing one of the babies home with me to get some individual attention. This is a picture of Jason and me at lunch yesterday. My parents have a lot of chickens and baby chicks, and he loved watching them and saying the English and Tonga word for chicken (the Tonga word is "cuckoo").

Church in the Bush

Yesterday I experienced what a typical Sunday morning is like for my parents here in Zambia. The day began as we traveled for 2 hours over bumpy "roads" to reach the small church at Kalinga village. We arrived late due to some minor car trouble, but hardly anyone else had showed up yet, so we were actually early! The church building was a small cement building with a thatch roof, which also serves as a school on weekdays. As we came in, at the front of the church, a man was writing the order of worship on a chalkboard. My dad was scheduled to preach, but next to preacher, the man wrote "Miss Gregersen" instead of "Brother Gregersen." Well, the only "Miss Gregersen" in the room was me! I looked across the church at my dad who was grinning and pointing at me, as if to say, "You're up, girl!" The Zambians who knew English were also chuckling to themselves and looking at me. Finally my dad told the man that he had made a mistake, and he changed the "Miss" to "Brother." The church service was held in Tonga with English translation, and vice versa, depending on who was speaking. As the collection basket was passed, I had to insert my money in between cobs of corn that had been given by members of the church. Since many Zambians are only subsistence farmers, these cobs of corn are what they give instead of money. The churches take the corn cobs and save them in a bucket until they have enough to buy communion wine with. When church was over we left the building singing and formed a line as each person shook the hands of the person in front and behind. You do this in such a way so that by the time everyone has filed out of the building you have shaken every person's hand. During the church service, a group of women had built a fire under a tree and killed a chicken to serve us for lunch. They also cooked nshima (ground cornmeal that looks like mashed potatoes, but has no taste) and a green vegetable called "rape," and served it to us in the church. It was an honor to be fed such a delicious and lavish meal by them, but hard to accept because we knew what a sacrifice had been made on their part to provide it for us, and that the rest of the congregation would not be fed along with us. After thanking them for the meal we said our goodbyes and prepared to leave. The children formed a line and waved goodbye as our vehicle drove off into the dust. On the way home I was humbled as I compared a typical Sunday back home in Tulsa to what I just experienced.

Sinka!

There isn't a word for "smile" in the Tonga language, so when you are taking a picture you say "sinka," which means laugh, instead. As you can see from these pictures, Zambians have the most beautiful smiles!

When You Gotta Go, You Gotta Go

On Saturday afternoon, we went on another children's outreach to the village of Kalweza. While one of the college students was telling the Bible story, this little boy got up and stood right behind the teacher and used the bathroom. No one except me seemed to think this was out of the ordinary, and the class continued on!

Trip to Livingstone

On Friday, I took a trip to the city of Livingstone with a group of girls and Kathy Merritt to pick up some more travellers from the airport. Livingstone (named after the African explorer David Livingstone) is a thriving tourist town, thanks to the political turmoil across the border in Zimbabwe. We first hit up the trader's market, called Makuni Village, to shop for curios. Each trader has his own stall with the crafts he has made, and they allow (and expect) you to bargain the price with them. When I took my camera out to take a picture of the market, the traders all wanted to get their picture made (they called it a "gotcha"). After picking up the girls at the airport, we went to see Victoria Falls, one of the seven wonders of the world and the waterfall with the largest amount of volume in the world. Just the mist coming up from the falls soaks you as you follow the trail in front of it. As we walked in, we were welcomed by several baboons along the pathway. As my friend Josh can attest, while these creatures may look cute, given the chance they will not hesitate to chase you or snatch things out of your hands, so I was a little leary while taking these pictures!

Meet Brandon

It didn't take me long to fall in love with this one. Brandon has sickle cell anemia, but he doesn't let it slow him down! He loves to sing and play and is one of the first ones to catch on to new words and songs and games. He loves to be held, and can hardly stand it if someone else is in your arms and he isn't! Here he is waiting patiently for his lunch to arrive, and in the second one trying on my shoe.

Out of Shape

Today I helped Meagan Hawley, a girl my age who lives here at Namwianga, care for the 2 year old orphans at Eric's House. There's nothing like taking care of eleven toddlers to make you realize just how out of shape you really are! I came home from the day, arms and legs aching, covered in slobber and snot and who knows what else, but still excited to do it again tomorrow. Here's a picture of George, the little guy I posted a picture of earlier, with my sandals on. He or another baby had one or both of my sandals on all day, and when I finally got them back, they were more than just a little bit slobbery!

Kanyaya Outreach

This afternoon I joined my mother on a small outreach to a village church called Kanyaya. Three girls from Harding who are here working at the orphanage joined us, as well as Cindy Robinson and 2 translators, Rodgers Namuswa, and my friend Mosozi, a girl from the secondary school. Cindy taught a Bible class to the ladies while the rest of us taught the children. We used flip charts and stick puppets to tell the story of the Prodigal Son. Any American child would be bored to tears merely looking at a flip chart, but these children were enthralled. Not once did we have to stop and ask a child to be quiet or to quit messing with their neighbor (I am definitely teaching in the wrong country!). I couldn't help thinking, "What would these kids think of a Smartboard?!" After the stories, we had the children make a visor with the words, "Jesu Ulandiyanda" on them, which means "Jesus Loves Me" in Tonga. We passed out crayons in Ziploc bags to the children, and had to teach many of them how to use a crayon, and even how to open a Ziploc! At the end of the day, we, the visitors, lined up outside the church building as the women and children sang to us and shook each of our hands, as is Zambian custom, to thank us for coming.

I made it!

After 5 flights and over 48 hours of either sitting on a plane or trying to pass time in an airport (I had a 12 hour layover in Paris!), I finally made it to Zambia. I left my apartment at 5:00 am Wednesday morning, and walked off the plane in Zambia on Friday at about 6:30 am Oklahoma time, which is 1:30 pm here in Zambia (7 hour time difference). I didn't actually make it to my parents' home until 6 pm, since we had to run errands in town before driving an hour and a half to Namwianga Mission where my parents live outside of a small town called Kalomo.
Although the traveling was difficult and tiresome, it was worth it to be back here in a place I love so much, and to get those hugs from my parents that I've missed for so long!

Baby George

I fell in love with this little guy last summer when I visited "The Haven," an orphanage near Roy and Kathy Merritt's home. I'm sure he has grown a lot since then! One of the things I will be doing during my stay in Zambia is taking care of the toddlers at the orphanage while their regular caretaker is away. I will also present several teacher training workshops along with Michele Broadway, as well as work in the pharmacy during the medical mission.

E.T.D.

"When are you leaving?" is the question I'm asked several times a day. So I thought I'd let everyone know that my estimated time of departure (ETD) is 7:16 a.m. Wednesday morning, June 6. I fly out of Boston via Cincinnati, land in Paris for a day, then fly to Johannesburg, South Africa. From there I catch my final flight to Livingstone, Zambia, where I will stay for 6 weeks. I hope to keep you informed of all my adventures in Africa, so stay tuned or should I say, "blogged in!"