July 12th (Thursday)

We arrived at LHR. We were nearly home! Except this was a sad part of our journey. After we de-planed and stopped at the nearest airport washrooms to freshen up we headed towards customs but had to say a very weird goodbye to Fiona. She was catching a domestic flight to Manchester to visit her family there for a few days. It was so surreal and strange to say goodbye and hug her when the 3 of us have been together for the past 5 weeks, constantly.

Fiona went to catch her flight and Nicole and I went to customs to enter the country briefly as we were heading to Lost and Found and it was past customs. We went to the Lost and Found and they checked for Nicole’s phone and thought they did have it but it was at a different office. We were praying that they did indeed have her phone. We got to the other office and the lady asked Nicole to describe her phone, which she did. The lady asked what the lock screen picture was and Nicole wasn’t totally sure, she told the lady she knew it was a bible verse with flowers… perhaps “she is clothed in strength and beauty.” The lady said “yeah I think it’s yours” and showed us. Nicole confirmed that it was hers and the lady said that we would have to pay a 12 pound fee for keeping/storing it. We looked at each other like, “whaaat?” Nicole opened her wallet and miraculously had exactly 12 pounds remaining from when we were in London at the beginning of our trip. It was such an answer to prayer! Who would have thought that 5 weeks later we would have Nicole’s phone returned to her after leaving it on a plane in London and going off to Zambia and then picking it up on the way back?! Definitely miraculous! We were feeling pretty great after that and I sent a message to Fiona who was about to board her plane and told her we got the phone back, she was super happy too!

Nicole and I now had to go back through customs and security to enter the other part of the airport to wait for our plane. They hadn’t announced the gate yet so we waited at a little cafe where we sat down on this cozy couch and we both ordered a pot of tea each (only 6 pounds). Nicole got earl grey and I got peppermint. The tea was so great and Nicole and I just talked, reflected, and enjoyed our cuppa tea. Our gate was announced so we went there only to discover that it was delayed. We got free meal vouchers. Nicole was now worried that this delay might make her late for her flight from Toronto’s Pearson airport to Windsor. We used our vouchers to get some food and I got some neat pens from the little airport version of Harrods. I got my Dad a pen that said Harrods on it. He originally said he didn’t want/need anything but I was happy I found a little something for everyone.

After we headed to the new gate we finally boarded our plane and after a 7 hour flight we were in Toronto. We went through customs and down to collect our baggage. Nicole got hers pretty quickly but after the carousel stopped we realized that they lost my baggage, again! So I was waiting in the line to fill out paperwork. Nicole was getting antsy about her connecting flight, it was going to be tight. Finally, I told her to just go on and we said a quick goodbye. But, she came back and told me that because we went through customs together I had to go with her to leave the baggage area, otherwise, I would be stuck so I had to request the guy behind the counter to hurry up -he gave me the web address to fill out the rest of the lost baggage claim online.

Finally, we got out of there and were practically running through the airport, and then Nicole went where she needed to take a shuttle to the other terminal to catch her flight to Windsor. I told her if she missed it that we (My Mum, brother, and I) would have her stay with us at our hotel. Mum got a hotel room for the night and then we planned to go home the next morning. I went outside and Mum and Caleb pulled up and I got in with just my carry-on. We waited for a bit and I called Nicole and she said that she made it and was boarding the plane. She told me she sprinted through the airport and was able to breeze through security as there wasn’t any line. So that was good and she made it and going to get home to Windsor.

I went with Mum and Caleb to our hotel room and answered their questions about my trip and read them a few journal entries and told them a few stories. In the morning I tried to take my malaria pill by just swallowing it and I actually managed to do it! I guess I had been training myself with the smaller crushed chunks throughout my trip. I’m supposed to take the malaria pills for another 3 days.

That’s all for my Zambia trip. OH and I finally got my luggage at home 2 weeks later, haha! I hope you enjoyed the stories and the insight into our daily lives during our time at Chitokoloki, Zambia!//

See ya on the next trip,

Cassandra ❤

July 11th (Wednesday)

The day started around 6:15am, without fail the roosters were waking us to begin the day. The last day in Zambia! We were all ready with our suitcases and bags by the door for Dr. Ros when she so kindly came at 7am to pick us up and bring all of our luggage to the hangar. Chris and Alison had flown to a nearby mission station, Dipalata, to pick up Betty a longtime worker and nurse who also needed to go to the capital. We went back to Kariba (which is just a short walk away). We took some pictures with Jack and Kayumbo because Fiona missed being apart of it yesterday.

