7/25/09 from Jami

Sleep has been in short supply the last couple of days as we've all tried to cram in as much as possible in our few short weeks here in Zambia. Time does has a significant way of changing once your feet touch Zambian soil! We rose early and almost frantically as we had to be out of the house by 8AM on the dot so that we (Dan, Carrie, Liam, Reuben, Matt, Heather, William, Joel, Jacabo, Rebecca, Carmiltar, Terry, Chibasa, and I) could arrive for the sports clinic on time and allow Dr. Thinus to arrive back at the house at 9AM to pick up Tannen, Megan, Jack and Jim for their return trip to the USA. We had to all say our fast goodbyes... jump into the van and off we went... on time. We were all sad to know they were all leaving us. We've all had such an amazing time together. We miss them.

The sports clinic today was awesome! How much fun is it to travel all the way to Zambia and get to play and teach tennis and basketball... two of my favorite sports in the world! Everyone will be glad to know that I didn't break anything and wore ankle braces on both ankles!!! I taught tennis to about 100 Zambian girls. The portable tennis nets worked out perfectly. We put chalked lines down that were scaled against a full size tennis court. The kids enjoyed helping us make the courts. I brought the special foam tennis balls for beginners to practice with, which worked out really good. Before we started, Reuben and I gave an exhibition on how to play tennis. That was fun and they all cheered for us. We hit some ground strokes and volleys. They liked the volleying the best. We had one court for boys and one for girls. That way the girls wouldn't get pushed to the side. Which seems to happen a lot with sports. But that wasn't going to happen with me there!!! For the last hour of "sports time" we had the boys leave the basketball court and the girls took over. I taught them how to guard and shoot... it was fantastic! The girls were so tired when we were finished but they seemed to have a great time. We had volleyball, basketball, tennis, football (soccer for us USA folks) and a new addition was martial arts. Matt did a demo after our tennis exhibition and the kids LOVED it. It was amazing to look up and see 50 plus Zambian boys all doing martial arts in unison. He had his own little army. It was really a cool addition. The last hour we had presentations, one for the boys and one for the girls. We went over some basics about HIV/AIDS and then the girls talked about gossiping and what we think about ourselves as women.

Another interesting part of the day was I met a Zambian boy, about 19 years old, who was deaf. He was so interesting. He could sign. There apparently is a school around here that is for the blind and deaf. I don't know anything about it except it exists. I cannot sign much. I only know how to sign the alphabet and how to sign I love you. So I did the best I could. I signed my name to him. He was signing in Bemba though... and I don't know that much Bemba... so we kind of had two language barriers. But we did manage to communicate. He taught me how to sign his name and my name, without spelling it all the way through. He was so smart and so much fun to get to know.

The day ended with 14 tired STSers and many tired kids. We hopped on a minibus and we ate our food as quickly as possible as we headed home. We spent the rest of the day resting and William and Matt put up a basketball goal at Dr. Thinus' house for the kids. It was awesome. I then I taught the kids how to shoot. Later in the afternoon, Elizabeth (Josephine & Shadi's little girl ~ 2 years old) fell asleep sitting in my lap, so cute! Later that night, Dr. Thinus and Shadi made a giant bonfire and we roasted marshmallows and sat by the fire. It's been cold here so the fire was a welcomed source for heat! All-in-all it was an amazing day!

Jami