4 Weeks

It has been 4 weeks since we left New York for Zambia.  The weeks have gone by fast!  The past couple of weeks have been especially interesting as we have tried to settle into Zambian life.  Here are some highlights:

On our first walk through the open air market in Choma:

We were approached by a man with an offer for us to pay him as a tour guide around the market for 1,000 Kwacha (ZMK), about 20 cents, to which we responded “No thank you.”  His offer was then changed, in an effort to get our business, to ZMK 10,000, about $2.20.  Not sure he understood that we understand the Zambian money system…

We saw behind the butcher shop as we were walking through the market.  Warning…the rest of this may be graphic…An entire cow carcass was being sawed in half, the full head beside it on the ground and the innards lying fully in tact beside that.  I (Erin) wanted to take a picture, but I was lacking in the bravery department. The only thing I can think of to describe it would be “disgustingly cool.”

Delicious cappuccino!

We found Wonderbake!!! An amazing shop where you can buy fresh baked bread, pizza, soft serve icecream and cappuccino!  This has become our favorite place and one of the workers there has started to teach us Tonga.

On our first field visit:

We met with the Headman of Sinambila and received his blessing to move forward in his village with the Village Partnership program (VP).  He seemed grateful that his village had been selected and was excited for the opportunity for the children to attend school and for their village to get clean water and economic development opportunities.

We discovered why pre-trip visits are important because…

We ended up getting stuck in the village stream. We found out how to call AAA in Zambia…WHIZ staff, villagers, tree branches, axes, bricks (basically, any sort of supplies you can find that might help get tires out of huge ruts), bulls, a yoke and a chain.  That is all you need here. While the men were hard at work, I took pictures and made a few new friends.

We also ate our first real village meal with the pastor of Sialubala on our way back from Sinambila – corn on the cob & groundnuts (almost like a peanut).  It was an incredibly generous gesture for them to share with us!

We are definitely stuck

Our "tow truck"

On our third Saturday/Sunday:

We found the church we will most likely attend when teams are not in Zambia.  Jon heard music on our way home from lunch (with other missionaries we know) last Saturday. He, of course, poked his head through the gate to see what was going on.  We were invited in to listen and discovered that it was the worship team from Choma Central Wesleyan Church practicing.  They invited us to church the following day and invited him to play with them this past Saturday.  He spent 3 hours practicing with them and they have asked him to play in worship on the weekends that he can!  The pastor also visited us this past Friday and asked if he would be willing to speak at church every now and then.  Music AND teaching….Jon is pretty excited!

Our first team:

Arrives in Livingstone this Friday!  We are excited for them to come and experience village life.  More on that to come…

Across The Street

Across the street from the WHIZ compound, there is a field of grass, or at least that is what we thought.  We had seen 2 small dirt access roads leading back and a sign for a church that is being built (which we thought was being built right by the road).

Sunday evening, we came colliding with the reality of what real compound living in Choma is as our friend, Joshua, took us for a walk back into the compound of Old Kabanana.

A small dirt access road led us to a small house and an open field.  The house was made of brick, with a small tin roof, and was no more than 12x6.  Outside, was a man, his wife and their 2 children.  The man was wiring a small light bulb for the house, the wife was watering her landscaping around the house, and the 2 children were playing barefoot in their dirt yard.  We were introduced to the family, smiled, made small talk & then went on our way, with the man from the house now part of our little group.

Joshua & our new friend proceeded to lead us through Kabanana,  a massive compound with many houses – some brick with thatched roofs, some brick with tin roofs, some with “fences” (tall grass around the house) – and even more people.  As we walked through, close to dinner, we could smell the coals being burned for cooking.  We saw women sitting around their cooking pots outside getting a meal ready for their family.  We walked over large rice bags filled with sand/dirt to cross a small stream filled with murky water that ran through the compound.  We saw children drawing with “sidewalk chalk” (used/leftover coal from a previous fire) on a small area of concrete in front of a house.  One little girl was drawing a picture of her house (thatched roof included), with her family around the outside.  We passed a young woman Joshua greeted who had just lost her husband (we speculate from AIDS).  We saw Joshua’s thatched roof house and small cooking stall outside his house.  We heard children laughing as we passed (this happens often, as we are a stark contrast to what they are used to seeing).

It was a sobering reality to see such poverty across the street from where we live.  It is interesting though, what people here consider poverty.  If a person has a roof over their head and a meal in front of them, they have what they need.  They are not poor in their mind.  They might not have electricity, running water, flushing toilets, but, that have and they are grateful for that.

Some Photos from Our "Firsts" in Zambia!

The fruits of our first grocery shopping trip

Our first laundry day...all done by hand,
thank you very much!

