Africa Images & Video

For those of you who have journeyed along with me on my African trip via my stories, thanks for reading! If you don't have Facebook, I will post the pictures that the FB world has been enjoying over the past couple of weeks. There are quite a few albums-- the early ones are "teasers" that I posted, and then the rest of them will refresh your minds from my blog posts.

At the very end, I am posting a video that summarizes my African experience. It's called "Africa 2011." Click on it to view.

Enjoy!

Taste of London

Taste of Zambia

African Journey: Traveling & Tour of London

Sports Day: Wednesday in Africa

Our VBS Day: Thursday in Africa

Friday in Africa

Last Days in Africa 1

Last Days in Africa 2

Africa 2011

Love you all!

T

Last Days in Africa

Last Days in Africa...

Saturday

Heather’s alarm went off at 5:20 a.m. I snoozed in bed until she told me that we had only 5 more minutes before we had to leave and then I reluctantly rolled out of bed.

It was early and cold, and my bed was warm, not to mention one of the most comfortable beds I have slept in for quite some time.

After getting dressed and finding out where the bus was, we boarded. The team slowly but surely trickled in, and we started off for the airport in Lusaka. The two teams with us all week were headed home, including several who had been there for 2 weeks, a group of 3 who had arrived a week before, and 2 who had spent the summer in Zambia.

About 15 minutes into the journey, our bus driver, Joseph, pulled to the side of the road. Bus trouble.

It didn’t take long for a few team members to fantasize about being left in Africa for a couple of more days until the next flight would be leaving. However, fortunately we were able to flag down a couple of other vans to load our luggage and our bodies into.

We were carrying another African in the front seat of our van, but he hopped out halfway through and since I was sitting backwards on the ground in the back, I took his seat in the front.

It was then that I fell in love with the front seat. For starters, I quite enjoy the unique situation of being seated on the left rather than the right as a passenger. Secondly, at this particular point in the day, it was early morning and the sun was rising in front of me. In a slightly drowsy mood, I dozed as the sunlight streamed in and warmed my face. Third, I really like being able to see right out the windshield in front of me, as it offers a great view of Zambia culture like an Imax show. Why did I not discover this sooner?

We were soon at the airport, so we hopped out of the vehicles and took any luggage in sight, quickly stepping into line and allowing the necessary team members to come claim their luggage. We said our good-byes to them, and when we were confident that they would, indeed, make their flight, we wondered outside and waited for Joseph to come pick us up. Unfortunately, he was 40 minutes away.

I worked on a Word Jumble in the pleasant morning air, and we chatted and made plans for the day. I was delighted when David suggested going out to breakfast and then shopping.

Joseph finally arrived, and he took us to Mint Café. It was a cute little café set in a shopping mall, with green chairs, tables, and menus and over-sized silverware decorating the walls. Their selection was awesome! I ordered a waffle with caramel sauce and cinnamon sugar… it was amazing… similar to eating an elephant ear for breakfast. I also added a mocha-nutella-hazelnut blended coffee drink. Dream come true! Up until this point, I wasn’t sure that Africa had very many sweets or desserts. It was cause for concern. Worries vanished!

David ordered a hearty breakfast, Heather a mushroom-egg omelet, Whitney had an avocado-egg omelet + a Twix crepe, and Kailey had mint tea and some delicious-looking toast with veggies and meat on top.

We then went in and out of a few other shops. Before doing so, we met up with a guy in the parking lot to buy some Zambian soccer jerseys. I broke down and bought one for myself and for my brother after seeing how cool they were. I wore mine for the rest of the day.

David took us to another mall that was better for shopping, and we all purchased some fun things at a craft store, and bought some soccer balls for the LS kids at a Walmart-type store.

Around noon, we grabbed lunch at another AMAZING café. In the words of Heather, “It smells like heaven in here.”

We all ordered a sandwich, and then once seated we had the opportunity to select from various delicious smoothies, coffees, teas, and shakes. Heather and David both ordered a white-chocolate freezola. Oh my word. It came as a frosty white concoction, and it tasted similar to drinking a frozen marshmallow. It was very good!

Luke met back up with us at this point, and we hopped in the van that Josep had been driving us around in. We traded it our for the huge bus we had originally started out in, and all 6 of us rode back in it to Kitwe!

The journey was long. I started out in the front again, my new favorite spot. I eventually made my way back… most of the others had stretched out across 3-4 seats to take a nap. I did the same, then headed up for some more front-seat action. We stopped a few different times for bathroom breaks, and bought a bunch of oranges. They tasted SO good and refreshing. I peeled and ate 2 oranges and shared some with Joseph. Cookies also helped sustain us all as we talked about many things on the way back.

