Vehicles in Africa

Sometimes we use our vehicles for interesting things that we normally wouldn’t do in the states.  Steve and I are not into naming our vehicle, but it is known around Mbala as the Mbala hearse.  Poor Steve has transported quite a few bodies to a village for burial over the past six years.

On Monday he pulled into our yard looking like this!!! 

    We have been having water problems.  This is not a new problem, just an on going one.  On the fridge I keep a calendar where I keep track of the water.  I write  a blue YES on the left side of the square if water came in the AM and on the right for PM.  I write a red NO and circle it if is didn’t come.  I then keep all these calendars.  Lately they have been sending water over the weekends (a lot of it) and not sending any through the week.  They send for three or four days and then take three for four days off.  They are suppose to send water for two hours in the AM and again for two more hours in the PM.

This may sound tedious or annoying, but when we don’t keep track we run out of water.  By keeping track we can scale back on our usage.  If it doesn’t come we don’t do as much laundry or we don’t do laundry at all.  If we do laundry we catch all the water in an ice chest and water the garden with it.  Otherwise, we don’t water the garden. We don’t mop the floors.  We don’t flush the toilet as much.  We do take bucket baths.  We do turn off the pump, so water comes out of the faucets more slowly.  This way you use less water to wash your hands.

We have a homemade storage well (I call it) made with mud bricks and plastered with cement.  We cannot clean it very well.  Stuff just crumbles off the wall when you try to scrub it.  The termites are also eating at it.

We also have a tank up on top of a building that holds 1000 liters of water.  This is for when the electric goes off.  Then we at least have water thanks to gravity. 

Then we have six drums that hold between 220 and 240 liters of water.  When they don’t send water and the storage well in the ground it getting low, then Steve siphons water out of the drums into the well.  We put about two a day into the well. 

For the past month Steve has been putting two drums a day in the well on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays.  On Thursdays he has been going to the water companies office to make sure they know we haven’t been getting water and what it the problems, because on Friday he is going to have to load up the drums and go fill them up.  I won’t tell you all that goes on there.  That is another story in itself.

So far, he has not had to load the drums and go fetch water.  Some how they figure out the problem and send water on Thursday nights.

This on going problem is wearing Steve down and something has got to change.  He asked permission to buy a 5,000 liter tank.  That is what you see on top of the vehicle.  A semi did bring it from Kasama, but he was going to Mpulungu.  So at the junction they rolled it off the semi and onto the top of our vehicle.  Steve had about 3K to our house, which was a very slow drive.

One and a half weeks ago, Steve asked the water company if they realized that in the last 14 days we only got water for three days?!?!  Since then water has come everyday morning and night for more than two hours!!!!

We are thankful for the abundant water and for the new tank. 

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas from the Schwarzs here in Zambia!  The teenagers slept in and so we had a late start to our morning.  Steve and Seth don’t sleep in very well.  I forgot to shut the curtain and so the sun was shining in my face at 6 AM.

We did our devotions and then worked together to make breakfast.  It consisted of fresh squeezed OJ, oatmeal bread toast, eggs, and fried potatoes (those are Steve’s specialty).  We also had Krispie Kreme donuts that we had pulled out of the freezer.  I made the dough a few weeks ago and Steve fried them up.  Thanks to Mary Margaret for telling us how good they are out of the freezer.

Steve making donuts!

Lane let these girls in the house the other day.  They love attention from their humans!  Sara and Kenzie, six months old and weighing 50 pounds already.

Merry Christmas to all our family and friends!

Cactus

If you were going to drive to our house and we gave you directions, we would tell you about the tall cactus just outside of our gate.  It is the only cactus like it on our road.  Actually, I haven’t seen any thing like it here in Mbala.  When you have arrived at our gate, you will know you are at the right place because of this tall cactus.

One Sunday, last spring (that is spring in the northern hemisphere) after church we pulled up to our gate.  While waiting for Tobias and Lane to unlock the gate we notice that several of the tall limbs of the cactus had been cut.  Steve thought maybe the wind blew them down.  I’m thinking no way.  It isn’t even the windy season and it has never happened before.  Clement finally remembered that Zesco (electric company) had come by and told him they needed to be trimmed.  They were getting to close the electric wires.  He informed the guy that is was Zesco’s job to trim stuff away from their electric wires.

So we go in and have lunch.  In the middle of lunch, Steve gets up, gets gloves, and goes outside.  He wants to see how heavy they are.  He proceeds to hauling them all into the yard.  We even had to get the ladder out as some were still stuck up in the cactus.

I didn’t think they should go to waste and so asked Clement to plant some along another wall in our yard.  I like the color green in God’s world and this one I wouldn’t have to water!  Best kind of plant to have when you get 6 to 7 months of NO rain.

My long line of cactus soldiers!

These two pictures were taken soon after they were planted.  I was thinking that here at least we would never have to trim them because of electric wires.  But look closely in the picture.  There are electric wires running right down the outside of our wall.  Next hope – maybe they will not grow too fast.

This picture was taken today!  All but three of them have new growth on them.  It starts out as little as the tip of your pinky finger.  The first picture shows the cactus with no new growth and then this is the same cactus.  It grew this much with no rain and we didn’t water them!