Our first "pet"...or the lizard that keeps finding his way
into our hallway & then into our room...

Our "first" meal that we remembered to take a picture of
(the first meal we made was actually spaghetti)

…” First - First Day at Work in 11 Years”…

An African airport firetruck

 We arrived in Choma at 3:30pm South African Standard time yesterday afternoon.  Over thirty hours of travel can be pretty exhausting, but we were able to rest as soon as we got in.  Our flights were fairly uneventful…we had firetrucks meet us at our landing in Johannesburg because the front wheel steering was not working.  The pilot landed us safely and everyone on the plane applauded him for his skills!  That led to a very short layover in Johannesburg so we took just a quick walk around the terminal to get some water and catch our flight to Livingstone.

At Erin's desk in the Hope Corps Office

Today is our first day in the office.  We started with staff devotionals with the World Hope International Zambia (WHIZ) staff.  Wow, can they sing!  No instruments, just voices.  We even sang a song in Tonga and did okay…(luckily, the words were right in front of us).  Jon shared on behalf of us how excited we are to be here.

Now, after a quick trip to town to get cell phones (which we have yet to figure out), we are getting settled into our office on the WHIZ compound.  Jon laughed as he said, “This is my first - first day on the job in 11 years.” It’s funny the things that come to mind as we start our new jobs at WHIZ: changing time settings on a computer, wondering where the best place is to buy a printer or paper, staples, etc; how do you figure out a cell phone that comes with no manual???  All these small things add up and can be overwhelming. 

We had an orientation meeting with the Country Director, Finance Director & Program Director today.  It was good to hear from them about their expectations for us and has hopefully opened discussion for the future as we work through cultural differences & understanding.

Our schedule, we realize, is one to be envied…8pm-5pm work days with a one hour lunch…with the exception of Fridays when we work until 2pm (no lunch break on those days…).

As we look at the walls of our office, we see pictures of previous teams that have come under the direction of Dave & Beth Watters.  We hope and anticipate the same smiling faces as we host teams in the next 11 months.  We hope that the teams we lead will enjoy their time in Zambia, that they will love the people and the culture.  We hope that they will experience their pain and sadness.  We hope that they will experience the real joy that Zambians have in the midst of suffering.  We hope that after they leave they will not forget this place or its people.

Jon and Erin

Thanks so much to all of our supporters – monthly, one time & prayer.  We appreciate your generosity and heart for the work we are doing. To make things simple for our monthly financial supporters, we have added a link to our WHI account at the bottom of this page.

Life in 8 Boxes

Our life is slowly being uprooted and condensed to (with great hope) 8 boxes...plus books.  It has been an interesting process and is beginning to help us "disengage" ourselves from what we have considered our home for 9 of our almost 11 years in Canandaigua.

Our door has been a one way exit for a lot of our belongings and the corner in our spare room has become a haven for the start of a stack of 8 UHAUL boxes - 4 medium and 4 large.  In those boxes are things we think we will need when we get back from Zambia and things that hold meaning.  The piles definitely keep accumulating.  Sometimes, it feels like that's all there is to our apartment - PILES!  Piles to pack, sort, sell, store.





The beginning of our box pile in our spare room.  It is now up to 5 boxes!





In the midst of it all, "Puff Daddy," the neighborhood stray cat (and Jon's little buddy), was visiting.  We think he might be on to the fact that as of February 16th, he will no longer be getting kitty treats from us or falling asleep on our couch.

It's hard to believe that in just 4 weeks, we will be moved out of our apartment, have our life packed into 8 boxes, and be on our way to Colorado for 3 weeks of training.

This is one crazy journey that we are on and are already starting to learn so much as we begin to pack up and leave.  Thanks to all who are joining us on along the way...and to Megan, who has been organizing our lives as we get ready to go and who, honestly, is the only reason we actually got started on our 8 boxes!

It Begins...

Today is Thanksgiving.  We spent the evening with our wonderful family in New York. The one we have grown to love as our own over the past 10 years.  We try not to think of all of the things that we will miss out on - like a table filled with 24 people laughing after what has been a rough year, little kids running through the hallway wreaking havoc (in a good way!), 1st birthday bashes, 60th birthday bashes, new babies...the list could go on.
We try not to think of it all, but sometimes, it just happens.  Your mind wanders and you think, "Is what we're about to do really worth missing all these things."  As much as we will miss all of these things, we know that God sometimes asks us to give up what we know.  The things that comfort us daily. We know that God has a huge adventure awaiting us, but it is going to cost us something. A great story always does.
While we know we will miss a lot while we are away for a year, we also know that we will gain a great deal from our time in Zambia.  For that, we are thankful.

(Jon with children at an orphanage in Choma, Zambia)