Happy Easter! It is Easter Sunday here in Zambia, Africa. We just got back from a weekend-long (starting on Thursday) Easter camping event and a three and a half hour church service. They don’t do Easter baskets or eggs here, but I found a few chocolate eggs in the touristy part, so I gave those to my teammates. I will fill you in on the last couple of weeks. We worked at the preschool the first week, and we taught the kids songs, helped them with their tests, and did other activities. It was pretty fun. On Friday, they brought some of the kids to where we are staying, and we planted a tree with them. Then, we went to the city airport for a field trip. The kids got to see some airplanes go by and walk inside the airport. The city here has a really nice airport for its size I think. It was a little funny because the tour guide was explaining to me how security works, and by now after flying to so many countries, I think I know how security works haha. But he didn’t know that haha. It was a lot cooler last week then the week before, and it rained sometimes. However this week, it was hot and sunny again. I believe it was Saturday night when we visited our contacts sister that has HIV, and after we visited her she looked me in the eye and said, “Thank you so much for visiting me.” And she said how she thought God had healed her, and it was really touching. On Monday night, two teams from our squad came to spend two nights where we were staying because everyone planned a safari trip for Tuesday. It was actually in Botswana, and it cost like $230 total, so I decided not to do it. Some others didn’t do it either. Later, it sounded like the safari trip was good, but not great, so I’m satisfied with my decision to not do it. I would like to try to do one at some point if there’s a cheaper one and others are going. That was a relaxing day for me anyway; I got to have time with God and relax, shop a little, and then go to a hostel with a pool where some of our squad’s staying. They also had WIFI there too which was nice. I was going to go swimming, but then it didn’t work out. I got to catch up with my old teammate Jake which was really nice.
On Wednesday, my team and I went to the oldest couple of the church’s house and visited with them. They sang us some Tonga (their language in this part of Zambia) worship songs, and we sang them a hymn in English as well. We prayed with them, and they showed us their garden that had plants like sugar cane. After that, we went to an HIV support group. There were two women there and a chairman of the group. I guess they’re part of a bigger group. They told us their stories, and we got to encourage and pray for them. Both of the women had 1 child and one woman’s child also has HIV and the other woman’s child doesn’t. They’ve both had it for around five years or so, I can’t remember how long they said exactly. They both said that they felt devastated when they found out they had HIV, but now they just feel normal and live day to day live like any other person. They take medicine, and I found out that HIV medicine is free in Zambia and that the United States actually helps with offering free HIV medicine to people in Zambia. In their support group, they make things to sell for money. I got to encourage them to keep being hopeful in the midst of hard times or suffering and that Jesus is our ultimate hope. I shared with them Romans 5:3-5 which is “ More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame because of God’s love that has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. “ It was great being able to meet and encourage the people from that group. Please be praying for them. They told me that they would like to get a sewing machine for their group to sew things to sell.
So on Thursday, we went on an Easter camping trip with the Salvation Army church. I had never gone camping for Easter before. It was at a school near the airport. Some people brought tents and others slept in the school. We brought our tents. It was a camping trip for all the nearby Salvation Army churches, and it was cool to see people from the other churches. They all wore their Salvation Army uniforms. They had an early morning devotion and then three sessions throughout the day with prayer, worship, and speakers. They also had three meals a day as well- we’d eat bread with butter and jam and tea for breakfast, and then lunch and dinner was shema (it reminds me of like mashed potatoes mixed with rice- it’s their staple food here) with chicken and cabbage. The sessions were done mostly in Tonga, but they would say a few English words/phrases (most people speak English fluently in Zambia) here and there, but our ministry contact here translated a few services for us which was really nice. I really liked one of the sessions about not lacking zeal for Jesus. I also liked seeing the kids there; I played with a group of little boys throughout the weekend. They’re so cute! However, the weekend wasn’t my favorite overall. The services were about 2-4 hours each, and the last session went until about 11pm, and then they would practice brass instruments and drums or talk until about midnight or 1am. Then, you would start hearing people again at about 5am praying, and the early morning devotions started at 6:30am. On Easter, they started playing drums and instruments at about 4:30am. So it was just hard with the lack of sleep, and we didn’t know it was going to be that loud. It was also hard because one of my teammates got really sick and two others got mildly sick, so they left on Friday, and two of my other teammates went with them to take care of them, so the whole weekend it was just me and one other teammate. And actually, I noticed that I was the only white person there for the weekend because my other teammate that was there with me is black. And actually it was really hard for me to be the only white person there because I received so much attention. I’ve never experienced that before. And I don’t mind attention, but