We didn’t arrive back to Lifesong until around 7 pm. We were dropped off back to our little house to take showers. The water heater wasn’t turned on, so I experienced my first freezing cold shower. Doable, but not enjoyable.

The boys had planned on coming back in about 30 minutes so we could eat dinner and watch a movie. Heather was busy making eggs and potatoes. Whitney had just stepped out of her shower, and everything went black.

“This is not happening!” I heard her shout.

It was. Power outage. It was completely dark, but fortunately I had just opened up my laptop to download some pictures, so I used it as a light for Whitney. Kailey had a laptop, and Heather dug out her Farm ‘n Fleet flashlight. We set it up in the kitchen and sat on the couches for about an hour. Whitney went and got her pillow, and laid on the kitchen table for awhile!

We had a little pow-wow there. Almost an hour and a half went by before the boys finally showed up. The first thing David did was give us a cell phone. Thank goodness! We were wondering how to communicate with them.

David and I broke down and ate some cereal. It was 9pm and with no dinner or electricity, dinner had been put on hold.

Right after my 2^nd bowl of cereal, we decided to put the movie Tangled on. Luke had just gone on a hunt for some matches and had no luck, but brought in a little brown puppy from outside. I was mildly disgusted until I sat down on the couch and it fell asleep in my lap… and then it was so cute, I couldn’t not like it. It kept stretching on me and growling in its sleep. Aw.

Suddenly, the room lit up. It had been about an hour and a half without lights, so we were thankful for electricity! Heather hopped up and finished making dinner as we enjoyed our movie.

It was a long day, but a fun one… we finished it off relaxing and everyone crashed afterwards.

Sunday

We were up and ready for church by 8am, when David picked us up. We attended United Church of Zambia, the same place we went last year.

As always, I love the African singing and praise. They move and dance with such joy. The lesson was weaved with the phrase, “Your days are numbered, so live them wisely.” The pastor read from Ecclesiastes 3 (one of my favorites!), Daniel, and Ephesians (about walking carefully). It was a good reminder to live responsibly and live intentionally… I sometimes forget that my days are numbered, and it is only God who knows how much time I have. I must make every day count and not waste a minute or this precious time—it’s truly a gift.

The service was only about 2 hours long, and we left a little early since they were going right into communion.

After church, Heather, Kailey, Whit, David, Luke, and Shane (he is going to be moving down here in September with his wife and kids to help run the school) all drove to Nsobe Game Park, which is about an hour away. Upon arrival, we sat outside in the BEAUTIFUL weather and ate lunch.

It is situated on a grass knoll by a huge lake. The trees shaded us, the sky was blue, and the weather was perfect. It was so relaxing and enjoyable. Most of us ordered chicken burgers. After lunch, we walked over to the snakes and were even able to check out the deadliest snake in Africa. Yikes! We also held a baby crocodile and saw some birds, bunnies, and owls.

At 3pm, we left for our game drive. It was so relaxing and pleasant. I was reminded again and again by the sights and smells of Fall. I know this is their winter, but it’s crazy to me that I will be returning home to a humid summer in Central IL!

We saw deer-like animals everywhere, monkeys, and zebra… no giraffes. L We did get to revisit the wonderful huts tucked away in the woods… we all agreed that it would be absolutely amazing to stay in one of them. They are open to the beautiful African air, all of them have beds and a bathroom and seating with beautiful furniture and the option of massages, spa services, etc.

After our game drive, it was almost 4pm so we headed back to Kitwe. It was almost 6pm by the time we arrived back and traded out a vehicle, so we decided to eat at Mona Lisa’s for dinner. It was amazing!

We ran into Bob Walker and his family of TEN kids, as well as Rachel, their tutor. They had decided to go out to eat on this very night, too, to celebrate all the kids passing their grades and moving onto the next. It was fun seeing their adorable kids again. They are all so friendly and cute.

We ordered pizza and cokes, and enjoyed a relaxing evening eating dinner. The pizza was amazing!

After dinner, David drove us girls back to Plot 1 for a relaxing rest of the evening.

Monday

Monday was our last full day in Zambia. We got ready in the morning and walked to the school. Upon arrival, I helped David with a video project while the other girls finished up a work project.

We video-interviewed Lucy (the principal), several teachers, and older kids. The goal is to put this footage on the Lifesong website. It was so neat being able to hear everyone talk and give their perspective on LS School and all the work God has done and continues to do in Zambia.

