Call of the Wild

Hello friends and family -
I am officially in my lat week here at New Day. In some ways it has flown by, but I sure am starting to miss home. The past few weeks have been busy as always so I'll just hit the highlights. 

The team from Immanuel Baptist Church in Temple, TX was here from July2 to July 12. They had a great turn out for VBS each day. Shortly after my last blog post, we ran out of water. New Day is serviced by a well that pumps water into four huge tanks that then distribute water to the buildings. Somehow, the pump was broken and finally all of the water drained from the tanks. So, for an afternoon we were saving water bottles and letting the dishes pile up. But thankfully, they were able to put a new pump in and everything is back to normal. Here is Blu climbing that pole to fix the pump.

Another thing we have dealt with is rats. They like to climb in through small holes in the wall and terrorize us at night. Last week, I woke up to find the side of my backpack had been chewed through. NASTY. Thankfully, we have put out poison and covered up the holes and they seem to be gone...for now. 

We also go to celebrate Christina's 6th birthday party! It is a Zambian tradition to throw water on the person whose birthday it is. Since we celebrated her birthday at night and it was too cold for water, Christina got random bursts of water the whole next day. The kids may run away, but they love the attention and getting water poured on them! 

The biggest event of the last week was the trip to Livingston. I got to travel with the team about 4 hours to Livingston to see Victoria Falls. It was amazing! The falls are so massive and there is just so much power there. There was also a double rainbow right next to the falls. Just a great reminder of God's power and His promise to never use that power of water to destroy the Earth. We got pretty wet walking under the falls but it was definitely worth it. After the falls two of the guys and I hiked down to the bottom which is called the boiling pot. It was a pretty hike that felt like the rain forest and there were wild baboons everywhere. After that, we got to experience the local markets. That afternoon, the team went of a local safari but one of the other interns and I decided to head back to the falls and bungee jump off of the bridge. I had decided I was going to do this before I came to Zambia, but once I was looking over the edge, it seemed like the dumbest decision of my life. It was absolutely terrifying and the farthest 111 meter drop ever! I'm so glad I did it, but it gave me the worst headache and I didn't feel good the rest of the night. Who knew your body isn't meant to be flung off a bridge??

The next day, Samuel {the other intern} and I headed on to another adventure. We drove to the Botswana border, took the "ferry" {more like a floating piece of wood} across the border, and met our tour guide for an all day safari. We were taken to a lodge for coffee then we got on a boat for half of the day to see the water wildlife like hippos, crocs, water buffalo, birds and other animals. Then we went to a very nice lodge for a buffet lunch before heading out in the safari truck to explore the national park and see giraffes, elephants, wart hogs, and we even got to see lions! Those were two very very crazy days! 

Now I am back at the orphanage to enjoy my last week and see what other adventures I can find. Last night, we burned a field to make a new soccer field for the kids. Instead of slashing down all the grass, we just burned it and walked around the perimeter with big branches to beat it out when it got far enough. We will see what other fun awaits this week!