Wellllll I’m going to try to cram the past 6 days into this one post, so again, here are the main highlights of each day!
Thursday:
Thursday was the day in the community! We sent out all of the Americans to meet up with their kids in the compounds and serve the people in the communities. Some people painted, some swept the streets, and some picked up trash on the side of the road (and this is not like in America.. the ground on the sides of the roads are literally covered in trash). Kim and I were the only American staff members at Bauleni, but the Zambian staff there knew exactly what to do, so we really didn’t have much of a job. In the morning, we basically surveyed what each of the groups were doing and walked around and watched everyone. Kim and I approached a group of kids from the community (not with Camp LIFE that week) and they started to teach us some words in Nyanja. One of the boys there had his little sister with him, so I asked if I could hold her. He let me, and I got to hold this precious baby girl for about two hours. She fell asleep in my arms for about an hour during lunchtime. I felt so honored that God would entrust this little baby girl to me for a couple of hours to be able to hold her for Him... I got to be the arms of Christ as I held her and loved on her. After we finished up in the community, all of the Americans headed out to the GO Center (where we have camp Mon-Wed) and met up with all of the other counselors and traveled to the hilltop to see the Legacy Center. (The Legacy Center is kind of like a convention center being built on the same property as the Tree of Life and will serve as the gathering place for future years of Camp LIFE as well as a source of income as it will be rented out by business for use for conferences.) Anyway, we got to see that and see that progress that has been made on that building, at it was super cool to see the work and dreams that Family Legacy has had for this center truly come to fruition!
Friday:
Well Friday was shoe day, which is always super fun... kinda. Basically, shoe day in the past has always been hectic in trying to find the right sizes and the correct amount of shoes for the kids, and Friday was no different. However, this year, we are giving out school uniform shoes instead of just plain old tennis shoes. Many of the kids that come to camp don’t go to school, so giving them these shoes means that the kids are one step closer to getting an education- they aren’t allowed in school without them. Camp was on the hilltop that day, and even though I didn’t get to see much of it because summer staff was slammed with shoe distribution, imagining the kids getting to hear Greer and Pastor Raphael tell them about the Kingdom of God as they overlook miles and miles of their native country Zambia fills me with joy and anticipation! I know God worked miracles and brought freedom and deliverance for so many kids during Week 1- so many new kids that will be next to us in Heaven!
Saturday:
Saturday was an early day; we were out the door by 6:00 saying goodbye to Week 1 Americans and on our way to cleaning the villas before the Week 2 Americans arrived. But since walking to each villa on foot would take too long, Susan let me take the Pajero around Mulungushi with the cleaning people so that we could get the villas done quickly. Now a Pajero is a very common sporty little SUV out here in Zambia, and it’s built to be driven here in Africa. If you didn’t already know, Africans drive on the right side of the car AND the left side of the street (as if one wasn’t bad enough). However, I would say that I quickly adjusted to this totally opposite way of driving and didn’t have too much of an issue with driving on the wrong side of the road. I’m proud to say that I can cross that off of my bucket list!
Sunday:
Well the highlight for this day is of course Zambian church! Always! But I can add a bit more to that... We woke up for church and went at around 9. Zambian church basically is composed of 45 minutes of singing and (energetic) dancing, and then about 30 minutes of sermon. So that was of course, wonderful to be in Zambian church again! Then we went to the market in which I bought a rug and a purse for myself and looked at a whole lot more. We went to a new place called the NewsCafe, which is apparently South African owned. It was definitely one of the nicest restaurants in Lusaka.. the food was pretty good, the decor inside was fancier than the main competition, and the bathrooms were ridiculous. Let me explain, as soon as I walked into the bathroom, I saw on my left a couch and three mirrors. The three mirrors were facing the three doors on the right side of the room. Behind each of the doors was a personal toilet, sink, mirror, and air hand dryer (which was so powerful that the skin on your hand was smashed down). This South African style bathroom was ironically a breath of fresh air in good old Zambia!
Monday:
Monday marked the beginning of week 2. We had (almost) an entirely new group of American counselors, a slew of new ideas on procedures, and we were ready to go! At this moment, I honestly can’t really remember anything that stood out to me about this day..
And I know that it is now Friday (I started writing this on Wednesday, I think), but I have literally been writing this blog post for around four days.. we are seriously starving for free time out here! Hours to blog or email are very few and far between. So, I guess I'll just have to keep everyone in suspense about the past few days.. maybe I'll get to post about them next week! Ugghhhh...
Anyway, love and miss you guys! Wish I could see all of your beautiful faces!
Blessings,
Mariah
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