SCARY!

I just had my most scary moment so far here in Africa. I was carrying a load of things back to my house just before lunch so that I wouldn't have to bring it all later. And I got to my door and this is what I saw. Luckily, one of the things I was carrying was my camera. So I took a picture and went and found a maintenance worker who had a shovel and he came and killed it for me. I think my heart is still racing. I'm just so thankful that it wasn't inside my house! After the worker killed it, he showed me underneath the spider, you can see the red fangs where the spider would poison you. Another worker said if it bites you, you will be “paining for a long time”. I'm not sure if it's a tarantula. The locals said it is poisonous like a snake or scorpion. Thanks to God for watching over us! (I don't even want to look at this picture.)

KALENE

This weekend I finally went up to Kalene for a short visit. I stayed at a lady's house who is also from Kapuskasing. It was so nice to go visit, it was long over-due. She took such good care of me. I had amazing pizza when I got there a delicious full home-cooked meal for supper. And the next day for lunch we had bacon, sausage, omelet, home-fries and toast. It was so good to have foods that i haven't had since I left Canada. I also got to have a hot shower which was a treat itself. At our place here at Sakeji we only have a bath and the water is heated by solar panels so when it's raining and cloudy, it's much colder outside and then there is no hot water. (This week we've had to boil pots of water to pour into our baths.)

So in Kalene, I got the grand tour of the hospital there. It was much bigger than I thought. And the lab: much smaller. I took a few pictures, so here they are:

For my nerdy lab friends:

The lab is very small because the money is just not there to operate as a full lab. What I understand is they do CBCs, ESRs and cross-matches. I tried to ask what they do if someone has an antibody but I'm not even certain that they do an antibody screen. I could be wrong, the lab tech was difficult to understand, but I didn't see anything that would indicate that they do. They also do ZN stains and Gram stains, but that is it for micro. There is zero chemistry department. I know they do screening tests for HIV. Maybe urinalysis. But I think that's it. Here is a few pictures of the lab.

The road to Kalene was very bumpy and full of pot holes and puddles. It a terrible road, but probably still not the worst it the area. I think we went about 40km/hr on the smooth parts. So a 15km drive took almost an hour. Luckily the weather was good. On the way there there was a puddle no the side of the road and as we got closer, two little pigs crawled out of it. They were so cute! My camera was packed away in the back though.

At the hospital, we went into the children's ward and as soon as a little girl (maybe about 1-2 years old) saw us she started screaming her head off. I thought it was quite hilarious. Kind of made me feel like a huge monster to her or something. But apparently people will sort of threaten their kids when they are being bad that they will take them to the hospital and the white people will give them a needle. So they think we are bad and scary people. It probably worked better before because the staff was all missionaries, but now they are getting more and more Zambian staff, so that will change around a little little.

Sunday we went to church in the morning, which was really neat. I think it's the biggest church I been to around here so far. And everything was translated into English so I could understand what was going on which was nice. After we went back to the house and had our delicious bacon and egg lunch and then relaxed and watched a very sad movie about a dog. Then we went for a short walk to the Orchard Get-a-way. It's a lively place to stay for a weekend with fruit trees, a nice pool and a house-type place which reminds me of a cottage. Maybe one day we will go there. We'll see. I took some pictures of the fruit trees but I will post those another time because it takes so long to upload pictures.

So I guess that will be all for now. Mylon didn't come with me, he stayed in at Sakeji and read his book and went to a friend's to play video games lol. So I don't think he even missed me at all!

Talk to you later. Bye.

Chickens etc.

Oct. 20

This term, one kid came back from his holidays with the chicken pox. Guess what happened. Yeah. Then there was 3, then 6.....now about 22 kids have the chicken pox. And wow, I have never seen so many chicken pox dots on people. And they look sooo painful. I feel very bad for everyone who has the chicken pox here. They are itching an crying all the time. They also use a LOT of calamine lotion. They basically paint their entire faces with it, and arms....and the rest is covered in clothes, but I assume it's all over. I think they should make a calamine lotion that is a dark brown colour, because they are all dark-skinned and have light pink lotion all over. Anyways. Just an idea for someone who want to visit the Dragon's Den I guess.

On another note, about chickens. Here at Sakeji, we raise our own chickens. I guess it saves money in the long run. Yesterday was killing time. So Friday afternoon, instead of playing games, the senior students have to help out with that. Here's some pictures that I took. I didn't get a finger dirty. I'm not there yet. I think they kill chickens once a term. So I have another chance next term. Maybe I'll just take more pictures though. It looked really really gross.

Oh, and after the chicken killing, a jackal came around. They are not common to see as they are very shy dogs. Somebody told me they only come around where people are when they are rabid. So everyone was a little worried. I think it smelled the chicken stew we were making. They haven't caught it, and I think it's gone now. They did leave out some meat with poison (rat poison maybe??) But I haven't been updated with the story. Time for my rabies shot I think though.

Well this is my weekend off. I'm going to have a work out, probably read a book and have a nice afternoon.

Have a nice weekend everybody.