After this, we grabbed a light lunch and everyone walked to the compound. Lucy and Albertina came with us. We took a couple of the kids with us so they could show us their homes. The compound is about a 10-15 minute walk from the school.

We stopped by Veronica’s home but no one was home, so we moved onto Alan’s home. In seeing the compound for the second time, it was a little less daunting and a little more eye-opening. We saw tons of children (who don’t attend school) running around, toddlers without clothes or unattended walking by, ladies carrying food and very few men.

We were invited into Alan’s home and sat down on the floor and talked with him awhile. We found out he doesn’t have a blanket to sleep with at night, so we gave him one. On the way home, David talked to him and found out that his uncle (as a double orphan, he has no parents) comes home drunk frequently. He may have the opportunity to live on the LS grounds with an African couple there, which would be awesome.

When we returned to LS, we ate a snack of crackers & cheese and yogurt, then went outside and read books to the girls. They absolutely loved it! We started on dinner.

After this, Luke and David took us to the strawberry farm which is about a mile away from the school. There are other vegetables grown there but mostly it is rows and rows of strawberries.

We had the chance to walk up and down the rows, pick strawberries for dinner, and pop a few in our mouths. They were delicious! Some of the boys from the school were there and had fun helping us. It was about 4pm in the afternoon. The sun was getting low in the sky and warmed us all as we enjoyed this beautiful place! We were also able to tour Shane’s home, which is situated on that land. He was there working on it and getting it ready for his family to move in sometime in September.

When we returned to David & Luke’s, we finished up dinner, which was an inventive concoction of chicken, tomato sauce, potatoes, carrots and onions over rice. And, of course, fresh strawberries. It was really good!

After dinner, we made popcorn over the stove, then decided to have a late-night snack of crepes with strawberries, honey, and Nutella. They were delicious. Heather gave Luke a haircut, and we all sat around and relaxed, discussing what we would take home from this trip.

It was a special last day. Tuesday was our very last day in Zambia, and David took us by the Curio Market on the way to Ndola. We bought some fun things and headed to the airport. David ate lunch with us there, then we said our good-byes.

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This Africa trip was such a breath of fresh air in my life. I enjoyed renewing friendships I created on my first trip, and was encouraged by how God is working at Lifesong School in Zambia. Satan is still alive and well in some situations, but God overcomes! Furthermore, it instilled in my heart a desire to continue to travel to other countries and cultures and capture their stories.

Love you all!

T

Friday in Africa

We sang with the kids at the school—for the last time for most of the team. Most of the kids showed up in their bright yellow hoodies. The LS kids presented a program to us as a thank-you and good-bye.

All the kids did a great job singing and dancing, but my favorite was an older girl who recited the 23^rd Psalm. Her voice was strong and powerful, and very moving.

It was then time to say good-bye to the kids. It was a pretty emotional farewell. A lot of the Americans were either misty-eyed or crying, and some of the LS kids even broke down.

After piling in a big bus for our 5-6 hours journey to Lusaka, we waved good-bye one last time to the kids lining the rock pathway.

The rest of the day was spent sitting very closely to one another in the bus. Halfway through our journey, we stopped at a grocery store and bought groceries for lunch, since the restaurant we were going to eat at was too busy.

We picked out lunch meat, bread, chips, cookies, fruit, and yogurt. I am sure that our mob of white American was quite the spectacle in this busy grocery store, but it was an interesting experience.

Especially when a group of us had to go to the bathroom.

“Expect a very thorough pat-down,” David warned us.

He was right! Before using the bathrooms, we had to stand with our arms held out while a lady literally patted every facet of our body to make sure we didn’t have a gun or stolen item hiding in a crevice. I must say it’s the first time I’ve been through something like that!

However, while slightly uncomfortable, it is these experiences that are memorable and eye-opening to their culture.

After buying the groceries, we loaded back up onto the bus and created a lot of crumbs from the sandwiches and chips… enjoyed the sweet-tasting fruit and yogurt, and devoured the cookies. A lot of us talked, played Euchre, read books, or napped for the remainder of the trip. At one point, I was given the floor to administer a verbal Myers-Briggs personality assessment. I was so excited to talk about this with a bunch of willing listeners—it was like a dream come true! Personality types never grow old for me…

By the time we arrived at Eureka Game Park in Lusaka, it was around 5pm and getting dark outside. We wouldn’t have time for a game ride L but we did entertain ourselves for a few minutes with a giant pile of corn cobs.

