London

It turns out we have time for another post. Currently we are in London at our hotel awaiting to leave for the airport. We have some time to spare and I thought I'd shell out some pounds (not really,I used VISA) to print out our boarding passes and use the internet. I had a spot of tea this morning w/ yummy cookies that we had brought from Zambia. I'm mighty excited to eat at our hotel's breakfast buffet. We had an almost 10 hr flight from Lusaka to London yesterday and we were all excited to get to our hotel. Liam had a major meltdown in the Zambian airport customs line which resulted in myself shedding some tears, but we got thru it. The trip has been filled with high and lows (and most of the lows are only related to traveling things like---overtired child in hot long lines, car rides, on plane, etc.) I couldn't help and sit envious of those around me on the plane that got to watch movies, read, and sleep! Liam has been fantastic, but it is tiring work to travel w/a little one.
The trip has been amazing and there is a lot to process in the time ahead.If you see us in the days ahead, we'll most likely be jet lagged but we look forward to seeing you in person!
love,
all of us

This will be our final Macha trip post-as we're headed out of Macha tomorrow morning at 8 a.m to meet with the Bishop in Choma and arrive in Livingstone (home of Victoria Falls!!) early afternoon. We will spend time at the falls tomorrow (Friday) and wake up bright-and-five a.m-early on Saturday for a morning of driving through a safari! We have been gearing Liam up for this the entire week, talking about elephants, zebras, and giraffes galore! We will do a few more tourist type things on Sunday, meet with good friends of the Thuma's-and head home early Monday morning (arriving in PA Tuesday night). Those are the plans for the upcoming days...now here's what today looked like:

We woke up and headed out the door by 9 a.m to see the 'famous' dam Eric (and Michael) speak so highly of. Myself, Eric, Dave, and Liam (via stroller) walked about 20 minutes while Elaine and Christie drove-and enjoyed a good amount of time skipping rocks, hearing stories from the Thuma's childhood (which does include DRINKING from the gross stagnant water) and exploring. We were glad to have gotten there early-the sun was bright as ever-and we were happy to have a ride back to the house. We stopped shortly-to intercept a chameleon who was attempting to cross the road-who was not so impressed to be brought into the air conditioned car. Liam loved watching it's eyes move all directions-but after a few minutes-began turning darker (making his dissatisfaction known) and we put him back where we found him.

After arriving home, many of us when to visit a dear friend of Elaine-who sat with us on her back porch and talked about how different life can be for all of us, depending on where we live and what we believe. It was nice to spend time chatting, disregarding a time schedule, and simply enjoying the company of a lovely woman and her family.

We headed home and jumped back into the car for lunch at a local restaurant. Lucky for us, we phoned our order in the day before-because apparently being a walk-in could result in hours worth of waiting. Many of us enjoyed either a burger or fried chicken-and we all had our own order of fries-there is nothing like eating fries that have been picked and fried all within a few hours.

After dinner we drove to a local village-one owned by Stembridge, a man who works for the maintenance crew here. He is good friends of Eric (and Michael) and we were treated to ibbwatu (indescribable-but let it be known, Christie finished hers completely while Dave took two sips). Liam found a girlfriend-a young daughter of Stembridge-and we do indeed have pictures of them holding hands!! We saw birds of every sort and pigs-needless to say, Liam was not happy leaving.

That takes us to now-a few games of dice away from calling it a night and turning more touristy than we already are...here we come Victoria Falls and Livingstone Safari.

We have been blessed to be here-in more ways than we can begin to describe-and like previously stated, really look forward to going into more detail with each one of you as we return home shortly.

Thank you for your prayers and your interest in our journey.

