Mbubo

Hi everyone!

Well I am sitting here at 11:30 PM finally packed and with pretty much all my homework done! It's a miracle =) We are leaving here tomorrow at 8 AM for Livingstone. I am going on my safari Friday morning and going to see Victoria Falls that afternoon. Shopping again all day Saturday and church on Sunday.

Every one's bags only weigh like 30 pounds but somehow after leaving all my toiletries, 1/2 of my clothes and 1/2 of my shoes they still weigh 48 not really sure how that works but o well!

Just keep me in your prayers tomorrow - I have a lot of good byes to say. There are have been a lot of tears all around going on this guest house lately. But I just keep thinking that I have done everything that I came to Zambia to do! God has worked in mighty ways and I could not have asked for more.

This is a picture of Busi - She gives me a huge hug everyday she works - She is the one who calls me her sister. We had a thank you banquet so this is from that but I am definitely not looking forward to this goodbye!

I can't wait to see of all you though! Keep praying! Mbubo ;)

love

janna

Starting to Wrap Up

Hi guys

Hope you all are doing well!!!! I have had some great experiences this past week. I did Home based care visits and orphan and vulnerable children. With home based care we visited individuals who had AIDS and assessed their condition and if they had enough food. Before we assessed everything they sat down with us and told us their entire story. How they contracted AIDS, who else is their family has been affected, and how they are even treated in the community because they have AIDS. It was very emotional listening to all this. For the orphan visits we took time to go to these children's houses and make sure that they were receiving adequate care. When an orphan gets placed in a home it puts a severe financial strain on the house. We make sure there are mosquito nets are in place, and there is a toilet, and a good water supply. This was very humbling for me as a "wealthy" white person to sit there and ask them all these questions. Some of the girls really enjoyed these I preferred the home based care instead because I felt like they were more willing to share and it was more of a ministry opportunity to just sit and pray and encourage. With both of these days we took a good amount of food to each of the homes we went to. We did 4 the first day and 2 homes the second. Here is a picture of one of the homes receiving the food with one of the leaders who took us out. It was an experience that I will definitely remember.



With starting to wrap everything up we have started our long long long list of good bye parties and thank yous. There are two girls who work in the guest house where we stay and they are like sisters to all of us. I have been so encouraged with them and have enjoyed their hugs, laughs, and company so much A group of us invited them over for a movie night so this a picture from that.

For the big thank you parties we divided into groups. My group was in charge of saying thank you to the entire World Hope International Zambia staff. The night before we baked 92 cinnamon scones. The first batch was a little salty =) but we got the rest of them down. We served tea, coffee, scones, mango jelly (which is my favorite kind of jelly), and chocolate twirlers to put our American spin on it. They really enjoyed it and we did not have one scone left. Part of that was though the younger guys decided to eat 9 each. Here is a picture of our group serving the staff after morning devotions.

I guess we started a trend. After we said thank you to the staff they decided to throw us a surprise party one afternoon. We had popcorn and cake and they just went around the room and each of them said their favorite memory or how we made an impression on them. This was true Zambian style since they each took time. It was a really good time filled with laughter and tears but very encouraging. Here is a picture before we all played volleyball =) I am getting pretty good at volleyball it is so fun!

The orphanage that I have been going to is run by Germans. There are two German girls that live at each of the three oprhanages. We invited them over to play dutch blitz. It was a lot of fun. I have gotten pretty close to Sara who I am sitting next to in this picture. I love dutch blitz so it was such a blessing and a great time!

So as you can see we have a lot going on - So I still have a lot of papers. Hopefully my 10 page research paper will be done by tonight - that is the plan =) Continue to pray for all of us as we begin to try and leave this amazing place that we love. Last night we had a foot washing service just to stop and serve each other. With us serving everyone else it was time to serve each other. It was an emotional but powerful time of prayer, worship, and reflection. We leave the guest house here Thursday and we will go to Livingstone to visit Victoria Falls and have a Safari and different things like that to end the trip kind of on a touristy note. We will be there Thursday through Sunday and then our Plane leaves on Monday at 1 PM which is 6 AM your time. So one week from tomorrow. Continue to pray for our last week as we have a lot more good byes to say and a lot more tears to come but we know that God has been so faithful in this season in our lives and we are so grateful for the time that we had.

love

janna

LUSAKA

Hi everyone!

So i will be seeing most of you so soon! I leave here 2 weeks from tomorrow. Lets just say this trip has flown. This past week I went to Lusaka the capital city of Zambia for 5 days. That did not help slow down the trip at all. Went so fast! We were busy as always but I expected that =) We are always so busy!!

