February Update

Thank you for your continued, faithful support. I do appreciate it very much.
February has bought the rains. During this month it has rained a lot. Almost everyday it rains. Some rains are very heavy and short, and everything floods for a short time. Others are lighter and last for two or three days. Now everything is green and the maize is growing tall. The harvest will start soon.
The days in which it rains are pretty slow at the hospital. The number of patients is greatly reduced and no one else goes outside. Yes, even the maintenance department is pretty slow. Myself, along with the other two maintenance workers, sit around and talk. We try to figure out what we are going to do next. We also tend to tell a lot of stories to one another. Dennis and Elisha tell me about Zambian culture, history, and even the latest on what is happening in Zimba. I have mentioned a few of these stories on the blog. Then they ask me questions about snow, bears, ice fishing, and sharks, among other things. Some of our conversations get pretty interesting.
Zambians, I have noticed, have a great sense of humor. The ones I work with at the hospital laugh lot. Their humor is not quite the same as the west, but once one catches on, it is funny. I also laugh a lot. Elisha had a cold last week and his nose was stuffed up and then it would run. He said that his “used brain” was coming out. He had been thinking too much. We all laughed a lot.
February has also brought Tonga school. It is a four week course to teach us the basics of the Chitonga language so we can come back and continue to practice with the people around Zimba. The first week was pretty good. We learned a lot of culture and basic information. This included education, past history, politics, and how the Tonga's culture is transitioning from what is was to what it is now. It was all very interesting. Toward the end of the week the actual language part started. I hope I catch on. It is going to be a lot of studying.

A New Experience

A week or so ago I had an unique experience. I became a grave digger and a hearse driver. There was a very sick man some people found at the railroad station. Nobody knew him, where he came from, how he got there, and no one was taking care of him. So the hospital driver got him and brought him to the hospital. Within a short time, a day or so, the man died. His body was placed in the mortuary. But being he had no known family his body was left there. For 2 weeks his body sat, while the police investigated to see if they could find family. Nobody was found. The thing was that the smell of the body was getting pretty strong because power had been off and on a number of times and also our refrigerator was not made for long term storage. Finally the police let the hospital bury the body.
Grave diggers were needed; so I volunteered. Talk about hot. There was seven of us each taking turns digging and picking. The ground at the graveyard was terribly hard and rocky, but eventually we dug a hole 2 feet across and over 5 feet down. It took probably four hours to dig. The sun was strong and I got sunburned bad; also I am not in very good grave digging shape.
After we returned to the hospital we found out I was the only driver around. The rest all had programs to do. SO I was asked to drive the Lorie to transport the body to the grave we dug. The Lories batteries are not good these days so I had to have many people help me start the thing. They pushed and I popped the clutch and the thing fired up. We drove to the hospital where the others we all gowned up and ready to prepare the body for transport. The smell was quite strong as they opened the frig. The body was then wrapped in a blanket and then in a piece of plastic. The body was then loaded on to the truck and everyone piled in the back. I proceeded down the road till I had to stop and make a turn. That is where things went bad. I accidentally stalled the truck and being the batteries were dead; it would not start. The guys had to push me again. The thing was the truck would not start right away. I don't know why, but they ended up pushing me a quarter of a mile. All the time the body in the back. Finally the truck started, and we headed to the graveyard. I did apologize many times for that one unexpected happening. When we arrived, I left the truck running and the guys started peeling the bark off of the trees to use as ropes to lower the body in the hole. Finally everything was ready and he was lowered in. The Chaplain went along with us; he said a prayer and then we took turns filling the hole back in. After doing that we all went back to the hospital. I have never done anything like that before. The man is buried in an unmarked grave and no one even knows what his name is.