It is a Wednesday morning so there was a teaching session going on. Dr. Ros was leading it. We waited by her truck until it was over and to wait for everyone to come to the hospital for the day so we could say goodbye. Then who do we see walk by first but Tiffany! She had made it back to Chitokoloki late last night on the bus. We chatted with her for a bit and said goodbye. She told us that she needed to hurry as there was an emergency C-section. Then shortly after Dr. McAdam and Dr. Lipsi came along and we said bye to them as the needed to go perform the surgery and save another life (x2!) We then saw Dr. Ros and said our goodbyes to her as she had to go see her patients on the children’s ward and do quick rounds in the other wards as everyone else had rushed off to do the emergency C-section.

We then walked over to the hangar to wait for Chris, Alison, and Betty to return so that we could load up and fly to the capital to begin our long journey back to Canada. As we waited Gordon and Ruth arrived at the hangar shortly followed by Dorothy, Janice, Joey, and Owen to see us off! That was really nice that they came to say goodbye. Except some of them also had come to give a list of things to Chris to get for them when he was in Lusaka, haha!

As we waited for the plane to return we were all looking in the very clear blue African sky with hardly a wisp of clouds, just waiting for the first glimpse of the little plane. We then heard the low drone of the plane motor and then… I saw it! I pointed ahead in the sky and said “I see them!” Gordon looks and says, “where?” I simply respond, “in the sky.” Everyone laughed, I hadn’t meant to be funny or vague, it just was my immediate response, ahaha! But Dorothy responds matter-of-factly to Gordon, “You can’t see it because the wind sock is in the way.” Then the plane was coming in for landing. Chris touched down and circled around and came into the hangar. Owen was so excited pointing at the plane and squealing out, “Uncle Chris!” Chris, Alison, and Betty climbed out of the plane and Gordon and Chris began to load the plane with luggage and other items as they discussed what Chris needed to get in Lusaka, Dorothy gave him the shopping list. The rest of us talked while they readied the plane to fly.

Janice took some pictures of the 3 of us in front of the plane and I tried to capture the people who came to see us off and who have become like family during our time here. Always making sure we were cared for and who made some special memories with us that will last a lifetime. It was then time to say bye and give some hugs and thank you’s. We were so thankful to be treated so kindly and to learn so much during this incredible experience and they told us that they were thankful for our help during our time here. The 3 of us shared the sentiment that we hadn’t been able to help as much as we wished we could have (they had to teach us a lot before we could really assist them). They assured us that we helped a lot and we were happy to hear it.

I got in first, I was in the back sitting beside the luggage and I didn’t get headphones, there wasn’t enough, (they are used to block out the noise of the plane’s engine during flight). It gets really loud. Betty and Fiona were in the middle and Nicole sat next to Chris in the front of the plane. Alison handed us all candy canes for the flight which was really nice.

Then before we knew it, we were off, leaving the place we called home for the past 5 weeks. Where we bonded with people as we experienced a great many intense and challenging as well as happy and amazing things together. We had seen people die, people give birth, children play even while sick, and a child cry as she had lost the majority of her hearing and sight. We immunized children to protect them for the future, we spoke their language to the local people in the area (only a few words), but how their faces lit up when we said words they could understand! Unforgettable -that’s an understatement what this trip would be for us, for me.

As we were flying it felt like a long 3 hours looking down at the African bush, broken only by the occasional plume of smoke as people burned off the dry grass, as is their tradition during the dry season. I closed my eyes and prayed. So very thankful for all the people I met, praying for each one. Thankful for the experiences I had and all the things I learned. Thankful for safety throughout our trip and probably as we hit more turbulence and were decreasing altitude coming into Lusaka, I prayed for a safe landing! There wasn’t a lot to do in the 3 hours as it is so loud that it makes it extremely difficult to converse with the other passengers beyond mouthing a few words. So I dozed on the flight. As we were experiencing turbulence I felt as though I was on the Drop Zone or some other amusement park ride where your stomach feels as though it has dropped out of your body. This happened a couple of times when coming in to land. I began to feel nauseous after it happened a few times. Praying that I wouldn’t lose my breakfast. Thankfully, I held on and we landed without incident and taxied on the tarmac where Chris parked the little plane beside a much larger one that towered over us. We dragged our luggage towards the airport and entered through the automatic sliding doors into the large lobby. Our first stop was the washroom.

