Update from Casie

Dear Friends and Family,

This is Casie writing. It's about 11pm here and I am exhausted but I am excited to be able to share some of Africa with you before I head to bed! You probably heard about some of the happenings last week... We spent the mornings at the Church Planting school learning about HIV/AIDS underneath Duane Crumb who has been studying it for about 23 years. In the afternoons, we packed up all of our gear and headed over to the Pomadzi girls school where we worked with the student leaders who are in the STS club.

This week we will be going to Kalanga school where we will be working with primary and secondary school. This will be interesting because we are going to have a much wider range of ages as well as alot more kids. Instead of about 10 to a small group we will probably have about 40 each. We will go back to the Church Planting school for lunch and then go back over to Pamodzi in the afternoons to work with the entire school. Our goal is to involve and empower the student leaders we worked with last week by encouraging them to assist us in our program this week as we work with the entire student body.

Church Sunday morning was my first African church experience. It was interesting... to say the least. It lasted four hours.... that is UNHEARD of in the US! I made it a good three hours before I became ready to walk around. I have found that Zambians really enjoying talking into microphones and being in front of large groups of people. They also feel the need to repeat things such as announcements or instructions about 15 times (no joke) in fifteen different ways before they can move onto another subject... This is where I become VERY American! I really enjoy being efficient with time :-)

Despite some frustrations, I love the people here. They are extremely loving, friendly, joyful, and hospitable. They are simply beautiful. I see a beauty in them, despite their trails or surroundings that is deep, real, and lasting. It breaks my heart to hear the stories of the horrendous things that happen every day here. After I spoke at Pamodzi last week I talked to several girls about their own lives and struggles. One girl pulled me aside and told me about her life long abuse and neglect. She sat there in tears telling me that no one loves her and she has no one to care. These things are real and it tears me apart. I put my arm around her, listened to her story, and cried with her. It's all I had to offer. I want to say thank you to everyone who has supported us in any way. What you are doing, the things you are praying for, and the things that are happening here in Africa are making a difference. So easily the worlds problems can overwhelming and we can feel defeated. It's so easy to assume that nothing we can do will actually make a difference in anyone's life. What I have learned is that it is not true. We can love people and that makes all the difference. We don't have to change the world, we just have to love the people in front of us wether that be in the US or in Africa. The world is not an ambigous blob of problems... it is made up of faces with names, stories, and hurts.

On a light note, I was sitting on my bed last night enjoying some quiet down time. Elizabeth was happily writing in her journal as I was looking through the pictures I had taken that day. As I am intently focused on my beautiful pictures.... this MASSIVE crazy noise sounded like it exploded next to my head near my ear!! I freaked out and fell on the floor... a few seconds later after I had composed myself I returned to my bed only to have it happen and again and startle me just as much! Elizabeth (who had her headphones in and only witnessed the occurance) thought that I was crazy. I told her that something BIG and SCARY had flown by my head. She told me it was probably just a moth and to stop freaking out. About fifteen minutes later, Elizabeth had emerged from her world of ipod and was dicussing the day with me when this MASSIVE locust flew past my head AGAIN and landed on my pillow. I proceed to scream due to the scare and yell for the boys. For some reason they did not believe us when we told them it was a BIG bug... :) It took about an hour of going back and forth between it appearing with us in the room alone and freaking out and then the boys coming to try to rescue us. They did eventually find and kill it... it was about 4-5 inches long! gross...AND eggs went everywhere when they killed it. OH the JOYS of Africa!A few days ago we were at the Church Planting School and shortly before lunch a car pulled up and a few guys got out. They went to the trunk and proceeded to take out about 10 live chickens.....Yum. Lunch. They butcher their own chickens here... I am definitely not in America anymore.

Ok well... I am heading to bed! We have a long day ahead of us.

God Bless,
Casie

P.S. If you have been trying to call and it hasn't been working we have figured out that some people did not get the right number... here it is 011-260212411517

G+G- I have been emailing you!! For some reason it must not be going through... I got your e-mail today and wrote you back. I'm sorry if you thought that I hadn't written. (I've written you every time I've written my mom) So know that I love you and I miss you! and that we will hopefully get the e-mail thing figured out soon!