This is probably my last blog in Zambia. I have loved it here. There’s been ups and downs, but overall, it’s been a great month. Right now, I’m on a bus on my way to town to get WiFi and post this blog. (So if there are any spelling errors, I blame the bumpy roads.) There are three stories that I’d like to share.
The first story is about a friend in need.
The guy’s team and I were in the remote village of Simango. We had been there for about a week and a half. Some of us had had stomach issues, and so we always had to be careful when we sneezed. One morning, we all were doing morning devotions together. It was fairly normal. What happened next, was not. I’m sitting there, still kind of waking up because I am not a morning person. Next to me is one of my friends, Garrett. He seemed a little fidgety during devos, but I didn’t really pay much attention. Right after devos ended, Garrett turned to me. He had a pained look at his face and he was shifting weirdly. He said, “Jackson, I hurt.” I of course am concerned for him and ask him to elaborate. He says, “I can’t stand up. I hurt.” This time, after he said he hurt, he pointed to his butt. Oh no. His can’t be good. I try to give him advice, even bough I have no idea what is going on with him, and I ask if he needs to poop. He said no, but I still thought he did. Feebly, he stands up. He was leaning on me for support. He is trying to figure out how to make the pain stop. I tell him to try and go to the bathroom. He agrees and starts slowly hobbling toward the door to the place we were staying at. I foresaw some problems, mainly because the bathroom was a football field away, but also because on his way out, garrett said, “Jackson, you might need to grab me some toilet paper!” Since I’m a good friend, I start to look for the toilet paper. I couldn’t find it after a minute or two of looking, and so I decided to go check if Garrett had made it to the bathroom. I walk outside, and garrett is leaning against the wall. I asked him why he wasn’t at the bathroom yet, and he said, “I can’t see where I’m walking. Everything is going black.” At this point, I’m really concerned for him. I go a help him off of the wall, and ask him what he needs. “I need to poop!” Garrett then proceeded to go to the nearest tree, pull down his pants, and poop. I rush back into the house, and ask everyone, “Where is the toilet paper?!” Once I found it, I rushed back out to Garrett to help him. Of course he tree he picked was the closest tree, and so everyone could see what was going on. (We didn’t have a door to our house, so it was just and open window for the world to see Garrett.) I get to Garrett, and I have no clue what to do. I’ve never been in his situation before. Imagine that. Anyway, I got to him and set the toilet paper next to him. He’s almost falling over, and so I ask, “What do you need me to do?” His reply was short and sweet. “Just hold me.” Garrett ended up being ok, but I don’t think he’ll ever stop hearing about the time he pooped by a tree in Africa.
The second story is about my trip to Botswana.
I was fortunate enough to get to go to Botswana on a safari. I was stoked to go. We started out early in the morning, even though we were delayed because Josh forgot his passport, and drove to the Botswana/Zambia border. We got to ride on a boat across the river into Botswana. Anyway, we get there and we start our journey on a boat. We got to see hippos, elephants, lizards, a plethora of birds, and we were close enough to touch some crocodiles. (We didn’t touch them mom, don’t worry.) It was here that I was finally able to use my photography gift. I am a nature photographer, and there was a ton of nature here. After the boat ride, we ate lunch at a lodge, where we were able to eat buffet style. I almost squealed when I saw he amount of food. I’ve still been losing weight, so I jump at the chance to eat. I had mostly had magnificent mutton, but also about four plates of chicken stir fry. I may or may not have also had a bowl or two of vanilla ice cream with almonds in it. After our decadent lunch, we got to finish our safari. This time, we were in a Jeep. We saw lions, impala, more birds, and elephants. It was an amazing time that we got to spend in nature, just enjoying God’s creation.
The last story is about what happened yesterday.
Once again, all the guys are in a remote village. On that fateful day, we had ministry, and we were told that we might go fishing. Honestly, we didn’t know what we were doing, so we didn’t prepare something important. I’ll tell you what that was later. We walked for about two hours, inviting people in each village we passed to a kids ministry we are holding on Monday. It was a hot day. After we finished inviting people, we walked down to the Zambezi river and went swimming. We were there for almost four hours. It was a ton of fun. The water was cool, refreshing, and crocodile infested. We didn’t see a crocodile, but we did see a cute crab. Anyway, after that, we walked about thirty more minutes, and visited the girls team that we hadn’t seen all month. It was great catching up with them. By this point, we were beginning to realize our mistake. We then had a two hour walk back, and by this point, we were all hurting. We all walked into the place we were staying, and immediately took our shirts off. Lobsters. We were all lobsters. We hadn’t put on sunscreen that morning. As I write this, I am in immense pain. To make matters worse, we’re sleeping on the ground, which means there was a lot of moaning in pain as we laid, sprawled out on the ground, trying to sleep. To make matters even worse for me, at two in the morning I woke up. I had diarrhea. It’s been a rough day and a half.
Anyway, that’s a few stories from my time in Zambia. I have loved my time here, and I will miss the beauty of Zambia. Lord, please be with the people here in Zambia. Help our ministry hosts, and help them to reach the people we couldn’t. Amen.
