Wabuta!

My life is crazy! It’s Sunday and I feel like I’ve been living here forever! It’s not that time is going slow…I just don’t feel like it’s only my third day here. And it’s crazy to me that I’m living here for 3 months. I don’t think it has really hit me yet. I feel like I’ll be home soon talking to my friends and family. But I’m so excited that I’ll be here for 3 more months! It has been a GREAT few days. It’s Sunday night and I’m sitting in my family room with my family! I love them more and more every day!

Yesterday, we woke up and had breakfast and then took a trip into Chomo, a town about an hour away. It was a great cultural experience! At a bathroom we stopped at, some boys came and talked to us…they asked if we were married and where we were staying and for our numbers. But our teachers have taught us very well to respond with “I have other plans” haha apparently the boys here love American girls. We went to a market in Chomo just to shop around. There was lots of smelly dead fish, shoes, jerseys, and chitangis. Some man tried to teach me a phrase in Tonga. He didn’t speak English so I don’t know what he was teaching me, but I have a feeling it was bad. He was very amused by what I was saying. Thank goodness we have Sterling with us most of the time to help us in situations like that! Sterling is the son of the directors here so he’s been raised with the Zambian culture and the English culture. He speaks both languages fluently and knows everything that we need help with! He’s 17 and about to move to America to go to Harding. I don’t know what we’d do without him! After Chomo we got to spend the day at the Havens! I want to talk all about the little kids that I got to play with but I’m trying to keep this shorter than my last post! It was a great day though! I got to play with Dillon and Matt again. And I made lots of new friends! It is so fun being in the havens and playing with the kids but it is heart breaking. At haven 2 I was sitting on the porch with 3 kids sitting on my legs. I couldn’t feel them by the end of the time but I just couldn’t make them get up. Leaving is the hardest part. The kids cry and cry when we put them down and start to walk away. It’s so sad that these kids need so much love and they don’t get it a lot. But we just have to remember that we get to come back every day for the next 3 months and love them as much as we want! Last night we had some really good family time and still got to bed pretty early!

Today has been full of so many blessings! We got to go to church this morning on the mission. I thought it was going to be more of the Zambian culture but it was very American. The whole service was in English and we only sang one Tonga song. Everyone there was very welcoming. We each had to stand up and introduce ourselves to the whole church. But the best part of the service was that the little kids were there with us! As soon as we got to the building I went and got a little 2 year old girl Rachel, one of the 3 little kids that I played with on Saturday. She sat on my lap during the whole service playing with my hair and my bracelets and Bible. Let me tell ya, “God is so good” gets a whole new meaning when you have a little Zambian orphan sitting on your lap smiling at you while you sing. Seeing her precious little face made me appreciate the words to that simple song so much more. After church we played with them outside for a while before going to eat lunch and take a little nap. Then Prince and Rajif came and taught us Tonga songs! We know some but we’re “Harding Chorus” while we’re here. Everyone asks us to sing so we have to prefect the Tonga songs. It was so great singing! This has probably been one of my favorite memories so far…this little lesson turned into 2 ½ hours of singing and praising God on the front porch. We learned songs, we taught Prince and Rajif some English songs that they didn’t know, and then they sang English songs for us. Those boys have the most beautiful voices I’ve ever heard and they sang with so much feeling. I was filled with so much joy listening to them sing and singing along with them. Whitney, Kelly and I just sat there together laughing and clapping and singing and just in awe. We didn’t know what to do. God was in that place. Everyone felt it. I really wish I could explain the feeling that we had…the best way I know how is by what Kelly said. “I just want to go to Heaven straight from here because that’s the only place where it can get better than this.” So true. Nothing can beat those few hours we had today. The only reason we stopped singing was because we had to eat dinner. Prince and Rajif ate with us and I learned the hard way that men don’t serve food in the Zambian culture. They stood there until I finally saw them and went over to give them food. I don’t think they had ever had spaghetti before! They were really surprised when we put the sauce on top of the noodles. And they put jello on top of their garlic bread. It was fun to switch places for a little bit! They’ve enjoyed laughing at us while we experience their culture. Tonight we got to do the same for them. Then we had evening church which was really good! We got to sing a few songs for the church. We sang “Wabuta” and a couple English songs. It was really cool to get to sing for them! Since church I’ve just spent time with my family and laughed a ton. We never stop laughing. I am so blessed to be here. I keep saying that, but I just don’t know what else to say. Nothing can beat this right here.