My first 3 days have taken my breath away!

Good news! I have made it to my final destination! I am sorry I have not been keeping up with my blogging. I have been having way to many awesome experiences and no time for the Internet. We made it to our final destination via bus/van. At least that is what I called it because it was a mixture of the two. We stopped at this place called Tutors to eat for lunch. It is apparently a hotspot for Zambians to eat. It was the first place we also had to pay to use the bathroom. That reminded me of Mexico. I ate fried chicken and French fries; it was quite delicious. After we ate we all piled back up onto our bus/van to find out that it would not start! So we yet again had to get off of the bus and start pushing it to start the bus. It was crazy and the place was starting to become busy with Zambian buses. After we, and by we I mean the pharmacy students plus like 3 people that did not include me, pushed it a few times, it started. Thank goodness, I was so ready to stop traveling. After some more reading and such we finally made it!!! We ate dinner at the mission, which included a famous Leonard, our cooks, cake. It was an amazing chocolate cake. Some of us wandered around and found a soccer field! I informed everyone that I am a walking GPS so my new nickname is Tom-Tom. Goody. We watched some of the college kids play soccer. They were amazing!!! I want to play with them so much. I had my first fright of the trip. I was walking from one of the houses to the next with Ben and I looked down only to find a frog. I freaked out and ran the other direction, plus was laughed at. Then I was on edge whenever I walked to the house and while walking by a bush/leaf I heard it rustle and freaked out. This is when I actually screamed. Ridiculous. So yes there was my first scare of Zambia from a frog. That night we just all hung out and chilled. It was fun. I am sleeping on the top bunk of my room, which is a ton of fun. I also have a mosquito net that is around me whenever I am sleeping to try and protect me from creepy crawlies.

The second day outside of Kalomo began with a lovely breakfast and then a journey to the Havens. All of us piled into Khaki Jackie, and I had to sit around everyone’s laps. It was like I was crowd surfing. Check that one off the life list. The Havens are the orphanages where the babies, toddlers, and then children live. I could not wait until I could hold all of those precious little babies! Whenever we walked in we met all of the Aunties. The Aunties are all the ladies that take care of the babies in the Havens. Cari, Ben, and I walked into one of the rooms with the babies and there was one left in his bed in that room. I walked up to him and picked him up. He was a little chunk named Wesley who stole my heart the minute I looked into his huge brown eyes. I am already in love with him. I held him and stood him up and then sat with him. After all of this I tried to put him back into his bed to move over to the toddler house and share the love but he started crying and I could not let go yet. Bah. So I held him a little longer and then finally had to let go. Whenever I went to the toddler house they were all eating so I did not get to find Cassie’s baby Katy. I am so ready to see her though. I am pretty sure she is there because I saw her name on the wall. I went back to the Haven and held another baby named Wilma until she fell asleep. I then changed my first Zambian diaper/outfit because my next baby was soaking wet. I also was able to feed her the bottle. Sadly then it was time to leave the babies so a group of us walked back to our houses. I was able to use my TomTom skills. That afternoon we were able to go to a market in Kalomo. Ian was my market buddy. We walked around looking at all of the different things the people were selling. This was the first time I really felt like I was in a 3^rd world country. It was so disheartening to see how desperate the people were that they would sell virtually anything to make any money. It was so sad. Ian and I looked at the chitange’s, a fabric they sell there, and tried to find some we liked. It was interesting that everyone kept shouting Madame to me or asking if Ian was my son. I bought 3 different fabrics; Ian and I make a good bargaining team. That evening we all hung out again. We played card games and had our first blackout; so we got to use the headlamps. Score. Also in case you were wondering the stars are amazing.

Today was Sunday so we attended our first church service. It was so interesting to hear them sing. It was so interesting. We all piled in there and sang with them. They sang some songs in Tonga and some in English. After church we had to go back to cook lunch and clean up afterwards. After some organizing of stuff, I really wanted to go play soccer…so a bunch of us did. It started off just 8 of our group playing and as we kept playing Zambian students began to show up. It was so much fun to play with all of them! I must say though, it was very interesting playing soccer in a skirt. While we were playing, I definitely played around or took the ball from some of the Zambians a few times. Not gonna lie, it was awesome! I would love to play soccer every single day while I am here. Alas that cannot happen but I will be playing as often as possible. We went to a service tonight filled with singing and then a sermon. Afterwards 7 people were baptized!!!! Everyone came over to where we are living to baptize them in a tub in the backyard. It was so awesome whenever a group of guys started singing after they were all baptized. We went around and shook their hands. It was so different from how we do things but amazing. Afterwards we had our own communion because we had missed it in the morning. All in all, I would say it was a very amazing day. I have had such great experiences while I have been here for 3 days I cannot wait to see what is in store for me over the next few weeks!!! Oh mom, this is for you, I have not showered today. We can only get hot showers in the afternoon and I do not care enough to wake up and take an ice cold shower in the morning. Knew you could appreciate that.

Good news, as of right now, I am still regular :)