Pictures of Potholes

The first picture is looking back at what we think in the worse section of the road. I had labeled it as a "long section - off the road we go". The second picture is a classic pothole. It starts little of course, but left unfixed they just keep getting bigger.

Calf Steve Delivered

Better late than never. Here two pictures of the cows and then the calf that Steve helped to deliver a few weeks ago.

Our Trip back to Lusaka

Our trip to Lusaka went well. We took two days going down, but drove it in 12 hours all in one day coming back. The trip itself can be broken up into nice 200 K segments. Each segment is not exactly 200K but it is close to it.

The first leg of the trip is from Mbala, of course, to Kasama. This section of road is not exactly nice, but it is under construction and suppose to be done by the end of October. It has lots of dirt sections. What was amazing is how much was done to the road in the one week while we were gone.

The second leg of the trip is from Kasama to Mpika. This road is very good. We did hit a few pot holes going too fast. Trying to decide if the black marks really mean a pot hole is coming or not was what we needed to figure out. Finally, Steve decided to believe all black marks and slow down. The thing is this section of road is good so you are flying a little faster and have to slow down faster.

The third leg of this trip is 240K from Mpika to Serenje. It is on the Great North Road and I will discuss it further down in this post.

The fourth leg is from Serenje to Kipiri. Again the road isn’t too bad. You can cruise along at 120 K per hour or faster for those with a lead foot. You do have to stop for police checks.

The fifth leg takes us from Kipiri to Lusaka. On this section of road is all of the speed bumps I mentioned in an earlier post. We kind of forgot all about them, so the first one was quite the experience. I am a back seat driver I will admit. I spend most of my time working at keeping my mouth shut. I find it easier to read a book so I just cannot see what is going on. But here in Africa, Steve drives and watches the road. I do watch the road, but I am also watching for signs that he is missing – like the speed bump signs.

The wild life that we got to enjoy while we are driving or should I say that we hit the brakes for so as we don’t hit them: goats and lots of them, sheep, chickens, dogs, and cows. It seems that if a car is coming the goats all want to cross the road in front of you. Chickens can never make up their minds which way they want to run. Sorry but that is all we have seen so far.

OK for the third leg of the trip. I got out a notepad and took notes. We counted pot holes. Steve helped, but don’t hold us to the number. We counted 210 potholes in this 240K stretch. We also counted what we labeled bad sections of the road. This might have been one big pot hole, or one side of the car was off the road to get around it, or there was more than 5 pot holes clumped together. There were 23 of these. Then there were 7 sections that we totally had to go off of the road. Then there were 4 sections of totally off the road we went but they were really looong sections.

So that was our driving trip, pictures to come in the next post.

God bless,
Rita

Veterinarian Skills Put to Use

Last Saturday morning Steve put to use his 8 or 9 years of skills learned working as a veterinarian assistant. Lynn Shaffer wanted us to come over so the kids could play. We were leaving town for a week, so they need play time. I called to see about coming over this afternoon and could we please pick up more cow manure for the garden. We made plans and she informed us of their one cow was in labor and seemed to be having a hard time of it. I told Steve. I called her back to tell her Steve offered to come over and look at her. Then her husband Grant soon called back asking him to come over and have a look.

Steve on the way over is thinking it has been a long time since I have done any of this. If this is the problem – it will not be good. If that is the problem - it will not be good. Hopefully, the calf’s head will just be turned – that would be easy. When he got there, the calf’s front legs were in the canal and sure enough its head was turned.

Lynn called tell me they have a beautiful girl calf and that Steve saved the calf and cow!!! One never knows when some skill you haven’t used in years (15 years to be exact) might become useful. Are any of our life’s experiences ever a waste of time? Not from the Lord’s perspective. Everything that we experience, good or bad, prepares us for a work that God has foreknown since before we were born. Is there a God with an eternal purpose to save the souls of men through His Son Jesus Christ? You better believe it! What a privilege to be just a small part of that purpose. To God be the glory!

God bless from Zambia,
Rita (the beginning) and
Steve (for the ending)

Church in the Bush!!

