A small detour

Instead of heading straight back to Malawi after our debriefing, a few of us from our training got on a bus and headed to Victoria Falls. It was about a 10 hour bus ride to get down there (it was only supposed to be 7, but a flat tire and frequent stops delayed us).

Needless to say, looking at some of the largest falls in the world was an amazing sight. I can't describe to the the beauty of it. There was so much water coming down the falls, it felt like there was a downpour. Even with our raincoats, we were soaked.







Us journeygirls and some of the Taylors went ziplining over a gorge. It really wasn't too scary..just fun. I was so excited that I got to do it with Kylie, my little 7 year old friend. (She was part of my quad family in training in Virginia). It was so great to share that moment with her.

After the ziplining across the gorge, I guess I thought I didn't have enough fun, so Doug (Kylie's dad) and I decided to jump off a bridge! I was sooo terrified. If any of you know me well, you know that heights and cockaroaches are 2 of my biggest fears in life. I may not have overcome my bug fear yet, but I guess I was ready to face the height one.

 I can't describe to you the feeling of just willingly stepping off a bridge so high up in the air trusting that a rope is going to catch you from going to your death. Wow! I started screaming during the freefall down, but then nothing came out. I literally could not get any sound to come out. But it was amazing.  It jerked pretty hard at the bottom (which I have a bruised rib I'm still in pain over) but I just screamed with excitement. It was a huge rush. I loved it! Would I do it again...I don't know...but glad I did it at least once. :)

After such a great day of adventure in Vic Falls, it totally had slipped my mind that it was my last day with my friends I had spent the past month with.  I held it together till I was pulling out of the driveway the next morning. Tears just wouldn't stop falling. The taxi driver said, "Oh, I am so moved right now! I am so sorry!" That was really hard...

The only thing that kept me going was knowing that I was getting on a plane to see some of my best friends in Nairobi! Woot!

2nd part of 40/40...

Ahhh...BUSHCAMP!
We got on a bus and drove 6 hours east to a little town called Petauke. We pulled up and saw tents set up all around, and of course, it made me giddy!

This is us three girls tent. We had 3 mattresses in there with 3 blankets each because it would get so cold at night. We were also given a bucket to wash our clothes in, a bucket to fetch our shower water from the well, a lantern, a kettle to heat our water over fire for our shower, and a "choo" bucket (in case you need to go to the bathroom in the night, you have a bucket).

This is what our bathroom looked liked...

yep...

you squat...

and avoid the bees that are swarming...

(and at night the bats)

it really made me appreciate my toilet.

Did I mention the smell??

This was our shower. We get our water from the well, up the bucket, and there you go!

Showering at night under the stars is a pretty amazing thing...

At the well...

So, out in the small village we would go do the same DFA's that we did in the city...to get a different perspective. We would all pile into the back of a truck to travel into the town. I LOVED that part.

and we also had interesting things to eat while at bush camp...

This is a reallllly large locust i found on the ground. Don't worry, I really didn't eat it.

Okay, sitting around the campfire at night just talking...or laying down on the ground and looking at the Milky Way...or sitting down with 2 blind men in their 80's and just sharing stories...it was all just so great.

But then...

We got to go live with an African family for 3 days.

Meet my house.

very very awesome. fun fact: found 4 baby rats in my bed that didn't even have their eyes open. That night, the mama rat came and was running around the top of our mosquito net looking for her babies. Yeah...

Here's the yard. This is the dove house, the goat house, and the chicken house in the background.

We basically lived at a zoo. Goats, doves, chickens, roosters, goats, pigs, cows, and all had babies.

part of our job was washing the dishes everyday. 

So, one day we went out into the fields with them. It was 4 km walk away. We sat down in the fields and pulled off dried ground nuts and sorted them to be taken back to town.

This is Daisy, the wife of the house.  And those are all the peanuts we gathered and sorted.

And we also would help get all of our water from the well.

Plus, to have access into a village, you need to talk to the chief or the headman. We had a headwomen in our village, so we had to greet her when we arrived and make an official goodbye. She gave us sugar cane as goodbye gifts. They were sooo huge!

We also learned how to wrap our heads with the traditional fabric.

oh, and this is how we showered. We took a bucket, and a cup, and went behind this wall. There was no door and it opened up into a field. The cows and goats stampeded one night while I was standing there naked in the shower, and I thought for sure the wall was coming down!

Pretty funny story...Cara and Heather when to the use the squatty potty one night but were a little freaked out as I was walking up. Come to find out, there was a bat in the toilet that kept flying out at them. We were scared that when we peed on it, it would fly out and hit our butts, so we were trying to throw rocks down there to make it fly away. We ended up just running out of the bathroom screaming several times and just peeing in the grass. :)

So that was my time in the village. It was so great and I didn't want to leave. I was just totally in my element, you know?

After this, we got on a bus and headed to a resort 7 hours away to debrief for 3 days...

The first part of 40/40...

Where do I begin?

