The Zambian Legacies

Bilharzia:  a tropical disease acquired by swimming in infected tropical waters.  So says the BBC website.

We've got it.  I could stick a little picture of it on here, if I could.  If I do, please know Evangel or James helped me (i.e. did it for me).  My friend Margie sent me a picture of one, taken through a microscope. 

It's kind of exciting to have an unusual (to us) tropical disease.  Our doctor does follow up on us!  How cool is that?!?  He has called SMS ed (texted), and emailed me.  Someone should make a movie about him, but he doesn't look like Billy Ray Cyrus. 

Also someone from a data base called to ask questions, and that made us feel so, so...documented. 

But, as tropical diseases go, this one is not too bad.  No fevers, vomiting, or the big D, just a few headaches and joint pains.  I guess we caught it in time because it can be deadly if left for years.  It's a parasite that can eat things if left alone, but those joint pains bothered me enough to schedule a doctor's appointment, and he tested for malaria, typhoid and Bilharzia. 

It takes awhile to diagnose, so I was a few days getting diagnosed, then another couple of days to get the treatment.  As soon as I knew I had it, we had to get the rest of the gang tested too, so we had a fun family outing to get poked.  I got the idea the nurses thought we were rather an interesting case.

The treatment is just two doses of pills, taken right at bedtime as they cause nausea.  Not too bad!  In 2 weeks we'll re-test to make sure we're bug free, or snail free. 

Another legacy makes me laugh.  :-)  In Puta there was a kindergarten teacher who had her little class of little kids sing the same song every day, several times. 

"Finger one, finger one,
Where are you?
Finger two, finger two,
Where are you?"

Only it sounds more like
"Fingah, one, fingah one,
Way ah you?"

Well, now that we're home, we'll all be working diligently on our homeschool, writing, or whatever, and someone will just burst out, "Fingah one, fingah one, Way ah you?''

Some advertising guru out to get that tune, because it is definitely a sticky one, that people will remember and sing. 

And what legacy did we leave in Zambia?  Hopefully they remember a group that loved them enough to brave the Great North Road for the reason of telling them about the hope of a home in heaven.  Some of them saw Paul preach about Jesus and draw pictures to explain.  I hope there are now brothers and sisters that will grow and we will meet them in Heaven someday, and we'll laugh about how strange they thought we were, and how God used our strangeness to peak their curiousity, and change their eternal destiny.  Sounds like a lofty goal on this cold, rainy Saturday, but "We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against spiritual wickedness in high places."    And "we hope for that we see not."

Our God is able! 

Our 6 kids

Josh, Jesse, Tiny Tim, Evangel, Joy, and Winnie got together for a picture.  Winnie

 

is planning to go back to Kenya soon we had a going-away party for her on Friday night, which was a good way to keep a bunch of kids happy and busy when there was no Youth Group.  Winnie has been staying with her Aunt Mary and Uncle Victor for over a year, and her cousin Jesse is one of our boys’ best buds.

 

Her leaving is a reminder that we don’t know how long other people’s lives will touch our lives, and we’ve got to use that time as though it could be short.  Redeeming the time, make it count! 

 

We’ve seen Winnie’s English improve immensely, and have enjoyed her smiley self.  We can pray the Lord guides and protects this special girl.

KFC Zambian style

It comes

in buckets in South Africa and the USA,

but it Zambia

chicken comes in a cage like this.

Little guy with bike tire

A sad moment

Jeni captured that moment when the boys found out we were stuck for at least 3 days in someone's front yard, along the "Great North (dirt) Road" just 20 k's from the Congo.  They were good sports most of the time, but it was hot and people were staring, and this picture says it all.

Jeni's Zambia Pictures

Where is the road?  It's gotta be in here somewhere.  Oh, this IS the road.

Every time we walked anywhere, we gathered a little following. OK, a big following.  Just call us a bunch of Pied Pipers. 

Some of our walking buddies.

Our audience was fascinated when we cooked.  Evangel took this picture from on top of a vehicle.  Jeni and I are just starting a meal, which everyone needs to know about. 

This is a cool picture.   This guy looks like he's really concentrating.  Paul gave him the tract as we ferried into Zambia across the Zambezi.  Paul loved that border crossing for passing out tracts.

Our ladies Bible class in Puta. 

 Look at Paul's mischievous face.  Koos is just coming out of the bushes, and Paul had ROARED his most lion-like roar at a strategic moment.  :-)  We had a lot of laughs on this trip.

 Can you tell how destroyed that tire is?  There's nothing left between the rim and the part that touches the road.

Now that's a mushroom!  Looks like a pie or bread, doesn't it, but it's one single mushroom on a plate.

                                                        A crowd of cuties. 

Quite a crowd gathered to watch the Jesus film and to hear Paul preach. 

 These two pictures are for my ladies Bible study buddies in Cape Town who thought I was an idiot for swimming in a lake with crocodiles, but you can see by looking that it doesn't look like a good place for crocodiles.  Besides, we were assured they are non-violent.  Also, it was our best opportunity for cleanliness.

I borrowed Paul's board one day, and tried to get some visual aids in the ladies' class, but I haven't acquired much talent in the 20 years we've been married. 

Chronicles of Zambia #7 The Grand Finale

The Grand Finale

We made it across the South African border last night, and finally were settled in the IMD mission guest house by 1:00 AM. That last day was smooth traveling except for an extremely blown tire, and a dead battery in our own beloved Kia when we got back to Mokopane. We stopped for breakfast along the road to use up sausages so they wouldn't get confiscated at the border, and 9 elephants showed up along the road! Special! Thank you, Lord, for your GREAT, amazing, funny-looking, creation that continually teaches us about You, and keeps us so interested.

The next to last day was our only day to aim for a tourist destination: the great Victoria Falls! We pushed hard in the one surviving vehicle to arrive before gates closed, and had about an hour to explore Victoria Falls. We got soaked, just by looking, but the water was surprisingly warm. We saw "the smoke that thunders" as it was introduced to the great missionary explorer, David Livingstone, and we got a picture of his statue near the falls.

Now we have a day in Mokopane to clean up, organize, begin catching up with people before doing the last 2 days of driving to Cape Town. We've heard James and Gloria were able to go into the new house there, and we're eager to see that.