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!

Weeks 6/7

This is a picture of me signing with one of the kids last week at St. Malumba

At St. Malumba School

Me in my African Outfit for Independence Day (10/24)

Monday - I spent a good amount of time at Dr. Jain's office observing him and learning so much from him. He is so willing to share information with us and wants us to ask him anything. He showed us his book that he writes every single surgery down. In the first 2 1/2 years he did 1,713 surgeries (about 2 a day) wow!! The other thing he taught us was all about Appendicitis. Then we learned how to do an appendectomy, because he is getting ready to do one in the next few weeks. Hopefully, we will get to go and observe.

Tuesday - I went to Martin Hospice. I don't know if I have said this before, but Hospice here is different than in the states. People who are chronically ill go there when they have an exacerbation of their illness. The staff work hard together to get the best outcome of the patients. For the most part, people go home after a week of staying and getting better.

Behind Martin Hospice, there is a daycare for vulnerable children. I spent about 3 hours sitting, reading and interacting with the kids. That was so much fun being with the kids. They are such a blessing.

Today was also the day that I got my computer :) Thanks mom and dad

Wednesday - Class

Thursday - Chikuni - We went there and met with a Traditional Healer. Interesting, needless to say. He shared a lot of things with us and I learned a lot about what some people here in Zambia believe in. We then took a tour of Chikuni Mission Hospital. After the tour, we went to Monze School of Nursing. It was neat to see another nursing school here in Zambia.

Thursday was a very long and tiring day...we were gone for about 10 hours and sat on the bus for about 6 of the 10.

Friday - Class and Town, then we went out for the first time at night.

We went to 'Miss Rotary Independence 2009,' a beauty pageant. The winner would go on to the Miss Zambia pageant. It was really neat to see all of the different outfits. This lasted over three hours, and when we left at midnight, it was still going on! (unfortunately, we did not get to see who won the contest... :(

Saturday - Zambian Independence Day

Today we went to town and took part in the celebration ceremony. There was a lot of dancing, music, and a few speeches. I am so glad that we were here to celebrate Independence day. It was neat to see the passion of the Zambians for their country. They were celebrating 45 years of Independence. In celebration of Independence, we had a Turkey for lunch. (A few weeks ago, we witnessed the butchering of this turkey here on the compound, ha ha) As usual, lunch was delicious.

On Saturday evenings, we have activity night. This week, it was my job along with Lauren and Janna to plan it. We had the Zammy Awards, and gave everyone an award. We made home-made apple crisp and then played Shout About Movies. I think the night was a success. We all had fun and laughed a lot.

Sunday - Today the plan is going to church and doing a lot of homework (now that I have my computer, I can write all of my papers. I am praying for motivation and no distractions. So that I can get a lot of work done.

The plan for Monday and Tuesday is to go to Zimba Mission Hospital for the final time. I would appreciate all your prayers as the last two times working there have been emotionally draining. I know that with God's help, I will be able to see Him through all the hard times. I need His strength.

Half-Way Marker

Wow! I can't believe that my adventure is halfway through!

This week I went back to Zimba Mission Hospital. We worked on the mens/womens (med-surg) wards. We helped pass meds, my partner got to start an IV, and many other things happened. One thing that sticks out in my mind is a cultural difference in the idea of urgency. Unfortunately, we had a patient go into pulmonary edema most likely due to an allergic reaction to the medication the nurse gave. This was very difficult to deal with, because the nurses waited 2 hours to call the doctor after his side effects started. It is still hard to understand why they waited that long, but my only thinking is that maybe they thought that he wouldn't make it anyways...(the closest ventilator is 5 hours away). As I look back at this situation, I see it as a learning experience and hope to grow from it.
On Tuesday, we were in the OR for two minor surgeries on a couple of kids. That was interesting :)
Then we spent the afternoon in the outpatient clinic, which is like an Emergency Room/Urgent Care type of setting. We saw so many different diseases, such as respiratory infections, hypertension, and Gastrointestinal problems, so that was a great learning experience.

When I got home on Tuesday evening, I got an email from mom telling me that they had taken my computer to our Global Studies Supervisor, who is coming early next week! I am really looking forward to not having to ask others to borrow their computer :)

Wednesday and Thursday consisted of a lot of class (I have to remind myself that I am STUDYING abroad...)

Today, Friday, we went to St. Malumbu School. This is a boarding school for the mentally handicapped, blind and deaf children. It was such a beautiful campus. The best part about the whole experience was the fact that I was able to use the sign language that I learned while in high school. (for those of you who don't know, I went to Carribean School for the Deaf in Jamaica three different times while in High School - and I learned a good amount of sign language) I was a little worried at first, because something I learned from Miss Snook was that Sign Language is NOT universal. Fortunately, the 'official' language of Zambia is English, therefore they use a mixture of American, British, and Zambian. I did not have much time to communicate with the kids, but for the few minutes I did, I was able to understand them and I think they understood me :) It sure is amazing how God has prepared me in so many ways for this trip, and I didn't even think about needing to know sign language for a trip to Zambia.
I believe I will have the opportunity to work at this school in the next five weeks of our trip. I am really looking forward to learning from the deaf culture of Zambia.

