Hello Everyone,
I have been here now for 3 weeks. I love it here, the people are so kind and there’s so much to do. This week has especially been a fun one! We started of the week by on Monday we went to the Ndola Trade Fair. We woke up early Monday morning and all piled in a 7 seater Nissan Patrol. Plus our neighbor Annie(pronounced Onnie), Bonnie and Bennett. It was a cramped car ride. We had a blast at the Fair. The Fair is like as my mom says,” A run down carnival with a hundred thousand people!” We got to see African tribal dances, eat cotton candy, and see a lot of neat handmade African crafts. We spent our entire day there and around 4:00 we left. Probably the most fun part if the day was leaving! We were driving through a one lane road with a bunch of cars and people coming at us. Our windows were rolled down so all these people were sticking their heads in the car giving us high fives. We also had all these blue buses coming at us and there was one point when my dad had to hold down his horn because on either side of us 2 blue buses were trying to get in, and if you let 2 inches in front of you and the car the buses will somehow make it in. There was one point where the car behind us bumped into us because he was trying to not let the buses in. After around 30 minutes we made it through… all alive!
The whole crew!
Tuesday afternoon we got to visit the Sara Rose Orphanage, which is ALWAYS fun to do. They are such sweet and adorable kids! They’re always ready to play, so energetic. When we got there they were all waking up from their nap so I read to them a story. Next we took them outside and played Simon Says and Red Light Green Light, their favorites. Soon after Ella and I headed over to the babies. We got in their little play pen and played with 5 of the babies for about an hour. It was very fun playing with them and I think they enjoyed it because when we left they all started screaming! haha!
Wednesday was a very fun day! We were ALL dying for it to come because we were finally able to go to Chisakone D Market! We had to have 2 nationals come with us. So Simon, the Trust Schools very first employee, and Martha, another CCM employee came with us, Bonnie joined too. We got there and it reminded us of an Indiana Jones movie, with little stands and people everywhere! It definitely wasn’t nice. There was sewer running through the street and we would have to step on wood to cross over the water. There were little sections of the market, one section was food. There were a lot of stands with fish. There would be stands of little fish and big fish and this type of fish and that type, it was nasty. Then there would be stands of all different types of beans, caterpillars, and fruits and veggies, even live chickens. Then there would be sections of fabrics/outfits with a ton of stuff. There was also jewelry, decorations, every thing you could imagine …even hair you can buy to braid in you hair and have long extensions (which Lydia, Mary-Frances, and I will do!) The market was a very fun experience with everyone coming towards us saying “Madame madame come to my stand!” It was very funny cause we were the “White Americans” coming through and even though people would be yelling back in forth about us in Bimba we could catch a little like Mazunga’s (which means whites) from America! It was very funny. A ton of people would just come to you and be like “Madame, how are you? Where you from? America? What’s you name?” It was fun. There was also a lot of bartering for example a man was trying to sell me a purse for K50,000 kwatcha and Bonnie thankfully brought it down for me to K17,500! Can you believe it? I payed that much for a beautiful handmade purse!!! I loved it and fortunately I had enough for it! JK for every K5,000 Kwatcha you spend that is $1.oo U.S. dollar! So the purse really cost me around $3.50! Don’t worry, I would never pay that much for a purse! Pretty soon all the shops closed down so we had to leave the market 🙁 It was a VERY fun experience though and I loved it! I loved all the excitement! and can’t wait to return.
As for our family, we are all doing well. Berkley had to go to the clinic Monday night, but he’s fine. I have met some new friends here: Precious and Edith are 11 and 12. Their family are Jehovah Witnesses’, so I am hoping I will be able to share with them about Christ! I have also met another friends Chi Chi and her and her family own the wonderful little out door shed convenient store, where we got a lot for frita’s! Chi Chi and her family are 7- day Adventers though so please pray that God will allow me to share with her all about Jesus and what He did for her! So far Africa has been good and I know that this is what God wants our family to experience, and it’s only for 1 year. There are a lot of opportunities for us to share Christ and love on people! I hope all of you across the world in Georgia are doing well. I miss ya’ll SO SO much and I can’t wait until I can see ya’ll again! Love ya’ll lots!
love,
~Virginia
