It’s been a month since we left Auburn … it feels like years. Haha We have done all sorts of things and experienced all sorts of things. We were in Lusaka for a few weeks and we had “DFA’s” Daily field assignments. We had partners from the group and then a national helper and we would go out researching different things about “African culture”. We talked about everything from medicine, to how they handle deaths and funerals, to daily life, and one day we went sharing the gospel (using Creation to Christ). It was great – the hard part was we had class every afternoon and it was hard to pay attention and stay awake but we managed. Ya’ll know I’ve been to Africa several times but I know way more about the people and the culture than ever before. The tools we are learning are amazing! Our national helpers are strong believers and were truly wonderful. I cried when I said goodbye to Dumas. Then we transitioned from urban work to rural work, so from Lusaka to Petauke. We were at “bush camp”. I was actually quite fun. No running water, showers from buckets, washing clothes by hand, no power, sleeping in tents, squatty potties. It was wonderful! Hahah it really was! We also had a national helper here but Jack and I got to go out together which was really fun. The first few days we went into the town of petauke. We met gov’t officials, met the chief and his wife learned about traditional medicine(witch doctors) and then we went to the village. We learned about life cycles and community development there. We also learned how to share our testimony in African culture. The we packed up at camp and went and lived with an African family for 3 days. It was definitely interesting. Jack is a much better story teller about our time with them. He helped build a maize (corn) bin and I helped load one. We also shelled corn and some ground nuts (peanuts). They were a sweet family husband and wife and six children. We slept in a mud hut with a thatch roof … we had critters but don’t worry we had a “happy place”. Inside our mosquito net nothing could get us. It was kinda sad to leave them but we really learned a lot from them. That brings us to where we are now. We are at Ibis Gardens ( I am sure you can google it). It is quite nice. Hot water, internet, pool, cokes … it’s the little things in life. Here we are in class all morning but have the afternoons free. Our class in the morning is PILAT Language Prep. It teaches you how to learn a language. The teacher is sweet but does make for long mornings. We are excited to say that we have “survived our safari in Africa”. We will leave here on Friday, catch a flight to Ethiopia spend the night in the airport there and then head to Congo first thing Saturday! WOOHOO!
(I'll post pics when I remember my computer and camera!)
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