After that quick pit stop we saw that the elevator was inaccessible so we had to carry our large suitcases and carry-ons up 2 flights of stairs to get to the second floor where we would go find a restaurant to eat a good meal for our lunch. We knew we would be eating plane food for the next few meals. We ate at a highly recommended Indian restaurant (Chris told us that the food there was great and he wasn’t wrong!) It took a little while for my appetite to return as my stomach was still uneasy from the turbulence. I got chicken tikka masala with naan (of course!) and it was delicious! The other girls also loved their meal.

After a nice leisurely lunch we did a bit of souvenir shopping. I bought a green rock in the shape of a heart that can be put on a necklace chain. This rock is famously mined in Zambia. I also finally found a Zambian soccer jersey for my brother. After our shopping we went back down the stairs with all our luggage and boarded our plane to Johannesburg.

We got to Jo-burg in the evening and we had a couple of hours before our next flight. So we took the opportunity to do some more souvenir shopping (there were better stores there than Lusaka). I got a hand painted mug for Kyle, a shirt with Africa on it for Tyler and myself, some really cool African salad utensils for Mum, and I had trouble finding something for Dad. The girls found a few things as well. We then boarded our flight to London-Heathrow airport. Another overnight flight… 12 hours is a long flight but it was actually better/easier the second time around. We sat in the middle seats of the plane. Fiona sat next to me and a guy from South Africa, he was nice and had such a cool accent! We watched a movie or 2 and slept.//

July 10th (Tuesday)

The day has come. It is our last full day here at Chitokoloki! It has gone by so quickly and we have been able to experience so much in the last 5 weeks, it truly has been amazing!

After getting ready for the day we thought that we would go up to get a picture in front of the sign outside the hospital of the 3 of us. As we were nearing the church building I turned as I heard Dorothy shouting after us, “CASSANDRA, NICOLE, FIONA! Where are you going?” I answered back , “We’re going to the hospital.” She asked, “is Fiona still coming with me?” I told her yes. She then asked what Fiona was wearing but then saw that Fiona was indeed wearing a skirt and not “slacks” and that Nicole and I were in scrubs. We told her that Fiona would be back shortly.

We went up to Kariba and asked Oliver the guard at the door to take our picture by the door/sign. Although for some reason the flash on my camera quit working so I had to put it on the setting with no flash… As we were taking the picture Dr. Lipsi walked up and he also took one with his phone. Then I asked if he could join us for one. I said, “can we get a picture with the famous Dr. Lipsi?” As he came over to stand next to me he said, “don’t you mean the infamous Dr. Lipsi?” We all laughed and we said “no, no, you’ve taugh us so much! Thank you for everything!” I checked the camera and it turns out that an unskilled photographer took the photos… They weren’t the best but there really wasn’t anyone else around to take them that we trusted, so we had to live with the lower quality of photos.

Fiona then hurried back to Dorothy’s house to join her to go see chronic patients and administer praziquantel at the Sowfuku School. Nicole and I along with Dr. Lipsi went to devotions. Gordon was back to teach and when we were praying at the end I prayed that me camera (rather, my Mum’s camera) would be working fine again. I tried it after we had finished and the flash popped up again with no issues, I love when God is pleased to answer even our little prayers! I was so happy and thankful, I was going to have a hard time explaining to Mum what was wrong and how her good camera that I was suppose to take care of quit working properly. With no flash/no auto setting it greatly affects the quality of pictures (especially in lower lighting).

We went to the ICU for ward rounds, while there Alison suggested we could go get the first patient for theatre. We went to theatre to check the board and saw JR. She said the first patient would be baby Grace. So we went to go get her from the maternity ward but couldn’t find her, after asking around (as the staff working were not sure) the other patients said that Grace had passed in the night. We were shocked and went to tell JR, she took it in stride though and just asked that we go get the ticket. I think she was anticipating that baby Grace wouldn’t survive very long with all of her issues. We went and got the ticket and then go the next patient for theatre after telling Dr. McAdam that Grace had died in the night.

