A Month’s Moments

Living on the Zambezi River in December was such a beautiful, refreshing time. Life there in Zambia unfolded at a slower pace, which the A-Team rested in after a very busy previous month at an orphanage in Zimbabwe. We also added three more Racers to our crew; Mikyla Cooper, Lis Warner, and one of the squad leaders, Lo Acosta. It was a sweet month, and the staff at Love’s Door (the ministry site we lived at) are amazing people. It was really cool to live alongside the staff – another family consisting of native Zambians, long-term volunteers from the states, and at the end of the month, the founders of the organization. To switch things up, I’ve compiled a list, as a peek into that experience.

So, what was life like in Zambia? 

1. The Great Scavenger Hunt of 2017! Upon our arrival, our hosts gave us a scavenger hunt so we could explore our new home. Which included: meeting villagers and roaming while holding kid’s hands, helping haul water from the river, buying bricks of bubblegum from the local shop, and meeting some rockin old ladies
2. Helping kids in the tutoring program at Love’s Door write letters to their sponsors
3. Coming across so many critters – holding a toad, and on several occasions, wild chameleons. Victoria was my reptile buddy and we’d always point them out to each other
4. A faint rainbow that said hello after a rainstorm
5. Watching so many beautiful sunsets over the water
6. Waving to the local hippo
7. Witnessing a few powerful thunderclouds in the distance that spat lightning and lit up the night
8. Helping a young mom clear her yard, and then watching her mother weave baskets
9. Becoming a pro at the new eye-spy game, ‘is that a croc or a rock?’
10. Beautiful community worship sessions, sung in English and two of the local languages (Did you know Zambia has 74 languages?? amazing) 
11. Drinking a lot of tea
12. Lis and I bought some magazines in town and started collaging art and poetry
13. Wrestling with the generator-thingy every so often to get water pumped to the site’s water tower. Then we would purify buckets with chlorine 
14. Playing with the dogs, Sniper and Finn. At one point Mikyla and I wrestled ticks off those boys
15. Lots of painting rooms
16. LOTS of playing mafia 
17. Cooking meals together, sometimes over a little charcoal fire
18. Mudding! Houses in the bush are made of mud, and so we would get together and slap up walls. It’s dirty and gritty and so much fun as a community.
19. Tutoring kids from the children’s home during the week, and the village kids on the weekends. A super precious ministry
20. Eating fried termites! (They’re actually so good)
21. So many times standing under the stars
22. Hammocking. The local kids actually loved our hammocks so our Enos got a lot of tough love that month
23. We all took advantage of the small library in the big house and read so many books during our stay. I enjoyed a lot of C.S. Lewis
24. Writing and journaling and swapping short stories with SydWill and Mikyla
25. Eating so many mangos. 
26. Bible studies; while we were there, we went through one on Joseph. 
27. Enjoying this one swing that was tied to a massive tree. I usually would swing at night, with a cool breeze ruffling my hair
28. Weeding the garden for hours!
29. Planting maize 
30. Pushing the van out of some mud with the help of some cute village kids. There was a joyous communal shout when we freed her
31. Surviving the ‘Great Christmas Storm of 2017’ (some of our tents were destroyed. Oh man that night was intense.)
32. Celebrating some of the kid’s birthdays by baking with them
33. Listening to little bats in the patio rafters chitter to each other 
34. Ignoring the maggots in our toilet
35. Talking with villagers about God and life’s twists and turns
36. Holding village babies! 
37. Rowing to the island to explore and swim in rock pools (got a few scrapes from that, whoops. Promise I’m fine, grandma! ) 
38. Playing nine-square-in-the-air with the kids
39. SydWill falling through a wooden bridge
40. Hiking around Victoria Falls with Lo and Elisabeth and watching people white water rafting, bobbing down the Boiling Point
41. Shoving a chair at monkeys that tried to steal Lo’s lunch
42. Getting cussed out by a few street kids while in town one time
43. Riding in the back of the canter, the tarp pulled up and bouncing against each other
44. Picking up crabs from rock pools with SydRueth 
45. Filming on my phone an epic fight scene that the village kids had enacted. It was quite the drama
46. Trying crocodile pizza
47. Running into a lot of little fishermen, and those proud boys showing off their catches
48. Church services bursting with life, running around the outside pews during several worship sessions, and overall impactful services
49. Not wearing shoes unless we were going into town
50. Deep talks with teammates out on the riverside rocks
51. Watching the Zambezi rise throughout the month as the rains fed it
52. Community meals of around 15 people, all the laughter and happiness involved in that
53. Sitting on sacks of mealie in the kitchen and joking with each other
54. Drawing some of the villagers, and all the joy that brought
55. Sitting on a bench in the morning with Chalon, drinking coffee, and perhaps glimpsing lions in the game park across the river
56. Regularly scooping sand out of my tent
57. Getting schooled by kids at playing card games 
58. Chipping in to help with a girl’s school fees
59. Writing a story about our team...in space
60. Building a chair out of some tires and rope with Ben
61. Heartfelt Secret Santa gifts with our team, shared Christmas morning (Carly put my gifts in emptied peanut butter jars and it was the funniest thing)
62. A burial for Lo’s deceased tent roommate, a stowaway lizard
63. Treating popcorn as a staple component of most meals
64. Playing with puppies at Dan & Regina’s house
65. Swinging on tree branches with the kids
66. Naps on reed mats 
67. Marveling at stones from the island – some had bits of copper chunks, others were crystal clear like glass, still others had wondrous swirls or layered stripes 
68. One time Victoria and I entertained ourselves for around a half hour by just looking at and experimenting with one ant-hole 
69. The New Year’s Eve Ride with ‘Papa’ Dan (a founder of Love’s Door), driving to different villages and preaching, singing, uplifting churches all day
70. New Year’s Eve bonfire, complete with village kids dancing round the flames and a few firecrackers 

And that’s just a small glimpse of that month’s wonder. I will elaborate on some of those tales (comment if you have specific questions about any of these!) in blogs to come, but I thought you’d all enjoy this first look (and overdue update).

Lots of love, always, 

Taylor