Friday, January 30, 2009
Life in Mansa
So here we are in Mansa, Zambia...but how did we get here? Well, me (John) and Ruth were picked up by her contact Martin Chiona (as well as our multitudes of luggage) and he drove us 9 hours north to Mansa. Now let me tell you that driving here does not mean the same thing as driving in the states. First we head off on a reasonbly good paved road. We stop in some little town to pick up food and the like...so far no big difference. But the farther away from Lusaka you get the larger and more frequent the potholes in the road are. Pretty soon you find that we are swerving back and forth trying to avoid the potholes here and there. But what I mean when I say potholes are LARGE (3 feet wide by 1 foot deep) holes in the pavement where road used to be. That being said it was still nice to have a paved road all the way to Mansa. Me and Ruth enjoyed getting out into the country side (mostly mixed grassland and woodland) and saw it as a welcome respite from the car exhaust and city streets of Lusaka. We got up to Mansa at about 9:30 PM and checked into our hotel (though it was pretty challenging to find a recptionist as she was about to leave work for the night. We settled into our room, took (HOT!!! ...nice) showers, and went to bed. We got up the next day and scoped out our accomodation at the research station. It is a fixer-upper to say the least so we have been spending most of our time managing the construction site and we will hopefully move in on Monday. We have met many nice people while staying in Mansa but we are looking forward to moving out of our hotel room (right now we are cooking meals on a hot plate on the desk in our room and to wash dishes we have to take showers with the pots). We are starting to settle into a pace of life here...waking up and eating breakfast...heading to work....going home and cooking supper/reading. Watching the predictable afternoon and evening storms roll across the African plain and be serenaded to sleep each night by raindrops and rumbles (it rains every night here in the rainy season...which we are in). There is so much I have left out of this post but we'll just have to have Ruth fill you in on the rest when she gets a chance to make a post. Hopefully the next time we post we will be talking about moving into our house here at the reserach station. Hope this post finds all of you well...JAR.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Wow! It is hard to believe that John and I have been in Zambia for one week. We are learning much and starting to settle in to life here. Our fist week has been spent in the capital city, Lusaka. We have been staying in an A-frame hut that has a bed, two small stand, our luggage, a fan that we bought to help dry our clothes and keep us cool and bug free at night. We have also strung a maze of cloth line in our house to dry our clothes that we have either washed or that got soaked when we were caught in a mid-day down-pour. Its hard to dry things because it pours down rain at least once everyday and the humidity is high.
I guess I should update you all from the beginning. The flight to Lusaka is pretty brutal... you fly from the US to Senegal (8 hours) and then security gaurds with guns come on board and ask you which bag is yours, they go seat by seat. Then you are back in the air for another 8 hours to Jo-burg, South Africa. By this time your feeling weird because you haven't had a good sleep and your body doesn't know if its day or night or what the heck is going on. Then we boarded our last flight to Lusaka, arrived at 9:00pm to discover our baggage did not make it. Apparently this is common when going through South Africa. Thankfully the embassy was able to help us out the next day, our bags arrived and they drove us to the airport to pick them up. While looking for our luggage we met Lorie and Kerin French, a mother and daughter who were looking for their baggage from 10 days ago (they found it!). They are from the States but have lived in Zambia for the past 4 years. We ran into them again at Shop Rite (the grocery store) and they gave us their cell numbers and helped us figure out what we needed to do to get cell phones.
Friday the 16th was a break-through day for us... we were able to find our way around the city and were able to get our immigration papers in order, book flights home for Jeff and Becky's wedding, visited the University Teaching Hospital and made contact with John's project folks, we also saw a military motor-cage and stopped to watch, a local man on the street, who is a girls soccer coach told us that they were all dressed up in uniform because the parliment just opened today and the military was there for the ceremony. The man also helped us find where to get topographic maps. The Zambian people are very friendly and helpful. On friday we also went to the down-town bus station to check out prices...oh my! This place is pure chaos. We were swarmed by people that wanted to take us around their "booth" to purchase a ticket from their bus company. prices are not displayed, so you arn't really sure if you are getting a good deal, or getting charged more. It was quite the experience.
