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