For those of you that know me, you know I’ve always be a very busy person. I’m always running around working, hanging with friends, keeping active or just keeping busy. That’s the north American way it seems at least. Well out here there’s a thing called African time. This isn’t a racial term or anything bad, it’s just a simple explanation that almost nothing here runs according to plans. This is caused by break downs, lack of communication, weather or just getting caught up talking. Being late seems to be the norm out here and  As a Higher  strung person this has taken a bit to adjust too. I thought I was doing well but sometimes my ingrained higher strung “get it done” attitude come s back. This is a culture that teaches you that not everything is dyer  need and it’s ok to the it easy. sometimes I feel it’s taught that laid back attitude too well when this actually do need to stick to a schedule, there must be a happy medium in there somewhere.
   Well the Zambian culture has been a bit of a shock to me, and just plain confusing at times. Most of the time it’s been great, lots of happy people, not as stressful and very loving. This is not a place to go if you don’t like to be touched by other people. The hand shakes are a bit more complex than the typical NA hand shake, but that hand shake can remain for the length of a conversation. In fact it’s common to see two men or women walking down the street holding hands, and no they aren’t gay cause that’s actually illegal here. One thing I do suggest is hand sanitizer just because our systems are not used to the bugs out here.

Marketplace and main street in Magrimundi

    It’s hard to believe the professional people you see working in some of these towns actually live in small brick shacks with pit outhouses and no running water or electricity. It actually confuses me seeing man and women walking to and from the village and then go to work in a suit or dress all professional. These houses usually are 1-3 rooms and house 4 to 8 people. Looking back on how much space we use back home and how most people have there own room, it’s no wonder we’re a more selfish society and like our bubbles of space.  Guess when you live in tight quarters you learn to work together more and have moRe patience . These African kids can sleep through a storm no problem cause they learn how to sleep in crowds. They just seem to work more as a unit than most families I know back at home. One thing that got me was the behaviour, they can sit still and obey, and even help work or walk KMs to the market or bore hole at. Way younger age. Maybe at home we make it to easy on kids, might be time to start responsibilities sooner! I know when we stayed at Brian’s house it was amazing the instant change we would see in his two young daughters. They were so happy, energetic and creative the whole time, singing and brushing my hair or playing with the dog. Then out came the tablet with the games one of our guys brought and their whole demeanor changed! Suddenly they were sedative, almost lazy, they tuned out those around them, defied their parents and whined, and then threw a mini tantrum when they couldn’t pass a level. As soon as I took it away she snapped back into reality, heard her sister playing and joined in. That was a scarey realization of just how bad electronics are for kids.
    So this blog has been a bit more of a ramble about some of the differences from Canada to here. Some great, some not so great. All in all this society is a pretty good laid back one. It has a ways to go in development but at the same time there are a few things we could learn from them,like patience. The place we’re in now, Kalomo, has weekly power outages every Tuesday and Thursday night for a few hours around dinner time.

This is the way of life here so everyone is prepared, but back home everyone would be screaming about the inconvenience. The water gets turned off randomly too, can’t imagine all the complaints back home if that happened constantly. I don’t know about you but think God is trying to show me here that we have it really really good in Canada. No matter where you are you have power, water and paved roads. We are blessed and think we just need to remember that a bit more! So take a deep breathe next time your schedule is messed up and remember it’s not the end of the world, you’re alive, so life is good!!

