June Update

Mwapona buti? (How are you) Tuli kabotu. (I am fine.) The
months fly by. It is already the middle of June. I hope you are all
well. Thank you for your continued support. It is greatly appreciated.

Tonga school is finished finally. The second part of the
class was at the end of May thru mid of June. School was good, but it was
very difficult. The words are getting longer. Did you know that the
Chitonga language has 108 ways to say 'that' and 108 ways to say 'this' depending
on what you are talking about? It gets complicated fast. Now I just need
to use what little I know and to speak. Most days I feel like a three or
four year old just learning how to speak and put sentences together. Small
three word sentences are my specialty, but I am trying and it will come
slowly. School has kept me quite busy.

Also the seasons are changing. It is getting cold. My
blood has thinned out and I feel cold. A few days ago it was in the upper
40's for lows and 70's for highs. The rains have stopped so everything is
getting dry and dusty.

Next week I start again at the hospital. There are many
projects started and hopefully, Lord willing, I will be able to get them
finished. The Out Patient Department(OPD) Building is coming along. The
foundation and slab are almost finished. The water project is ready for it's next phase, which is
digging in new water lines to all the existing staff houses. The new doctor's
house is almost done as well. Now that the rains have stopped hopefully
progress will be seen.

An interesting story: There are a lot of cattle in this
part of Zambia. How many cows one has determines how wealthy one is. That is
just the way the culture is and how wealth is viewed. The Batonga people
keep them and very rarely if ever will they sell them or kill them eat. With
that in mind, there are no fences here. The cattle for the most part
just run free with a couple of boys watching them. Along the roadside, a lot
of cattle can be seen. They eat right alongside the road; they cross the
road; they walk right down the road. Coming back from Tonga school, we saw a
semi truck that had just hit a cow. The cow was dead on the side of the road
like a deer would be in Wisconsin. The truck was also on the side of
the road with a smashed front end. It is always an adventure driving here.

Moon-bow at Victoria Falls

Here are some pictures of a "moon-bow." These pictures were taken at night. The light from the moon and the mist from Victoria Falls were the right ingredients for this moon-bow.