Monday, July 24, 2006

Mission Report - July 24

I am SO sorry that I have not posted on the blog for many days. I’ll give a very brief synopsis of our recent happenings and then try to provide more details in the coming days.

We left for a second set of clinics on Saturday, July 15, and traveled to Singwamba. The drive was long, slow, and bumpy, but we took an alternate route and avoided some of the worst sections of the road. Once again the wonderful advance team had arrived early and set up our tents for us.

Sunday we had a worship service with the Zambians who were waiting for treatment and then opened the clinic at mid-morning. We saw streams and streams of people for the next two days. Early Tuesday morning we were up before daylight and headed for a one-day clinic at RR Chileshe. We finished seeing patients there by mid-afternoon and loaded up one more time for the final trek back to Namwianga. After four days in the bush, we were all dreaming of hot showers and sleeping in real beds. David couldn’t resist teasing our convoy by playing “Splish, Splash, I Was Taking a Bath” over the walkie talkies as we bumped and jolted over the dusty roads.

Wednesday was Project Day—a time set aside for our American team to join with the Zambians at Namwianga for work, fun, and fellowship. Our team painted classrooms, repaired windows and doors, and sorted library books in the morning. Some of the American teachers taught classes at the secondary school and college. Each of the teenagers paired up with one of Namwianga’s high school students and attended classes for the morning.

Thursday and Friday were spent in Livingstone where we enjoyed shopping and sightseeing before sending off most of the team on Saturday morning.

The population of our house has declined from thirteen to just nine now. Those remaining are cleaning, packing, and organizing the supplies and materials for next year. Most of them will leave on Wednesday to return to the US. Sara will be here until Saturday.

More to come . . .

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