Monday, July 25

I can’t skip to Monday until I’ve written about Sunday first. I’ll start with two facts: 1: You have not been to church until you’ve been to church in Zambia. 2: You have not heard music until you’ve heard a group of Zambians sing. Jim, Lauren, Megan and I drove to a church just outside of Chingola and were greeted and led to the front row, where the church-goers had given us the only bench with padding on it and set up a small table with flowers. From 9:00am to about 11:00am we watched groups trade off the stage to sing and dance. Just when you thought it was time for the service to start, a man would come up and announce that another group had prepared a program for us. There were old women, young men, children, even the pastor got up a couple of times and danced around. Then, all the women gathered in the back of the church and sang their way up to the front, singing one of the most beautiful songs I’ve ever heard. I don’t even know if they realize just how powerful that moment was for all of us.

After church ended at 1:00pm, all the gatherers form a line outside the door that wraps around the building and you shake hands and greet one another until everyone has left the building. It is like kindness is a by-product of being Zambian. I can’t get over the camaraderie of the people. Their personalities radiate such goodness; it makes all of us happier the longer we’re around them.

Today, our groups were separated again- one group, including myself, went to day 1 of Duane’s ‘HIV Hope’ Seminar. Duane is working with LRPI to help spiritually educate attendees on HIV/AIDS. So many people here are misinformed on the disease, mainly due to mis-education or cultural barriers that prevent information from flowing to generations effectively. Duane works with the attendees to truly teach them to recognize the correct facts on HIV/AIDS and also how to retrain themselves and others to prevent and eradicate the disease. The seminar continues through Friday, when the students will present their own teaching ideas for their fellow classmates.

-Katie