March, 2017 – Zambia
Month 2 of Africa couldn’t be more different from month 1.
First, our teams are changed for the month. This month is “Manistry Month” aka all the men on the squad form one giant team and do ministry together. That means all the girls on co-ed teams form together to make an all girls team, so we have 2 new girls on our team for the month, Daiva and Rashidat. These 2 are some of the older people on the squad so I’ve loved having them on my team for all of their ~wisdom~.
Because of the team change, there had to be a new team leader for this month, and I was chosen to be it. Being team leader mainly means you are the logistics captain, which for this month, has been a whirlwind because my team is traveling all over Zambia to different ministries. We haven’t had any wifi (or found any that’s worked more than 10 minutes) this month and when you don’t have wifi, it’s almost impossible to contact anyone. Let’s just say I’ve been on many adventures trekking to internet cafes, having squadmates contact my host on their wifi, and mostly good ole’ praying to the Holy Spirit for a bus that I think my phone call communicated to our host’s friend to arrange for us will arrive in 10 minutes to pick us up.
Now, other than logistical craziness that I have actually learned much from, being team leader has been a great experience for me to use my leadership skills and learn how to use them well. It has also allowed me to grow closer to our ministry hosts since I am usually the one communicating with them. It’s shown me how easily it has been in the past months to not get to know our hosts, but has also shown me how easily it can be to get to know them just by sitting and talking to them. Point is, I’ve learned a lot.
Our ministry has looked a lot different from last month too. The biggest difference is that we have spent our time in Zambia in 2 different places – Chongwe and Kasama.
In both places, we were working with the same organization, African Visions of Hope. This org has established schools, programs, safe houses, and orphanages all over Zambia AVOH has had 1 world race team in Kasama before, but our team and the guys team were the firsts in the cities of Chongwe and Kafue.
Being a “first” team in a city on the race is always an interesting experience. We got to Kasama after and hour van ride and drove up to our host’s house. Our host for the 2 weeks was Gerald, and he was the principal of the AVOH school in Chongwe.
He didn’t really know what was going on and where he was supposed to put us (he has us all living in different houses in the neighborhood), but after some phonecalls he found us an empty house. It was ‘big’ enough to squeeze all 6 of our tents in to use as mosquito nets, which on the race you realize is like your own little bedroom.
We had to walk across the street for the bathroom and shower. People at home often as me how my showering situation is on the race. Up until now, it’s been fine – mostly cold showers, but a normal bathroom and showerhead. This was different. This bathroom was ratchet. Bugs, hair, gunk, you name it. We even had to stand on a brick so that the clogged up water wouldn’t surround our feet. #worldraceshower for the win.
For ministry, we walked 3 miles to the school and 3 miles back
We walked 6 miles a day.
And that’s not counting if we had to go to the market.
But the walk ended up being my favorite part of the day. We walked through cornfields, villages, over rivers, and were surrounded by God’s BEAUTIFUL creation. I especially loved our morning walks, because the mist was still laying over the fields and mountains. Many times I would pop music into my ears and just smile for the whole hour because of what I was surrounded by.
The school held grades 1-10, so there was a pretty crazy range of kids running around at all times. It also gave each member of the team a chance to focus on which age group they liked the most.
We usually went to 2 or 3 classrooms in a few hours. In the class we would share our testimonies, preach, sing songs, play games, and have discussions. For the older kids, it went great, but the younger kids don’t know English very well. So translation was difficult, unless we got an awesome teacher to translate for us.
After that, we would all split up and go hang out with (what felt like) the thousands of kids running around. Many times I ended up playing ‘a monkey-in-the-middle and dodge ball’ hybrid game with the 4th grade girls.
By the time we were worn out from playing games and singing songs, it was lunch time. For lunch, they have some of the local ladies make nshima and veggies in the cooking shed at the school. Nshima is kind of like thick grits and they eat it in Africa like Asians eat rice – for almost every meal. And I love it – my team makes fun of me for how much I love it, but hey #noshame. The lunch ladies serve all the kids at one time out of these huge pots that I could fit my whole body in. It was cool to get to eat and experience lunch time with the students.
After another round of classrooms and preaching, we would start our 3 mile walk back home. Sometimes we needed to go to the market, which was another mile addition to our journey. The market was just open-air on the side of the street (kind of like a farmer’s market), where we could get veggies veggies veggies galore. And their was a butcher on the way home where we could get fresh chicken. We actually ate really good and healthy while we were here!
After dinner, we had team time and then we were off zipping ourselves up into our rooms no later than 7pm. And I guarantee all of us were asleep by 7:30 most nights. When it’s already dark you’ve had a full day of kids, don’t have wifi, TV, and have read all of your books, what else are ya gonna do?
But that’s the gist of our first 2 weeks here in Zambia. It was long, and it was tiring, but it was a good experience. And this was only the first half of the month – stay tuned for part 2!!
Recklessly,
Haley