So the next patient was a woman who needed a small skin graft to close an open wound after the removal of tumour on her shoulder we had assisted with previously. Nicole and I prepped the patient and got her all ready for surgery by ourselves! I started a beautiful IV cannula, Nicole got the documentation done and we set up the EKG leads, BP, O2, etc. Just before this however, we got a selfie with Jack, Kayumbo, and Joyce. The skin graft went well and Nicole and I helped with documenting and anaesthetics. Next up I assisted Dr. McAdam with a urethral dilation in the upper theatre room, it was kind-of painful to watch… We left the man with a foley catheter in so that the suprapubic one could potentially be removed if the other started draining.

We had our tea break at about that time as it was after 10am. A little later JR, Alison, and Kate joined us. They had been apparently doing CPR for an hour and a half for a woman who was in the women’s ward. They did it long enough to get the full unit of blood infused and reassess and hopefully successfully resuscitate her. It was not successful. So everyone was grateful for a break. We took some pictures with Dr. Ros before going back to work.

We then assisted JR with an esophageal dilation. This happens every 6 weeks for this patient in particular as she drank acid in an attempted suicide. She survived and it caused scarring and strictures to the esophagus and damaged her vocal cords and trachea as well so she has a tracheostomy. Nicole assisted JR by handing her the tubes from sizes small to big to insert into the esophagus. I was holding the airway for stabilization (oxygen tubing over the trach) as well as suctioning when needed. This procedure was done under ketamine. Near the end she (the patient) started fighting us a bit, Nicole held her down with her one arm and I held the ther, but she was also kicking her legs so much that she was nearly going of the bed. I stretched my lower body along the bed to keep her on and I asked for some help from the others in the room. Thankfully, Kayumbo had just walked back into the theatre and was able to hold her legs down so that we could finish. We finished the procedure and JR gave the other Zambian nursing staff in the room a talking to… as they should have stepped in to give us a hand to keep the patient still when they saw we needed help rather than watching us.We then helped with a BTL, Nicole scrubbed in to assist with it and I was just supporting and helping with anaesthesia.

We then went home for lunch, however, it ended up being a bit later than the usual time of 1pm. The reason was that Dr. McAdam allowed Queen to get some practice by finishing the closing for the patient who was having the BTL. So Queen was a little slower than normal as she had only done sutures a few times. It’s so awesome how the missionary doctors and nurses are always wanting to help further the other staff’s education and expose them to new experiences to help them further their knowledge. They did the same with us as visiting nursing students. Dr. McAdam and Dr. Lipsi had gone at lunch time and we finished up with the BTL patient. We had leftovers that we had to try and finish as we would be leaving the next day for home! After lunch Nicole and I went to see Ruth about a few things. We collected our wallets from their safe in Gordon’s office, we told Ruth about Fiona’s broken bed, and gave Ruth a box that Fiona made up with gifts to give friends who live around Chingola, where she used to live.

We returned to the hospital after we had finished with our errands. There was one more surgery scheduled. It was a hysterectomy. The woman needed the hysterectomy because her uterus had fibroids (they were very large). It was a fascinating surgery and Dr. McAdam and Dr. Lipsi worked together and Nicole and I were helping with documenting/monitoring vitals and anaesthesia. Dr. Lipsi held up the uterus for me to take a picture and he did it gladly, haha! I was so fascinated and hadn’t seen anything like it so I wanted to take a picture. I also helped Dr. Lipsi with a small procedure. We were moving a small lipoma from a man’s flank we gave him local anaesthesia and Dr. Lipsi removed the lipoma with skillful use of the scalpel while I used the retractors. During the procedure Dr. Ros came by to speak to me she asked if we had someone picking up our bags tomorrow to bring them to the hangar, I said no, so she volunteered to drive her truck over and get us and our things tomorrow morning.

After we were done the surgery Nicole and I returned to the Annex and did some cleaning, tidying, we showered, and ate. I also ran to capture the last African sunset over the Zambezi river.

We then hurried off to bible reading… Fiona still wasn’t back yet and Nicole and I were worried and felt bad that Dorothy was so late on Fiona’s last full day. However, Fiona joined us halfway through the bible reading -we left a note on the kitchen table so she would know where we had gone. After the bible reading we were all invited to Chris and Alison’s house to play games. We played animals, the game where if you aren’t careful or quick enough you can get hit with a rolled up newspaper. When we played animals we changed it up a little and had to do animal noises rather than call the name of the animal. It was pretty funny! Apparently a giraffe’s noise is “munch, munch” ahaha, Oh Boston! He’s a funny guy. Everyone who was there: Alison, Chris, Boston, Joey, Kate, Owen, Janice, JR, Fiona, Nicole, and I. We played Rook, Uno, and made sure to get a picture with Owen! As we were heading out and saying goodbye we gave everyone their cards that we had written the other day.

