More Camp Choma

ABC Thursday found the kids a little bit tired of Camp Choma :) But they hung in there and had a good time! Seven year old Isabel was the teacher and the kids enjoyed singing abc songs, reading books, and putting together puzzles.

The best part of the day was when Blu came home from the bush and Dawni and I hightailed it outta there for 2 hours of retail therapy in the big city of Choma. :)

Fun Friday concluded our week of Camp Choma. We baked a cake that I am a bit embarrassed to put on my blog, as most of you know that I am an avid cake decorator! However, this project was very last-minute, and the icing recipe kinda fell apart on it, so it is what it is.. :) Behold, the Zambia Cake!!

It shows the country of Zambia, along with a piece of candy showing where Isoka is and one showing where Choma is, and then a cut up fruit-rollup showing the road that goes between the cousins house. It tasted better than it looked. Trust me.

After 2 more hours of retail therapy in the Choma Market for Dawni and I, we gathered up all seven kids and headed to D.L. Lodge, the only lodge in town with a swimming pool. True, the water was green and probably had never seen any chemicals, but the kids had a blast and it was a great end to a fun week together!

Our other two kids were always a bit apprehensive of water, but not Cason!! He was fearless and wanted to be put down. He laughed and screamed with joy the entire time!

Dawni and sweet AJ

Progress in Mapanza

Blu has been camping out at Mapanza all week (he couldn't handle Camp Choma!) so we got to see all the progress they are making on the orphanage land.

I have to be honest and say my favorite part to see was the paved road going from Choma to Mapanza!! The Chinese government is working on the road and they are actually making progress!! Tractors and surveyors were out there, and most of the road had been grated. It makes me think it's actually going to happen, and probably pretty quickly!

The biggest thing they are doing on the land is clearing land where the electrical poles will go. It looks great! Blu has bought the poles but is having trouble getting them out of the bush where they were cut due to rains. Hopefully we can get that done this weekend and then get creosote on them and get them in the ground!

Another thing they have done is make a 12 foot wide road going to the land from the main road. This is for the sole purpose of getting our 40 foot container to the land when it gets here next month!

Building concrete blocks for the workers' house

Crushed stones ready for foundations

Footings are done!

One of the septics

Our family on the land where our house will be!

Camp Choma

My sister knows from experience that seven kids + two adults + seven days = total chaos unless we have some kind of plan underway! So this week at our house, we are having CAMP CHOMA!

We began with "Measurement Monday."

We read a couple of counting books, and the kids got to make their own mud pies using their measurements outside. They were very creative, using rocks as eggs for their masterpieces!


We then made real cookies inside and watched an episode of Special Agent Oso where they measured ingredients to make pancakes.

Then we had "Nature Tuesday." We played games outside where the kids brought us different items from nature. They had a nature picnic outside, and we even took a nature walk to get ice cream cones!

Isabel enjoyed writing in her nature journal about our cat.

We continued with "Water Wednesday." This was a busy day! We watched Finding Nemo, and then got swimsuits on and played in the water outside.






We enjoyed goldfish snacks and Finding Nemo fruit snacks (thanks to Mama Dee for treats from the States!) We then took a field trip out to Mapanza, to the land where the orphanage will be built.

We walked down to see the river, and the kids loved pumping water from our borehole.



We ended the day with the movie Nim's Island.

So far, Camp Choma is more like Choma Zoo, but the kids are having a blast!

Family Fun!

We spent the last week in Isoka, Zambia!! It was a LONG drive...15 hours!! We split it up staying at a nice inn halfway, but still a long ways from home!! Northern Zambia had gorgeous mountains (and huge potholes in the roads!) We enjoyed getting to visit with our sweet nieces and nephews and experience Blake and Dawni's amazing gourmet food! Now, they are back at our house for a week, so it's more family fun! :) I have taken TONS of pictures, so here's just a few.
We have enjoyed working out together!

The seven grandkids from oldest to youngest :)

All smiling!

Dawni gave me a pedicure, and she made me this gorgeous skirt!

Isaac and Caedmon

Caedmon helped gather eggs from their 33 chickens!

Cason and AJ

Random Pics...