We climbed to the very top and did some group jumping. Then, after one of the boys did a back flip, Luke decided to take a whack at it and literally almost whacked his head off. The top of his forehead hit a piece of wood while he flipped, and the read of his forehead was scraped and bleeding. After nursing his wounds, we ordered dinner and settled into our chalets.

The chalets were nice—some had several beds and others just 2 or 3 depending on who was staying together. We met up as a team and ate dinner, and then grouped up in one of the bigger chalets for devotions and share time. David Z. talked about evangelism during his devotions, and then we all had the opportunity to go around and share what we felt God was teaching us on this trip to Africa.

It was very encouraging to see how each and every person had something different they were experiencing. God is so big and works in each individual’s heart in unique ways, and it is always exciting to me to see how He speaks to us all personally.

For me, this trip had been interesting thus far. I wrote in a previous blog entry that while I was excited for my 2^nd trip for Africa, I was hoping that my expectations from my previous trip wouldn’t be shattered when this trip was completely different.

I will say that this trip was definitely different from my first in a lot of ways. The first and most obvious was the fact that since I had been here before, nothing was new to me. The unique culture differences, the places, the faces, the kids… even the travel. I had done all of it before. And while it had been done before, you can’t recreate something that has already happened. This is neither good nor bad, but as a lover of new things, new places, and new experiences, this “newness factor” of shock and awe did not exist for me on this trip.

Furthermore, I remember from last time that I had to do a lot of processing. Seeing the church, the kids, the school, the compound, the living conditions, and hearing the stories of a lot of the African people had my heart in knots. I had to think through all of that and come to terms with the fact that different cultures operate in different ways. I had to examine my own life and consider that just because God had blessed me with food, clothes, and “wealth,” this was not cause to feel guilty but a call to responsibility. I had to look into the eyes of orphan children and instead of wanting to cry or shout that it is not fair, I had to hug them and love them and pray for their hearts as they grow in this country.

So without the newness of the culture or a lot of heavy processing, I felt a little more prepared this time for what was in store. In light of this, when David asked us to pray about what it was God was trying to show us on this trip, I felt a little bit at a loss until I realized all that God had done for me on this journey and what He was saying to me.

In the first place, when I told Sheila I wanted to make it work to come back to Africa on this particular trip, I was a bit hesitant because I knew I had to come out a few days later than the team and I was hoping for a travel buddy or two. She had just been to Arizona visiting, and had been hiking with my cousin, Stefanie, who mentioned her daughter might be interested in going.

Sheila passed this along to me. However, she said, “Your cousin is interested in going,” so I automatically assumed she meant my older cousin. I said something to her (Whitney), and then realized she meant her own daughter (Kailey) who is so interested in missions and travel. As it turned out, both of them were elated and excited for the chance to visit Africa! And they would be my travel companions.

I mentioned the trip to Heather, who was on my team last year, and she was excited to be able to work out coming along with us. She has been an awesome addition to our trip and really clicked and connected with my cousins.

I knew that this was such an amazing opportunity for my cousins, and I was so excited to share this experience with them. It’s awesome to see how God works it all out.

The other insight God laid on my heart was what I shared with the team—the fact that our VBS topic—being a TRUTH seeker—is rock solid, and as believers who BELIEVE it, why are we not more adamant in sharing it? A convicting truth to me lately is that if I believe everything I say I do, why am I not more concerned about all of the souls I know who aren’t going to Heaven?

We do not save; we do not having saving powers. Jesus saves, but we can be instruments. We can be lights. We can shine Jesus. And in a dark world, a little light makes a big difference.

Another area is trust and faith. In America, it’s easy to become self-sufficient to the point where we don’t “need” God. I have breakfast every morning, a car to drive to work, a job, and a life of security. Where does God fit into that? At what point do I rely fully on Him to meet my basic needs? Most days, I don’t… to my shame. I envy those in the far corners of the Earth who do not have food or water every day, because their Faith must always be strong.

Yet, that is no excuse. We are called to decrease so God can increase. I am called to diminish my SELF so God can be exalted and His glory may be revealed.

After share-time, we all walked back to our chalets for bed. Upon entrance, Heather just about had a heart attack when she spotted a huge spider on our wall. She promptly ran away to recruit some boys to help her take care of it. A team of 4 came to our rescue and exterminated the creature.

A few minutes later when I came back into the bedroom ready for bed, Heather had pushed our beds together.

“We’re sleeping close tonight,” she told me.