We left around 11:30pm, when we got back to our house I began my packing. Yeah, I hadn’t started yet, haha! I was able to pack everything fairly quickly and was done by 12:30ish. Then went to bed to end a very busy last full day. Wow, was I ever going to miss this place and all of the people I have met here!//

July 9th (Monday)

It’s the beginning of another week here, but it’s incredibly hard to believe that we have only 2 days before we leave Chit and Africa in general! It was like any other clinic day but also different from all the others as this was the first day that Dr. McAdam was back and you could tell that everyone knew (the patients) as I’ve never seen the queue for the clinic area so crowded! We began the day with rounds as always. After tea we started on clinic (this time Nicole and I stayed with the main group as Fiona went with Dr. Ros to the paediatric ward for ward rounds).

At the clinic (all 3 of us) felt a bit in the way but we were trying to assist as much as possible. I helped Dr. McAdam go through and look at the x-rays of certain ward patients and made sure that Dr. Rodney’s report was written on their tickets. Later I was in the Dental/Eye room when they brought the man from the men’s ward who needed to get scans done of his abdomen. The man came into the room with a lot of pain and kind-of lethargic, he couldn’t really get on the bed so Dr. McAdam asked what the blood sugar was after he had asked someone to do it during war rounds. It turns out no one had done it so he requested Queen to do it, so she gathered the supplies and came back to check his blood sugar. It was 2.2! So Queen went to go get an IV cannula for this man. JR came in and we told her the blood sugar, she asked if anyone had got the dextrose, and an IV cannula. We said no to the dextrose so JR ran to get some and came back with Queen to get an IV in him before he went hypoglycemic. We had to hold him down as he was fighting us with all his strength, he was slipping right out of his wheelchair and was nearly on the floor. But we were doing everything we could to get this dextrose in him to save his life! I was helping JR by holding his arm straight so she could insert the IV cannula to give him the dextrose. She tried twice to start the IV and got it on the second tr. JR injected the dextrose ASAP but he was fighting her and she lost the seal on the dextrose and some of it sprayed into my face/eye. I said, “was that saline?” JR responded, “it was some of the dextrose so your face will just be a bit sticky, sorry!” The things that happen during emergent situations, you just gotta laugh! We finally go other fluids running into him and he relaxed a little.

The next thing that we helped with was baby Grace and seeing the doctors explore with a mini laporotomy while we looked on. They decided that because the colostomy was now not active that she might have a bowel obstruction. They then decided to insert a urinary catheter. When they were doing that we were all wondering if baby Grace was really a baby girl or if she was a boy and as she was born prematurely perhaps some of her anatomy hadn’t developed like her first issue was an unperforated anus, thus the need for the colostomy. Once the catheter went into baby Grace’s bladder it started draining pinkish pus, they drained quite a bit and it became clearer. It was hard to imagine this little baby with that much foul drainage inside her. After Dr. Lipsi and Dr. McAdam finished with that they signed the ticket and headed to Dorothy’s for lunch. Fiona also went on ahead of us. JR was trying to put in a new IV cannula to get some fluids into the baby. She was having a lot of difficulty finding a good vein. Nicole and I were helping with suctioning after the NG tube was inserted as she was vomiting a bit. We finally got 2 good IV cannulas to use and we were half an hour late to lunch at Dorothy’s.

We hurried to get there and we when we arrived there was some tense conversations/interrogations happening between Dorothy and Dr. McAdam each at one end of the table with Dr. Lipsi, Janice, and Alison on one side, and Fiona and Dr. Ros on the other. We managed to eat our meal quickly and answered Dorothy on why we were late, twice… haha.

We then returned to hospital after a quick stop at our house. We helped with a few errands/jobs but we were mostly in the way. The queue was still as long as ever. I took baby Grace’s mother to the lab to check if her blood was a match so Grace could get 60ml of blood to improve her hemoglobin levels. While I was doing that Nicole and Fiona were waiting in maternity for the mother labouring there to deliver her baby.