Yesterday we spent the day in the Village of Magrimund, a village that Berea Baptist has been working with for years. It was amazing to see the 6 houses they built and 2 bore holes they drilled. The way this has Changed lives out here is inspiring! We were there all day Saturday to work with the village children in the local church, but what a crazy day!
    First thing I need to explain is “Makuwa” means white person out here, so everywhere we go that’s all you here. Funny thing is that a couple team members are Malaysian and from Grenada yet they are still called Makuwa. In Canada this is definitely more of a racist thing but out here we just don’t care because we know they’re just curious and never see white people, at least in the villages. Nothing you do will prepare you for being surrounded by a sea of 50+ village children yelling at you to get your attention, trying to grab your hands, arms, hair, waist….basically any part of you. they would grab my arms and just rub them or poke them to watch the skin colour change as they let go, or to see if the white maybe would come off. They fought over who would hold my hand or be  under my arms. Then there’s my longer light brown hair, that just fascinated them that hair could be long and run your hands through it. They kept trying to get me too sit, and once I did crouch be then almost got trampled as they all wanted to grab my hair. I had to stabilise myself a few times to not fall over on them and could walk anywhere without a following. If this is what a celebrity feels like I didn’t like it, it’s unbelievably overwhelming. The kids were awesome and so cute! It’s unreal how self sufficient a child is here from 2+. You would never see these young children along without an adult at home, but here you have 5-6year old looking after 2-3 year olds. The walk KMs to get around the dirt road, mud hut village, pump the water well and wash dishes by themselves. Its insane to see the difference from Zambia to Canada on child raising. A bit thing I notice is these children sing and dance constantly, play in large groups and break out into random songs. They don’t fuss when a parent is holding them and listen, majority of the time, when told what to do. They also have survival skills ingrained in them, when we fed them we had lots of them eat quickly, wash their bowls and try to sneak back in for a second round of food. When we had over 200+ children to work with this wasn’t an easy task.
    The day was great bit exhausting, we played games, crafts, did Bible story telling and did a skit with them. It was a thankful break when the rains came later in the afternoon and the soccer game had to be cancelled. We all needed the break. Especially since I was still recovering from Heat exhaustion and ingesting the Zambezi river. Then to add to it we brought Rylan back to the Lodge to sleep off him being sick with the same problems the night before. He came back in the afternoon to help but was a bit to quick of a push I think for him.
      All I have to say is without out wonderful translators and helpers cooking the food this would not of been possible.

As we  left we had to bring a few people to their homes on the other side of the village , so we packed 25 people into a 13 seater bus…true Zambian style transportation! suspension is really tested out here between the dirt roads and the over capacity vehicles! We tried taking a picture of a few of us packed in, haha fun times!!

When your in Africa and get the chance to hear them sing, I mean real get into a natural harmony as a large group,its a sound that is unbelievable! As someone who isn’t blessed with a great singing ability I wonder how this comes so naturally and have told a few friends here they must teach me how to sing before I leave. This is their culture, their life, their communication. They live through the beat, make beats and music any way they can and don’t have any inhibitions. I know I shouldn’t but im a bit jealous of this, I want to not care what others think and just express myself. Guess I still have a lot to learn!

   So now it’s Sunday and we went to a wonderful church service and had a chance to do our skit from the children in front of the church. It went pretty well I think. I’m pretty sure church lasted about 3 hours or so, with a couple sermons, the skit, communion and lots of singing. Again I can’t tell you how fluid and free these people all look and sound as they sing and worship! They could teach us Canadians a few things. Its been a pretty relax day otherwise, besides the fact the powers been out most of the day. This is normal out here, maybe one day we’ll get used to it.

So I’m still not quite 100% better yet, I really can’t stomach much food and it’s been 3 days now, I’m eating enough but nothings overly appetizing and not feeling great after I eat. Praying this gets healed soon! Tomorrow we start prepping for the 101 sponsored children and getting them ready for the next school year!

God Bless!

Yesterday  we ended up packing up everything and drove from Livingstone to Kalomo,  which is an hour or so north. Its amazing the temperature difference in such a short distance but its  still very  hot out. Its Always interesting though when the locals complain about the heat almost more than we do, then you know it’s hot out!
   So we set up in the church our little tent city.

