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!