Home :)

Here are a few pictures from Livingstone that I wanted to upload in Livingstone:

Lauren, Alicia, and I at Victoria Falls

Beautiful

Wart Hog on the Safari

Zebras :)

Giraffes - my new favorite animals

I'm home!

What a great trip.

Looking forward to spending time with the family during Thanksgiving.

Livingstone

I wanted to upload pictures, but it is not working out so well....I tried to upload 5 pictures for over an hour...and none of them will load. sorry!

We left Choma Thursday morning and headed for Livingstone.

Goodbyes were hard, but they had to happen. ;(

We arrived at the Zig Zag Bed and Breakfast on Thursday afternoon.

I spent the afternoon and evening relaxing...wow, was that nice or what?!?!

Friday morning we got up early and went on a safari. We saw impalas, baboons, giraffes, zebras, wart hogs, water buffalos, hippos, and a crocodile. Unfortunately, all of the elephants had already crossed the Zambezi river to go to Zimbabwe before the rains come and the water gets too deep. And since the park we went to was a small park, they did not have any cats, which was disappointing. Overall, we had a great time on the Safari :)

We went back to the Zig Zag and had a great breakfast.

Later we went to Victoria Falls. Although it is the beginning of rainy season and there was not a lot of water like the pictures show online, it was still breath-takingly gorgeous. The rocks were amazing, and the water that we did see was beautiful. As we continued walking, we came closer to the Zimbabwe side of the falls, and that is where the more powerful part of the falls is. Wow, the mist was amazing, and the water looked so powerful. What an amazing Creator we have. After seeing this natural wonder, I am more in awe of our Lord.

Last Week...

On our way home from our last trip into town! (me, Alissa, Alyssa, and Brianna)

This is one of the girls that was at the first compound we went to on Thursday...Estie gave her this jacket, needless to say, she loved it :)

This is a picture that was taken in Lusaka - at the community school- I just love it so much :)

Last Thursday and Friday, we went out with Pastor Penta (aka Ba Smiley) and Rebecca from WHIZ and did OVC/HBC visits.

OVC- Orphan Vulnerable Children

HBC- Home Based Care (these people are all HIV positive and on ARVs)

We visited four home on Thursday with orphans or vulnerable children being taken care of by men and/or women of the community. While we met with them, they talked about their stories a little bit, and then we had the opportunity to ask questions. Pastor Penta and Rebecca would ask about their water source, and made sure they had a latrine. At most of the places, we would go with one of the family members and gather water with them.

On Friday, we planned on visiting two places. We went to the first place and the family was not home...this happened a few times. We finally made it to one gentleman's home and we sat under a tree and talked about his story. It is amazing how open these people are to telling us their stories. When he was finished, we had an opportunity to encourage him with Bible verses, and then we prayed with him. We gave a bag of Mealie Meal, Sugar, salt, cooking oil, and Kapenta.

We arrived at the next house and the gentleman was so excited to see us. He said something like, "Yesterday, I was feeling better, and I wanted visitors to come and see how I am doing."

How cool is this? we were not originally going to visit him, but since the others were not home, we went to his house. God really worked all of this out. Praise the Lord!

When we got back to WHIZ, the staff had a going away party for us. They served chocolate cake and popcorn....so good!

I spent the entire weekend working home all of my papers and other things I had to finish up before leaving.

On Monday, I went with two other students and our professors to the various clinical sites to show appreciation for all the hard work they had done for us during the semester.

Tuesday and Wednesday, I packed all of my things...and started saying my last goodbyes to the WHIZ staff.

We will be leaving Choma tomorrow (Thursday).

We are going to Zimba for about an hour to show our appreciation to the staff there with tea and scones.

The rest of the week will be spent in Livingstone. Not sure all we will be doing, but I know that we will be going to see Victoria Falls and to a game park.

We leave Monday around 1 pm here...which is 7 am at home. Please be praying for safe travels!

Looking forward to seeing everyone very soon!

Lusaka

Out with the girls (Lauren, Janna, me, and Alicia) waiting for the movie

Lauren, Alyssa, and I with our ice cream treat :)

We had a great time in the big city! I had a little taste of home.

Yummy pizza and ice cream...now I will be able to last until I get home. :)

We went shopping a lot and out to eat at all kinds of different places. I was shocked and glad to see that there was not a McDonald's in Lusaka...they haven't taken over the entire world! ha ha

On Saturday, we went and saw 'A Christmas Carol' with Jim Carey. That was a lot of fun...and it felt just like home....i even FROZE in the movie theatre...I bought medium popcorn and a bottle of water for less than $4 dollars...when was the last time you could do that in America?

I have funny stories to tell, but not enough time to explain on here.

This week is full of last minute papers and goodbye/thank you parties.

We leave Choma a week from Friday to go to Livingstone.