January Update

Hello. I hope this update finds you all well. Thank you for your continued support. I do appreciate it very much.
It is 2010. The New Year. How have you met it? Here at the hospital there is an anticipation of what is to come. There is thankfulness to God for letting us see another year but also an anticipation of what God is going to do. It is time to reflect a little on the past and look forward and plan for the future. What is God planning for me this year? What is God planning for the hospital this year? What is God planning for you this year?
There are a number of projects planned for the hospital this year. There is an exciting new out patient department building that is soon to be started. There is a gentleman coming from the states to begin work on a new septic system. The continued work on the upgrade of hospital electrical system is another. Also securing the maintenance area, fixing a number of ceilings and roofs, addressing the water needs, and building an outside incinerator are all on the horizon.
But as we make plans what does God have planned? That is what I am trying to seek as I begin the New Year. It is not easy to sit and pray for guidance and wisdom but as this New Year begins I can not help but think that is the most important. It is easy to get so busy doing and planning and skip the praying and asking God what does He want.
Stop and reflect; what are God's plans for this year? I know I have had to do that. Just some thoughts on the New Year.

Zambian Flag

I learned about the Zambian flag today. The Zambian flag is green with a gold eagle and three bars halfway across the flag. One is red, black, and orange. The eagle represents freedom. The mighty eagle soars above and is free and although there are problems below the eagle, it is able to rise above and stay free. The green background represents all the lush vegetation when the rains come. The orange bar represents all the natural mineral resources in Zambia; the copper and cobalt that is mined here in the north. The red represents all the blood that has been shed of people around Africa. And finally, the black bar represents the dark skin of the African people. I found this lesson on Zambia very interesting.

The Cost of a Chicken

Last week I had to drive with another missionary here up to Jembo for some mission business. It is supposed to be a couple of hours away. Well it did not work out that way. Getting directions from people here is quite interesting. They say something like-go for a while then you will come to an intersection; go that side; then go till the road forks and go this side. Needless to say we missed a couple of turns. There is three different ways to Jembo and now I know all three, but it took a lot of driving around in circles to get there. It only took about 3 and a half hours instead. Even more exciting though is in all that driving around I accidently ran over a chicken. It was on the side of the road and as I drove by it turned and ran under the tire. There was just a puff of feathers. It cost me 15,000 Kwacha. The ride home was much less entertaining.

Here's what happening

So what did you do today? Jan 13 I spent the morning along with one of my coworkers playing engineer. We looked around, measured things, and figured out what all was needed to fix some things here. Getting parts is hard so we need to try to look ahead. You know trying to get organized. One of the maintenance guys has been out sick all week so it has just been the two of us. Anyway, it took close to the whole morning just to do that after stopping to talk to everyone. It was good though; things were accomplished. In the afternoon, we slashed. Slashing is taking a machete that looks like a golf club and is sharp on the end and cutting the grass with it. It is hard work; after the rains have come the grass grows amazingly fast. I was trying to cut stuff that was taller than I. There was probably two of us working and we did for an hour and a half. We were all soaked with sweat and tired. A never ending job in rainy season. Oh yea a little 2 week old baby died this morning. They think the baby had meningitis. Just a little of what is happening at the hospital.

Love and Forgiveness

I got into an interesting conversation before Christmas with a couple of workers that were hired to do a special project at the hospital. I knew these guys from other dealings with them but they really never wanted to talk much. This day was different. One wanted to talk deep. I was just making small talk asking about why Zambians are afraid of chameleons and that began a conversation that took many different directions, went pretty deep spiritually and lasted for an hour and a half. His questions ranged from why do people do bad things? Why doesn't God make people love Him and do good things? Why is there evil? I tried to answer these in that best way I knew how, telling him that God gives us free choice to choose to love Him and do right. He was thinking; He kept asking questions. Then the conversation went to forgiveness. How does that work? Some people get forgiven and then continue doing bad things? I told him Jesus forgives and then says to us come on I will help you live better. We talked about forgiveness a lot. He basically told me all the bad things he ever did. The list was extensive, but I kept telling him how much God loved him and would forgive him and help him to do right. My prayer for him is that God would wrap His arms around him and never let him go. That this man would surrender his life to God who loves and forgives. I have not seen this man since but, I have been praying.