April and May Update

Things are very busy here nowadays. The teams are coming very regularly now. We have had people here almost without a break since February. Lots of different groups have been here; from medical students, to residents, to a missions work team from North Carolina, a missions pastor from Memphis, TN, and some national Church officials. It has been an interesting time meeting and interacting with all these different people.
The beginning of April we had our annual African missionary retreat. It was held in Livingstone, our back yard. The retreat was a good refreshing time. It was good to meet and get to know my fellow missionaries from all over Africa. They were from Sierra Leone, Mozambique, South Africa, and Zambia.
The team from North Carolina came and worked on one of the theatre rooms. It needed to be redone. They put up new ceiling boards, painted and fixed some windows. They did a nice job.
Right now we have eight nursing students from IWU. They will be here for the rest of May. The students will be learning and working at the hospital.
As far as projects at the hospital go, a new bore hole has been dug and the water tank and stand have been installed. A company out of Lusaka came and did it. Also the out patient building project has been started. They are clearing the location and digging the foundations right now. Materials have been brought to the site. There are a few piles of stones and sand just waiting to be used.
Here is one crazy story for you. The fridge in the mortuary broke down a couple of weeks ago. We needed to look at it to see if we could get it running because there were four bodies in there that needed to stay cold. Us three maintenance guys were called in. Before we could start the bodies needed to be removed. They were placed right outside of the fridge, right next to where we were working. We had to work around them. It was interesting to say the least. The fan inside the fridge was burned out; we found that out after crawling into the fridge to do some testing. I have never had to climb into a mortuary fridge before.
Thank you for your continued support. I do appreciate it very much. Also I do appreciate your prayers. So much here can only be accomplished through prayer.

Training to run

In August there is a marathon in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe. Dr. Jones and I have decided to try and run it. He has run a couple if marathons in the states so he knows how to train. I have never run one and a few days ago we started training. So far we are running 3 miles a day and feeling a lot of pain. We have three months to prepare; I will keep you posted.

Missionary Retreat

The missionary retreat is coming up next weekend. The retreat is for all the Global Partners missionaries in Africa, and this year it is held in Livingstone, Zambia. Right now the mission house is full of people coming in for next week's retreat. I think all together there is about 25 or 30 people coming. It will be a good time for me to meet everyone. I have not met most of the other missionaries in Africa. There will be services held each day with a special speaker; some down time to mingle and relax, and some business time. We are supposed to go to the game park in Livingstone and also a boat ride on the Zambezi River. The retreat is a yearly thing held for missionaries to relax and get away from the stresses of their work for a while, but also to be fed spiritually. It is much needed. I will let you know how it goes.

Robbed

A couple of weeks ago, a number of people robbed a store down in Livingstone, and they killed a police officer before getting away. So, the police have been hunting them down. They captured one and shot two others, but a few more are still at large. The last Sunday that the other missionary and I traveled to Tonga school, the bus was stopped, boarded and searched. The police had many check points set up to see if they could catch the criminals and every car was stopped, including our bus. Outside the bus there were two men with assault rifles. Two others boarded the bus and walked up and down the aisle looking. After a few minutes, they left the bus and let us go. But a few miles down the road there was another checkpoint. This time we were not boarded, but outside there were three men with assault rifles. All together I think we got pulled over three times. It was interesting to say the least.

Zambian Food

I have recently completed 4 weeks of Chitonga language school. It was in Monze, Zambia. Since we stayed there for a week at a time, we had some interesting foods to eat. They served us the main, staple dish that Zambians eat, nshima. Nshima, cabbage, and some kind of meat is a usual meal. Most Zambians don't eat meat very often but nshima and some kind of vegetable are staple foods. We had nshima three times a day. It was served in a porridge form for breakfast, but for the other 2 meals it was a thicker consistency and was served as a rolled up ball. It tasted pretty good. The breakfast stuff was just like cream of wheat in the US. Along with nshima; they served either rape, a leafy green, pumpkin leaves, or cabbage. The rape tasted like spinach except a little more bitter. Pumpkin leaves had no special taste, and cabbage was cabbage. The meat is the exciting thing to tell you about. We had fish cooked in cornhusks. We had kidney; it was very tough. We had capenta, small minnows. We had chicken, sausage; and other beef pieces. We were also served termites, which tasted like popcorn. All the food we got to eat was very salty and also pretty good.

March Update

Mwapona Buti? (Hi. How are you?) Ndili Kabotu. (I am fine.)
March has just flown by. For the first weeks in March, I attended Chitonga School. It is a school for those who are interested in learning the Chitonga language. Chitonga is the heart language of the people in the southern province in Zambia, where I am working. The school itself was held in Monze. Monze is a village a couple of hours north of Zimba. The course I just finished was 4 weeks long. The days were crammed full. It was challenging, and difficult, but very good. School consisted of lots of memorization, study, and writing. It was pretty intense.
Learning the heart language of the people is one of the most important things to do as a missionary. Although some people know English, there is still a barrier between the Zambians and me because I do not know the heart language. In order to break down those barriers and build relationships there is a need for me to learn Chitonga.
Now that I am back to work at the hospital, I have been practicing Chitonag with the employees. Dennis, the Zambian maintenance man that I work with, has been a very good tutor for me. He speaks to me all day long in Chitonga until I can’t understand, then he will speak in English. I feel like a little child who is just learning how to speak and to put sentences together. The other people in the hospital also are very patient and helpful. I try to say something in Chitonga and everyone just laughs. I am learning patience and humility.
Now that the rainy season is past, teams are beginning to come again. Right now there are two medical residents working at the hospital and a man from Battle Creek, MI, who is here working on the water system. He is working on putting in a new borehole in order to separate the staff housing and the hospital. This will help the hospital from running out of water all the time.
Thank you for your continued support. I do appreciate your prayers. The team here in Zimba needs to be lifted up in prayer often.

Jesse

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.