Culture Day

*warning, this is a long one… you might want to get a cup of coffee J*

You might be thinking, “What is a culture day?” I’m glad you asked!! J My definition might be different from some others but here goes: A culture day is a day in which a new culture is viewed up close and even entered into for a majority of the day, leaving a person quite tired. Last Monday was one such day J So before coming to Zambia I sent ahead all of the paperwork needed for my work visa, but processing takes awhile so Monday I had to go to the immigration office to get my temporary visa renewed, and you never know what awaits!

So we headed out around 9:00 Monday morning after I taught for the first hour or so after chapel. Getting into town around 30 minutes later, we went straight to the immigration office with a quick stop at a local printing shop next door to make copies of my passport and work visa receipt. When we went in to give the paperwork we were told that we also needed a copy of the page in my passport that the tourist visa was on as well as a letter from the orphanage saying that I had a purpose for staying longer and I wasn’t taking away any Zambian jobs, etc. Helen called up Rachel at CABC to see if they had the said letter we needed which they did. Before leaving that part of the city we set off to one of the pharmacies for Helen to pick up more malaria courses, cough medicine, and some eye drops. I’ve been in many African markets, but the smell of that street beat them all! The usual breathe through your mouth not your nose method wasn’t helping this time!! J Then off we went to CABC which is back towards the river (the river divides the villages from the city). When we got there Rachel had printed the letter and then copied my other page. We were all set except for a signature from Pastor Mukuka, the director of Faith Children’s Village. We What’sApped (it’s an app for calling and messaging used by many here in Zambia) him and he said he was heading to Kitwe around noon and would stop by CABC to sign the letter. Helen and I left the letter with Rachel and headed out to grab a bite to eat from a “fast food” restaurant called Nandos. It’s popular in South Africa and has been brought to Zambia. I say “fast food” because the fast food culture is different here… you probably guessed that lol. The food is still somewhat fast but most people don’t rush in and out, at least not at all like back home. I had a chicken and veggie filled pita with a Coke and Helen had a chicken sandwhich. We did some shopping in the mall (the mall here is mostly the two main grocery stores as well as phone companies, banks, and then some clothing stores) and then headed out to another pharmacy to purchase mosquito nets. We couldn’t rush back to immigration anyways because they closed at 1 for lunch and didn’t reopen until 2. At this point it was nearing 2 so we went back to CABC to pick up the letter. Pastor Mukuka had signed it and we were getting ready to leave when I realized that everything on the letter said FCV except for the first line of text which still said Central Africa Bible College and Seminary. I hopped out of the car and ran back in to ask Rachel if it needed to be changed. She groaned and said yes. Now our problem was the wrong document was signed… we tried a couple of quick things to transfer the signature to no avail when Ben (I think… still learning names at the college) another of the American teachers, came in to make copies. He asked what the problem was and then said… Oh just cut it out and then tape it on the new one. When we did and it came out with a distinct edge around the signature he quickly put it back on the copier, pushed down on the top of the copier, and hit print. Ta da!! Success. On our way back to immigration, we got pulled over because they claimed Helen didn’t come to a complete stop at an intersection. If any of  you have ever ridden/driven in a city in a third-world country you know that this is the least of your concerns… There’s no light at this intersection and when Helen went back later in the week she looked and there’s not even a stop sign. Welcome to traffic enforcement! So we picked up the police woman and headed for the police station to pay whatever fine they were going to give us. On our way Helen asked if she could drop me off at immigration before heading to the station to which the officer agreed. Thankfully. I was dropped off, given more paperwork to fill out, and then asked to wait, while the workers talked and played Solitaire on their phones J A little while later Helen pulled in and told me that they had dropped the fine after the first officer had tried to charge her 45 USD and then lowered it to 30 USD if Helen would just give it to her instead of going into the station. Thankfully the boss man at the station just gave her a warning instead. They finally got around to processing my paperwork (it’s kinda like the DMV here!!) and then proceeded to ask me all of the questions like: Where is this orphanage? How many kids are there? How many of them live with you? What do you do there? Are you married? What kids do you target? Only the vulnerable? Etc. Finally with extended visa in hand we left to go back to the mall and buy our groceries. We split up because I was on the hunt for some shampoo and conditioner that was a good price and then met back up at the little ice cream shop. This time they had pretty normal flavors. When Andrew and I were here in September some of the flavors included Olive Oil and Pistachio that looked really really green. But we got little cups and when we finished up finally hit the road. We picked up our pastor and his wife and baby who were just coming back from the hospital to give them a lift back to the village. That was Monday J By the time we got home we were ready for an early supper, bucket shower, and bed!

