Where to start?! My last update was forever ago. Saying you’re going to blog in the field is one thing. Actually blogging in the field is another! I am writing to you from Livingstone, Zambia, my home for the next three months! First things that come to mind when I think of my new home is overwhelmingly sweaty, friendly, and cockroach-y. Is that a word?
Travel to this crazy place went generally smooth from Pattaya,Thailand to Bangkok to Nairobi, Kenya to Malawi to Lusaka, the capitol of Zambia! This was only about 24 hours of flight after flight, which it seems like it should have been longer! I am becoming a professional at sleeping through flights. I pride myself on this newfound talent! We took an airport shuttle to the Lusaka bus station to board a 1:30 pm bus to Livingstone. Something I am learning the hard way is Africa time usually means hours behind. Our bus actually departed at 3:45 pm. It was also supposed to be a 6-hour drive. It was a 9-hour drive & we dropped off and picked up random people on the side of the road the entire time.What can you do but laugh after 36 hours of travel? One of the perks was we drove through the Zambia countryside the majority of the time. I can’t capture the beauty of this country in words. I saw my first African sunset- easily the most beautiful of my entire life. The majesty of God’s creation! I don’t have photos because I was in a half-alive, travel-induced daze.
My team & I are living with two other teams (21 people total) in the Women’s Catholic Diocese of Livingstone, inside a village PACKED with families! I share a room with three other girls. The first morning, I woke up at 6 am screaming because there was a cockroach crawling on my chest. I have since them started sleeping outside in my Eno with a mosquito net. It makes for much cooler, bug free sleeping & I sleep under the African stars! I have taken a real liking to it!
I am now a week into ministry here, which is crazy! My team & I teach at a pre-school with the cutest little children I have ever seen. We have opportunities to teach them Children’s Church songs, bible stories, and other sweet things that they love. This is so different coming from Thailand- a 95% Buddhist country, to Zambia, a 65% Christian country. It’s a breath of fresh air, even though I loved our Thailand munchkins too! We host pick up soccer games in the afternoons & afterwards, we share bible stories! We walk through the village and TONS of kids pour out of their houses and follow us to an open plot of land for an afternoon of soccer, hair braiding, singing songs, and more. I have made some really sweet little friends already during this time.
(This is the only photo that would upload right now. I’ll work on it sigh)
All of the kids here LOVE white people. “Muzungu” ( pronounced mah-zoon-goo) is the name for white people, and they scream it when we walk through the neighborhood and all the kids come running out of their houses and tackle us and hang all over us and love us. It’s really cute. The people here are so kind, which everyone always says about Zambians and it’s so true. My last piece of news is that I have made friends with a neighbour, Priscilla (23), her daughter Virginia (2 years 7 mo.). They invited Rachel & I over for a traditional African dinner which was DELICIOUS and they already hold a really special place in my heart. Every day when I leave after visiting, Virginia cries and tells her mommy “I want Auntie Muzungu!!!!”
Sending love and kisses.
Sincerely, Auntie Muzungu
