Funky Monkey

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At the end of out trip to Zambia we went to Livingstone to see Victoria Falls. While we were there we went to a pizza place about 2 minutes from the place we were staying at. It was good food and we had milk shakes that were ALMOST thick. It was awesome. I just couldn’t help myself I thought I would drink from all of them. =) They were actually all empty when I took a drink. And no I didn’t get bit by a baboon on my nose, just a sunburn gone bad, but all is good. And just in case you were wondering, my nose has fully recovered!

Home Sweet Home

This was my house for 4 days. It was really cute and cozy. We did have a few friends, but found it easiest to just name them and not think about them at night. One of the mice, maybe rats.. I don’t know the difference (it was pretty big) I met him face to face. He was named Charles. At night we had mosquito nets and they were called our happy place. And believe me, it was. With all that said… I did absolutely love my village stay and am so glad I had the opportunity and would jump on it again in a heartbeat. The extra critters just made it really fun for stories later. Try going to the bathroom and a cockroach fall down your shirt, which happened to one of the girls staying with us. Fun times!! The ones (cockroaches, not people) that were with me in the chimbudzi (bathroom) just fell on my head or ran across my foot, I was very thankful one didn’t land in my shirt!!

Agogo

I never did learn this lady's name because everyone called her agogo (grandma) or Amayi (mom). I love this pictures because you can see so much detail. To Agogo's right is where we washed the dishes and then placed them on top to dry. Next to the drying area is the bath house. Every day Agnus would heat water for us and put it in a bucket and put it in the bath house for you. If you look closely, this was made out of straw and there were many gaps. Talk about feeling a little bit vulerable!! And, you stepped up into the house, so it was just about as tall as me. Not that planes ever flew by, but if they had and they probably have in the past, they would of got a pretty nice show. Then to her left is a storage bin. It is full of maize. We picked the "corn" with her in the field, then they store it in these bins. Every morning Agogo came to visit us. It was such a blessing. We didn't share much because there was a huge language barrier, but just knowing she wanted to come and sit with us, brought a smile to my face!! Philipians 1:3 says "I thank my God upon every rememberance of you!" That is what I feel when I think of all my friends and family. And now.. that is what I think of when I see pictures of this village and my Zambian family.

Introducing..Angela Phiri

I bet many of you were wondering if you were ever going to get a new update from me. Well, here I am. Thanks for patience. After over a month in Zambia, we are home. While I was there I was given a new name. My new name is Angela Phiri because Kym is a boy name. I knew it was in China, didn't know it was in Zambia as well. So here I am with my family in Zambia. Agnus was our mom for the week. When she asked me to pray in church, she said she wanted her daughter to pray and asked "Angela" to stand. It was very sweet. She is in the back with the Tommy sweatshirt on. The sweet older ladies were like the grandmas of the village, they came to see us each morning. The babies name is Katy and they had me hold her many times just to see her cry because she never did get used to us. =) It was such an awesome visit and I know if we were able to go back to visit, they would be waiting with open arms.

Thako Village

Today we went to a village for church. When we arrived, there was a funeral in Thako village, which is the neighboring village, so everyone was gone. We decided to walk there to give our regards, which ended up being about 2 kilometers, maybe a little bit longer. After walking through 2 streams in flip-flops, up some shady rocks, (and no that does not me we went under a tree, these rocks were slippery and steep) and many maize fields, we arrived. The funeral is usually all day, so when we got there, the procession had already started. Everyone walks by and sings and then sits down and waits. Since we were not formally invited, we didn’t have to stay the whole day. We met many of the deacons, and the chief of the village. We sang a few songs, and then started walking back. It was really hot and with the altitude, we were all having a little bit of a hard time except for Chifundo. He thought it was quite entertaining that the white people were out of breath. This is the path that we took. If you look at the top of the hill that is the road we were heading for, when you reached the top of the hill, you were then about half way back to the village. It was a really neat experience because many women were carrying food or water on their heads and traveling on this path. I met some very sweet ladies.
Here is the entertainment, or what I thought was stinking hilarious. In Chichewa, would you like to know what Thako is?? Our supervisors shared with us that you don’t ever want to invite someone over for tacos because… taco or thako means your buttocks, or dairy ere, or you know whatever you want to call it. Also a volunteer team had done really well with not saying anything wrong in Chichewa, but at the very end of their week they were riding in the back of a truck and started saying taco bueno (which most of us would just be thinking you were talking about a restaurant), but that means nice butt in Chichewa. They got some really weird stares when they said it to other men in the streets. =) So when someone asked us where we had been yesterday, I was able to say we went to Buttville. I bet you can’t say that everyday. Hopefully none of you took offense to that…if you did, my apologies. I couldn’t resist, found it quite amusing.

Pens and Flat Stanley

So a very sweet girl by the name of Courtney

in Alabama sent me a letter. If you guys know about flat Stanley, then just ignore the next few sentences. Courtney’s class read about a boy who became so flat that he could go on vacation by traveling anywhere in a envelope. Well Courtney named hers’ flat Carly and Carly was sent to me here in Malawi.

When returning from South Africa I was blessed with some packages, one of them had pens in it from my church the others had m&ms. We handed out the pens to all of standard 7 & 8. The students were so excited. Then we gave all of the preschoolers and standard 1-6 a few m&ms each. It was there first time to ever have one. Try to remember when you had an m&m for the first time?? I bet you were a lot younger than any of these kids. If you look in the back there is a kid with his tongue sticking out, he has a blue m&m in his mouth. The other picture is with our standard 8 and flat Carly. I am pretty sure Carly had a very fun time. Courtney, if you read this, thanks for sending her our way!!

We love to see you smile...

So what is the saying?? “it’s a small world.” You bet it is. At our singles retreat in South Africa I walked into the home and looked a girl and she looked at me and we realized that we knew each other. Turns out that we were in a crazy beginning guitar class at OBU. So across the world I run into a fellow OBUer. SO cool!! and all of you who would appreciate this, yes we did go with KaRip. It was such a great time of reconnecting and …we got to have McDs. The French fries are still as good as I remember. And who leaves mcds without a picture with Ronald himself? We definetely had to.