acclimating

Although we have not left the guest house here in Choma that much this week, so much has happened!  One of our members got malaria, just about every one of us enjoyed the typical traveler’s GI upset, and one of our leaders was shocked with 240 volts, more than the amount given to revive a person.  It seemed like it would not stop!  However, God has been faithful and every one of us has rebounded, and we are all doing great.  Because so much of our group has been ill this week, our classes and schedule have been even more relaxed, allowing for plenty of rest.  This week was also the Presidential elections, and Michael C. Sata has been elected, replacing Rupiah Banda.  The country is split up in to provinces, and the province the new president is from usually benefits the most.  Sata is not from the Southern province where we are, so the results were disappointing to the locals here.  However, there has not been any unrest or anything. 

We have now attended two church services in Choma.  We are traveling to three different churches while here.  They have still been such neat experiences.  The 3 I have been to so far are very similar in the order of things.  There is a bible study an hour before church begins, which is typically pretty full.  As the church service begins, announcements are made, special music is performed (often times by children), worship begins (it lasts for probably 45 minutes or so), and then the sermon begins.  The sermons have lasted anywhere from 50 minutes to almost 2 hours.  Let me tell you, I get pretty antsy after an hour.  The Zambians are very receptive though!  They are quiet, look straight ahead, and hardly move a muscle.  The children are incredibly good as well.  They either sit up front on the floor all together or sit in the pews, not necessarily with their parents.  It’s pretty typical to see the eight year olds with a baby on their back, caring for the younger siblings.  They youngest children walk around to different people during the church service, and babies breastfeed (very openly) at any point during the service.  It is very relaxed to say the least!  I find it funny that offering is taken up 2 or 3 times during the service, too!  Worship is amazing.  We dance, sing very loudly and openly.  Several of us have recorded some of the songs we have sung, and it is beautiful!  The sermons are first spoken in English by the pastor and then repeated by another speaker in the local language, Tonga.  There are hardly words to describe the service and it is just one of those experiences you have to witness to truly understand.

The first church I attended in Choma: Pilgrim Wesleyan Church

On Thursday of this week, we went to a rural school where we helped sponsored children write letters to their sponsor.  Many of them are familiar with some English, but have a hard time understanding and writing full sentences.  So, we went to see their school and help out.  The classroom I was in was just one large room with a green slate board in front.  About 70 children are in each classroom, with each room comprising three different grades.  I was paired with fifteen year old Linety.  She was so sweet, and although she had a hard time understanding me, we had a good time!  I heard a little about her family.  She is one of the eldest siblings in her family, and she likes to help in the kitchen.  She loves to sing, and I was very happy to hear she would like to go to nursing school.  Linety was pretty bright, but some of the other children were very behind.  It took one of the sixth grade girls fifteen minutes just to write her name on the paper.  The person working with her had to go through each letter of her name, showing her how to write it, and then she would copy it.  There are success stories in the school, but there are also so many children who have fallen through the cracks.  We were told that many of the children come to school after having performed their household chores, then they walk the distance to school, many come without having breakfast, and then they sit in an overcrowded schoolroom and try to learn.  Unfortunately it is not conducive to learning, and many of the children stop attending.  The higher the grade level, the smaller the class.  Linety wrote me a letter when she was done drawing and writing to her sponsor.  It says “My very early mother just sent us nine potatoes (not sure what she meant by early mother). Thank you Sarrah.  Sarrah is friend, I lover Sarrah.  My name is Linety.  I am fittyn years old.”  Obviously she is very behind compared to American standards, but I got the feeling that she is one of the better students.  She laughed easily and was very good with the younger children.  I was so happy she agreed to a picture!

 


Top: One of the little boys- he obviously enjoyed his sucker!
Bottom: Linety and I!

 

That same day we traveled to church, where community meetings are often held, and we were told about another community development project going on in the area.  The project has some great ideas and have been successful in training some of the local people trades and skills.  The leader of the project wanted to take us to one of the wells in the community.  It looked good to me, but I quickly was told about the problems they have been having with it.  First of all, it takes a lot of pumping before water ever comes out of the spout- like a few minutes.  That isn’t normal, and the man thought some of the pipes needed repair.  The well is completely exposed without any kind of a gate or fence around it.  This allows animals to come and lick the dripping water from the spout.  This can produce and spread all kinds of disease.  The other major concern with the well was that the run-off water sits in the warm sun all day, becoming stagnant and producing the perfect environment for mosquitoes.  Mosquitoes = malaria = bad news.  The leader said this could be prevented if a hole was dug where the water runs, and then covered with rocks.  That way the water would run through the rocks and be absorbed in to the earth again and mosquitoes would not be tempted to lay their eggs.  These were all things I hadn’t thought of before and I found it interesting.  The community is aware of the problems and how to solve them, but do not have the resources available to change it. 



Our last big outing in the community was at the orphanages!!!  I was so excited about finally getting to go.  We saw three in one day!  It felt like a trick being in each place for such a short time.  From the minute we unloaded from the land rovers, children ran to us wanting to hold our hands or pick them up.  We gladly did both.  We mostly went to meet the staff, and establish a relationship.  Because there are three orphanages in Choma, we are going to be very free to stop by whenever we want.  One of the houses is only about a quarter of a mile down the road from us!  We are hopefully going to be able to go play and visit some more today.  There are little ones who are only about a year and others who would be twelve or so.  I didn’t see any children who would have been much older than that.  I have hardly spent time with the kids yet, but I can tell they will be easy to fall in love with. 



Candy is a universal language with children!  They flocked to me.  A few of them stuck their suckers in their pockets and said they didn't get one! haha!  And I thought this little girl was adorable!  She would have been two or three years old.



This week our prayers as a group have been focusing on our health.  We had some crazy stuff going on, and each morning we would take a count of who was feeling good and who wasn’t.  Luckily I think it is behind us now, and hopefully our immune systems are better equipped to take on the different bugs Africa has to offer : )  We have started to have some really hot days, and not much relief is found in our un-airconditioned house!  Thankfully we purchased about 5 fans this week that have been life savers.  On Saturday we had a Fall party complete with apple cider, apple crisp, and a bonfire and it was actually cold out.  It was perfect because we all have been sad about missing out on fall activities!  These were the highlights of this week! Enjoy the pictures!!