We left on Wednesday for Lusaka and its about a 4.5 hour drive from here but its all paved so it was really nice and we were very blessed to have an air conditioned bus. We had some seminars and guess speakers when we go there but Wednesday was pretty standard.

Thursday though was not! =) A lot of us were definitely taking pictures of buildings that apparently we were not allowed to have - so the police found us and took us to the U.S. Embassy. I am serious!!!!! So they made us go through metal detectors and then they took our cameras and deleted those pictures. It was not funny at the time but now its pretty hilarious. One of the highlights of the trip though happened that night when we went to a community school for vulnerable children. When they saw our bus coming literally 300 kids were running and chasing after us. I pretty much was tearing up. They were so happy. I love getting off the bus and having both of your hands instantly grabbed by these cute amazing little kids. We walked through a pretty poor village and reached the center where they were singing and dancing. Here is a picture from the school

We had some really great experiences as a group that let us just unwind and get out some stress so here is a picture from a dinner we went to - It was so good I didn't know what to order so I just had the waiter pick something - I am glad he knew what I would like =)

The next day the highlight was we went to a hospice. When we walked in there were school age children again who were welcoming us by singing - Remember a hospice here is a place where people go to get well from AIDS. Anyway then leader said we were going to go see the children - well we walked into this room filled with about 40 or more cribs of these babies. They were all orphans and they just reached their hands up and craved to be held. It was definitely a sight that you see in books and I wish I could had taken pictures but we weren't allowed and we didn't want to end back up at the U.S. embassy =) Here is a picture though of a billboard in Lusaka - These billboards are definitely making some statments, a lot of them were pretty powerful against the fight of AIDS!

If you can't tell what it is - it is a little girl and it says sex with me does not cure AIDS - This is a big social belief in Zambia.

We had a free day so I got to go shopping for souvenirs on Saturday. Bartering is really hard for me!!!! I got a lot of good stuff but o wow!!!! I don't know how many times I was told I was the winner of the day and I just kept thinking that that was not a good thing =) O well I got everything that I wanted at least!!!

On the down side our prof. and another girl on the team got really sick. Our prof. Pam got malaria and the other girl Kara had some intestinal problems. We had to leave about 7 hours earlier than planned because they needed to have IV fluids. If you could continue to pray for them that would be great!

Thank you guys so much for all the encouraging emails, notes, and comments I have really appreciated each and every one of them.

I will be home soon!!! Please keep praying for a great last 2 weeks. I am going to the orphanage tomorrow that I went to last week - It was really good but really hard. They call me Auntie Janna. This one little boy got really attached. When I left for lunch he was screaming - when I came back I wasn't even through the gate and he was sprinting towards me - and when I left he wouldn't even go to the workers. I had to have someone else take him because it was too emotionally hard for me! I am excited to go back tomorrow though and see him.

I'll write again soon - I definitely need some breaks from all this homework - I HAVE SO MUCH!!!!! trust me wow!

I'll leave you with a picture of Eunice! I absolutely loved her! I met her on a village visit I did. I sat with her under a tree probably for about an hour and we just worked on animal noises!!! She had "oink oink" down in no time - She is beautiful!!!

Love you all

janna

I Hate the dentist!!!!!

Hey Hey =)

I hope everyone had a great week! I had my last 2 days at Zimba mission hospital this week - it was really good. I did have a stretching experience though =) If you guys know me really well you know that I HATE one thing very much and that is the dentist. Well this week I was sent to the dental clinic. As soon as I walked in the dentist/chaplain was pulling a tooth with massive plyer like things. Lets just say I was not watching too much! My partner kept telling me to sit down hahah but I am just not a fan - It was really interesting to watch how they do things and yes it was better than being the patient but still was very hard for me =)

Also this week I got to visit a real 6 acre banana plantation, it was soooo neat. The women who worked on the plantation came running dancing and singing to welcome our group. After receiving a tour they cooked us a great lunch and just expressed how encouraged they were that we came! Again these people are so grateful for things that I would never think of!

The weekend was spent doing a lot of homework - We have a ton of papers due in the next couple weeks! I have definitely been glued to my computer. Church today was absolutely amazing though! I went to a different church than I normally do and I really enjoyed it - kinda felt like I was home for a week =)

I will try and post again this week because on Weds we leave for Lusaka which is the country's capital city and won't be returning back to our home here in Choma until very late Sunday night. Tomorrow though I am supposed to be doing home visits again out in the bush so if they are anything like they were last time I will definitely have some stories for you!

Keep praying for our safety here!!! We have had two interactions with camel spiders in the last 24 hours. They are the biggest spiders and the fastest ones I have ever seen. If you are curious you tube them - you will be shocked. Lets just say I was standing on a chair definitely screaming but not as loud as the rat I almost stepped on the other day =)

Love you all
janna