the greatest adventure

hey all
wow, to think this might be one of my last blogs!! 8 months has just gone far too quickly. wow. we're lookin at less than two weeks left of the greatest adventure of our life ( isn't that right, kendra? ;)

so i'm gonna have to go back a few weeks:
zambia. i don't know what you picture when you think of africa, but i think of sunshine, dry rural plains, dark smiling faces on half dressed children.. having traveled for a while i've learned not to trust my expectations of a place, because they are usually not what i expect. until i got to zambia. zambia was EXACTLY what i expected, and i wasn't expecting that (are you confused?). the constant sunshine, the beautiful (but dry) plains, the thin children with puffy bellies running after the bus yelling "howareyou? howareyou? howareyou?!"
we started out with our team full of aussies (plus one new zealander and one american) in ndola where we stayed at the Eagles Wings campus, a school and compound for taking in street kids. it was a nice time to chill out and hang out with kids, who were ever present, never missing the opportunity to be around the mzungus ("white people"). my favorite was a little boy named albert. i think he was 3 or 4. this kid was just too cute, i don't think he ever walked anywhere because he was always being held or cuddled by someone. i will add pictures as soon as i can.)

then midway thru our trip we took the long and winding road down to livingstone. two busses full of 70 people, all the luggage, and sleeping mats tied to the top of the bus for a 17 hr bus ride. well, what was supposed to be a 12 - 14 hr ride turned into 17. the last 80 km took about 3 hrs. these roads didn't have potholes...they had craters. anyhow, it felt like a miracle that we got there.. i heard on the way back up it took them 3 DAYS!! bus problems... yikes
anyways, the 10 days we were in livingstone was also a great time. this was the actual kids retreat that we have come for, and like you can expect from any kids camp, not much sleep, lots of eating, playing, singing. CONSTANT singing. this kids are so good, you tell them to sit down and wait, they do it. and to entertain themselves they'll just start singing. beautiful :)
we all stayed inside a church building, camping out on the floor. for me, this was the part of our trip where we were "roughin it". the only reason i say this is because there was only running water between 5 and 7 AM, and that was coming from one tap that the whole compound would line up to get buckets of water for the day. it would sometimes be on in the evening for an hour or two, but very inconsistently. some days we wouldn't have any water at all. so we would fill up water bottles and pour that on us when we had the opportunity to bathe, which was certainly not everyday, not even every other day... the toilets were not too pretty either.. but there wasn't any running water to flush them...i'll just leave that one for you to figure out.
so basically we got used to not being clean. at least we were all in it together tho.
got to see some amazing stuff in livingstone too, including one of the 7 natural wonders of the world, victoria falls. going there with the kids was probably my favorite thing in all of zambia. the falls are just so BIG and so LOUD and there is mist everywhere, and the spray from the falls just rains on you and soaks you - too much fun! and you knew when these kids were overjoyed, because they would start singing. so here's a group of us standing in the pathway, soaking wet, singing and dancing and just praising God - what a testimony! i will never forget this.
we also got to do lots of other great stuff, including jump off a cliff, and white water raft down the zambezi. good times! did i already say this was the greatest adventure of our lives?
(i will add pictures asap)
one thing i will never forget is at the end of camp all the kids were asked what their favorite part of camp was, and many of them said the food. the food was delicious, don't get me wrong, but of all things we got to do it was an odd answer. til it was pointed out to me: they had 3 meals a day - it's something that these kids weren't used to. i mean, i always hear about the starving kids in africa, but..now i've seen them. wow. it's puts some perspective on things, huh?
i've always been a wee bit skeptical about short term missions teams (ironic, considering what i've spent my year doing), but joining this team was overall a good experience. there are of course some things i could do without, but i'm really glad to have met these people and served with these kids alongside them.

i am so grateful for the opportunity to have spent those three weeks in zambia, because now coming to kenya has been a completely different side of africa that i am getting to see. it was once again nothing like what i was expecting. it is cold here, and hilly, and wet, and SO VERY GREEN! the place we are staying is surrounded by hills full of tea leaves. and we pass a hillside full of acacia trees. it's absolutely beautiful. and the team here is great. i am more and more convinced that refmin's where it's at. refugee ministry has the most fun teams..we're just the coolest :)
we have had the privilege of staying our first few days at dotun and ami modupe's house. they are wonderful hosts. now we are staying at a compound very close to where they are. tomorrow we leave for a retreat for somali refugees and we will be gone til sunday night. don't know much about it now, so i will have to save explanations for when we get back.

a few things that have been on my mind alot lately: my future, and my camera.
my camera...sigh... makes me sad every time i think of it. on my way from livingstone to nairobi it was dropped off of the conveyor belt at security..the guy put the belt in reverse and it fell on the ground....crash..the lens broke. completely the guys fault and they even admitted to being at fault, but... i don't know where that's gonna get me. if i had travel insurance that would be no problem at all, but... sigh...makes me so sad. this isn't just a point and shoot camera either. this is a serious camera. and i was at the peak of my photography..(africa is every landscape photographers DREAM!) this is why i keep saying i will get the pictures to you asap. i will have to post a complete photo blog. this might be a bit silly, but i'm praying that it can be fixed cheaply, or that i miraculously have travel insurance that i didn't know i had to pay for a new lens. sigh...
anyhow, it is 12 days and counting til i am heading back home to athens. our trip is almost over!! still figuring what i'm gonna be doing. work at the ARC for sure, but i'm hoping to also get some work, because i need to earn some money. the end of our trip came at the right time, because i am completely broke. i have lots of big ideas for my future, but now i just have to narrow it down to what's realistic, and in the end, which the wisest choice would be and where God is leading me. should be a good time figuring that one out.. some days i'm a bit stressed about it, other days i'm really excited about it! the past 8 months have definitely broadened my perspective and widened my options! i guess that's part of why i came. mission accomplished!

even tho i am loving kenya, i am getting really excited about getting back home! going home to my parents, good food, my house, my room, sitting on the balcony with delicious greek summer fruits or a frappe, going to the beach with my mom everyday, going to the arc and rebuilding the old friendships... even silly things like being able to wear my summer clothes again.. can't wait! :)
hope you enjoyed ONE of the last few blogs on this, the greatest adventure of our lives :)