The Saturday before when we went into town we went to visit our Pastor’s wife and son in the hospital. Hessed had gotten malaria and hadn’t responded to the medication so he had been taken into the hospital (he’s about 1 or 2) and then while there with him Bana Jecholiah (Bana means mother of, so Bana Jecholiah is the mother of Jecholiah, it’s the typical way of referring to adults here; Ba means father of) had gotten malaria because they leave the windows open to let air flow which consequently lets mosquitoes in. We had also given Pastor Royce (grade 7 teacher whose sister in law had passed away the week we were supposed to begin school) a ride to the compound (think somewhat ghetto, like houses squished together made of mud brick and walls around the little yards yet with no doors and very little space) where Sam, the sister in laws son, who is now living with Pastor Royce and his family, still had some clothes and belongings that needed to be picked up. For coming out of a place like that and losing his mom not long ago, that kiddo has the biggest smile and is always cheerful!! After visiting the hospital we went to the store and then as we were pulling out there was a loud sound that was one of those what-is-that-noise-something-isn’t-right sounds coming from the car. Pastor Edward hopped out to see what it was and pulled out one of the left front tires brake pad calibers (from what they said, it’s the rod that holds the brake pads in place… and there are two of them). It was bent almost in a 90 degree angle. The road home to Kakolo is no place to not have brakes so we headed to Uncle Charles’ house. The mechanic for all of the college vehicles as well as the maintenance guy for FCV (even though he lives in Kitwe). We pulled in, thanking the Lord that he was home, and then all 7 of us (a lady from church who wanted to visit Bana Jecholiah, Pastor Edward, Pastor Royce, and two of the deacons at church Swennet and Emmanuel, Helen, and myself) were invited inside where his wife asked if she could get us anything, chatted for a minute, turned on the tv for us, and went back to her Saturday cleaning. I don’t know what channel she turned to, but it was the end of some movie or show about military families in the U.S. and it ended with the funeral of one of the families husbands and dads and the 21 gun salute. It was surprising to see it in Zambia! Then they all started asking questions about the army, the differences between the branches, if I knew anyone in the army, if I knew anyone who had died in the army, how the whole system worked, if they allowed females in the army, etc. And not long after Uncle Charles came in saying that the caliber was fixed and we could head home.

If I thought everyone was down with malaria during the last post, I was in for a surprise! We’ve had at least one person with malaria in each of the 8 houses for kids, not including dorm kids that have been sick, and then adults. People at church said that half the village has malaria.

I know this update is a bit late and that kinda goes with the title of last weeks post… semper gumby. I usually try to go in to English Bible Study at Kitwe Church on Wednesday nights and can use wifi to post updates while there; however, this week the car I usually ride in on (the one that goes to pick up the grade 10-12s from the city school) had broken down, and no one else was going in. It worked out though because another teacher from school was having some health problems and went into the hospital so I was able to cover for her Thursday and Friday which would have been much tougher to do if I had been in town Wednesday night. God is in control! Hopefully I’ll be able to post this next week!

So I got to sub for grade 3 the past two days and that has been a blast! As well as moving around to teach little bits of time in my normal class as well as the grade 7s. I’ve been excited to see the little bits of progress so far!

Thanks for your prayers! Pray for salvation of the kids, there are several who seem to have no desire at all for God or His Word as well as 4 new children welcomed to FCV who more than likely don’t know much about God. Please also pray for Helen right now, she has the flu. Please pray that those who are sick with malaria would recover quickly and that the medicine I’m taking to keep me from getting it would be effective! Thanks again!