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Dear Family and Friends who have been following our trip to Zambia, we are home safely!

I want to thank you for your prayers along the way.

It took four planes, 1 airstrip, 4 airports, and almost 2 days for the 3 Zambia travelers to return home.

Amsterdam Airport Museum!

I am planning on adding pictures to this blog to fill in the gaps, so please check back in the next week or so for updates and new photos.

Continue praying and supporting those who are serving on the mission fields around the world.  This has been an eye opening trip for me, and I think Maureen would say the same thing, even though she has been to Africa many time - each trip grows you more.

Thank you! and to God be the Glory!

Thursday at Mukinge

Wake up to the sounds of people walking along the road, talking, singing, laughing as the day begins. 

Join in for a short devotional time in the chapel. 

Maureen teaching week old RN nursing students

Maureen is a wonderful teacher who shares her faith with love and conviction!

Maureen will be teaching today.  She will be teaching at the Nursing School and also a devotional time for the working nurses and students at the hospital.  So Michael and I decide to explore Mukinge.   It feels a bit like stepping back in time as well as across the ocean.  The houses at Mukinge were built starting in the 1950’s and so have that nostalgic feel of an older subdivision from that time.  There are some beautiful trees and gardens even in the dry season.  We even found a basketball court and a swimming pool!  We walked up to the nursing school to see Maureen teaching – the students seemed very engaged and were even asking thoughtful questions.  Maureen is such a wonderful teacher – explaining that she is a Christian and sees nursing and medicine from that point of view.  She went on to explain using life stories why that is so important – I think the students really enjoyed having her.

Lynn's house

Michael and I returned to Lynn’s house, he decided to watch a movie and I went down to the children’s ward to see if I could cheer up anyone there..  I had made paper tissue flowers and I had a sackful of art supplies.  The flowers were a big hit, because many of the children were too little to do art – and not feeling up to it- so holding a flower was fun – when the child was asleep I would just pass a flower to the mother, who seemed to appreciate it as well.   A student named George helped me with names and some of the conditions of the children.  Pray for George to be a diligent nursing student, he has lots of potential.   I did color with a sweet little boy named Nelson, I think he was waiting with his brother.  He colored a butterfly.  Another little one who had a finger that had been bitten by a snake – didn’t want to color but liked picking the colors and I colored the butterfly -  Another child, Dias, with burns really enjoyed coloring the butterfly as well.

Michael and I met up with Lynn and Maureen for lunch at Lynn’s – left over pizza.  Maureen did another brief devotion time for the nurses.  Michael and I joined her and Lynn in Lynn’s office to help organize administrator’s papers – remind me to send so office supplies.

After that we returned home to a delicious dinner of beef tenderloin, scalloped potatoes, and cauliflower, with a peach turnover for dessert.  You have to understand what a miracle dinner can be because the power went out four times today (anywhere from twenty minutes to over an hour).  Lynn saw one of the workers in the OR theatre soon after the power went out this first time today.

We decided to watch My Fair Lady in honor of Chris McBride who kept singing lines from it at camp.  Michael fell asleep on the couch, Maureen looked like she was falling asleep on the couch, Lynn and I made it to the horse race scene and then called it a night!

Wednesday at Mukinge

We three jumped into Lynn’s life at Mukinge Missionary Hospital by attending devotions at 7:30 and hearing the staff sing beautiful acapela hymns in English and Kaokande.  We then followed administer Lynn to her office to catch up on some business that she needed to take care of – the hospital is in the process of purchasing some transport trucks and a tractor.  Then we took a full tour of the hospital, Lynn conducted business along the way.

Entrance to the hospital - once visited by lions in the 1960s

Mukinge was started in 1952 by a missionary named Bob Foster, Jr.  It is a regional hospital that serves a 90 + km surrounding area.  The patients are usually referred to the hospital by a local clinic.  A wide variety of medical issues are seen and treated here.  It is located at the base of a little mountain called Mukinge.  Lynn said that at night it is very pretty when they are burning the mountain (there is a constant burning of undergrowth during the dry season, even on the nature preserve).  

The hospital is a series of simple rectangular buildings connected by covered walkways (for the rainy season.)  There are many of these buildings – outpatient clinic, administration, pharmacy, male ward, female ward, two pediatric wards, theatre (operating), eye clinic, chapel, kitchen, . . . . I know I am forgetting some.  We visited some of the pre-mature babies (1.5 – 2 lbs)  so tiny.  We visited the children’s ward.  Some of the children had broken arms, some had burns, some malnutrition. 

Helping this little burn patient draw

 As hospital administrator, Lynn oversees construction projects, on-going maintenance issues, food supply, stocking various medical supplies, maintenance projects of property owned by the hospital including homes of the various doctors and missionaries who are serving at the hospital and the nursing school.  Lynn had been responsible for overseeing the construction of the new lab expansion that had only been in use for a couple of weeks.  The main food used here is again the ground corn called shima.  The hospital uses about a 50 lb bag a day.  Lynn is like Joseph, stocking up on supplies so that the hospital will have plenty to get through the year.

We returned to Lynn’s house – a 5 minute walk – for a spot of coffee, while we were there a plane was heard coming in – oh my, Lynn was suppose to meet it for they were bringing her new car battery – so we hopped in the car and drove the 3 minutes to the air strip.  This will be our plane on Saturday – so it was fun to see it.  An older couple from New Zealand were coming to Mukinge to help with building projects at the nursing school, and others from Mukinge were leaving to go to Lusaka.  We loaded the batteries and some of the couples supplies in our vehicle, dropped off the supplies at their short term home and returned to finish our coffee.  