All our love,

Corie, Eric, Dave, Christie, and Liam

Lupata Lollipop

Wednesday marked our 6th full day at Macha. The morning began with Corie and myself meeting with a woman who works for MRT and has lots of responsibilities doing data entry, going out to rural healthposts, and counseling those who may be HIV negative or positive. She was very kind to spend time with us and also took us for a tour of the ART clinic which treats HIV patients. At the clinic, children and adults can get tested for HIV, get exams, medication, counseling, and check in on a regular basis to make sure that they can remain and improve to be as healthy as possible. We heard stories of how children were in very poor shape, but after being on HIV drugs they made tremendous progress. Corie and I felt a little intrusive walking in on counseling sessions, but privacy doesn't seem to be as big of a deal as it would be in the States. In fact, at the hospital, patient beds are all in one room and very close to one another. It is a very different setting than a North American hospital.

Our next meeting of the day was to go to a women's Bible study in Lupata. Lupata is a local village in Macha and is a recent church plant begun by good friends of the Thumas. Vera, the reverend's wife, invited us to come. She was a delight to be with and the woman were welcoming. There were about 12 of us. Elaine and Vera translated the conversations and content from Tonga to English for Corie and I. This was Liam's first women's Bible study and he spent a lot of time outside. It was also his first lollipop. A young local woman with a baby on her back came over to talk to us. She said, "baby, baby, baby, do you like sweets? Come." She picked Liam up and took him into her little shop (and when I say little I mean perhaps the size of a potting shed) and gave him a lollipop. Liam also played with 3 children from the village who were with their goats. They chased the goats around the yard of the church.

I gotta wrap this up, but the guys had a meeting about a potential Push The Rock opportunity for the summer, toured the ART clinic, and climbed the water tower. We can't wait to show pictures when we get home!

peace,

Christie

short and sweet

It was a good day! However, I have little energy to talk about it. We will talk about it more when we come back. We met the Macha Hospital Administrator and he was very helpful. We also met with one of the Zambian BIC Church Overseers. He oversees 85 BIC Churches. He had many good things to say and we were all moved by what he said. Then we had lunch with a white family who are working with a flight mission agency. After that we went to the CEO of Macha Works. He showed us around the various ministries they provide. After that we went back to the house and Eric and I watched Liam while Christie and Corrie went to meet the wife of the Macha Hospital Administrator. Then we watched Liam some more, ate, gave him a bath, put him to bed, and here we are at about 8pm. My bed is calling!!!! Peace!!!

Dave

Liam had a great night of sleep...which of course means Dave and Christie did too...and the rest of us! It was an "earlier" start today as we headed to the hospital to get the "official" tour from Phil. Elaine was kind enough to take the responsibility to watch Liam...though truth be told Liam was just fine playing in the dirt and watching all the ants running around. I don't think he knew we left!

We started with a look around the Malaria Research offices/labs, including a lovely tour of the mosquito hatching room in the back of one of the labs. There, with the help of two heaters and an a/c, the temperature is kept at around 72 degrees, and the lighting is controlled to mimic sunrise and sunset. Anyway, with out going into huge detail, it is quite an impressive operation run by smiling faces who are more than willing to tell you all you could want to know about the mating habits of mosquitoes. But seriously, the whole thing is amazing, as are the people!

After leaving the labs there, we headed to the hospital, which incidentally was right next "door" and down the path. We met some of the administrators and a doctor, and got the basic idea of the lay out of the hospital. We even stopped by the store and restaurant that are in the confines of the hospital. I of course don't overly enjoy any hospital, but it was nice to be there with Dave and Christie and Corie, and it is always good to connect with people! We had a nice chat with the chaplain, who dropped what he was doing on a busy Monday, to make time for our unannounced visit. That's pretty standard here...its the people of Zambia that make this country so special.

After another lovely lunch prepared by mom...Elaine...we enjoyed an amazing rain storm, full of thunder and lightning. The power got knocked out for about the next 6 hours, but not to worry because here on the MRT(Macha Research Trust) campus, there's the generator to save the day! We spent the late afternoon at the village of a good friend, my family knows her as Auntie Sarah...she took care of my dad when he was young, took care of me and my brother and sister when we were growing up..and is pretty much a family friend for life. We sat in her house with her daughter and just chatted a bit about life and some recent trials. In the meantime, Liam who had decided to join us on this trip, was having the time of his life outside...in all the puddles and mud that he could ever hope for! The little Zambian kids loved to watch as he "swam" on his stomach in the puddles. Needless to say he was not pleased with having to come "home."