We fly out of Livingstone a week from Monday and will arrive in Indianapolis on the next day.

Two little kids from the orphanage..Priceless

This is Charles, he fell asleep very shortly after this was taken :)

This is Arthur who is asleep on my lab, and Charles again asleep on my chest.

These pictures go along with the post that I did yesterday :)

This past week has been great. I have busy doing many different things.

On Thursday, we went to Mochipapa Trust for a Caregiver/Nutrition meeting.

On Friday, we went to Chabbabboma Trust - where there is a banana plantation. It was about a 3 hour car ride, 2 of the hours were off-roading. :)

When we arrived, the caregivers came up to us and greeted us by singing and clapping their hands. It was such a warm welcome. I loved it.

Then we had a tour of the plantation, saw Lake Kariba (one of the largest man-made lakes in the world)

We had lunch with the caregivers (they made Nshima, chicken and greens) - delicious :)

On Saturday my church group lead 3 sessions at the missions conference at Choma Central. We talked about Missions, Worship, and Making Disciples - we also did the "Everything" skit by Lifehouse (if you haven't seen it, go to youtube.com - its great), sang a few songs, and I signed a song for the group.

Since it was Halloween, the activity night was a costume party. Lisa and I dressed up as "Doctor Pepper" good times

On Sunday - went to church and did homework during the afternoon

On Monday - we went out with Hospice for Home-Based-Care Visits...we ended up spending all day at the Rural Health Clinic. They tested for HIV, counseled, and educated the people. I enjoyed spending time talking with the people that came to the clinic.

On Tuesday (today) - we went to an orphanage and I spent most of the time holding two children at a time. So much fun - especially when you have two fall asleep in your arms at once :)

The other highlight of my week has been watching the World Series with Mom and Dad via Skype. It has been fun - Go Yankees!

Unfortunately, the pictures are not posting right now. I will try again later

Zimba

This woman is a nurse that works at Zimba Mission Hospital in the Maternal Child Health Clinic - She is extremely passionate about Jesus and caring for her patients.

Praise the Lord for a great ending experience at Zimba Mission Hospital.

On Monday, Janna and I were in the Maternal Child Health Clinic for the morning. We listened to the instructors teach about safe motherhood (all in Tonga). Then we assisted in doing a pre-natal assessment. The morning was very good.

During the afternoon, we went to lab to see what kind of work we could do. We did a lot of finger sticks for rapid malaria testing and unfortunately did not get the chance to do a blood draw. Since there was not much going on in the front of the lab, I decided to see the kind of tests that Watson was working on. I enjoyed this part of the lab because we were working with samples and getting results. The two main tests that we ran were CD4 counts and Creatinine.

Overall, Monday was a great experience and

I learned a lot. Praise the Lord for an uplifting experience.

Tuesday -

We were planning on going out into the village and doing a immunization clinic with the Maternal Child Health Clinic, but after waiting an hour, we found out that there was not enough funding for the fuel to get to the villag

e and back. Janna and I were a little disappointed at first because we really wanted to go out and help with the immunizations.

The next thing we tried was the Dental Clinic.

We got to see the Dentist pull one tooth. Then he asked us to clean his supplies while he went to go get more lidocaine. After about 15 minutes he came back and said that they were out of lidocaine and that he was not going to be doing any more procedures the rest of the day. So dental clinic was out...

We talked with our Clinical Instructor Lisa, and while we were trying to figure out what to do next, the thought came to mind that I am not here for myself. I am here to serve, so I wanted to know where we could best serve the people at Zi

mba. After brainstorming a little longer, we decided to go back to lab to see if we could draw a few labs. Unfortunately, there were no labs to be drawn. Then we went to the Male/Female Wards to see if there was anything that we could do to help. The nurse said that she needed two IVs started. So I did the first one and then Janna did the second one. Once we completed those two, the nurse told us that another patient being admitted needed one also. This happened a few times. So, Janna and I both got the chance to do 3 IV starts each. What a great experience, and encouraging (especially since we didn't blow any of the veins) YAY!

After lunch we thought that the place that needed the most help was in the Pharmacy. Janna and I have spent two other afternoons in the pharmacy, so we knew pretty much what had to be done. We enjoy this time of counting the pills and labeling the bags because we can help serve in such a simple way. Sometimes it gets boring counting to a certain number 50 times and packing all of the bags, but again, I know that I am not here for my comfort, but to serve.

This is a picture of Janna and I counting pills :)

Unfortunately, this was the last time that we will be at Zimba Mission Hospital. Looking back on this experience, I do not think that I would trade any of it, even though some of the days were extremely rough. I got to see God work in so many ways and I experienced his strength and love in new ways.

Thanks again for all your prayers.

I am not sure what the next few days hold, but I look forward to what God is going to be doing!