Touristy Travels

Since the last time I blogged so much has happened. I’ve done the “Cinnamon Challenge,” visited Macha Hospital, and even jumped off the side of a cliff!

Believe it or not, things can get a bit boring when there’s not classes to go to, children to be with, or patients to tend to. Some of our group had the great idea to make a “Hardcore Parkour” video. It started last weekend when we made our first walking trip to town. The road to town is 7 kilometers and there’s only so much one can talk about on an hour and a half walk. Anyway, someone had the bright idea to do the “Cinnamon Challenge.” If you don’t know what that is, it’s when you get a spoon, fill it with cinnamon and try to eat it without throwing up. It is a challenge indeed. I thought I could do it, but once it started coming out of my nose as I was breathing, I lost it. I’m proud to say I didn’t throw up, but I certainly didn’t complete the challenge! Oh well, better luck next time, right? Everything smelt like cinnamon for the next few hours and I thought I would never be able to eat anything with cinnamon on it again, but I ate cinnamon toast the next week. 

Thursday we had the awesome opportunity to visit Macha Hospital. It was so interesting to see. We were greeted by one of the founders. He gave us a tour of the different wards which consist of Men’s, Women’s, Children’s, Chronic Care, Prenatal, and Postnatal. He told us that there is no intensive care. He said, “If you’re not breathing, you don’t get care from Macha.” I thought this was pretty interesting, but you do what you can. He showed us the “waiting room” which was called the “Fires” because this is where the families would sleep and make their food while visiting their relative that’s in the hospital. He also took us to the lab where they do testing. The most interesting thing I about Macha was that they have a whole building dedicated to Malaria research. They even breed and grow mosquitos. That freaked me out just a little considering I’m always the first to get bit. My parents told me when I was little it’s because I was so sweet. Don’t really know how true that is today! Ha!! 

Friday we left at 5:30am for our weekend in Livingstone. This is where we became tourists for a weekend. I must admit, I didn’t like it too much. That morning I rode elephants. That certainly was an adventure. Our elephant freaked out a little bit and strayed from the rest when we were crossing the deep waters. No worries, though, our guide had everything under control and got us back on land safe and sound. The next thing we know, our “Protector Man” was running toward a wild elephant with his gun. Our guide simply told us to “hold on tight!” We really thought there was about to be and Elly Fight! The cutest things were the baby ellies that went on the walk with us. One of them tried stealing our elephant’s food and ended up sniffing our feet in the process. 

That afternoon a group of us headed to Victoria Falls to go on the Devil’s Pool walk. We walked on top of the falls to get to our destination. In our group we had a German, an Englander, a Canadian, a mother and son from Delaware, and a man from Nashville. Quite the variety, I’d say.  While crossing the Falls, we had to make a chain when wading through rapids so we wouldn’t have a straight shot to the Zambezi! We had to swim about 15 meters to climb on the rocks above the Devil’s Pool. We all jumped in and then we got to hang off the edge of the falls!!! I have to admit, I was a bit scared! Heights are not my thing. It was absolutely gorgeous, though! We got to watch the sunset on our walk back. When we got back to the entrance, we decided to visit that shops. Of course, we were bombarded by the shopkeepers. I have never felt more manipulated in my life. One man tried to offer me a bracelet that would normally cost $1 at the most in the States for 100,000 Kwacha which the equivalent of $20. You know my reply was “CHADULA!” (“too much” in Tonga).  Once I was finished shopping in with one guy, he hands my purchases to his friend. His friend takes my stuff, offers me a stool, and begins to wrap it up and while he’s doing that, he’s also showing me what he has to offer me. “Tandiyandi! Tandiyandi!” which means, “I don’t want! I don’t want!” came out of my mouth probably 100 times! They would just put stuff in your lap. Needless to say, I was annoyed. That night, we had a talent show with our group. It was great to see everyone’s hidden talents! I mean, who knew Phil could blow balloons up with his nose while Seth is reading haikus?

The next morning we woke up to head out to our Adventure Day! When we first got there, we were briefed about all the things we would be doing that day. There was repelling, zip lining, and the infamous gorge swing! I began my day with zip lining out over the gorge, Superman style! That was incredible! Such an adrenaline rush! Of course you have confidence in your harness and the cable holding you, but it just takes your breath away when your feet leave the ground and you’re flying 50 plus meters above the ground! Next, since I decided against the repelling, I headed to the gorge swing. I was pretty nervous about that. Again, I have complete confidence in the equipment, but there’s alway that slight doubt about “What if I’m the one person it breaks on?!” Well, I chose to ignore that and to get harnessed up with Kailey. Once we practiced how we would be falling, we headed to get all strapped in. We scooted to the edge with our heels hanging off and waited until our safety guy counted down to one. “Three, two, one, BINGO!” We raised our toes, and there we went. Free falling 53 meters, 3.5 seconds, praying to God our cord did snap when we caught. I was silent the whole way down, but once it caught, a scream of pure happiness and excitement came out of my mouth! There we were, swinging from a cord in this huge gorge! The worst part was when we stopped swinging and we had to be lowered to the ground. Those harnesses are NOT comfortable, at ALL! The next worse was having to hike back up to the top. Fifteen minutes of climbing steep rocks. Not my idea of fun. 

Sunday we went to church. They were a little upset that we didn’t tell them we were coming. They wanted our men to do the service. It’s tradition to let the visitors share their knowledge to the hosts. The service was wonderful, even though our group was trying not to pass out from the heat. At one point, I looked across the crowd and we were all fanning ourselves while that Zambians were just sitting there paying perfect attention to the speaker. We Mukuas (white people) just aren’t used to this Zambian heat yet. Once service let out, we all greeted one another and they continued to the baptism! We loded up our land cruiser and bus to get some lunch before it was time to head back to Namwianga. We obviously chose the wrong place to eat. It took us an hour and a half to get our food. Just a word of advice, when in Livingstone, Zamia, never eat at the Rite Bar and Pub. 

I was so happy to be back on the Mission. We were no longer tourists or strangers. This is our home now. People don’t seem too surprised when we greet them in Tonga as they did when we arrived a month ago. Things that we found odd are now just normal everyday things. 

We got some unexpected news when we got back. One of our team members would be returning to the U.S. She actually left Wednesday. I still can’t really believe she’s gone. We were just starting to get close and open up about our lives to one another. I guess it just goes to show that time here really is short. We must be intentional with all of our relationships. While returning home is, indeed, what she needed, it was still very hard to see her go. 

Lord, I pray that You watch over each and every one of us, whether we be in Zambia, the United States, South America, or wherever. I pray You give us healing where we are suffering. I pray You give us comfort where we are hurting. I pray that we are intentional, not only in relationships, but in everything we do. I pray we keep You first, that we give YOU the glory for everything that is good. We know You are good. We know You are faithful. Your Presence is incredible. Thank You so much for everything. Thank You for the suffering, for it’s through suffering that we draw closer to You. Thank You for weakness, for it’s in our weakness that You are strong. Thank You for Your love, for without it, we would be nothing. Thank You for Your Son! Thank You for Your Spirit that fills us. Thank YOU, LORD! Let it be so. Amen.