it was too much even for me. They weren’t doing it with bad intentions, but it was just really hard to feel like every muscle I made was being noticed. I realized that normally it’s not that bad because my whole team helps to spread out the attention. But the kids were always demanding my attention and playing with whatever I had on my like my watch, hair, water bottle, etc. And it was hard because my tent zipper doesn’t zip, so the kids would follow me to my tent and I couldn’t close my tent, so I would just have to be like, “Ok see you later!”, but a it took them a while to leave and sometimes they’d come back. And I realize that I really like my alone time, and even though I’m more extroverted, a lot of me is introverted. And the adults too would all notice me and want to talk to me every time I walked by. And sometimes both the adults and the kids would want me to do things like stir the shema or say things in their language and then they would laugh at me because I did it funny. I didn’t feel bad because they were teasing me because I knew it was with good intentions, but after a while I just get sick of it. I was starting to feel like an animal at a zoo. I’m glad I experienced it though because it gave me more empathy for people who experience that kind of thing all the time because they look different. And it was just hard in general with my team not being there because of things like needing to sing songs in front of everyone with just me and my other teammate. It was also a bit frustrating because they had a program for the weekend, but we never got to keep a copy, so it was confusing as to when things were, and the services consisted of the same things a lot like having four to five different groups dance into the main area and sing two songs a capella while everyone listened. One person up front says “Hallelujah!” and then the congregation says “Amen!” a lot at the services that I think is kinda cool. On Easter, the rest of my team showed up, and we all sang some worship songs for everyone. They did some deliverances (exorcisms) during the Easter service too. I’ve never seen those being done like that let alone an Easter service. They were screaming “In the name of Jesus come out!!! Out!! Come out!!” and yelling “Fire! Fire!” over and over again. And the people kept falling down and getting back up. They also did that one night outside of our tents before we went to sleep. I believe in deliverances/exorcisms, but I don’t know if I agree with their methods of doing it. So overall, the weekend wasn’t my favorite like I said, but it was nice to spend the weekend in honor of Jesus’ resurrection.
In other news, I bought this beautiful African painting from this man that lives near us who paints them. It is of an elephant and of a woman, and I like it a lot! I want to hang it up when I get home. One of my squadmates wanted to get a painting after he did the safari, but he ran out of time, and I just happened to show him my painting just then, and he only had a little bit of time before he left, but I was able to show him where I got mine, and he bought one too. He told me the story, and it sounded like he got favor from God because he had this list of things he wanted to do and he was able to do them through funny circumstances. Getting a painting was the last thing on his list, but he thought he ran out of time, but just then I showed him my painting. Also, another night, one of my teammates was having a really rough time and was crying outside, and I knew she went out there, but didn’t know she was sad, but I just had this feeling that I should go out there, so I did, and later she told me that she was crying out to God for help and that she thought no one was helping her, but she remembered that I had helped her in the past, and she said a little later, I came out. So we thought that God had answered her prayer. She’s been doing pretty good ever since which is an answer to prayer also. Going on with other news, I also got some Zambian music that I put on my computer from our ministry contact. I also got my eyebrows threaded here. I usually get them waxed at home, but my teammate told me about threading, and that they actually do it more in India. But we found a place here that did it, so I got it done, and I really like it!
I noticed some more cultural things here. One is that Zambians shake hands a lot to greet, but they don’t do it how we do. They have three steps to their handshake. First they do a normal handshake how we do, and then they do like a side shake without letting go and then go back to a normal one again. I also noticed that sometimes they keep holding hands during the handshake for a long period of time that would be awkward in the States. Another thing I noticed is that they have a distinct sound that they cheer with. In America we usually go, “Woooo!!!” But here, they go “Weee eee eee eee!!!” It’s kinda funny haha. The women were doing that a lot during the church service. Another thing is that they use army time here a lot, and actually you can expect things to usually be late. I don’t think business things are late, but it seems like you shouldn’t expect things to start until about an hour later than when it’s supposed to. We’ve experienced that quite a bit. They’ve told us things start at like 8am, but it didn’t start until 9am. And if a Zambian tells you that he’ll be back in 10 minutes that you can actually expect him back in 45 minutes to 1 hour. I like it because I’m usually running late haha. The women here sometimes wear pants, but many times they’re wearing these floor length wraps that wrap into a skirt called chitenges. There’s also a lot of sand in Zambia that I haven’t seen in other countries. Many of the paths are sandy. I think it’s just from the heat.
I just have 1 week left in Zambia, and then it’s Malawi, and then HOME!!! Only 38 days left of the Race!!!
Where in The World is Jacelyn Bendel?
My team and I with the staff and students at the preschool in Zambia, Africa