It all looked very practical bit throughout the day and night we ran into many issues. Our portable fridge wouldn’t work, there was only one toilet for all 8 of us in this trip, all water is through a pump outside which kept getting turned off by the water works company so this meant no showers in the morning.
Then we didn’t realize how busy the church was. They had a prayer meeting going on in the evening so we thought we’d attend, especially since the church is one big L-shaped room with no dividers not like we could hide anywhere. The service started out great, some preaching and singing, the lady spoke with authority and read some scripture. Then we got to the prayer part, which could more be described as everyone around you talking, yelling, pacing, bending and jumping around. The amount of noise in that building was deafening and would probably scare more north American Christians away. They do things a bit differently out here, but I admire the passion behind everything they do! Part way through the prayers the power went out, as it always ones every Tuesday and Thursday night. There would be an uprising if that happened back in Canada bit out here that’s normal. Its done to conserve power as those are peak cooking times of about 7pm and last for a few hours. When the power went out they never skipped a beat, just kept praying with conviction. I must say it was the most incredible sound when they broke out into random harmonies at the end! Wish I was blessed with a voice like them but hey, can’t have everything right! We left the service early when they started to do a prophecy session, for us first timers they didn’t want to scare us to much. Its the first service I’ve been too where we actually had to debrief after!
    It was a perfect night out, cooled down but still warm, so many stars in the sky and a bit of a breeze! We walked down to a local restaurant for dinner at about 8pm to end our night….or so I thought.
   After dinner I suddenly felt a bit nauseous, wasn’t as stable walking back to the church and exhausted. I thought it was the food and just needed to digest. Pretty soon after I laid down I realized I was actually sick. I spent most of the night in the courtyard by the water pump being sick which isn’t something that happens to me. I managed to sleep an hour between sessions but felt like I was overheating. I think my bad sunburns played a roll in giving me some sunstroke. When morning came I was just so weak, dizzy, empty. I couldn’t hardly drink or eat anything. The whole team was amazing helping me to the washroom, chair, helping me cool down and so accommodating. While I was resting the guys were talking and I guess it’s been known of people having similar symptoms after white water rafting and ingesting part of the Zambezi river. This made a lot of sense to me and as I’m on the mend now I’m hoping they’re right and it’s only a 24 hour recoup time. While this information was great the sun was heating the place up and they kept doing everything to keep me cool, even placing me in the airconditioned van for a bit. I fell asleep on the couch a few times, just so tired, but woke up to a great surprise. Simeon had booked us all rooms in a local lodge for the remaining 9 nights because of all the issues and heat. They got me up and brought me over right away so I could sleep in a cool area, and that’s what I’ve been doing all day is sleeping. Managed to get a few rice cakes and grapes down but food is definitely not appetizing at the moment.
   By the end of the night I was able to sit at the dinner table with everyone and have my dinner of rice cake and grapes. Just sitting there looking around realizing how blessed we are to have such a loving, diverse, random family of every colour and age! That is how the world should be!
   Time to finish getting better and praying the rain that started tonight doesn’t come down too much till we get a few wells drilled. Tomorrow we do our first VBS session in a village so please pray for health, safety and strength for us all!!
   