And we did.

Thursday in Africa

This is the day we overslept. Heather had tried to set an alarm on her ipod, but it died in the middle of the night so we woke up when the other girls were banging on our door to leave.

We quickly got ready and walked to school. I was actually thankful for the opportunity to walk. It was one of my favorite parts of last year’s trip. It’s such an amazing chance to experience African culture in its reality… you see women walking down the dirt road balancing baskets on their head… children in uniform marching off to school… men riding bikes or wheeling the crippled.

The boys did an amazing job finishing up the pillars in the morning, and the other guys and girls finished up other small work projects in the morning.

Once we got to the school, Heather and I organized the sweatshirts we brought to hand out to the kids. Last year, we handed out t-shirts on the last day and all the kids loved them. This year, we went with bright yellow hoodies since it is cooler weather this time of year.

When this was done, I ended up wandering over to the playground and sat down on a swing with a little boy. We swung awhile together, and I found out his name was Lysart. At this point, 10 kids were pointing at my camera asking to “copy” me, so I let them have it. They had demonstrated to me by now that they could successfully use it, so I wasn’t too worried.

Lysart and I swung for a long time and sang songs. We spelled his name and mine, and we talked. I loved it. One of the more bossy girls there stood in front of me and kept drawing me pictures on this board with a rock—it was so funny. She drew a picture of me, and would erase it and then draw another picture and everyone would laugh. I recited a poem to them about snow, but I don’t think they understood since they’ve never seen snow in their life.

About this time, Heather came to find me and her and I, along with Whitney and Kailey, went inside to make tuna melts for lunch. After lunch, it was our day to do the VBS lesson. Our topic was “How to be a Jesus Truth Seeker” and so Whitney read our lesson, and then narrated our skit. We recruited a few others to help us with our “Good Samaritan” story. Our craft was to decorate some colorful foam visors with paint and markers and stickers that said “Jesus Truth Seeker” on them. The kids loved them!

After the craft, I went around and took group pictures, then the kids played a game on the field. Also on this day, we saw William, which was really exciting because after learning about his crippled feet on last year’s trip, we were anxious to see his feet now whole! He walks and runs, smiles and laughs, plays with other kids and chases girls. It is so exciting to see him have a love of life now, whereas before he would sit in a corner by himself and not smile. God is so good, and it was so neat to see how He helped us help him.

When I was out on the playground, a girl came up to me and said, “Hi, do you remember me?”

I asked her what her name was, and she said, “Karen.”

“Karen!” I shouted, and hugged her immediately. I didn’t even recognize her! I love Karen, and bonded with her last year. This year she has grown about a foot, and her hair was froed, which made her look even taller. But it was definitely Karen! I had sent her some pictures, so she was excited about those, and we talked and hung out for awhile.

We handed out the hoodies to the kids and they LOVED them! It is so exciting to see how their faces light up. They immediately put them on, and just as I hoped, the bright yellow looked AWESOME on them!

After the kids left, Andrew (the art teacher) showed Heather and I his paintings and drawings. I purchased a fabric with an African woman and her baby painted on it, and he used actual fabric to sew on her clothes. It is so neat and I can’t wait to frame it as a piece of art. Heather chose some of his cards, which she loves, and a painting with a beautiful African tree.

It was good to see Andrew again. I had taken one of his art classes last year when I was here and talked to him quite a bit, and I must have mailed him pictures after last year’s trip because he couldn’t stop talking about it! He wanted to take a lot of pictures with Heather and I, using his film camera. It was so great!

That evening, the staff and cooks at Lifesong prepared us a traditional Zambian meal. I knew what I was in for based off of last year. Fortunately, fried chicken and potatoes are on the menu, but aside from that, you have your selection of nshima (their staple food), soup, termites, caterpillars, and many other unfamiliar foods! However, most were brave and tried a little of everything.

I sat at a table with most of the staff and the cook, Elijah. Every time I would stop eating for just a second, they would look at me and say, “Eat!” In their culture, it is considered rude not to try everything and not to finish. Unfortunately, my eyes are always bigger than my stomach, and they gave us a LOT of food to choose from!

I talked to Elijah for awhile, and he asked me why I came back to Africa. I’m actually really glad he did. It made me think what it is that drew me back. Afterwards, we all had a chance to get up and share something. The staff, the teachers, and the Americans.

There were quite a few of the older boys with us from the school, so it was neat to hear what they had to say, too. It was the most touching to me to hear them speak. One of them actually brought tears to my eyes. He thanked us for coming and told us we would never know how big of a difference we made. It seems so small to me, but it is so big to them. I can’t shake the feeling that every time I think I am going to come “help them,” they end up showing me more than I could ever show them.

