Choma!

After our crazy day on Friday, we decided to take it easy on Saturday morning in Lusaka before traveling to Choma. We spent some time talking about our reflections on the previous day. Everything that we saw on Friday was so different from the norms we experience back at home that we struggled in knowing what to take away from that experience. Our goal is to take what we learned from MEDA and ECLOF and apply that knowledge to the economic development activities that we will be working with in Choma and the surrounding regions.

We began our journey to Choma in our Super 16 van around noon on Saturday. The trip took about 3-4 hours which went my very smoothly. We enjoyed seeing the Zambian countyside and just taking in all the scenery.

After unpacking our bags in the Brethren-In-Christ Guesthouse where we are staying, we went over to the house of Bishop Hamukangandu for dinner. We were served a lovely meal consisting of authentically Zambian food. The staple is a starchy, cornbread-like substance that is tasteless yet filling. You are supposed to break off a piece of this meal, roll it up in your palm, flatten it, then use it to scoop up the other food on your plate. We ate rice, chicken, rape, and salad, with cinnimon buns (admitedly American) and coffee to top it off.

Our team very much enjoyed Church on Sunday morning. The Zambian people were warm and friendly and seemed very happy to have us there. We heard native worship music in the Tonga language which was great! It was hard at times for us to follow the words, even though we had little songbooks right in front of us. The sermon spoke very specifically to major issues in the Zambia culture, such as multi-generational sin, adultry, the practice of relatives taking the property of a widow after her husband dies, and even the importance of naming children when they're born.

Sunday night we went over to the house of Ron and Erma Herr, the BIC missionaries we're working with. They have a small gathering of young adults that meets weekly. We had a great time getting to know Chulwe, Alex, Sidney, and Matimba.

Today we are going to town to buy food, as well as supplies for the paper-making activities that will begin tomorrow. We have a planning meeting this afternoon with 6-10 church pastors who will be providing some oversight to the paper-making training.