A Step of Faith: Everything Possible Happened this week!!!!

Hi Everyone!

So this week - all i can say is WOW! We have done so much and it has been so diverse each day. A group of us were laughing last night when we were talking about what we did each day, just seems kinda crazy some times but in such a good way!

Monday - I had a great opportunity to do some home visits on patients who were discharged from hospice. I went to the bush of Africa. It amazes me as we are driving because one of the women was yelling from the back to the driver to turn here - except there was no road to turn on. I have no idea how they keep things straight! We went to five different patients huts - 5 patients took us 9 hours that's how far away we were. Not to mention we had to hike to some of the villages because there was no road at all =) Anyway my favorite was a lady named Lizzy - she was in her upper 80's. All 8 of us crammed into her little hut, and she would not start until we were all sitting on blankets and stools. When we all got settled she sat in silence looking at us and then said, "look at all these beautiful children of god who have come to visit an old lady like me." She went on and on and I was seriously holding back tears. She was so grateful. She asked what she could give us to pay us for our trouble so we replied a song. She sang such a pretty song to repay us. Later she asked us to read her a passage from the bible. We read Matthew 5 the beatitudes and as we were leaving she said that the verse made her so much stronger already. She was so sweet and I can say I will always remember Lizzy.

On our way home we witnessed a bicycle accident. Our professor jumped out of the land cruiser and started assessing him. After a while she decided that he needed to go to the hospital. We loaded him in the car and then realized we all could not fit in there with him. Soooo we ended up staying there on the side of the road. That does not sound like a big deal but 5 white women sitting on the side of the road causes quite the scene. We got the funniest looks, stares, and laughs. It was so funny! They eventually came back for us and we headed home. We had no idea we were going to be gone for 9 hrs we thought it was 4 so we had 2 granola bars to ration out the whole day for 5 of us. It was pretty funny! Below is a picture of the 4 of us who got to go! This was at the beginning of the day when we were fed and awake =)

Tuesday - I went to Dr. Jains down town but only for a couple hours because I had so much homework to do.

Wednesday - Was filled all day with class. I actually had a really bad headache on Wednesday. Luckily I was only really dehydrated and just had to drink 8 water bottles to get rid of it. I was so happy it was not malaria. Side note - A total of 5 girls have had it now - Keep those prayers coming =)

Thursday - we traveled to Chikuli to visit an herbalist. It was an interesting experience. However within like 5 min of talking with him I very quickly realized he was a witch doctor and not an herbalist. When he started talking about his ancestors visiting him in his dreams to show him the "special plants" i was like ok........ So yeah most of that visit was spent in prayer to say the least. On Thursday we also went to a hospital in that area as well as a nursing school. i love going to the nursing schools here - Its neat to see what their schooling is like compared to mine.

Friday - Was the start of independence weekend!!!! Friday night we went to a beauty pageant put on by the rotary club. The lady who is in charge of our guest house is the president of rotary so we had front row seats. It was so funny! A lot of surprises, a lot of shocks, but I haven't laughed that hard since I have been here. A funny thing that happened though was we were told it started at 7 and it was a pretty large event. When we got there at 715 there were no cars there. We walked in and no one was there. At 830 the M.C. for the night gets up and tells everyone thank you for being on time. We were like ok.... Some things are still hard to adjust to around here and time is definitely the biggest one! The event also was soooo long =) We left at midnight and it still had another 2 or 3 hours. When they host an event they really host it!

Saturday - INDEPENDENCE DAY - I am so glad I was here to celebrate independence day. It was such a neat cultural experience. We went downtown and saw a ton of African dancing, singing, dramas, and speeches. When we came back to the house we had a HUGE feast waiting for us. Independence day around here is like 3 or our holidays in one. They count down and have a dancing celebration at midnight like new years, they have actual independence day, and finally its like a thanksgiving feast. It was pretty neat!!

This is a picture of all of our Zambian outfits for independence day! you can't really see mine but don't worry i prob wear it at home - its pretty comfy!!!

Later that night it was my turn with Keri and Lauren to do activity night. Every Saturday night some of us lead an activity so we can all relax, bond, and laugh! We did an award night and it was so funny! It turned out much better than i thought!

So yes as you can see SO BUSY today has been homework since the minute I got home from church. I have a lot due these next two weeks. Tomorrow I am off to Zimba for my last clinical rotation there. If you again could remember me in your prayers that would be great

Here are two pictures of the Zambian dancing at the independence day celebration! They are all school kids since each school did a dance for the event!