We are putting up our own electrical poles on the land, so Blu hired some guys from the Dept of Forestry to cut down some trees and debark them.


Lazy days in Choma...

Cambree and another MK, Emily

Yes, he's in his church clothes. But what could be better than making a mud pie! Look at that smile :)

Caedmon and another MK, Micah, showing off their masterpieces

The boy likes dirt :)

Reunion!

Tomorrow we are leaving for a week long trip to Isoka, Zambia. What's in Isoka, yo may ask?? MY SISTER!!! And my bro-in-law Blake, and my two adorable nieces Isabel & Abigail and two sweet nephews Isaac & Amos!!! We are going to spend a week with them and then bring Dawni and the kids back here for a week while Blake is in a conference out of the country. We are so excited!!

It has been a year since we've seen them, BUT they have NEVER seen Cambree (who is 3 years old), and they haven't seen Caedmon since he was 16 months old!! It's going
to be a sweet reunion!!!
This was almost exactly a year ago--yay me I've lost 23 pounds since this pic!! ;)

I love Thursdays!!

I love the Thursday Bible studies with the women at Choma Baptist!! Today I took a risk and didn't show up until 2:15 and I was the fourth one there! It was a REALLY hot day, and when I showed up the three women that were there were sprawled on the ground, laying on their chitengis. (A chitengi, pronounced chee-tang-gi, is what every woman wears around her waist and is used to carry a baby on your back, put on the floor to sit down on, or in this case, take a nap on at church). One woman was wearing only her bra and her skirt. They were all fanning themselves and moaning about the heat. What other choice did I have?? I joined them! I threw my chitengi on the ground and sprawled out with them. (I chose to keep my shirt on).

Anyway, we had a great Bible study over the call of Jeremiah from Chapter 1, verses 4-10. They asked me if I would like an official Baptist woman uniform. Sure, I said! They quickly handed me a book - the Baptist Women's Guidebook of Zambia - which told me everything I must to do be able to wear a uniform:
Attend Bible studies
Don't drink beer or wine
Don't smoke
Memorize what the colors represent
Memorize the Romans Road for salvation
Memorize the theme verse - 1 Corinthians 3:9
Memorize a 5 stanza hymn called "Come All Ye Women"

I noticed that only 2 of them had on uniforms, so I asked why the others didn't. They said it was too hard to learn the Scriptures, so I told them when they learned them and earned a uniform then I would earn mine too. :)

He's refusing to poop!

Church this morning was interesting....The kids were pretty well-behaved compared to usual, but then right before Blu was to preach, Caedmon came up to me and whispered "Mama I have to poopoo.." Uh oh. There is a field behind the church so we start walking back there and a woman comes and says "Oh he needs to use the toilet? Follow me." So we proceed to walk along this tiny trail behind the church to a little building. The trail is covered with high grass and is more grass than trail. Every step is soggy wet water, and of course I was in flip-flops. So we finally get close and the woman says "I'll just wee here." She proceeds to stop DIRECTLY in front of us, hike up her skirt, adjust the baby on her back, and pee right in front of me!! It occurred to me that maybe all the soggy water I was stepping in wasn't water...

So she heads back and me and Caedmon are left in the little outhouse. I guess I hadn't prepared him well enough because he freaked out at the hole in the ground and refused to go. A little boy was outside the outhouse yelling the whole time "Caedmon!! Hurry up!! He's refusing to poop!" That was NOT helping matters any. I finally tore a piece of the siding from the outhouse (a cement bag), put it on the ground, and told Caedmon to poop on that and we would then put it down the hole. He is crying at this point and refused to go. So we make the walk back down the soggy trail, and I count the minutes until I am back home, where I head straight to the bathtub to wash my feet!!!

Never a dull moment...

Meet the Langston family. James, Marci, Taylor, Emily, and Micah (ages 8, 7, and 5).