Once I was finished getting blood for Grace I joined the other 2 to wait for the baby to be delivered. The mother was dilated to 9cm and was a multip. so the baby could practically come at any moment. So much so that Fiona didn’t want to take a picture outside the hospital as she was afraid as soon as we left that likely the baby would be delivered as we just had that sort of luck. So we stayed then suddenly there was the membranes emerging though still intact. It almost looked like a balloon that could be popped at any second. Brenda and the other lady there hid behind a plastic apron they held up and Fiona already to deliver put her sterile gloves on but she backed up to get some space between the membrane and herself. I stepped partially behind the curtain and Nicole was going to hide behind the others but then though better of it and stood next to me. Then Nicole and I were shocked as we saw the baby’s head now out but within the membrane. Nicole shouted “the head!” Haggai came in at that moment and spurred us into action by saying we needed something sharp like a clean needle to break the membranes around the baby. One of the nurses and Nicole and I quickly went hunting for a needle, so we were crashing around in the other part and then Haggai said “never mind”. We came around the other side of the curtain and I saw the baby slip right out and Fiona was right there while Haggai removed the membrane from around the baby. He then cut the cord and delivered the placenta while Fiona cleaned up the baby, weighed him, then wrapped him up like a burrito. The mother to my surprise was feeling recovered enough to get dressed and move to the other part of the maternity ward to lie down on her bed. The other mamas gathered around and sang a song for the successful brith and danced around moving their hips and clapping their hands in celebration.One woman cam so close to Fiona who had the baby in her arms that she was bumping Fiona with her hips, ahaha! The mamas laughed and clapped when they saw us (mostly me) attempting a celebratory happy dance. They probably thought, those white girls can’t dance!

Afterwards we decided that was a good conclusion to a long day and headed home. Along the way we noticed the sky was such a beautiful shade of pink as the sun was setting. I proposed we go down to the pontoon where Alison said you can get good pictures. So off we went and thankfully I already had my camera with me. We started out walking down the path to the river but then realized that the sun was really going down quickly so Fiona broke out into a run, I followed, then Nicole. We were running down at almost dangerous speeds nearly wiping out by slipping on the slippery straw that was on the path. Another thing that made it precarious was the fact that we were laughing so hard it made it difficult to control ourselves, let alone running down a hill with deep ruts prime for tripping us up. We took some pictures that we already knew wouldn’t come close to capturing the truly beautiful display God had made in the sky that day.

When we returned to the Annex we began to make our “staple” African meal – I cut up the beef to fry, Nicole made the potato wedge fries, and Fiona cut up the cabbage to fry. Most of our meals are very similar, they just have minor variations, but one important thing remains -CABBAGE! We didn’t eat until after 7pm and remarked to each other that Tiffany would be so proud of us eating at a later hour. By the way we have concluded that each one of us are good cooks and bakers and that sometime in the coming school year we will get together and recreate our meals and talk about this tip. Such good plans! Also Fiona thinks/bets that I will be the firs of the 3 of us to get married, I laughed, I highly doubt this… But of course I have written this down as a record for a future date when one of us gets marred first and we will find out who was right, ahaha!//

PS. Also Dorothy asked at lunch if one of the 3 of us girls wanted to go out and do some praziquantel and see her chronic patients. Fiona and I looked at Nicole and I and quickly volunteered. Which was fine for us as we weren’t wanting to spend our last day away from the hospital.

July 8th (Sunday)

It started out as another chilly “winter” day today. But thankfully we don’t have to leave the house to go to the meeting until just before 9am so it isn’t too bad. Also their winter’s don’t usually include snowstorms, haha! Along the way of our walk to to meeting we were thinking of the hymn “Sakilenu”. We really enjoy the African way they sing it, with repeats, it’s very beautiful. The song has been stick in Nicole’s head mostly all weekend and so it was also stuck in my head and Fiona’s.

As we got to the building it was still locked up, they were listing out (Dorothy and Ruth) who had access to a key, but all the people were either not there or had lost their key. But then Alison came and saw we didn’t have a key and Chris has one so she went back to their house and got it so that we could open the doors and start the meeting. Amazingly the first hymn that was given out during the meeting was “sakilenu” Fiona and I looked at Nicole and we all tried very hard not to laugh. Dr. Lipsi gave the ministry and spoke about Adam and Eve in the garden and their sin. It was nice to hear the message in English. One of the brothers provided the translating for the others who make up the majority where who speak Lunda.