July Newsletter

First Baptist Bible School in Mbala

Our first Bible School was a success! As Steve was praying and planning the start of Bible School in Mbala, he felt that a different format may help the students better remember what they learn. Bible School is normally held for six days with four courses being taught. It was decided that a two and a half day format with only one or two courses would be more productive. Instead of having three sessions per year, our format will have a session every two months that rotate between the villages we work in. This is a work in progress that will certainly adapt over time to best meet the discipleship needs.

The first Bible School was held at the Kaseshya Church. They had been meeting in the local school up until one week before the Bible school was held. The school started charging rent, so the people began looking for and praying about a piece of land that they could buy.

Just a few months ago, they bought a piece of property and have been hard at work making bricks. All this has been happening during the harvest season! I’m am surprised at this, but it goes to show how serious they are at getting their own place to worship. In order to meet the needs of Bible School, the Kaseshya people constructed a temporary grass building and built a toilet facility. Construction was finished a week before Bible School started.

Leading up to Bible School, Steve was surprised as the applications kept coming in. His expectation was a class of ten people or less. When class began we had eighteen students in attendance! God is good! The students came from five different villages. Two students even came across the border from Tanzania.

For this first session they studied Old Testament Survey I and New Testament Survey I. They had class on Tuesday and Wednesday from 8AM until 6PM followed by examinations on Thursday morning.

Right across the road from the church lives a man who comes to our Bible study during the week. He is a member of another church but he graciously let us do all of our meal preparation at his home. Three women who were not taking the classes did a wonderful job of cooking and serving breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Other church members opened up their homes for the traveling students to sleep each night. Things went so well that if we didn’t know better, we would think that Bible school in Mbala had been going on for years. The Lord exceedingly and abundantly provided beyond our expectations!

A New Experience for Me - Rita

This past Sunday I took my camera to church for two reasons.  The first one was that I wanted a family picture of us in our Sunday clothes before Tobias leaves us.

The second reason was we were having baptism.

We always stop at this one couple’s house and pick them up and take them to church with us since they are on the way.  Steve said I should take a picture of a Zambian corn crib for my Dad who is a farmer.  So at this couples house I jumped out to take a picture of their corn crib.

When we got to church and had our picture taken, I then took pictures of the two couples already there.  I went in to put my stuff on the school desk and saw the cattle corral out the window.  I decided I would take a picture of that too for my dad.

When I got back outside the lady whose corn crib I took a picture of grabbed my hand and started leading me up the hill.  This was a first for me.  I was being taken somewhere and at first didn’t understand.  She doesn’t speak English and I don’t speak ci-Mambwe. 

But I soon figured it out.  She was taking me to get a picture of a larger corn crib with corn in it.

The pole has notches in it to climb into the crib.

 

I also got pictures of the corn being shelled and the cattle!  After each picture I had to show everybody the picture on the little screen.  So much laughing was going on!!  They loved to see themselves on my little screen.  Much fun was had all around even though we didn’t understand each others words!  And all this before church.

After church we walked down to the stream and three new believers were baptized.  As we finished up a small herd of cows came to get a drink.  Actually, the boys informed me they were all bulls. 

As we were walking back up the road, I heard a small rumble.  I looked back and another herd of cows were running down the road to the water.  We baptized just in time.  Those cows were thirsty.   They ran into the water right where we were.

It was a wonderful day worshipping our Lord and Savior.  Also, a good day to baptize – much warmer than Saturday was.

Mbala Sunset

From the house roof – not good, too many trees

From up in our tree house.  Much better view! 

Going down.

Zoomed in on the going down!

This one is cool, you can see house roofs of our town.

All gone.

I finally got pictures of the sunset here in Mbala, thanks to Tobias.  So many times it is so beautiful but it doesn’t last long.

Birthday, Graduation, Leaving Africa Party

On May 8th Tobias turned 18! My brain doesn’t think I’m old enough to have a child that old.

We had a party for him the weekend before his birthday. Matthew, one of his friends is in boarding school and this is when it suited them to come too. This was the last time he would get to see Matthew.

Joel, Tobias, and Matthew

As the title says it was his 18th Birthday Party, Graduation from High School Party, and (sad) I’m leaving Africa for college Party.

Eighteen candles make a lot of light!

Trick candles!!! Never had this kind before. He blew and blew and the flames just kept coming back! :)

Often when our three families get together the kids have to line up shortest to tallest for the food line. I have never gotten a picture and so wanted one while all four kids are still here in Africa. As you can see, Tobias is the tallest, but he has two years on Joel and Matthew. They have time to catch up.

Opening presents

Fun times visiting with friends

One week after his birthday Steve and Tobias did a Father / son hike with two nights camping.

Tobias did all the planning. Steve didn’t just want to walk on the road from Mbala all the way to the falls. So Tobias got on Google Earth trying to see if he could find trails. He did and they didn’t get lost!! There are no signs to guide you through the bush.

Improvements have been made to the falls area. There now are guard rails! They have places to camp. They also have showers and flush toilets!!

It took them longer to hike it than they expected, so when they got into cell coverage they called for me to come pick them up.