They live about an hour from us out in the bush. They had planned a vacation and were headed to the capitol city on Thursday, but due to rain they were forced to wait until Friday. On Friday, they were told that "the bridge was out." Down to two boxes of milk, an onion, and two jars of cheese whiz, they were getting nervous about how to get out. Then, Friday night, James came down with a fever. By Saturday at noon his fever was up to 103 and he had a bright red rash all over his body. At this point panic set in and they called Wes (another missionary close by) for help. We happened to be at Wes's house, and as you can imagine Blu was excited about this adventure! The guys gathered rope and towels and set off the 1 1/2 hours to pull them across the river to safety. Roughly 4 hours later, the Langston's were safe and sound in our house, and James was at the local doctor. They will stay with us one more day so the doctor can make sure he is ok. Enjoy these amazing pics!


Wes carries Taylor across the river. Notice the two footlockers. Marci had to pack up what they would need for about a month, put it all in ziploc bags, and then in footlockers to carry them across the river.

They have a rope tied to a 55 gallon drum filled with fuel!

The crops in that area are wiped out.

The last thing I said to Blu when they left was "Blu, please don't do anything dumb!"


Whenever the white people in Zambia do anything, anything at all, the Zambians all show up to watch... :)

Things I learned today...

1) Never leave home without your cell phone
2) Memorize Blu's cell phone number
3) Always carry a spare set of house keys in the truck
4) Always carry an umbrella
5) Learn how to put the truck in four wheel drive
6) If you're feeling like maybe you shouldn't go to Bible study today, then maybe you shouldn't go to Bible study today...
7) And finally...never EVER think to yourself "I haven't had anything to blog about lately.."

Bible study starts at 2...it was 1:55 and I was not feeling like going. It had been pouring for hours and my stomach wasn't feeling so great. But I thought I SHOULD go, so at 2pm I threw on some nicer clothes, jumped in the truck, and headed off into the rain. Zambians are always late so I figured I'd be ok. Sure enough, I drove up to the church and nobody was in sight. I started to turn the truck around so that I'd be able to get out easier...spin...spin...I was STUCK in the mud. Not too badly stuck, but enough that I knew I would need Blu. I flashbacked to that moment before I left the house when I saw my cell phone sitting on the table and thought, "nah...I won't need it." Darn. At 2:20 one of the ladies showed up. She had a cell phone!! She had no talk time. Here you buy lottery ticket type cards called "talk time" to add minutes to your phone..almost every Zambian has a cell phone, but almost no Zambian has talk time. Then it occurred to me...I don't know Blu's cell phone number! I tried to stay calm as 2 more ladies showed up at 2:45. Then it started to POUR. Rain was pounding on the sheet metal roof and we couldn't even hear each other talk. Oh man.

Then I realized that Mrs. Musanje knows Blu's cell phone number! A lady showed up who had just enough talk time to phone Mrs. Musanje and ask her to get a message to Blu to come get me out of the mud. Mrs. Musanje's response? "No talk time." So she sets off in the pouring rain to a nearby store to get talk time and finally gets a message to Blu to come get me.

So at 3:15, Blu, Mulenga, and all 3 kids show up. (We have an extra vehicle at our house that belongs to some other missionaries). It had been pouring and the truck was now VERY stuck in the mud. But with some bricks, some pushing, and a shovel Blu is able to get it out and get the four wheel drive on. In the process, he runs into the back window of the truck and cuts the top of his head. The ladies then inform me that I can go ahead and leave because there's really not Bible study, just a planning session they are having. Blu then informs me that he and Mulenga, in their haste to leave, locked the padlock on the gate without grabbing the keys...

We get home, it is still raining, and Blu and Mulenga get out to assess the situation. Our gate is topped with 3 strands of an electric fence. We debate as to whether or not the fence will just shock you or kill you. (my vote was kill him). Blu daringly climbs to the top. Mulenga is about to have a heart attack right now as Blu is balanced precariously with his jeans just an inch from the wire. Mulenga warns Blu "Don't grab the tree!! There are no fibers!" to which Blu responds "fibers??? Mulenga what are you talking about??" At this point, Blu gingerly steps over the wire by using one of the "fibers" of the tree for balance. Suddenly all we hear is SNAP and Blu drops instantly to the ground on the other side with a THUD. He gets up, dusts himself off, runs inside for the key to unlock the gate.

We look at each other and agree...I should have stayed home from Bible study today...