Sunday, February 06, 2011

well... have been trying to upload pictures for a while and each time i do i loose our -already weak- connection.... will have to come up with another plan.

Thank you for checking our blog. There's so much to be grateful for. Our lives these days are spent being faithful to the team schedule; getting to know the Zambians and our surroundings and learning a little nyandja here and there...

For those who don't know yet, our family is growing. Baby #2 is due august 4th, Lord willing. We will be in the States by then. And after over 2 months of serious nausea and vomiting and being confined to my bed.. i am finally getting better!!

Monday, I went with a group of ladies to accompany a bride-to-be to try her dress on. We walked deep in the heart of a... i guess you could almost call it a slum, but not as trashy or crazy, just reallly really poor. I finally felt like i was truly back in Africa. I have no pictures to show you but the whole experience was memorable. I told Sophie " I love this place, there's nothing to love but i love it." Maybe it's the familiarity of it, the memories that come with it.... Little zambian boys calling out Muzungu! muzungu! (white man) and we'd reply Mwana Mwamouna wa blacky! Little black boy! after which they'd burst out laughing :)

We got to a house, just raw cement bricks on the outside and inside. A few windows but none were open. You could barely see your way to the main room where we were led. There was sitting a widow and her daughter making favors for a wedding in a room so dark it took us a while to adjust. We had been told they also have wedding dresses for rent. With much effort a window was opened and some light poured into the room, lace curtains were draped over the walls all around the room, a tv entertainment center covered with their little confections intended to support a family of many children with a dad recently passed away. Our precious Devote, a lovely lady from Burundi getting married next sunday and who speaks not a word of english and barely of nyandja, tried a few dresses on and finally one was the right one. The price was way beyond her budget but upon learning we were all either missionaries or pastor's wives etc, the owner gave us a much more affordable price.
On the way back to where our car was parked, we bought some bananas and boiled cassava on a little market, walked by a carpenter's shop busy making multi-plugs out of wood (save for the cord of course), heard the noise of many hammers beating the heck out of huge old metal containers - to turn them into who knows what creative thing-, almost gagged passing by those aweful dried caterpillars (they are supposedly delicious, but I will never know)and laughed at Justina's reply to a very insistant young bus driver...

We're excited about Devote and P. Victor's wedding next week end! a great missions minded couple.

until next time...!