After share time, everyone went inside LS School for singing & devotions. Caleb had an excellent talk on worship, and how true worship is when we seek to image God. I loved this thought, because worship is something that can tend to be put into a box. It has to look a certain way, feel a certain way, or be a certain way. However, worship is such a personal thing to each individual, but in and through that, it can only truly take place when we seek to imitate Christ and who we are in Him.

Wednesday in Africa

The first morning in Africa, we were up and ready early to leave for school. About 10-12 of us packed into the little Noah to head to Lifesong. It was always a tight ride, but very cozy. :)

The kids at Lifesong start out every morning in rows of their grades and sing. This is one of my favorite parts. Lucy, the principal of the school, dances around and sings with all of her heart. It is very refreshing to watch—there is no holding back. All of the kids sing and clap and dance… the sound is amazing, and I can’t help but think that someday, that is what Heaven will be like.

On this particular day, the Lifesong kids were going next door to the neighboring school to compete in a sports day. We were there all morning with them, cheering them all as they ran races, played football (soccer), and netball (similar to basketball).

A lot of the American team members had bought soccer jerseys so they wore them on this day. It was fun to be a part of this special event. Whenever the LS kids would score a goal in soccer, all the kids would cheer and literally flood the field in celebration.

We ate lunch, and then it was time for VBS. Joe, Justin, and Sheila were in charge and did a great job with their skit and lesson. The craft was a Jesus bracelet with beads that tells the story of salvation.

This year, we worked on a work project in the afternoons or during free time. David had us do some painting on the new building, which houses an awesome computer lab and some other classrooms. He also had the boys construct some pillars for the new building to make it aesthetically pleasing to the eye. His goal is to present nice structure and aesthetics as much as possible to the kids. Since they are so used to seeing poor constructions and “good building” is not something they see as much as we do in America, he thought it would be a nice touch.

To complete the project, the boys measured and cut the wood, and some of us girls sanded it down and painted a special paint on it. Other girls worked on chiseling out concrete blocks for the base. It was quite the job! Right at first, all of us were working on it and tools were limited, so we used anything from axes to hammers.

Some of us girls worked on dinner that night—it was a bean-vegetable-hamburger concoction with noodles and garlic bread. We enjoyed that and then Justin had the devotions on the Fruits of the Spirit. He started out by praying the Lord’s prayer; it was neat to hear it prayed out in a serious fashion rather than just skimmed over or read.

We hung out for awhile, and then most of the team traveled back to Plot 1 for the evening. This was the night that my Whitney, Kailey, Heather and I would move over to the bigger guest house to make more room for everyone. As we did, some of the girls came over to help us with our luggage. They were looking around the house and checking it out since it is so nice, and suddenly we hear a scream from one of the bedrooms. We rushed in and saw Kaylin pointing at the wall. There was a lizard and she was completely terrified.

KaraLea, ever the brave soul, waltzed over and grabbed it, sticking it in Kaylin’s face. Kaylin was not a fan and grabbed Heather and started to run out of the bedroom, and as she did so KaraLea came in for another tease… Kaylin freaked out, tripped, and took Heather down onto the floor. It was very amusing. Let’s just say there was a lot of screaming and laughing, so much so that the couple that lives on the property came over to check on us.

The boys ended up coming over to hang out for awhile, and we watched some of the first team’s bungee jumping videos. They were pretty entertaining!

Africa Journey: Background & Traveling

As I did last year, I will ty to post my story of Africa into sections. This first one is quite large because it includes a little bit of background, plus all our travel days and time in London.

Enjoy!

Background

This is the story of my second journey to Africa.

The first one took place in January 2010. I was absolutely elated to have the opportunity to visit this continent and particularly the country of Zambia. In revisiting some of my older blog posts about that trip, it is interesting to read about my first-time impressions of Africa.

During that trip, our team of 12 was led by a missionary lady named Dru as well as the principal of the school at that time, John Mumba.

We had the experience of attending church, going to the market, putting on a VBS program for the kids at Lifesong School during the mornings of that week, helping them in the classroom, visiting the compound, and seeing animals at a game camp.

It was amazing, and I knew in my heart that one day, I would like to return.

That became a reality when I heard about another team that was traveling to Africa this year. There was a team of 8 who came down for a total of 2 weeks, and did some exciting things the first week (like bungee jumping!) A second team of 3 arrived that next weekend, so there were about a dozen team members to help start that next week of VBS off well at Lifesong School.

