we're dying, you know

we were waiting for a taxi to pick us up to go to church a couple days ago, when our landlady stepped out of the house as well, she had just been informed her cousin had been found dead. she was headed over their house where the yound daughter was alone with the dead mother.... she was weary but i think it was mostly in anticipation of the long days ahead. a few hours later we met again in the yard and she was just stopping by the house to gather some 'beddings'. She was to sleep at the funeral home tonight... urgh. gotta love traditions. Her cousin was HIV positive and had finally succombed to AIDS. With a sad smile on her face she added, we're dying here in africa, you know.
Her words simply echoed in my ears for a while. my brain felt empty and the echo even louder. I thought of the crazy statistics i had read abt the devastation of AIDS. I would have to double check it but i remember reading something abt Zambian life span being just around 30.... If you ask the typical young girl here how she imagines her life/or would like her life to be, she'll tell you she wants to have a baby. And so they jump in the arms of the first man -often already HIV positive- and there you are. another statistic. absolutely head spinning.
jediah and i really have a desire to get more involved with the younger pple in the church. just get them out, playing volleyball, get ice cream, talk...

KEZIA - kezia made a new friend today, little 6 y old Chisanga. She wanted to play doctor and kept asking her to lay on the ground ! lol The girl wasn't into it. So instead they played soccer.

SHIMA - my efforts to learn how to make 'shima' have yet to be rewarded. maybe next week said Kamwendje.


SPECIAL W.E - Jediah has been in Kitwe (6 hrs north) to visit the Speeedys. Left friday morning, will be back monday. So far so good on this side. staying busy. but def. saving the spiders for him when he comes back.

Today was a special session for 'women in leadership'. It ended up being a 5 1/2 hr long session but it was sooo good. P R really hit the nail on the head. About 10 pastor wives showed up. Such precious ladies. i didn't bring my camera, but will try to upload a pic of one of the pastor and his wife. P Paul and Agnes.


PR spoke about the what and why and how of being a pastor's wife, is it a choice, a calling? then there was a lunch break with some great food a couple ladies had cooked. Loneliness was mentioned. A P's wife must not depend on her husband's walk with God. If she does so one day or another it will eat her alive. Then 2nd part of the session, then some questions.At the end, all the ladies received a token of appreciation. A beautiful chitenge (african clothe). i love mine!
the girls did great. kezia played mostly on a blanket next to me and liliana was an angel between feedings.

Oh and tonight, Kezia and I decided to save the mosquitos we kill every night and put them in a little jar. just for fun. might have to switch to a barrel very quickly...

CHIKI - So that chiki(aka running stomach) i had, turned out to be violent, man! Body throbbing all night, i thought i had malaria at some point. 24 hrs later i was much better but it definitely took a couple more days to feel entirely better. Charcoal caps, imodium, and lots of water, baby!
And thank you Lord that none of my babies got it.

SCHOOL - I started 'school' with Kezia. nothing major. but she is so into it. When we 'pretend school' (in her words) I'm teacher Sarah and she's Audree :) all in french. we learn letters, numbers, draw, cut, paste, the whole thing.
When we were done the other day I asked her if she wanted to help me make dinner. She called me teacher sarah and i explained that now we were not playing pretend anymore and that she was home with her mommy. Her face lit up and she said: Thank you for picking me up from school mommy!
wow. a child's imagination. who needs TV??!

oh and another thing Kezia asked us this week (last week it was; do we have a tv)
-> Can we go to the park? jed and i looked at each other... uh.... well, there are no parks here, honey..! interesting realization.

This is a picture of her bangs (on a not so humid day!!) SHE CUT THEM HERSELF BTW......




..................................................................................

Quote of the moment:
IF I WOULD JUST ENGAGE THE SPIRIT, I WOULD REALIZE THAT GOD IS IN IT!

one week ...

today jediah is getting Liliana added to our Zambian visa. Lots of paperwork, copies, forms, pictures. I'm home, running between bedroom and toilet.... urgh. yeah.
So it's been a week. We're unpacked, back in business, house decorated for christmas, sleeping on normal zambian time. One of my goals this week is learning how to make chima (hopefully once and for all) it's the type of recipe that you pretty much eye ball, + everybody has a different way of explaining it... enough said. i'll just have to watch our neighbor make it a few times to draw a general conclusion on the matter. Chima is a polenta type of dough, it is white and made of water and finely ground maize. It's economically wonderful and quite the filler... Our kind landlady had planted some vegetables behind our house while we were gone and so now we have an aboundance of an equivalent of spinach, a growing plant of eggplants and a large 'bush' of basil and a few onions i think. We're thinking of planting sweet potatoes next. Such a great feeling to be eating out of that little patch!

Another blessing: an american family stayed at our house while we were in the states this summer (they were adopting a little zambian boy) and bought a washing machine which they offered to leave behind if we would just split the costs with them! now that's a luxury and a 1/2.
Kezia asked the other day: do we have a TV? when she heard we didn't, she was just in utter shock; but why??! she asked
ha! welcome to this side of the world, kezia. you're in for more surprises!!

Thanks to the Armans she has a big girl bed and even beautiful and girly sheets and comforter left behind by our summer renters! it's just amazing as i had totally forgotten to bring some with us.

Tuesdays, wednesdays and thursdays we walk (with girls in double stroller) to P Renaldo's house for team meetings. it's a 25 mn brisk walk each way. Meetings start with 30 mn prayer,then 30 mn message, either cd fr balto or devotion by PR himself. Our girls play together under the watchful eye of Patience, young lady who lives with the Browns.Except for Liliana of course. we just make her take notes of the messages for now.

[bathroom interlude; uho! kezia has the chiki too...]

Our big preoccupation right now is to find a vehicule. Please keep that in prayer, it would allow us to be soooo much more mobile -of course- and overall make it a lot easier to get places as a family, visit pple where they live etc.

That's all -for now. i really hope our connection will be better soon so we can upload pictures. until next time!