What an incredible time. To experience white water rafting down the Zambezi River!! Rylan and I went for the all day trip and had such a great time. The guides were awesome and they river was so warm!!
   Before we started for the day we had this great Scottish guide show us the ins and outs of being on the water. I was so nervous!! We drove out to the launch site and hiked down the gorge to get to the river.
      All strapped up with a huge life jacket and helmet we started down the river. After some more instruction we were off! So first rapid we hit we go in paddling, it was called “Morning Glory”(which was ironic since there was a couple skinny dipping as we launched). As we went into the first rapid the guide shouts down, we all hassled to a low position and held on to the rope tightly, before we knew it we were flipping over and riding out the rest of the rapid hanging on for dear life. That was a terrifying experience, I closed my eyes, seized right up, inhaled some water and was gasping for air while being thrashed with water and trying to saved my water show that was half off my foot. When the ride finally stopped then we had to go back under to flip the raft back over. It took a few to catch my breathe and was stuck with a raft full of adrenaline junkies for the morning. This was a time to force myself over the fears. I prayed that the Lord wouldn’t let us flip again. I began to calm down and kept telling myself this was fun and I’d be safe. Before I knew it is I was having a blast and really enjoying the thrill of the river. 
   The Zambezi is an incredible river, one of the top rivers in the world to white water rafting or kayak. It takes 4 days to fully travel and has Crocodiles in it.  One thing  don’t forget is the peace you feel in the mid sections between rapids. We got the chance to float on our backs for a while down the river, what an experience floating down a river staring up out of the gorge. We made it through the rest of the morning without flipping so I was very happy.
The afternoon we ended up with a large group of 15 of us, people of every nation it seemed! The first few rapids went great but soon we hit a class five and flipped our boat again. this time was way better for me, way calmer and was able to focus on calming a Dutch girl who was not prepared to what white water rafting entailed. The second section of the trip was quite a bit more subdued compared to the first half I will say. Near the end we actually did see a small crocodilenear a shore So that kind of brought us back to reality and these aren’t empty waters.
    So in the end we went through 25 rapids, white water rafted and swam the Zambezi and technically swam with Crocodiles. It was quite the day! To top it off I left with a great souvenir of a glorious sun burn! Even two applications of SPF 50 + 60 didn’t really help I guess. Just praying it heals up quicker than my last time! 

   Well this is the end of our two down days, just wish I had pictures of the trip to post now. Tomorrow we leave Livingstone and he’d North to Kolomo to start working more with the villages and see a well get drilled. Time to do what we came all this way to do.
   Good night everyone!!

Off to another country today to enjoy the natural beauty of Africa and so many incredible creatures. We went to Botswana on an amazing safari and cruise on the Zambezi river. It was an incredible day despite the 37+ degree heat.
    We started the trip by crossing through a series of crossing, immigration and check points, not sure I’ll ever get used to cops with AK-47s. It wasn’t very tough and everyone was very nice so made it better. We had to take a boat across the Zambezi River to get to another vehicle to take us on the Safari. this River crossing is also a Ferry and meeting point between 4 countries. Its hectic and full of semi trucks waiting to cross. There are three ferries and can take one semi at a time, cept they constantly break down. The guide told us there are times these drivers are waiting for two weeks to cross! This is a perfect example of why they call it African time. No point in stressing over schedules cause seems almost nothing sticks to it anyways. Takes some adjustment but realized I hardly look at the time now a days but just go with the flow. Its been a great few days to start the trip!
   So we start the trip with a 3 hour cruise down the Zambezi which is a way more lush area of Africa. Of course Murphys law kicked in and my love battery in my camera faded down to dead in less than an hour, then my other battery which was charged was now dead. Beginning to think heat discharges batteries like cold does. With still the full safari and boat ride ahead Simeon and Angie to the rescue, again! They have both been on the tour before so they leant me their incredibly better DSLR camera. After this trip I may look into a better camera for times like this, especially if I start to travel more.
   In the waters we saw so many hippo’s under the water, Cape buffalo, Elephants, cranes, eagles, vultures, Crocodiles and even Cattle. It really is the meeting ground for all creatures! It’s incredible to see these animals up close, little scary at times but still incredible.

     After the water we had a great lunch in a gorgeous lodge where everything is open air! I had to shake my head my chef came out with the package of what he called GF pasta but then I looked and it was whole wheat pasta. Celiac and Gluten is a hard thing to explain in Africa when people don’t know what it is at all. We make it work at least!
After lunch we went off on our Safari. Open air jeep with a top to shade the sun, it really made me miss my old jeeps! We saw hundreds of Elephants!

We drove basically through a few migration’s of herds from the water to the shade, got a little sketchy a couple of time but we all came out safe. We only saw 3 giraffe but it felt like a kindred Soul seeing that head stick out a good distance above the trees!! It’s fun being tall bit sure makes it hard to hide at times. I think the highlight was actually seeing a lion and a few cubs trying to keep cool in the shade. It was amazing to see this powerful huge cat, evening looking tired and incredibly hot panting away it’s an animal you definitely respect!!