I guess let me first say that being with my friends from FPO was probably the best part of the past month. Having other people to share your struggles with and hearing them share those really made all the difference in the world.

Okay, so I'll set this up for you. My entire house church from FPO (3 couples, 1 family of 5, and us 3 jgirls) were all there, plus 2 j-guys, and 2 more couples, and another family. We all met at a seminary in Lusaka, Zambia where we stayed for about 10 days.

Each day we went out into the city with a specific agenda: How do you get to know an African, what are your medical needs?, What do you think a missionary is?, Do people still use witchdoctors?, etc. So, we would go out in pairs, grab a taxi bus, and just start meeting people.

High points: eating caterpillars, small fish (GROSS!), staying up late talking with the other journeymen, getting to share our faith with people in the city, and just being around other Americans. We also had 2 free days in the city and I got to see 3 movies! and eat out at 2 restaurants!!! It was amazing! :)

I will say that my favorite part of 40/40 was yet to come out at bushcamp. But here are a few pictures from the city life...

 Yep, ate those...

and these...

so good to be back with my old roommates from training!

the poor 2 journey guys that had to deal with us crazy girls.

African babies are just so cute!

Cara was my partner around the city. We had a blast getting ice cream everyday together. :)

This was a daily ritual. Your personal dishes were in a bad hung up on the window. So after you ate, you washed them in buckets, and then we would stand out in the grass waving them back and forth to dry them off. 

This was mine and Cara's helper in the city, Rose.

So, I that is about it. Aside for the 4 year-old Caleb and running with a pen and cutting his face open when he fell, it wasn't too much more eventful. 

Like I said...my favorite part was bushcamp. :)

I'm gonig to Nairobi and 40/40 is AMAZING!

I'll update from Nairobi! :)

Leaving Tomorrow!!

I fly out of Malawi at 10:30 am and then arrive in Zambia! I'm pretty pumped about seeing my friends and getting to just live in Africa without worrying about "life" stuff, ya know?

On my beautiful drive down to Lilongwe today, (which by the way, my right arm is entirely sunburned from hanging it out the window, so pastey left arm, red right arm), I got a phone call that I may not have been on the field long enough to get vacation time to go to Nairobi. So, even though I have a plane ticket, even though my supervisor approved it, even though we are less than 24 hours before I leave....I might not get to go.

Bummer of the century.

Its really hard to understand what that feels like if you haven't lived in a different culture surrounded by new things, new people, and you live by yourself. And you have this glimmer of seeing your best friends for 20 blissful glorious days....and then its taken from you....

BUT, I'm not complaining....I have a cheerful heart...God is in control...and I'm here to spread the Word not be with friends.

all much easier said than done.

When surrounded by poverty...

I am officially leaving tomorrow to start my journey towards Zambia. I'm a little stressed though trying to get 6 weeks worth of school ready, pack for Zambia and Nairobi, arrange dog needs, workers needs, electricity needs, grocery needs, my needs...

I was a bit overwhelmed today, and actually I'm still overwhelmed. It all built up to a breaking point today and I just broke down and cried.  One of my worker's wife has been in the hospital for the past 4 days with bleeding. The bill came to 10,000 kwatcha. His monthly salary is just under 7,000 kwatcha if that puts it in perspective for you.  So, when he comes to me, Mama Reeder, and asks for my help because he has no money and the hospital will not let her leave without the money...what do you do?

Jesus said to give to those in need. Whatever you do for the least of these, you do to me. If you have 2 coats, and someone asks for one, give it to him.

So when you are surrounded by poverty, who do you give to? When everyone around you is in need, where is the cut off so that you yourself aren't left in poverty, or worse yet, add to the helplessness mentality?

Things I've been struggling with lately...and I can't come up with a good answer.

I have 3 workers that depend upon me to provide for them and their families, so when a big problem arises, they come to me...it usually concerns money. So, when do you say no?

If you have any wisdom, I would love to hear it.

The lizard and I had it out...

I was simply plugging in a lamp in the corner of my den. I thought I saw something out of the corner of my eye...not even a foot from my face was this thing. Now...I know the picture doesn't quite do it justice, but from my excellent estimating skills, I'm pretty sure this sucker was just shy of 1 foot long. Next to your face, that's really big.

 

Well, It was a cold rainy day, and I happen to have my rainboots handy..and I didn't want the thing to touch my feet, so I got my broom, and decided to dance a little with the beast. 

Please note, my door is on the other side of the room....I had to cross rugs and couches to get her to go in the right direction.

Well, I must say that Mama Tegha is one heck of cleaner (she's my housekeeper) and she does hand wax the floor. As soon as I got the beast off the wall, it tried to run away....the key word being tried. The best part is the very last 2 seconds of the video...

Lizard from Lauren Reeder on Vimeo.

(And you better watch this 11 second video, bc it took me 55 mins to upload it and 2 attempts).

hahaha. I laughed so hard at this...welcome to entertainment in Africa. :)

By the way...my Jack Russels found it as soon as left the doorway...