5/13 Update from Holly & Elizabeth

Muli shani! (Hello, how are you? in Chibemba) I (Holly) decided to write before everyone gets in line. My first full day in Zambia is going wonderfully. As I write this it's only 5pm, but what a day it's been! Dr. T (whose house this is) got up shortly after and he treated me to rooibos tea from South Africa and some homemade bread biscuits. You dip the bread in the tea/coffee and it dissolves and is yummy. I guess it's their version of tea and scones. Once people got up and showered, we got ready for church. We split in 2 groups for some reason to go to 2 different churches in 2 diff. towns. I accompanied Tannen, Kristen, and Jim VZ to the church in the town here. What an experience! There was so much singing and dancing, everyone so happy. Unfortunately I dozed off throughout the service because it kept going on and on - for FOUR HOURS!!! It was a really cool experience.

I (Elizabeth) went with Dr. T, Carol, Jessica and Dan to church in Kitwe (the second biggest town in Zambia). We too experienced lots of singing and dancing. One of the best parts was their way of celebrating Mother’s Day. By the way, Happy Mother’s Day to all of you at home!!! Anyway, they celebrated by singing a special song during which each of the mothers came out to the aisle and boogied down – literally! It was fantastic and something you would never expect to see in the middle of church!!! :) Our service also lasted around four hours and was absolutely amazing. I loved being able to dance and sing with the Zambians.

We are treated like royalty here. All the locals carry our stuff for us, insist on serving us, etc. After church we were escorted out before everyone and then they had a large receiving line so that we met everyone in the church. I think they are not used to seeing many white people, so we are a bit of a novelty. Tannen knows many of them since this is her fourth year. They had her stand up during church and say some words; she spoke in Bemba and they all hooted and hollered. After church and the long receiving line we talked to the locals. All the kids were staring and smiling. Then we were invited for lunch at the house of a prominent man in the government whose wife is a member of the church. They are apparently the wealthiest couple around. They set tables out in the courtyard and decorated them and served an absolutely amazing meal! We had rice with sauce, some sort of amazing chicken, and some random green cole slaw stuff. Apparently Orange Fanta is what they serve to important people, so we had lots of it. It's been years since I've had that. It was nice and cool under the trees- no mosquitoes. The chicken here is so much better also. Probably because it's so fresh, and there are no hormones or anything. Afterwards they insisted that we take taxis back because it was a ways to the house. Since coming back a little bit ago, Jim VZ and I have been working on moringa stuff. An organization that is associated with the mines is looking to clean up their environment and plant trees. Many of the people around the copper mine are having intestinal issues from the sulfur by-products. We told them about moringa, showed them our trees and sprouts and let them taste some. They are very interested in planting moringa throughout their property because it is proven to help these issues. Later this week Jim and I are going to go there and tell them where to plant it before giving them seedlings.

Well that's about all that's happened so far. My (Holly) overall impressions of my first full day - the Zambians are a wonderful, happy people. We are safe to walk around freely and I haven't felt awkward at all. This is VERY different from South Africa. We all stink terribly, but that’s okay because we are in Zambia. We are blessed to have a real shower, which is wonderful. It stays warm and has great pressure. The only catch is that we need to yell “geyser!” to have it turned it on and off.

Here’s the best process for giving us a call, assuming that you really want to talk to us! :)

1. Calling from anywhere in the world,
2. Put your international code before the following number: +2602-411517
3. This will ring Dr. T’s landline that someone should answer.

Please be considerate of Zambian time and try to call after 7:00 PM