Over the weekend we were able to meet up with Shruthi, the other Fulbrighter who is in Zambia. It was good to talk with her, see how she was doing and eat a nice meal... we have mostly been living on 1) peanut butter and mango jelly sandwhiches 2) granola bars 3) tuna sandwhiches and 4) carrots and apples. On Sunday we went to church with the French family we met at the airport. They are very wonderful and we stayed the whole day at their house! They are working with Mepepe Bible College, which is also an agricultural teaching farm. It is affiliated with the Church of Christ and Healing Hands International (the place I did an internship with in College). They are funded through Sunset, in Lubbock, TX. David French, the father went to school at Harding Graduate School of Religion (maybe around the same time as my Dad?), He and his wife went to Kenya and were missionaries over there for a few years, they came back to the States because their baby boy had heart trouble. They have since been in North Carolina pastoring a church but Africa was also on their hearts. They have three adpoted children, Steven (from Korea who is in the states), Kerin (from Florida, who is 21 and lives next door, she has adpoted 2 Zambian orphan children, Susan and Zain, they are so much fun to play with and super cute!), their youngest daughter Natasha is from India and is begin home schooled. God is really taking care of us and watching over us... it was providential that we met them at the airport and again at the grocery store. They have really helped get us settled and their plans and work at Mepepe is full of love, grace and is truly helping the people here.
Yesterday (monday) we had a little early birthday celebration for me and had dinner and ice cream with Shruthi. We ate at a fairly inexpensive Indian resturant and John and I shared an ice cream "volcano" this was basically a 2-towerd ice cream sundae that has sparklers put in the top of each mound (it was from the kids menu, so the people serving it thought we were a bit odd). I had a very happy birthday! Thanks to everyone for their well-wishes!
Lusaka is a bustling city, with a good bit of air pollution from the cars, especially when everyone is going to/from work. We either take a taxi or walk where ever we need to go. A taxi will cost us around 3-6 US dollars. If you walk, you will walk on dirt paths that parrallel the road, sometimes there are sidewalks but not often. There are mud puddles everywhere since it is the rainy season. There is also a lot of trash laying around. You don't want to be caught out in the rain with all the dirt and trash rushing through the sides of the street (this happened to us yesterday). There is no such thing as a gentel rain, it will drench you so that your clothes are clinging to your body. There will be little shops on the side of the street or people sitting on the side of the street selling just about anything: umbrellas, corn, bread, mushrooms, bananas, dvds, belts, flip-flops, phone chargers, inflatable pool toys... anything. Lusaka seems to have good electricity, we have had it every night. People tell us that the Copper mines are not doing well so they are not pulling much electrcity,so there is more for the rest of the country. When the mines are working full-tilt there is not enough energy to go around, so there are certain sections of the country that get electricity shut off on certain days and it rotates around the country. Also, we have been told that if electricity is shut off it is normally around dinner time, when everyone is trying to use it. But, we have not had any problems so far, though we did purchase a battery and charger since we don't know what it will be like in Mansa.
We are doing well and love you all very much! We plan to go Mansa tomorrow. Grace and peace to you all!
I guess I should update you all from the beginning. The flight to Lusaka is pretty brutal... you fly from the US to Senegal (8 hours) and then security gaurds with guns come on board and ask you which bag is yours, they go seat by seat. Then you are back in the air for another 8 hours to Jo-burg, South Africa. By this time your feeling weird because you haven't had a good sleep and your body doesn't know if its day or night or what the heck is going on. Then we boarded our last flight to Lusaka, arrived at 9:00pm to discover our baggage did not make it. Apparently this is common when going through South Africa. Thankfully the embassy was able to help us out the next day, our bags arrived and they drove us to the airport to pick them up. While looking for our luggage we met Lorie and Kerin French, a mother and daughter who were looking for their baggage from 10 days ago (they found it!). They are from the States but have lived in Zambia for the past 4 years. We ran into them again at Shop Rite (the grocery store) and they gave us their cell numbers and helped us figure out what we needed to do to get cell phones.
Friday the 16th was a break-through day for us... we were able to find our way around the city and were able to get our immigration papers in order, book flights home for Jeff and Becky's wedding, visited the University Teaching Hospital and made contact with John's project folks, we also saw a military motor-cage and stopped to watch, a local man on the street, who is a girls soccer coach told us that they were all dressed up in uniform because the parliment just opened today and the military was there for the ceremony. The man also helped us find where to get topographic maps. The Zambian people are very friendly and helpful. On friday we also went to the down-town bus station to check out prices...oh my! This place is pure chaos. We were swarmed by people that wanted to take us around their "booth" to purchase a ticket from their bus company. prices are not displayed, so you arn't really sure if you are getting a good deal, or getting charged more. It was quite the experience.