I will hopefully be able to post a few pictures starting next week.

I'm sorry that I have been unable to update my blog in a while. My computer was not fixed with the disks, so I am on a friends computer before she gets up :)

I am not really sure where to begin with what has been going on here.

We have been doing a lot of work in various towns/villages over the last few weeks.
I worked at Zimba mission Hospital for a few days, which was an eye opening experience. It was hard because I saw death all around me. From working in the ART clinic to watching a woman trying to give birth to a stillborn baby, it was extremely upsetting.

Thankfully, God has given me other experiences to outweigh the sadness.
The Thursday after Zimba, we worked at an antenatal clinic. We had the opportunity to do antenatal assessments. God knew that I needed this for one particular reason, I got to hear the fetal heart beat. Going from witnessing a stillbirth, to hearing a fetal heartbeat. Wow - God truly does provide.

Another example, last week we went to the Choma Hospital ART clinic. I met some amazing people who are HIV positive who have been treated/and are still being treated, but they are volunteers at the clinic. They want to help people receive the hope that they have received. What an encouraging site to see, they are in the eyes of a stranger, comletely healthy.

The last few days were spent at the Salvation Army in Chikankata. I was able to interact with some of the nursing students there and compare our programs. It is amazing how friendly the Zambians are. They are so welcoming and willing to share anything with us.

I know that this is very general, but I do not have a lot of time on this computer.
I will attempt to post a little more often, but that is only when I have access to a computer and the time to do it.

Please know that I am absolutely loving it here. I am learning so much and growing not only emotionally, but spiritually. God is so amazing and He ALWAYS provides. What an amazing God we serve!

Sorry about the lack of posting.

My computer died the evening of my last post, therefore I have been unable to post anything new. Right now, I have been using a friend's computer, so my blog won't be long.

My startup disks should be coming here next week sometime.
When my computer starts to work again (hopefully), I will post about what has been happening.

One update: we were able to get all the Mealie Meal delivered to the villages on Tuesday and Wednesday! It was really neat to be able to take food to the people of Zambia.

I will write later with more info!

Weeks 1 and 2

I am going to try this blogging thing…maybe once a week – it also depends on how the internet is working…

We left the states 2 weeks ago today. I can’t believe the time has gone so fast. The plane ride was long, but so far it is has been worth the 15 hour flight from Atlanta to Jo-burg. We finally arrived in Zambia on Saturday, September 12 around noon. We took a very long and bumpy 3-4 hour bus ride from Livingstone to Choma. I honestly thought, “Are we ever going to make it?”

When we arrived on the WHIZ (World Hope International Zambia) campus, I was amazed at how beautiful everything was/is. There are three main buildings on the compound, the office, a missionary house, and the guesthouse (where we are staying).

Our first meal was a traditional Zambian meal consisting of Nshima, chicken, green beans and carrots, salad, and soup (it is more like a tomato sauce) – It was good and an adventure. Why an adventure? Because we had to eat it Zambian Style, meaning, no utensils. It was a very entertaining experience.

Church was really neat the first Sunday. I went to Choma Central with 4 other IWU girls. It was “Thanksgiving Sunday.” I enjoyed it. The pastor preached for about an hour and a half. Then we had our Thanksgiving offering. This woman brought in a live goat for her offering. What an eye opening experience, truly her best that she could offer. The other neat thing is at the end of the service, everyone shakes each other’s hands. The pastor goes right outside the door, then people line up side by side and as they go to the end of the line, they shake hands with every one. It is a neat thing to take a part in. So, at the end, we had a very long line of people.

The first week consisted of a lot of sessions. We learned about all the different ministries that WHIZ has. We also had class. (I am on a study abroad adventure, so I guess I need to have class, right mom and dad?)

Something that I love about Zambians is how much they are concerned about greetings. They are all so welcoming to us. One time this week, when we were out in the town, we had people coming up to us and saying, “Welcome to Zambia, please enjoy your stay.” I honestly think that not many people would do this in the states. What an honoring experience.

Another thing are the Sunsets. If you have seen my facebook at all, I have taken a few pictures most of the nights with a beautiful sunset. Every night has been different, which is amazing, but the one thing is always consistent, it is ALWAYS beautiful. Just a good reminder of God’s faithfulness and His love for all of us.

Something you could pray for: We were supposed to be going out with some of the WHIZ staff to the villages to take food to them earlier this week. On Monday, we found out that the company that supplies the Mealy-Meal (sp?) is out of stock. This Mealy-Meal is the staple of the Zambian households. It is made of ground up corn, they make Nshima out of Mealy-Meal. Therefore, we cannot go out and give food to the villages. These people are waiting and expecting the food from my understanding. Which means they most likely are hungry. We, as Americans, just want to fix the problem, but it is not a money issue, it the fact that the actual Mealy-Meal is out of stock. Please pray that God would refill the stock and we will be able to take food out to the villages.

Overall, this experience has been great. I am learning about the Zambian culture and falling in love with the people here. It is so neat to see the passion of the workers here at WHIZ. They truly are showing God’s love to the people here in Zambia. I am looking forward to the different opportunities that God will place in front of me. My prayer is that I can show God’s love and power through my words and actions.