My team of 4 arrived on Tuesday, so we were there to help with VBS for the rest of the week. Traveling with me included my friend, Heather, and my 2 cousins from Arizona, Whitney & Kailey. The other two teams would be leaving on Saturday, but our stay was a bit extended (thankfully!) so we were able to experience a quieter life in Africa during the last few days.

My good friend, David, and another friend from Indiana, Luke, live together on the school grounds and help to run Lifesong School Zambia. David helps run the school and aids with the business and the accounting end. Luke runs a strawberry farm and handles the business end of it.

The VBS topic this time was “How to be a Truth Seeker.” After having spent a year down here, David has found that telling the truth and not stealing is a huge deal for the kids, so this was the perfect topic to discuss.

The climate was so different this time. The last time I was here, it was rainy season, so everything was lush and green. In fact, I remember thinking that right at first, it didn’t seem too much different than Illinois. It was a bit humid, and rain would roll in and downpour, and then clear off and be sunny in the afternoon. There were a lot of trees, grass, and greenery all around.

This time, it was more of an “African” feel. Since it was dry season, the fields matched the color of the dirt road with more of an Autumn-time look. Leaves were falling off trees, bushes were dead, and the weather was 70s and sunny during the day (beautiful!) but cooler in the mornings and evenings. The air smelled like Fall.

Sunday-Tuesday: Traveling & London / First Day in Zambia

Our journey begins on Sunday afternoon. My dad was kind enough to drive Heather and I to O’Hare Airport in Chicago. We all 3 crammed in the front of his truck cab, since the Tahoe was unavailable.

We made good time and made it to the airport without a problem. Checking in went smoothly until one of my bags was 4.5 lbs. overweight. We opened it up and checked the weight of my Bible—it was 4.5 lbs.! After doing some rearranging to make it work, we passed through security and headed to our gate.

We grabbed Starbucks and some snacks and waited for my two cousins flying in from AZ to meet us there. We boarded our 8-hour flight to London.

The flight was pretty uneventful. We all tried to sleep, but it was hard since it was technically still pretty early for us. I don’t think any of us got too much sleep.

We arrived in London early Monday morning at 8am. It was 2am our time, so we were pretty tired! However, we had a fun day planned for our 12-hour layover, so we carried on.

Our first order of business was to find the underground train system and purchase one-day tickets for Piccadilly Line.

After doing so, we took the bus into London and our first stop was Buckingham Palace. On our walk to get there, there was a park nearby with all kinds of unique park deck chairs sitting around the grassy area. I loved it!

As we neared Buckingham Palace, there were swarms of people. Come to find out, they were having a Change Guard Parade on this very day at the very time we arrived! It was exciting to be in the heat of one of the downtown London events, but we had to keep moving so we could see everything on our list.

Next, we walked some more and stopped at a pub for lunch. It was a real cute little place and our waitress was so sweet. I loved her British accent and unassuming manner.

We continued on to Westminster Abbey—it was absolutely beautiful! There was a gate surrounding it, and you could walk right up to it. It was probably my favorite place of the day… it was just so cool to see in person.

At this point, we were running out of time so we made an executive decision to run by Harrod’s on our way back to the airport. There was a Starbucks across the street, so we grabbed drinks, only to find out we couldn’t bring drinks OR luggage into this huge department store. I had to check my luggage piece in next door, and we quickly drank our Starbucks drinks and headed inside. Whitney could bring in her backpack as long as she wore it on the front instead of her back. It was a funny sight!

We whizzed through the women’s shoe department for fun ☺ and checked out the food court. It had all kinds of delicious cupcakes, baked good, pastries, rolls, and desserts. They all looked amazing and I would have purchased one, but we needed to keep moving so we could get back to the airport.

Riding on the train was fun. We spent most of our day on Piccadilly Line, which took us where we needed to go. There were always multiple stops where people got on and off. The automated voice would always come over the intercom in a British accent and say, “Mind the gap between the train and the platform,” whenever people would enter or exit.

The day was mid-70s and sunny, and kind of hot as we were rushing from place to place through lots of crowds. Since none of us had much sleep in us and had to stay fairly alert and energetic, it was an exhausting day, but fun nonetheless, and I’m so glad we were able to experience London during our layover!

