Benja and Kevin

I brought these two guys home this afternoon to play. I think their favorite thing was taking a bath - at the orphanage they are given quick baths in a small sink, so they love being able to play and splash around in the tub at my parents' house. I had to make them get out because they were shivering when the water got cold. Benja has a HUGE head and crazy personality. His favorite thing to say is "bye bye" with a little Miss America wave. Kevin is more subdued than Benja, and even though he is older he hardly ever talks. He loves to cuddle, and when you can get him to smile he lights up the room. I'm going to miss these guys when I go home!

Thank you Kristi & Ken!

Kevin and Gary wearing new shoes thanks to my friends Kristi and Ken. The babies are always needing socks, shoes, and diapers, so thanks to Kristi and Ken's donation I was able to buy new shoes, socks, and lots of diapers for all the boys.

Church at Nazibula

This morning my parents took Mark, Michele, and I along on an outreach to a village church at Nazibula. On the weekends they take groups of college kids out to various churches to give the college students experience and encourage the churches. My parents had never been to this church before - it was started in August of last year. It took us 3 hours of driving on a very bad dirt/sand road - we never made it out of second gear. Just when we were about to turn around because we were sure it was too late and we had already missed the church service (it was almost 11:00) and we were literally in the middle of nowhere, we pulled up to the church. They had heard we were coming, and so hadn't started yet. They quickly cleaned out and prepared the classroom where church was to take place. There were over 85 in attendance - a good number for such a new church. We enjoyed some very spirited singing and lessons from Mark and my dad. Midway through the 3 hour service, some women left the church. Pretty soon my mom could see them (out of the window of the church) plucking the feathers off of chickens, and then cooking them to serve us for lunch. So after the service we were served very fresh fried village chicken, along with samp (hominy - the Zambians eat it with sugar and sour milk - no thank you!) and nshima (dried corn that looks like mashed potatoes when cooked but has no taste). After church I introduced the children to a digital camera - they loved seeing themselves on the screen. Mothers were running up to have me take pictures of their babies, and then would laugh and get very excited when I showed them the picture.

I Passed!!

A few days before I left for Africa, I took the middle school math certification test for Texas, and I just checked my scores online and I passed!! Big relief! Many thanks to Michele Broadway who tutored me - couldn't have done it without her!

Quick Update

I know, I've been a terrible blogger lately. But really haven't had much going on. I guess the best news is that I'm feeling a lot better, and would be back to 100% if it wasn't for this cough that won't go away. It probably won't go away til I'm back home and out of all this dust! Its terrible! Mom and I ended up feeling better on Monday and went out for the last two clinic days of the medical mission. I think the total of people that we saw during the medical mission (six days of clinics) was 16, 423. THat's a lot of people considering we only had 4 doctors and about 8 nurses! That number includes people who saw dentists and went to the eye clinic too though. There were also 100 baptisms.
Today I got back from Livingstone after spending one night there with the medical mission team. We went on a sunset cruise and stayed in a nice hotel and I got to take a real shower, which made the whole trip on the bumpy road worth it! When I got back I was missing the boys, so mom took me up to get Jason and George for the afternoon. They were so much fun. I just love listening to them talk to each other in Tonga. I wish I knew what they were saying. I showed them the Aggie t-shirts that David bought them and the next thing I knew they had their shirts off and the Aggies shirts on. They were a little big, but they'll grow into them. I'll post pics later when I find my card reader.
Tomorrow Mom, Dad, and I are going on a quick trip to Lusaka to see some of their friends. I'm just along for the ride. Its always fun to go to the capital city though. Hopefully I'll get to do a little shopping.

Yesterday the medical mission group arrived back at Namwianga for some much needed rest and relaxation before going out for the next set of clinics on Saturday. I came back a little earlier than the rest of the team because I got sick yet again with a fever and really bad cough and congestion. I will not be going with the group for the next set of clinics, which is disappointing and frustrating when I know there is so much that I could be doing. But I wouldn't be much help in the state that I am in.
All in all, the mecial mission has been very successful so far and we have seen thousands and thousands of patients. I'm not sure what the exact numbers are, you can check the medical mission website for that info if you're interested. I hope you enjoy the pictures below from the clinics.