     I’m a bit more tanned and burned but was a day I’ll never forget. Now to rest up for tomorrow when Rylan and I are going to white water rafting the Zambezi River all day. Pray for a safe trip and that we both don’t get roasted in the sun as it will be over 38 degrees tomorrow.

   This world is an incredible place, hope you all take a chance to look around you and really absorb the creation God has made!!

God Bless!

    
  

Today was our first real day with purpose beyond our own wants and needs. We started the day with a meeting and by 9:30am we were on our way to the first village of Samson. This village has 700 households, average of 5 people in each household. We ended up there around 11am and first swung by the school just outside the village to deliver the first set soccer uniforms and balls for the children.

The school was very welcoming and was very thankful for the gifts. With over 300 children attending they appreciate the help. Incredible to see the success rate on their board go from 60% in 2010 to almost 90% last year. These children are really trying!
     We drove through a dry creek bed to get to the actual village, it’s an incredibly rough terrain, especially for the larger passenger bus we rented. This river bed is bone dry right now but in the next few weeks the rain will be starting and this creek not only will become a raging river but becomes filled with  alligators from  The  Zambezi  river.

This river cuts off the village of Samson from the rest you the world during all of the rainy season plus a while after, so about 6 months out of the year. The government has put in one water well and drilled a hole for a second one but will not finish installing a pump till at least January, which is to late since rain season is almost here. Our team has scouted the area and with the blessing from the head of the village we are trying to get at least one water well there done next week. They are very grateful!
We met a few villagers and Enjoyed talking to them about the Love of God. Showing them how we are all family and that even though we all have struggles in this life that God gives us strength to get through. They have hope that their future is better through Christ. Zambia is the only official Christian nation in the world so I think it’s perfect that us fellow brothers and sisters in Christ can help out our extended family.

Seeing these conditions first hand is truly and eye opening experience. Though a lot of white people come through these villages for photo ops, which is great for the visitors, but we really need to do all we can to help those who are truly in need!

Tomorrow we are off to Botswana for our Safari adventure, so excited to see elephants and possibly large cats. Feels weird going from villages with nothing to events on our own. But we are all taking this down time and adventure time while we can as after this things will really pick up!

God Bless!

Yesterday we spent the day driving south for about 6hours to go from Lusaka to Livingstone. There’s no air conditioning in most vehicles out here because not many places know how to service them sadly. As long as the vehicle is moving it’s great! Rylan, Gerry and I drove with Brian all the way down and had a great time, though still not used to driving on the other side of the vehicle and road.

Apparently I’m also the only one who managed to burn a bit even though I put on SPF 60 a few times, think by the time 3 weeks is done I’ll be a few shade darker.
the amount of people randomly selling things on the side of the road is incredible, that’s all most people do out here to make some money. They sit all day every day approaching cars to buy goods. There are so many huts and shacks on the drive you wonder how they survive, or where their water comes from. You can see the potential for growth out here but the mind set isn’t there to push, because the jobs aren’t there to push towards.
We’ve learned a few things from driving out here. First always be vigilant of cows and goats that graze freely. There are no fences but I’m told they eventually find their way home. The other is they use there signals for everything. The highways speed is about 120kms/hr so there is constant passing, and no road lines. When you pass you signal, then the person in front will tell you if it’s clear by using either the left or right signal, just for safety. Once you pass you use your hazards to say thank you. I think we should adopt this Zambian system in Canada!
Well it’s Sunday and I better get going, time to experience my first African service!

An update from yesterday’s post, I never found my Malaria pills but God knew something would happen and is watching over me! Simeon and Angie had somehow brought 3 months worth of Malaria pills and had 30 pills extra. This is incredible and Thank you Lord for providing this!

God Bless!