We made it back to Heathrow Airport in London and had to check in Kailey and Whitney and then continue on through security. We had a slight headache with our tickets, which would not go through at security, so we kept getting them “confirmed” at the ticket counter and finally they worked. After going through the whole security process, we
found each other and sat in the seating area by all the shops and restaurants. At Heathrow, they don’t give you a gate number until 1 hour before your flight. You sit and wait in the main area. However, once you do know, it behooves you to get moving because in our case, it took us a very long time to actually get to our gate! Up several escalators, through long hallways, around corners… we finally ended up in a big area on a top floor surrounded by glass windows that stretched from floor to ceiling.

We were among the last to board the plane, and ran into a slight difficulty with Whitney & Kailey’s luggage. After clearing it up and finding out we would need to check on it in Johannesburg, we boarded our next huge plane for a 10-hour flight.

The goal was to sleep on this plane. As I have tried in the past on international flights, if at all possible, I like to sleep on the floor. I did it again this time, and I think I may have grabbed a couple hours of sleep. Otherwise, it’s more of a blurry drifting in and out of consciousness.

As it was nearing time to land the plane, I started to feel sick to my stomach. I was going on night 2 of very little sleep, and we had just eaten breakfast but I still felt hungry afterwards. Now the nausea was kicking in, and I started to panic.

The plane started to descend and we were advised to take our seats and buckle up. Right before the plane landed, I panicked and ran into the bathroom. The flight attendant saw me and banged on the door, not too happy with me that I did that. She told me that I needed to return to my seat immediately. I obliged, but was feeling so sick at this point, I wasn’t sure if I was going to make it. My throat and heart were both burning. I just put my head down and endured the descent, making Heather switch me seats at the last minute so I could run back ASAP upon landing. I did so, and fortunately never got sick. However, I felt pretty nauseous for the next 45 minutes, even after deplaning, walking through Johannesburg Airport to figure out the luggage situation, through Passport Control, and security. I finally started to feel better after awhile and ate a granola bar before boarding our next fight.

That flight took place on a smaller plane that would take us from Johannesburg, South Africa to Ndola, Zambia. It was about a 2.5-hour flight, so not too bad. We were bused to the plane and upon arrival, to the airport.

Ndola’s airport is pretty primitive. However, I remember from last time that you have to fill out a form with information on how long you are staying and what you are doing. There is also a $50 entry fee for entering the country. We went through this slow process, claimed our luggage that was piled on the floor by the front entrance, and were on our way. The security at the door checks through your luggage upon leaving. As that was happening, an African man walked up with a sign that read, “Taryn & Heather.”

“That’s us!” we told him. He advised us that the person coming to “fetch” us was running late, so to follow him. As we did so, David pulled up in the little Noah vehicle and shouted to us. He might have been running late, but as usual we were the last ones to complete the process in the airport so it ended up being perfect timing!

He drove us back to Kitwe, which took about an hour. He dropped us off at the New Life Center where we were staying so we could shower and relax. We ended up taking a short nap until a few of the girls from the team arrived to shower and get cleaned up. We headed back with them and some of the guys for Lifesong School, which is where we ate dinner as a team.

The boys cooked us a wonderful dinner, and even had a candlelit setting inside the school. It was the perfect touch to a tiring 48 hours of traveling! After plane food, the stir fry, peaches, and cookies tasted delicious.

Every evening following dinner, we had a nice time of worship with guitar music played by Luke, and then one of the guys would prepare a devotion. I loved this part of the evening. The first night we were there, Drew talked, and he read from the New Testament and showed us how it connected back to the Old Testament. We read about the curse of man, and how we are born with sin and automatically under the curse of it by default, and only by Jesus’ blood and God’s good holiness can we escape it.

It made me think of Africa and how it seems to be under a curse of sin—there are always consequences of sin, whether they are seen right away or come to fruition later. Sin is pleasurable for a season, but wreaks havoc in the end. The good news is that regardless of the size of the problem, Jesus saves.

The other night, I read the parable of the men who were hired by a master to work in the field. One was hired at the beginning of the day, one during the middle and one at the end. They all worked in the field for different amounts of time, but the master still paid them the same. Jesus likened the Kingdom of Heaven to it. It seems unfair, really—why should the worker hired at the end be paid the same? It’s a legit question, but a very human one, nonetheless. It’s very self-focused. Jesus saves all—whether you have sinned a lot or a little… whether you come very early in life or not until the very end.

That’s the beauty of Jesus. My prayer is that this saving Light and Love from above can continue to glow at Lifesong School.

That evening, after devotions, David took us girls back to our little house. We were all very tired, and it felt wonderful to sleep horizontal!