Hi From Samfya Bible School

Hi everyone,
Rats, cockroaches, ants, bats, no power, no hot water, no showers, not even a toilet – welcome to Samfya! hahaha Well this has been our experience so far – well I personally haven’t seen the rats thank goodness, as I am sure all of Zambia would have heard me! Levy keeps laughing and saying that they wanted me to experience the true Zambia straight away! There was something wrong with the Zesco power’s transformer which has now been fixed so we are fine for now (2 days no power!!). The toilet was blocked and needed some major work done on the pipes etc Donald will have to give you the details as I don’t know about these things! The men worked so hard that day. The holes had to all, be dug by hand – no diggers here! The water was out because the pump doesn’t work when the electricity is out. I didn’t know a shower could be soooooo good!

We arrived in Samfya when it was dark so we didn’t really see the area as we drove in. The drive from Lusaka was long but looking at the country side was very interesting. Seeing how people survive in little huts and selling their goods on the side of the road, just waiting for someone to stop to buy their produce. It is the dry season so they are starting to light fires everywhere to burn off the long grass. At some points, along both sides of the road, the grass was taller than Donald and was very dry and brown. It looked very pretty though. Katie said it was like what you see on TV when a lion was stalking it’s prey, but we didn’t see any(-:

We did stop at a couple of stalls and bought watermelon, potatoes and tomatoes. Bananas here taste so much better than we get at home. Avocados are so much bigger than home as well. People here are so friendly. We have been welcomed with open arms. They are so glad to finally meet Katie and I. The other day one guy –when Donald was introducing us- said that he remembered me! I think he had just seen my photo!

It is so dry and consequently it is really dusty. The kids play outside and come in looking so grubby but it is just the dust. We went into Samfya town the other day to the market. A whole lot of tiny little mud huts joined together and people wanting you to go into their store.

We are staying at Levy and Agnes’ home and they are looking after us very well. Agnes is going to teach me how to cook nshima. Katie loves it and I don’t find it too bad either just have to watch those carbs for my blood sugar! We have been eating well but all have lost some weight which is really great.

Our health has been really good as well with no problems apart from the reaction to the anti malarial drug! The citronella soap and the insect repellent seem to be doing a good job as well as none of us have been bitten. My bloods were a bit high the day we got here but that was because of too many carbs and no exercise. It is back to normal now.

Today (Sunday) we went to Mwamfuli CMML Church – Christian Brethren. It was all in Bemba except for Donald’s teaching and choir ‘A’ sang one song in English. Then we went to Mark and Carmen’s home for lunch. We will be staying there when they go home on furlough. Lunch was lovely and we even got to watch NZ tie with Italy! What a game. Even I was watching!

Tomorrow we start Katie’s school work. She has been really great here and has really enjoyed the power being out, boiling water, lighting candles etc. She has met Elizabeth (Rogers and Lucy Chama’s youngest daughter). Katie was hoping to meet her and on Saturday morning Elizabeth came and they spent the morning playing along with two other friends. People here love her and really enjoy listening to her trying to greet them in Bemba. I think it might be a bit hard to concentrate on school work with so many new things to see and do. The first day that I asked Katie to boil the water, she wanted to know how she would know that the water was boiling! Poor girl was too used to the electric jug turning itself off when it was ready!

On Wednesday Katie and I are going to go to Agnes’ preschool. It will be fun to see these little ones. Katie and I are really looking forward to it.Well because the power has been off we haven’t been able to send or receive emails. We are hoping to do this first thing Monday morning. Hopefully it will work. All this to say, that it isn’t that we haven’t had time but because of the power situation here, if you don’t get word from us.
That is all from Gwen for now.