Making Babies On Campus

Happy 4th of July! It's been awhile since my last post - the Internet here is not quite as reliable as the States, and so the past two times I've gotten on I've been able to check my email, but not post a blog. Thanks for your patience, and thank you to my faithful readers who check much more often than I post.

I loved getting all the emails and comments and facebook wall posts wishing me a happy birthday. The day before my birthday, I was actually struggling. I've been pretty exhausted and have come down with a cold, and the thought that I was turning 24 for some reason made me melancholy. But, I spent some time with God, and came across a passage in Ecclesiastes about a young man enjoying each of his years. I want to start this next year of my life looking forward to enjoying it! So, on Friday night, we had a dinner with some of the students. This wasn't in celebration of my birthday - they just wanted to cook us a dinner of many traditional Zambian foods. I have to say, I think I'm more of a fan of traditional American foods. The roasted peanuts and sweet potato fries were good, and the fried caterpillars actually weren't that bad. The hardest thing for me was the boiled okra. I'm not good with slimy foods, and this was slimy to the max. But, I tried some of everything, and ate until I was full. I think the students had more fun watching us eat the food than any of us did actually eating it, but there was a lot of laughter for sure.

After dinner, the students left, and my teammates were all sitting around and cleaning up, and then Meghan and Stephanie come out with a home-made cake with chocolate frosting to celebrate my birthday. The cake was amazing, and it was fun to celebrate with my friends. We then put on music and danced for awhile (can you get more fun than that?), and after the guys left the girls rang in my birthday at midnight with quite a cacophony. I felt very celebrated, and it was a great way to start year 24.

We celebrated on Friday because Saturday was the first day of the National Conference. The conference was a good experience, although I didn't really enjoy it to its full potential, because my cold was getting worse. I had to skip out on one of the workshops, and I went to bed long before anyone else, but getting the rest was so good for me. The theme of the conference was "Serving God's Purpose in Your Generation", taken from a verse about David in Acts 13. It was a good time of vision-casting, and I think some of the students who attended really benefited from the messages. I am praying that they will go back to campus with a new vision of reaching out to the people around them.

Today we are celebrating the 4th with an American meal. We're making hamburgers, hot dogs, chili, mac and cheese, potato salad, and the list goes on. We spent all day yesterday baking apple pies, peach cobblers, and chocolate brownies. It's going to be quite the feast. We're hoping it'll be a good time to connect more with the students, especially as we're feeling the time crunch of only a week left here. This weekend we leave Lusaka for Livingstone and a visit to Victoria Falls, so our time with the students is actually pretty limited. I'm not sure when I'll be able to post again for that very reason, but don't give up on me.

And some parting thoughts:
If you make your friend wear a pink sash which says "Birthday Girl" on her birthday a month before your birthday, chances are she'll bring it across the world with her to make you wear it too. Being laughed at and talked about in another language is only as awkward as you make it. Airborne works wonders. Dance parties are possibly more fun in Zambia than in the United States for the sole reason that all Zambians can dance. I never knew how versatile a piece of cloth could be until I discovered the chitenge - skirt, blanket, towel, dress, baby carrier, the list goes on. Chocolate chocolate chip cookies are divine. AND...According to Chapo, it's okay that we're all tired because "you've been making babies on campus..." awkward pause and a burst of laughter... "spiritual babies."