The Road Less Traveled

Hello from Africa!

I made it safe and sound and have been having a great time! After traveling from Memphis to Dallas to London to South Africa to ZAMBIA, we jumped in the care and drove for several more hours to finally make it to New Day Orphanage after dark. On the way, we stopped off in a town and I had my first Zambian meal...pizza in the car! But we also got some grilled corn from a street vendor to throw in some Zambian culture!

The kids have all been great and I am slowly learning names and faces. My first morning here included some painting, but after the hard work we piled 21 kids and 6 adults into a truck and got to take the kids to a giant pit that was dug out to use for dirt for the roads leading to New day. They had a blast in this jungle gym of God's creations. Then we cam back and played on the real jungle gym as well as my hammock, which they were amazed by.

 

Today was quite a busy day. One of the other interns and I spent the morning volunteering at Mapanza clinic. In Zambia, this is child health week. Parents are encouraged to bring their children to the clinic for routine vaccinations, polio vaccine, vitamin A supplements, and de-wormers. Each child was weighed and their information recorded on their medical record cards. Then, I had to determine which vaccinations were needed and send them in the right direction. The language barrier was difficult and conversation mostly consisted of giggles and looks. The children are terrified of white people and were less than happy to even step on/ hand on the scale. After piles and piles of records, we were nowhere close to finished when we had to head back to the orphanage.

In the afternoon, we headed out on the road less traveled...literally. The bumpiness of the roads or the "African massage" is pretty crazy! But we all made it without whiplash or seatbelt lacerations. We went to a new village Bible study. Seeing the village was great. The people live in shacks, cooking over fires with a baby on every mother's back or unashamedly on her breast. The kids far outnumbered the adults as five of the women were all married to one of the men. There is a large emphasis on the law in churches surrounding these villages, so the people get caught up in topics like the Sabbath and washing only on Sunday. We were able to answer some questions and hopefully clear a few things up for them. Just in the little time they have been reaching out to this village, three women have prayed to receive Christ. They have crossed some cultural boundaries by going in a different direction than their husband (yes, they are all sister wives) but it seems to be encouraging the village to open their hearts to what we are saying. The children sit and listen, even if some of them seem to not be paying attention. I pray that their brains are taking it all in like a sponge. After some singing and dancing, we headed back.

Keep praying that these villages continue to hear the word that they would choose tot ake the road less traveled and follow Jesus with their whole hearts.


More adventures await, until next time!