Weekend fun

Oct. 13^th

This weekend we went over to a neighbour's place. They are very nice people and they own a wildlife reserve. We've seen many animals there, including zebras, sable, buffalo, etc. The first time we went over we went on a drive to see the animals. It was really fun, but it came to a quick stop when it started to pour. So we took a break in a chota, then went it was time to head back home for dinner anyways. The second time, which was this weekend, we planned on having a target shooting competition, girls against boys. I've never shot a gun before, so that was cool. Girls won. Then we went back to their place to have a quick swim and play volleyball. Then we had birthday cake and tea on the porch while we watched another storm. It's been storming a little more often now.

It's always fun to go visit them. They are a lot of fun and it's always nice to get off the school grounds and just hang out with people closer to your own age.

Here's a few pictures.

Electrical Storms

October 15, 2012

We just finished our mid-term weekend. It was pretty fun. The kids went tubing down the river, lots of swimming and playing in the playground, games, and sweets. Sleeping in was also very nice.

For the adults, they had a zip line set up over the pool. So you climb this big ant hill, then get a hold of the zip line thing and hang on and then let go over the pool. It was cool. It was a really hot day so it was really nice and refreshing.

It's really starting to rain more. The storms here are quite violent. The other day we had hail with the storm. I managed to take a few pictures.

I'm told that the Discovery Chanel was here two years ago filming an electrical storm (One of the crew actually got struck by lightning!) They are one of the worst in the world, as we are so close to the Congo Basin. I have never heard thunder so loud. And the lightning strikes are almost frightening. But I do enjoy them. It's pretty much impossible to sleep through though, so if it storms at night, everyone is cranky the next morning!

Also, the ground here is very red. I think it's very rich in iron or another metal, I forget. But it makes it very difficult to ground electricity. So when there's a storm, if it's really bad, sometimes you see you plug-ins spark. So you can't have anything plugged in during a storm. Many people have fried lap tops and other things because of this. It's pretty crazy.

Well I will keep this short for now. I need to get back to work.   

Students at Sakeji

Here's a few pictures of some students at Sakeji. Mylon and I spend a lot of time with the Juniors (Grade 1-4) So most of these pictures are the younger kids.  There are about 75 kids who go to this school.  

News from October 8, 2012

October 8, 2012

Hi Everyone,

We haven't had internet in over a week now. So if you haven't heard from us, that is why. First we were told something went down in Kenya, and that was why it was down. But days later we found out that our provider actually went bankrupt. So we had to get hooked up with another company and things don't happen that quickly here in Zambia.

So we've had a lot of time to read in the evening, which is nice.

We were hoping to plan our Christmas vacation last weekend, but now we have to wait. We were debating whether we should climb Mount Kilimanjaro, or visit South Africa. So I think we've made our decision. We're leaning more towards the South African choice. I think it will be a little cheaper and longer and we will do a lot of different thing. I will let you know our Christmas plans when I actually have things booked. But we plan on spending time in Jo-burg, the Kruger National Park and Cape Town. I'm super excited :)

Here at Sakeji, we've been keeping busy, as usual. We had a term birthday party last Wednesday. The term birthday party is a party once per semester and it celebrates everyone's birthday that falls in that term. So this was for September to December birthdays. The theme was Wonders of the World.

So the day before the party, the ladies who were available and some came over from Kalene (a village less than 1 hour away) got together to decorate cakes. I decorated a cake with Northern lights (it did not look like Northern Lights lol) and there was about a dozen other cakes decorated by others, all Wonders of the World. We also decorated the eating hall and assembly hall with balloons and crafts the kids made in art class.

The party starts at supper, where we had a delicious meal of fried chicken, potato wedges and other vegetables. Then we have home-made ice cream and cake for dessert. The kids all get a gift bag with a small toy and a few sweets. Once everyone is beyond satisfied, we head into the assembly hall. Mylon and I were the M.C.'s. (Everyone has to do some M.C.'ing at some point, so we figured this was better than the term-end party and it would be pretty easy anyways.) We didn't have a lot of work to do as we mostly just announce which group of kids is coming up to perform. We had skits, guitar, choir, poems and songs. In addition, all the adults have to dress up as a Wonder of the World. Mylon and I were a Great Pyramid (we each were half). It was an easy costume that didn't require a lot of materials.

All in all it was a great night and everyone was happy. I think Thursday morning was a little rough for the kids though. Too much sugar the night before!

This coming weekend will be Mid-term. Basically the kids don't have class Friday and it's all fun and games starting Thursday evening through to Sunday. All the kids look forward to it. Breakfast is also a little later, so everyone can sleep in a bit.

Well I better go before I bore everyone. Sorry if anyone has e-mailed us and we haven’t' replied. I'm not sure how fast catching up will be as many people will need the internet here when it is back up and it might just be running too slow.

Thanks to all of those who are keeping us in your prayers. So far the time has gone by extremely fast, which I think is a good sigh. We are enjoying ourselves and we have met some great friends that make us feel at home when we need that.

I hope everyone back home had a Happy Thanksgiving. I am really missing pumpkin pie today. I might attempt a squash pie someday.

Until next time!