Livingstone

[ Saturday June 20th ]

Carter
Yesterday we arrived back in Lusaka for a rest period for a while. While Carter was gone to pick up his food the team decided to play a joke on Carter to see what he would do. So we told him that we didn't have a rest day today and that we would get up early (5:00) and help out Pastor Jack (crazy pastor) and do labor and preach all day. We had the team all go along with it to see what he would do. Bret acted like he really wanted to go and Chris acted like he really didn't and they got in a little debate. Let’s just say they acted like they were extremely pissed at each other. But in all actuality were laughing under each breath. So we wanted to see how much longer we could go with this as Carter was holding back his feelings about not resting at the scuffle. So we talked when Carter was using the restroom to escalate it. So we had Chris ask Bret to "talk" outside the room where we were going to have a meeting. They start getting louder and louder and Carter looked like he was going to blow up. We staged the leaders to go out and try to calm them down but they start yelling at each other and Carter and I pulled the two off of each other because they were threatening to beat each other. Carter got really loud and started screaming at Bret. While Chris finally yells, "We wouldn’t have gotten in this fight if we weren't trying to pull a joke on Carter!" Then the whole team busted up in laughing leaving Carter so confused! We finally told Carter what we did and pulled an all day prank on him and he congratulated all of us for executing it so well. So I guess I am saying this because we are all laughing together about the fact that we haven't gotten in any fights. Our team has been as strong as ever!

Livingstone
We are done now with Mufulira and have spent a day in Lusaka for rest. And now it is time for Livingstone so we packed our bags and picked up our Atila and got in a great air conditioned bus! Our attention demanding labor intensive days in Mufulira have come to a stop and rest has become very needed for our team. So a nice day off and a good bus that doesn’t smell like B.O. and sweat we a nice change of pace. We drove for seven hours from Lusaka to Livingstone. The ride wasn’t very thrilling at all. It was bare and flat with hut houses every once and a while. We settled in Livingstone and was found by Pastor Jack and some of his elders. They took us to two houses that are owned by church-goers. So our team has split between the two leaving Atila, Brice, Christian, Chris, and myself in one and Carter, Bret, Travis, and Kennedy in the other. We will be living in these homes for the remained of our time in Livingstone. It is ten minutes from Victoria Falls and wildlife! Livingstone is a lot more fun for my adventurous attitude.

[ Sunday June 21st ]

Light of Life Church - Livingstone
Our team has really been able to adapt to Zambian culture. We have gotten used to quite a lot of things. We are comfortable showing up everywhere we go late (which is on time here in Zambia), we are accustomed to mosquitoes being the common fly, we are familiar with eating Sheema everyday, we are understanding of being looked at everywhere we go because of our pigmentation, and now we are beginning to get used to Pastor Jack telling us to do a service after a one days notice. So this Sunday we have fully put together another service. This time we had Atila and Bret give their powerful testimonies and Brice took it away with a word on Love. It was a lot bigger than the last Light of Life church we visited and a lot more fun. Dancing and throwing money at singers was quite a fun experience. It was a joint service so it took three times as long. It was six hours long and lasted from ten to four destroying any hopes for lunch. Our stomachs brought us home for a nice meal with all of the Light of Life leadership. We had a chance to get to know one another and worship together. We will be doing God’s work together so they thought it would be important for us to expose ourselves with each other. It was fun!



Duskball
There is somewhat of a field behind the houses that we are living in so Brice and I decided to go check it out. The sun was just setting at the time and at the end of the field we saw four children running about playing a small game of soccer. The goals were rocks and there was no real out of bounds and the ball was like a hallowed out handball. We quickly asked if we could join up and play. We played for about 20 minutes because of the retreating light. It was a blast being able to hang with the boys and play some soccer!

[ Monday June 22nd ]

Dew
Today we got to see the famous Victoria Falls! I am awestruck at even the words to describe it. It is so massive you can’t really see the whole falls without being in a helicopter. We got to go down to the “boiling point” which was down at the bottom of the falls under the famous second largest bungee jump bridge in the world (which a select few of us were going to do until we found out it is $105, really bummed about that). The Victoria Falls to the local people was a sacred place where it was believed a huge snake called Nyami-Nyami (River Snake) lived. Therefore human being never stepped foot there especially in the gorges. As such the place used to be an animal sanctuary as it remained undisturbed. But now Livingstone is one of the biggest tourist locations in the world. And honestly I can easily see why. This place is absolutely gorgeous! There is another trail we took where we got to walk across in front of the massive falls and the water mists are so strong it feels as if it is constantly raining. As you look towards the falls the sun backs up the massively long wedding dress leaving it hard to see anything but white mist! After getting completely showered we ventured atop the bridge to try bungee jumping. On the way we were followed my monkeys that were rather mischievous. One taxi driver was mad at one and tried hitting it with a rock as it ran away it jumped on his taxi and pee’d on it and scurried across to the bush. Another almost attacked a trucker by jumping in its bed and jumped at his face. It was quite entertaining and laughable. This is the Africa my adventurous side really wanted to see, and today it felt more alive than it has been in awhile.



Balbub Tree
After we left the falls Oscar (our ride and graphic designer here in Zambia) took us to a Balbub tree up on the top of a hill which enabled you to see the whole falls. You have to climb a sketchy latter that brings you atop the Balbub tree. The tree was massive and once you were at the top of its branches the sight was absolutely amazing especially at sunset! Our God is so creative and makes the most amazing sights for us to experience and be in awe of.



Atila
We told Atila that “no-net-te-shush” means excuse me when in all actuality it means “I farted!” Hahaha! So we are just waiting to see when and where he will use this word to entertain not only us but hopefully a whole bunch of locals. Hopefully he wont read my blog until then!



[ Tuesday June 23rd ]
We are going on a Safari today. I will post more about today later because the day is not over and we have a lot to do today with many stories left untold!

In His Grip,
Jeremy Pedron