We enjoyed another great meal of chicken and potatoes and beans..topped off with mango cake and coffee. Everything is fresh here, its so so good. I don't think I can go back to frozen veggies! We enjoyed the company of Mr. Kalambo, who is the Managing Director of MRT, a key member of the Macha BIC Church, and a great friend to our family since 1984.

So now we are winding down and about to end another day in this beautiful place. I know this was long, I apologize. I talk a lot when I am excited and this place will always do that to me. For the record though, I did NOT want to write, but apparently it was part of some deal that I was unaware of!

tuyoobonana alimwi(we will see you again)

Eric

3rd Day at Macha

Today was the first day that we experienced a good soaking rain during the daytime. We got to worship this morning at the Macha church. Corie, Eric, and Elaine walked while Phil, Dave, Liam and I drove. We did this just in case Liam didn't last through the whole service. Fortunately we had the vehicle because it started to rain pretty hard and Liam was playing outside and was having a bit of a meltdown when I refused to let him play in the muddy puddles. On another note, before the downpour he enjoyed using sticks to write in the dirt and even made a fellow friend. From what I caught of the church service, it was great. The youth sang and there was some drumming that Liam and I made it back in for. The service doors were open so little kids and adults could come and go as they pleased.

We ended up taking advantage of having the vehicle at church and Dave, Liam, and I climbed in and headed back to the house-what should have been a 5 minute drive turned into a 35 minute one because although everything looked familiar we couldn't find the right roads back. To give you a visual...picture lots of dirt roads, some bumpier than others with lots of green grasses, trees, and brick buildings. Liam fell asleep within 5 minutes of being in the car and I began to laugh uncontrollably as we bounced around and tried to make our way home. We did make it home and Dave even made it back to pick up the rest of the crew since church was most likely done by the time we returned home.

After church we had a nice lunch, played a dice game, and then walked to a nearby home for Eric & Elaine to pick up Tonga books. We had dinner on the veranda w/ lit candles and enjoyed some more rain.

We have a few meetings and meals lined up for this week. Its been great to see the place of Macha and I look forward to getting to know the people of Macha better!

-Christie

second full day!

Hi all-

Today is winding down-we've just returned home after eating a delicious pork and mashed potato dinner (among other things) cooked by friends of Phil and Elaine. Liam is sleeping soundly and seems to be on a Zambian sleep schedule-what a champ he is!! We all did our best to tire him out-and thank goodness for a beach ball that Elaine introduced to him, he has been chasing it around the entire day!

Our day began a bit earlier than yesterday-jetlag is slowly going away-hallelujah! We were all awake by 9 o'clock our time-and in case anyone was wondering-only Liam was happy to have made it to midnight and everyone else either was asleep or wished to have been. As Liam napped, Christie, Dave, Eric, Phil and myself (Corie) walked around attempting to meet some people-but were unsuccessful, as many people were out of town shopping due to it being a holiday. We returned to the house, checked out the orchard which includes orange, mango, lemon, banana, guava, avocado trees and raspberry bushes.

We hung out a few hours, ate lunch, read books, and then headed to spend a few hours with a dear friend of the Thuma's-Bina Ezra. She is a wonderful 80 year old woman who laughs with us the entire time. She has a great memory and told fun stories. We ate cake to celebrate the new year, sang a hymn, and enjoyed spending time in her village while Liam enjoyed digging in the dirt and chasing chickens.

We left Bina Ezra's and went to dinner and have just finished skyping-which is always a lot of fun! We're about to play a board game and head to bed shortly thereafter.

Sorry that was a bit wordy-but it's been a pretty busy day!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

-Corie-