Over the weekend we were able to meet up with Shruthi, the other Fulbrighter who is in Zambia. It was good to talk with her, see how she was doing and eat a nice meal... we have mostly been living on 1) peanut butter and mango jelly sandwhiches 2) granola bars 3) tuna sandwhiches and 4) carrots and apples. On Sunday we went to church with the French family we met at the airport. They are very wonderful and we stayed the whole day at their house! They are working with Mepepe Bible College, which is also an agricultural teaching farm. It is affiliated with the Church of Christ and Healing Hands International (the place I did an internship with in College). They are funded through Sunset, in Lubbock, TX. David French, the father went to school at Harding Graduate School of Religion (maybe around the same time as my Dad?), He and his wife went to Kenya and were missionaries over there for a few years, they came back to the States because their baby boy had heart trouble. They have since been in North Carolina pastoring a church but Africa was also on their hearts. They have three adpoted children, Steven (from Korea who is in the states), Kerin (from Florida, who is 21 and lives next door, she has adpoted 2 Zambian orphan children, Susan and Zain, they are so much fun to play with and super cute!), their youngest daughter Natasha is from India and is begin home schooled. God is really taking care of us and watching over us... it was providential that we met them at the airport and again at the grocery store. They have really helped get us settled and their plans and work at Mepepe is full of love, grace and is truly helping the people here.
Yesterday (monday) we had a little early birthday celebration for me and had dinner and ice cream with Shruthi. We ate at a fairly inexpensive Indian resturant and John and I shared an ice cream "volcano" this was basically a 2-towerd ice cream sundae that has sparklers put in the top of each mound (it was from the kids menu, so the people serving it thought we were a bit odd). I had a very happy birthday! Thanks to everyone for their well-wishes!
Lusaka is a bustling city, with a good bit of air pollution from the cars, especially when everyone is going to/from work. We either take a taxi or walk where ever we need to go. A taxi will cost us around 3-6 US dollars. If you walk, you will walk on dirt paths that parrallel the road, sometimes there are sidewalks but not often. There are mud puddles everywhere since it is the rainy season. There is also a lot of trash laying around. You don't want to be caught out in the rain with all the dirt and trash rushing through the sides of the street (this happened to us yesterday). There is no such thing as a gentel rain, it will drench you so that your clothes are clinging to your body. There will be little shops on the side of the street or people sitting on the side of the street selling just about anything: umbrellas, corn, bread, mushrooms, bananas, dvds, belts, flip-flops, phone chargers, inflatable pool toys... anything. Lusaka seems to have good electricity, we have had it every night. People tell us that the Copper mines are not doing well so they are not pulling much electrcity,so there is more for the rest of the country. When the mines are working full-tilt there is not enough energy to go around, so there are certain sections of the country that get electricity shut off on certain days and it rotates around the country. Also, we have been told that if electricity is shut off it is normally around dinner time, when everyone is trying to use it. But, we have not had any problems so far, though we did purchase a battery and charger since we don't know what it will be like in Mansa.
We are doing well and love you all very much! We plan to go Mansa tomorrow. Grace and peace to you all!
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Twas the night before departure... (John Speaking)
Well...it is 10:30 PM EST and me and Ruth are getting ready to spend out last night in the USA for a while. We spent the day going to church, eating lunch with friends, and of course packing. As I type this in the kitchen I see our 200 pounds of belongings sitting against the wall and I think to myself, "finally, time to go!". It seems that me and Ruth have been preparing for this trip FOREVER and it will be nice to finally going. Still there will be many things we are going to miss. ..
1. Winter - I know this sounds crazy but we LOVE winter! We just built a 9 foot tall snowman last night in the front yard and now we are going to have to leave this winter wonderland from tropical Zambia (not a bad trade I suppose).
2. Friends and Family - It was great that we were able to spend so much time with family in both IL, WI, and PA. Still we will miss them just the same. We had a great going-away party in State College that just reminded us how much we will miss the community there. Great people just seem to find us!!!
Though we will miss these things we are very glad to have each other. I was just commenting to Ruth that I was glad that I did not have to say goodbye to her! We have both taken research trips away from each other (Ruth in South America and me in Antarctica) and we have decided to not do that anymore. No matter what the adventure ahead, we feel that we are in a good place to meet it. As always your prayers are welcome as we strive to adjust to our new surroundings. Our next post will be from Lusaka Zambia (if all goes according to plan). I hope this finds all who read it well. Know that we are thinking of you all.
1. Winter - I know this sounds crazy but we LOVE winter! We just built a 9 foot tall snowman last night in the front yard and now we are going to have to leave this winter wonderland from tropical Zambia (not a bad trade I suppose).
2. Friends and Family - It was great that we were able to spend so much time with family in both IL, WI, and PA. Still we will miss them just the same. We had a great going-away party in State College that just reminded us how much we will miss the community there. Great people just seem to find us!!!
Though we will miss these things we are very glad to have each other. I was just commenting to Ruth that I was glad that I did not have to say goodbye to her! We have both taken research trips away from each other (Ruth in South America and me in Antarctica) and we have decided to not do that anymore. No matter what the adventure ahead, we feel that we are in a good place to meet it. As always your prayers are welcome as we strive to adjust to our new surroundings. Our next post will be from Lusaka Zambia (if all goes according to plan). I hope this finds all who read it well. Know that we are thinking of you all.
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