Zambia, Day Three

By now, it had been about 3 days since I'd had a shower...so I woke up and showered with the spiders. Zambia has tons of "wall spiders." Big gross, VERY fast spiders on the walls that eat the mosquitoes. You aren't supposed to kill them, but I do whenever possible even though Wes gets mad at me! I HATE spiders!!

We had a long, busy day with many stops to make! Our first stop was Chitongo--this is where Blu and I used to live! We got to see our hut that we lived in. Did it make me nostalgic and want to go back to live in the hut? Um, no. :) Inside, however, Blu found remnants of the baby crib that he made for Caedmon out of sticks from the bush, so that was cool! We got to see a lot of our friends and it was so weird how no one had seemed to change at all. The village "madwoman" who walked around knitting socks who used to come visit me was still walking around the village!

We then went to Kabulamwanda to visit Joyce and her family. Joyce's husband and the pastor of the church there died suddenly a few months ago, so we really wanted to see her. It was another one of those treks through the tall grass and it was SOOO hot. I had forgotten how bright and hot the African sun is! We got to her village and found her mom there, two of her children, and one of the orphans she cares for. Everyone looked exactly the same!


We gave out some gifts and they told us that Joyce was in town, so we were off. (I was excited to enjoy some more a/c in the truck!) We found Joyce in town, and she DID look different! We have never seen her in pants, with her hair done, or in a shirt like that, and I think she was kinda embarrassed!

Sankwa is the boy in the picture - he is an orphan she has taken care of as well and he is SO sweet! He was on his way to a soccer game.

Now it was time to head to Nsanti. Nsanti has never been one of our favorite places to visit, because the women there never fail to point out how fat we are. Remember, in Africa it is a HUGE compliment to be fat! However, I could live there for 25 years and never get used to people telling me I'm fat. Do you know what you're expected to say when someone tells you you are getting fat? "Thank you!" The day I thank someone for telling me I'm fat will be the day I die!!

Anyway, we arrive at Nsanti and people start showing up and heading into the church, so we figure we are going to have a little service.

About 20 people arrived and we sang songs and shared a little with them.

It was amazing how fast our Tonga came back to us. Words we hadn't thought of in years we are suddenly speaking-it was neat. Anyway, after the service we head back to Pastor Robinson's hut (another long trek-I'm realizing at this point how out of shape I am!) where they had prepared us a "snack."

They bring these huge fruits out--they call them pumpkin but they taste like sweet potatoes, and they also bring homemade rolls (brick-like consistency). I'm sure I sound ungrateful and American but I'm just trying to give you a picture of what it's like. They first bring around a bowl of water for you to wash your hands in. Laurie laughed at me because I was last so by the time they get to me the water is dirty! Then, Pastor Robinson plops the HUGEST pumpkin thing on my plate! Wes is laughing too, but remember-I am the fat one so I should get the most! I take about 4 very small, very slow bites. Wes and Blu manage to eat it all, and Laurie even takes her roll with her so she can eat it later! Ahhh...what good missionaries they are.... :) While we were eating, we were swarmed with flies. It was an uncomfortable situation, but they were so happy to have us as visitors. When we finished, they called the children over and they got to eat our leftovers. It was sad.

So we leave Nsanti and head on to the big town of Namwala. Namwala is like the end of the world. There are quite a few things there, but the road just ends there. To leave Namwala you either turn around and go the way you came or you can put your car on a small ferry and cross the river. Basically, it just ends there! There were some new Southern Baptist missionaries who had arrived THAT DAY in Namwala. So we headed to their house to visit with them and welcome them. Then, we headed to where we were staying for the night--The Ila Inn. They were the cutest little huts with a bed, tv, small fridge, and then a little bathroom!

They overlooked the Kafue River.


Not long after we arrived, though, we saw that the power was out. No power = no fans = MISERABLE. The huts were SO hot. Wes and Laurie saved the day because they had battery operated fans from the USA that ran all night--we put it in our mosquito net with us and were quite comfortable! For supper, I had to cook on an outdoor gas grill hooked to a propane tank. Wes and Laurie had brought all of this stuff with them for us to stay ONE NIGHT at this place --- can you see how much harder things are over there?!

So I was back to my cooking outside days from living in a hut...Blu thought it was quite comical, but me...not so much :)

We ended our evening with a game of Hand and Foot--can't remember who won but I'm sure it was me and Laurie. We got back into our hut and there were fat spiders on the walls. I seriously just wanted to cry. But instead I took out my contacts and climbed under the mosquito net so I couldn't see them and they couldn't see me, and it worked! I slept like a baby.. :)