Do any of you in the States remember church camp? I think that is what it was called. Where I grew up the area Mennonite (since I was Mennonite) churches gathered at Penn York Camp for Camp Meeting. We spent Friday night and stayed until after Sunday lunch. I remember loving it. I couldn’t wait to go. I even had fun the year my parents did the cooking.

Well, that is what we went to on Sunday. The others came on Wednesday night or Thursday. This was a Baptist Convention meeting. The people look forward to and start planning and saving for this a year ahead of time.

We left Mbala about 9:15 AM Sunday morning. We followed another family up. We only had the six of us in our vehicle. They have lived in Zambia a lot longer, years longer than we have. They had 11 people in their vehicle, plus three dressed chickens and two live ones. The chickens were for help in feeding us. We drove about 45 minutes toward lake Tanganyika and then up into the mountains.

It was a wonderful experience. The kids loved the fact that we drove through a creek to get there – no bridge. They also loved going over bumps and seeing who came close to hitting the roof with their heads. That is until Mommy discovered they didn’t have their seatbelts on.

The people built the church walls, little sleeping houses, and the outhouse all for the meetings. We got there a little too early, especially for the children. When we got there everyone was facing the pulpit area. There was a corning on the back wall were we sat down on two benches that were quickly brought over. Immediately, we the white people were the center of attention. Most of the children watched us the whole time. We got there in time for Sunday School which is in Bemba, so we stayed in the church area. Then there was the preaching – it was in English and translated into Bemba. Then we walked down to a creek to baptize over 30 people, I think. They baptized four at a time. There were 4 pastors down in the water. Then it was back up to the church for the Lord’s Supper. By this time it was 2 PM. We hadn’t had lunch yet and the children had had quite enough of it. By 2:30 a lady from our church here in Mbala had lunch ready for us. We ate the traditional nshima with the rape dip and a tomato and onion dip.

For the trip home we traded Heather for Joel. Then Friday and Charlie (a girl) joined us to. So because we were carrying Schaffer children home, we ended up at their house for a few hours. A wonderful ending (coffee, tea, lemonade (fresh squeezed) and good conversation) to a wonderful day worshipping God in the great outdoors.

Water Lost :(

Sunday morning around 9:30 I discovered the outside faucet was turned on. It had been turned on since before 6 AM. When someone turns a faucet on, if water doesn’t come out, the faucet is most often left on. I have started trying to make it a habit that when I turn the pump on I look to see if any faucets are also turned on.

We have home from church, ate lunch, and started doing dishes when the pump wouldn’t work anymore. Steve went down the checklist of why your pump might not work. Last thing on the list, water too low in reservoir. Sure enough, three hours of water running out onto the ground had drained our reservoir.

We spent all week being very stingy with our water. By Friday it was almost to the top again. On Sunday I finally took a normal shower. I had all week been using a dish pan to conserve water of course.

Water Leaks are an Endless Job

On Saturday, August 8th, Steve decided to work on some leaks. The valve he had been opening and shutting all week to get water when the electric goes off has a leak around it. He shut off the water and went to work. He then drew a diagram, did some measuring and went off to town to visit the hardware store or maybe I should say stores. Since it is a week after the fact I will make it short.

The pipes are very old, let me say, they are VERY OLD. He got the one pipe he wanted off. It was leaking and had six different places that had been fixed. He is going to put a new pipe there in the future. Taking that pipe off made the pipe leading up to the tank leak. I climbed up onto the pump house shed roof and held the pipe steady. But no matter what he tried he couldn’t tighten the pipe where it had come loose nor could he get it to come apart at other joints. So he started turning the other way and the leak became bigger. So then it was how do we save the 250 – 300 gallons of water that is in the tank, before the pipe falls off and the yard gets watered.

We hooked an old hose with many holes that was lying around and started filling the 3 buckets that we have and I started watering the garden. Steve started dumping the water back into the reservoir. Then he got an idea. He unhooked the pipe that put water into the tank from the reservoir and siphoned the tank back into the reservoir.

Water Saved