Next we walked up the hill to the nursing school to see if they would be interested in Maureen talking to the students.  Since it was such short notice, the director said he would have to get back to us – as it turned out Maureen taught on Thursday to their first class of RN students – around 60 students.  

Lunch of soup and grilled cheese and then a visit out to the orphanage.  Lynn and her friend Pam started this orphanage about 7 years ago.  They acquired over 100 acres of land  for farming to support the orphanage.  Pam and Mendes (he works at the hospital) have four beautiful children of their own.  There are currently 8 children in the orphanage part.  Some of these children came when another orphanage in Mukinge closed, one little girl was just left at the hospital.  Pam and Mendes help these children to be a part of a family. 

 

Pam was a nurse (she has an interesting story to tell) and now she is an orphanage director and farmer.  They are still completing the buildings as support comes in – but the goal is to be self -sustaining for the day to day needs of the orphanage.  They currently raised much of their own food – chickens, vegetables, fruit, and recently goats and cows.  They also raise food to sell in town (the Boma).  They have chlorinated water for the house, and the property backs up to a creek so they can water the crops.

Michael and I made plans to come visit on Friday – I do not want to drive on these roads – so Pam will pick me up when she drops Mendes off for work.

We returned to Lynn’s place – remember it gets dark around 5:30 – to a delicious dinner of homemade pizza and salad and a fruit crisp with nurse Michelle for company.

We had a good day!

Lion Tuesday

If Monday was Hippo day, Tuesday was Lion Day. 

 

It started at the very early hours of Tuesday with roars in the distance, then closer then on the left of the camp, then louder, then on the right.  One of the stories told last night at dinner was about lions sitting on the porch of one of the chalets and the gentleman inside thinking the iron coat rack was the best weapon of defense.  I could tell that the lion or lions were not sitting on my porch, but I was hoping they were not sitting on Maureen and Lynn’s porch (they were hoping the same for us).   The other sounds of the  night and early morning were much quieter then they had been the previous morning, I suppose lions in the camp make every creature more quiet.   We heard engines in the distance, but didn’t know the meaning until 6:15, when Charlotte said come quickly, our plans had changed because a lion had been spotted and tracked.  So we quickly got into the vehicle and using radio controlled communication with Chris we found his vehicle – the big green safari truck.  He had rousted one of the other campers named Ted a little after 5 to help him follow the lions (still dark).   We carefully transferred over to the big green and with Chris driving continued to follow the lions.  Two large males, the pride leaders, affectionately named Aslan and Chesterton sauntered along like they were just taking a stroll, checking out their territory, leaving their marks as they went, letting other males know who is the king of this forest – yes forest, so Chris is driving over trees, rocks, dodging wart hog holes that might tip big green over and on occasion the lions would walk on the road, so we would follow there as well.  We followed until the lions stopped to dig, perhaps a wart hog hole, they didn’t dig very long until they decided to sit down and rest.

Who needs coffee when you wake up to lions?!!

Chesterton

This was an amazing morning and every one at McBrides was so excited, especially Chris and theCharlotte!  When we returned, breakfast was served, stories were told, it was an exciting and amazing day!

Aslan

We departed McBrides with a borrowed battery - a good excuse for Lynn to return for a short visit!  The most difficult part of the day was finding our way out (next time we are going to tie ribbons on the trees to mark our turns)  The rest of the day was a hard drive for Lynn, just because of the rough road - otherwise it was uneventful.  We crossed two rivers, the Kafue and the L_______ on pontoon ferries - yes I took pictures Dad! and made it to Mukiinge just at dusk!  The power had been out most of the day in Mukinge, but came on soon after we arrived.

Lynn's dear friend and collegue, Michelle blessed us with a  wonderful meal of chicken enchiladas.  We all slept welll this night!.

Hippo Monday

Our word for the day is Hippo, affectionately named after the critters lounging on the beach about 60 feet from McBrides patio.  It describes our day well.  We are on bush schedule “just like the animals” Charlotte said.

Michael's picture of hippos

Bush schedule:

5 – 6ish wake up, make a lot of noise, at least that is what the hippos were doing– I heard such a cacophony of sound like I don’t think I have ever heard before, couldn’t tell if it was mammal, bird or insect, although I could usually pick out the hippos laughing.

6:15 “knock, knock” our morning wake up call

6:45 driving safari in big green truck

We saw puku, impala, warthogs, sable, bushbuck, reedbuck,  Kudu, waterbuck, deicher, orbi (only 1) kingfisher, African Green Pigeons, sausage trees, white back vulture, franklin birds, elephant, and tsetse flies (tip of the day – Lysol keeps the tsetse flies away!)

Sable

Puku

 

monkeys

Impala

10 ish returned from safari ride

 Brunch of “grits” that Charlotte called porridge, fruit, poached eggs, bacon, sausage, rice and chili sauce

11 ish  shower and a nap – just like the hippos!

4:00 tea with scones, jam and cream

4:30 Pontoon ride on the Kafue going south slowly seeing crocodiles, birds and monkeys, hearing the hippos come up for air with a laugh

7-8ish returned to visit around the campfire with new guests to McBrides 

8-9ish An elegant dinner with lively conversation, stories, history, and good natured chatter.

10 ish off to sleep – just like the hippos