Sarah

Three continents, five countries and 40 hours later we are finally in Zambia! I was just exhausted having only slept about 4 hours since we left. The flights all went amazing and everyone made through safe. Only hiccup now is my Malaria pills have vanished so we have to source out some new one for me put here or borrow some from other and replace later. At least that’s replaceable!
Africa is a gorgeous place but it’s incredible the difference. We stayed at a camp last night and on you way in drove past a couple of giraffe, a herd of zebras and gazelles and monkeys everywhere. Its true some of the bugs out here are just huge!! As I write this we are stating at a herd of Zebras grazing 20 feet away!

The people out here are so nice. It’s crazy to think the unemployment rate here is at 85%, that’s just hard to fathom. So people do what they can, they literally walk through the busy city between all the cars selling whatever they have, cell minutes, glasses, fruit, ducks, maps, school books…. we’ve seen it all and is a bit crazy. the cops walk around with machine guns, no one wears a seat belt and the backs of pick up trucks are full of people. Rules are not to strict here!!
There’s a nice breeze in lusaka and about 30 degrees out, we’ll be heading. Down to Livingstone today so a 5-6 hour drive into very hot conditions now. Pray we all clip time we’ll and have energy to sustain us. This blog will be shorter but I will try to update everyone more often with how things are going and the plans.

Talk to you all soon!!

Our team survived the first international flight from Vancouver to Amsterdam. The service was good but wow was there no leg room! It was almost 10 hours in a tight plane so movement and sleeping weren’t really options, on the bright side at least the food was great! Now to shock everyone who knows I don’t eat seafood or fish, I actually ate a fill fillet of fish with my meal. Who ever thought the first place I would have decent fish would be 40,000 feet in the air.
So we had a 10 hour layover in Amsterdam, after getting turned around in the airport a few times we finally made it to security. I realized having a good Dutch name help then just push me through, and officially my first and second passport stamps are both from the Netherlands! Happy about that. Now poor Rylan though was just grilled by the same guy and had an issue getting into the country.
We found the train and made it downtown. Our first stop was a Canal boat tour across from the train station. What a gorgeous place, so much history with a majority of it still being from the 17th century. Definitely the best way to see Amsterdam! We wandered around and had some dinner. It just amazed us to see all of the bikes everywhere, and all were fairly old looking. One thing I’ll say is people are a lot healthier and fitter over here. It’s a shame most of Canada can’t be the same.
One thing I realized in my next travels is to get more currencies in advance. My Debit and Visa didn’t work, no one took american or Canadian and few take my Amex. Not only that but the bank machines were all in Dutch and couldn’t figure out if it was asking for

what currency or language I wanted. We thankfully found a currency exchange and transfered some to euros. It a little weird having 3-4 currencies on you all at once!
Our next flight was to Nairobi, Kenya so thankfully we ended up on Kenya airlines, it was heaven in that flight!! I had leg room, comfortable seats and great food and service. It was time for us to head to Africa!……

Thought I’d start off this blog with a quick countdown. In 24 hours I will be in the air flying to Amsterdam and on my way to Zambia over the next two days. With this being my first trip over seas it’s such a mix of emotions, so excited and nervous, lucky if I get a few hours sleep tonight! Bags are packed and ready to go, only about 100lbs between my supplies and supplies for the Zambians.
   This will truly be a historic event in my life, and no better way to end off 30 than following a call the Lord has put on me and the team. There are 5 of us going all together. Simeon and Annie are leading the team and have been in Zambia already for a few days. Gerry is a local from Abbotsford and at 71 is the fatherly figure of the group. Rylan is only 17 and in grad 12 but is flying down from Prince George to join us from Vancouver on. Then there’s me, I’m the tallest of the group and 30 years old but feel like a child entering into the lesson of a lifetime. God has put this diverse group together to help those in need and in turn these people of Zambia, so happy in such strained surroundings, will in turn teach us so much in contentment and patience! Excited to see how this trip unfolds!

    Please pray for health, safety and patience as we have over 40 hours of travel ahead of us!

Thank you to all my friends and family for their support, looking forward to filling this blog with amazing stories to inspire us all!

God Bless!!

Sarah