After the gospel meeting was over we went back to the Annex and I made another pineapple upside down cake for the evening’s gathering that we are co-hosting with Dr. Ros. The cake turned out a bit more messy than my first attempt as we were rushing to bake it before we were due to go to Dr. Ros’ house for lunch at 1pm. We joined Dr. McAdam, Dr. Lipsi, Joey, and Owen there for lunch. It was lovely, the food was so good. She made chicken, cauliflower and carrots with a cheese sauce, baked mini potatoes, green beans with onions and tomatoes, and a delicious lemon-lime cheesecake. The conversation was interesting and we learned some history from Dr. McAdam and Dr. Lipsi. We went back to our house and Fiona started to make some cookies from a recipe Dr. Ros had shared with us.

I went to the Sunday School that afternoon… let’s just say the children were rambunctious. Dr. Lipsi also came along and we both were wearing wide brimmed hats and carrying our cameras. We definitely looked the part of tourists/visitors. There was one child who sat next to me who wouldn’t stop touching my camera, at one point she way laying over my lap so I sat her up so she would listen to the message. She was NOT happy about that and she started hitting my arm. Dr. Lipsi then reached over and caught her wrist and shook his head, getting after her for hitting me and it was a bit amusing to me. But like I said previously, a stern glance works in any language.

I returned to the Annex and the girls were baking cookies and reading before heading to Dr. Ros’ house (the duplex) where we co-hosted the Sunday night gathering. We went a bit earlier than everyone else to help set-up and bring the food and water (Nicole carried the water and one of the jugs wasn’t sealed very well and it kept leaking all over Nicole as we walked over). We found Dr. Ros in her arm chair with her cat curled up on her lap, it was a very cute sight. Then Alison, Janice, Dr. Lipsi, Dr. McAdam, and Dorothy joined us and we sang some songs (we were really missing Chris and his guitar). We then listened to an online message from David Vallance on the book of Jude -“don’t be normal” ministry, it was excellent as per usual. Then we enjoyed food and fellowship. We went back home and turned in for the night. We also had some leftovers from the snack so we let JR know that we could bring the snack for tea the next day.//

July 7th (Saturday)

I woke up around 7am this morning when I heard Fiona up and about. She had decided she was going up to hospital to see what was happening and to do ward rounds with JR. She has a hard time taking a “day-off”, she gets bored pretty quickly and likes to be doing stuff. I did go back to sleep until 8:45 and thought I heard some knocking. Nicole had apparently work up and had an unsettled stomach -this has occurred several times this trip and we think it may be due to the malaria medication. So she decided to implement Dr. Lipsi’s observations about elderly people to stimulate their bowels would drink a warm liquid in the morning. So she had a cup tea and a slow morning and it seemed to help. I came out to join her and ate my porridge to get down my crushed malaria pill.

After Fiona got back around 10am she said there had been men that met her on the path saying that they knocked on the door at the Annex to ask for a job, but the sisters were sleeping, haha! Fiona directed them to talk to Ruth.

We then walked to the “farm” to go get a tray of eggs for our baking and last few days here. When we got back I started making a pineapple upside down cake, which turned out quite well. While I was baking the girls had went out on the back porch to read in the sun for awhile. When I went out after the cake was in the oven it got quite cloudy, so that was disappointing. It was also windy so that made it a little chilly.

We relaxed and read until 4pm as we were going to Mwangala’s house, she is the x-ray technician here at the hospital trained under Dr. Rodney. She had invited Fiona to come over to catch the England vs Sweden game, we weren’t going to miss it, I mean it was the quarterfinals of the World Cup! We went over and she had her friend Audrey there putting in a new weave that gave her a cool new hairstyle. It was the first football match that Nicole had watched all the way through. She said she liked it and that made Fiona and I pretty happy! Also England won so what could be better?

As we were walking back to our house we noticed that the sun was setting and it looked SO beautiful that we decided to take a detour and watch the sun set. It was another incredible African sunset! We are truly blessed that God paints such beautiful colours in the sky for us to enjoy. We got back home and made supper at the late hour of 7pm, Tiffany would have been proud. We made our African staple meal of cabbage and carrots fried with beef and baked potato wedge fries.//