We had a great service at a Wesleyan Church on Sunday. Everything was in English (the official language of the country) so we were able to actually participate. The people are very warm and friendly. As the people leave the church after service, they shake the pastor’s hand and then start lining up and all the people shake hands with everyone as they’re coming out of the service. Quite interesting! The entire courtyard outside the church was in a huge circle when they finished. Then the pastor invited all of us into his office and served us soft drinks and just chatted with us. They are in the process of adding onto their church, so he took Bud all around the building site to show him their plans. He also showed him their blueprints.
We are in Chikinkata at the Salvation Army Hospital which is quite similar to Kamakwie except larger. The students are loving the experiences they are getting here…there is also a nursing school here so our students are working closely with them and both are learning together. As one might expect in Zambia, they have a large HIV/AIDS clinic which some of the students visited. Several have been able to watch surgeries….4 watched a C-Section yesterday. This AM, we went to a village for a Well-Baby Clinic. The babies and small children were weighed and updated on their immunizations after the students from the local Nursing School had a short class on how to prevent diarrhea. It was very well done.
We go to Choma on Saturday AM and hope to tour a local hospital and a hospice on Monday. We are all staying on the compound at least Tuesday and Wednesday as a precautionary measure due to the National Elections. There has been a lot of campaigning, but for the most part, it has remained peaceful. Apparently there was a little unrest in Lusaka this week, but they anticipate a peaceful election…we’re praying so.
Bud is caring for all the money so has spent many hours trying to make sure the money matches the receipts for the food purchased outside the places we are lodging. He also said to report that he is surviving with all the women. Actually, he is really enjoying talking to the students and “telling his stories” as well as sharing his jokes (he probably misses his former partner, Dennis, from Youth Group days!!).
We are drinking lots of water, but it’s not really hard to do so because it gets quite hot in the day. We are at about 5000 ft. elevation so definitely need to stay hydrated. It does get cool in the evening at this point in our journey so it’s easy to sleep!! We’re very happy about that.
Addition 9/16: Went out to a village today to look at their very complex but effective system of caring for all the HIV/AIDS patients. Very interesting…we could learn a lot from them in caring for people without access to health care.
Our team in Chikankata
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