Back in May after Tobias’ birthday party he went to the Schaeffer's house to stay over night. When they had gotten home from our house one of their workers showed them a puff adder he had killed near the pig pens.
Here are the three boys skinning the snake with their pocket knives.
Don’t you wish you could help?
Curing the snake skin. They divided it three ways. Yes, I have a snake skin somewhere in this house.
About three weeks ago now in the middle of the night I heard water running. I went and checked, it sounded like it was next to the bathtub. Since I couldn’t find anything leaking inside I went back to bed. Steve also heard the water running. In the morning our guard told us the pump had been running all night. Our reservoir was almost empty.
We looked high and low looking for the leak. We called in a plumber. He said the grass looks too green and the dirt is damp here along the house. So we started digging up the yard.
The leak is found! A 5 inch hole – rusted through the pipe!
We called our LC (Logistics Coordinator) to get permission to spend the money to fix the pipe. You couldn’t even see light through the pipes they are so clogged up. So we replaced some piping.
The new pipe hooked up to the old one going into the house.
Since then we have had the plumber back two more times to fix more leaks. When you put in new pipe the water pressure is so much stronger that new leaks appear. Also it works loose some of the stuff clogging the pipes only to clog up the pipe altogether.
On May 8th, Tobias turned 14 years old. He had two missionary friends stay overnight with him on Friday. They set up the tent in the yard and carried all their stuff out. While watching a movie in the house, it poured down rain. One corner of the tent got soaked. It happened to be Tobias’ corner. So they set up our other tent in Heather’s room. She was off at the Schaeffer’s house. They had all girls and we had all boys at our house.
We had hamburgers, macaroni salad, his usually chocolate cake with peanut butter icing and homemade ice cream. I think he could tell you which year he did not have this cake.
Singing Happy Birthday!
Everyone took turns making the ice cream.
After we drove on the roads I showed you in the last post, we parked in the middle of no where and started walking.
Bottom of the falls.
Seth
Mill to grind maize using the waterfall instead of electric, except it needs some parts to make it work.
Steve, Tobias, and Blake climbing around the falls.
Blake on the pipe that brings the water into the mill. Tobias climbing around the rocks.
After leaving the village of Isoka, we headed to a waterfall on a blacktop road.
Then we turned onto this road. It too was actually not too bad!
This is a road, believe it or not!
Not too sure this is a road anymore, but we are just following the vehicle in front of us. He must know where he is going!
Stay tuned for pictures of the falls.
On Thursday, April 8th we went to visit fellow missionaries on our team, the Kimbroughs. Blake Kimbrough is now our immediate boss, so we did business on Friday. Saturday we went to visit a waterfalls that they have near their place. On Sunday we went to a new church that has only been meeting for about 6 months. For me, I think that was the high light of the trip. To worship God in such a simple setting. It was wonderful. You know how sometimes you go to church and on the way home you don’t feel like you had church, you really don’t feel like you worshiped God that morning. Well, this was really a simple worship service, led by Zambians. We sang a few songs, we prayed, we read the scripture and discussed it a little bit. After about an hour it was over, but God was worshiped!
I know I take a lot of pictures of roads. It is mostly to show you back in the US the road conditions. Last August Blake came to see us and got to hour house in 2 1/2 hours. His words – If you can drive 80 kilometers an hour on a dirt road, it is a good dirt road. Well it took us, I think, around 5 hours to drive it. The following pictures will show you why. I think it is as bad as riding a camel!
On the way home we were driving part of this road in the dark. On a lonely stretch with no people anywhere around we heard this awful sound. A grinding, screeching noise – like our brakes are grinding or something. We pull over. There also were no bars on the cell phone. I’m wishing I thought to pack more flashlights, but handy Steve, his air pump that you plug into the power outlet also has a flashlight on it. I drove the vehicle slowly while he figured out were it was coming from. He jacked up that corner and took the tire off. There is a cover on the back side of the disk brakes. It looked like it was bent and rubbing the disk. While trying bend it out some a very little stone fell out. All was fine. We only lost 1/2 and hour, but it was 13 more kilometers before we got any bars on the cell phone. We are very thankful God was looking out for us.
We ended our trip by stopping at the Schaefer Take Away to pick up our supper. We ended up just eating it at their house. The Schaefer’s are good friends we have here in Mbala. Twice now they have fixed us food for when we are coming back into town late in the evening. What a blessing!
Only 45 Kilometers from our house in the highest waterfalls in Zambia and the second highest in Africa. Because the roads are a mess from the rainy season it took a good hour and 1/2 to get there.
Pictures of the 35 Kilometer road to Kalambo Falls.
Mouth of the Falls
Top half of Falls
Bottom half of Falls. Can you see a cave entrance?
Lane getting a closer look.
Seth getting a closer look.
Stone pathways and one little stone wall barrier.
Double click on this one for a closer look at the tree roots.
A picture of us! :) with the gorge in the background.
This falls is 221 meters high. Come visit us and we will take you to see it, if you want to.
God bless, Rita
