A bunch of Beach Bums

So you might be starting to think that John and I are a bunch of beach bums... always spending our time at the beautiful lake shores of Zambia (honestly we do work). This weekend we were at the beach again, this time Samfya beach. We went with a group of about 30 youths from church.

The pictures are of the bible study lesson on the beach and the other one is myself "helping" cook the chicken for lunch. I accidentally dropped a piece into the charcoal and we are retrieving it!

It was a good time of fellowship, singing (and dancing), playing games, and swimming in the water. Both John and I swam a bit, but I was sure to stay out of the sun this time. We saw a water monitor in the swimming area which made me a bit wary of getting in. People were shouting crocodile and snake, but it was neither of the two, just a rather large, swimming, lizard with claws. Usually water monitors try to steer clear of people.

On Sunday we went into town for worship services, in between services we met a friendly ex-(white)Zimbabwe farming couple. They are now working for a mining company that a fellow farming neighbor from Zimbabwe started here in Zambia. Its interesting... the ex-Zimbabwe(white) farmers are a close knit group and have quite a story to tell. Basically under Mugabe's "land redistribution" they were forced (at gun point) off their land (they had lawfully purchased the land) and were given 24 hours to get out or else be thrown in jail. These people are Zimbabwean citizen, born there. Basically they now have no country, and have been jumping around sub-Saharan Africa looking for work (they had put everything into their farm in Zimbabwe- and lost it all). Zimbabwe, once the bread basket of Southern Africa, is now struggling to survive... obviously things are not adding up with this "redistribution" idea. I just hope that South Africa and their recently elected leader, Mr. Zuma, do not follow the same path, running that country into the ground. I think race is still a big issue here in southern Africa. There is a lot of fear, mistrust and resentment between races. I am sure there have been wrongs perpetrated by both blacks and whites in the past, but my hope is that forgiveness can rule and in the future peaceful and harmonious communities will thrive.