Still Alive.

UPDATED WITH PICTURES!!!

Our venture has been without internet for sometime now... We have had our hands tied with plenty of work. But it is also very important to give our prayer support team some meat. So I will do my best to catch you guys up with what has been happening as of late. Here are a couple of stories and situations that consisted in the last week or so.

(I will post pictures with this post when the internet is stronger.)

[ Sunday May 1st ]

Mega Church Zambia Remix
I thought I knew mega churches coming from the sun kissed California area. But Church today made full use of the word mega. We woke up early to go to a Zambian Baptist Church called the “Bread of Life.” Kennedy once informed us before our trip even began to bring a “nice” set of clothes. My western mindset convinced me that a button up shirt, Dickies, and no dress shoes would do the trick besides bring dress shoes would add more weight to my 45 pound bag. My westernized idea of what they would consider “nice” got blown out of the water when I got to see what everyone was wearing. Suits, beautiful dresses, and tuxedos flooded the dirty streets of Lusaka. Not many could afford keeping up with the expenses of a vehicle so they would just walk however many miles it took in their nice get ups. As our vehicle pulled into an area where we could get out and walk we noticed that their clothes weren’t the only thing that exemplified beauty. We heard the church before we could see it as the praise echoed throughout ghettoed streets. It was so very beautiful to hear the Zambians in complete praise. We walked into the muggy high energy church as I now was self conscious of my pick in clothing. We were guests, obviously, so we got escorted to the front of where the guest isles are. There were about 3,000 people packed into a space that was about as big as a California elementary cafeteria. The energy was very contagious and made all us Musungu dancing and singing out of tune with the marvelous gospel choir. Deodorant is a luxury in this country so the hot smell of B.O. took a little while for my nose to adjust to the familiar smell. The amount of movement and power in praise was one of the best church experiences I have been apart of. This church is pretty popular and gets broadcasted across all of Africa. Worship was both in English and Bimba (the native tongue). Praise and worship are two different things here, and we do them both at separate times. Then the head pastor strutted his bright white tuxedo as he spoke so well about forgiveness and judging. The Bread of Life was an awesome experience and one that I will never forget.



Typical Zambian Meal
Sheema is the main Zambian course here. It reminds me of a thicker version of cream-o-wheat. The reason it is the main course here in Zambia is because it is cost effective and has sustenance for survival. The thick sticky goo is used by rolling it in a ball and dipping it in whatever the house hold can afford. We got our first exposure to this meal at Chris’ house who us Kennedy’s friend. It was delicious and appreciated and we will hopefully get another chance to eat it again.

Back From Chris’ House
After the well appreciated meal we headed back to our guest house. Chris was driving quite quickly and then all of a sudden he did an abrupt stop. On our left was a Zambian man attacking a Zambian woman. It looked as if he was trying to snatch the phone from her in a very violent manner. It was scary moment for us and the other Zambian onlookers because we had to wait for an opportunity to help the woman. Luckily local police were in the area and prevented the man from doing anything else. As we parted from the situation Chris explained to us how even in a intense position (like the one the woman was in) women will not divorce. Even if she was abused, beaten, or cheated on the women will most likely not divorce the man. In this culture being married is the only way to survive for a lot of women. Even if there is great pain in the marriage life they will put up with that rather than living in fear of survival. This breaks my heart and is very unsettling for me. Prayer is needed for women in these situations.

[ Wednesday June 3rd ]

Orphanage Complex
The second orphanage we went to in Lusaka is Chezanga. It is a couple of structures with cinder blocks and rebar. Each room is entitled to a different age group. The main individual responsible for the orphanage is the Director. Who is an elderly God fearing woman who reminds me of a Holy Yoda type of figure. She originally planned on housing orphans but then her plans developed into a school because of the need of education in the area. The whole school is run by volunteers because she can not afford paying them. All of these teachers truly have a heart for these children and are getting absolutely no benefits in serving these kids. We got to walk in each classroom. As we did we were met with a greet of song. The kids knew about fifty songs that the teachers teach them. When we came in they would sing with great joy as their voices encouraged the other classrooms to sing along. The children were so very hungry to learn and the only thing that hinders them from learning is taking care of the family. It saddens me to see their ambitions to be completely opposite of the attitudes back at home. The director is now trying to turn the K-12 school / orphanage into a college and trade school for survival. Not all kids can afford government colleges so she wants to create a trade school for them to survive in the 75% unemployment rate.

Medical Attention
We did not bring a medical team on our trip. We brought Carter and Bret who have a heart for medicine and a BIG med-kit. We are only equipped to do so much but Zambia begs for more than what we can give. There are so many infected cuts, runny noises (from tuberculosis), and many many more diseases yet we are trying our best with what we have in skill and med-kit. The amount of disease is quite overwhelming for our team but we are doing the best in what we can do. I found this written on chalk in one of the classrooms for what I think is them raising awareness and what I think is some good prayer requests for Zambia:



“Social and economic problems in Zambia
HIV/AIDS
Zambia has one of the highest levels of HIV/AIDS in Africa. Most people infected are aged between 20-39 yrs. The number of healthy people are able to work and develop Zambia is decreasing. Children become orphans when their parents die of AIDs and eventually become street kids.
Unemployment
People struggle to provide for their families when they are out of employment. Some unemployed people commit crimes to get money or goods. This in return changes the wealth and development of a country.
Poverty
Most people in Zambia are poor. They depend on farming for their survival. If crops fail because of droughts, floods, or disease many people may not have the food they need. It is hard for most people in the rural areas to find money for medicine and school fees.”

Felix
Felix is a kid that we found with a serious infection on his foot from not wearing socks. The poor kid if not properly treated can lose his foot. We cleaned the wound and gave him our own socks. We are left in a position where we are completely reliant on God and prayer. (Update: We checked up on him just recently and found out his cut is doing a lot better and looks as if it is healing.)

Richard
Richard is a kid who stood out to me. He seems like a naturally leader in the orphanage. His smile shows his heart and his actions show his leadership. He will have a huge impact on Zambia’s future in Lusaka. He will be a great leader in God’s kingdom and needs prayer so that he will be built up.

Trash Ball
The kids here can not afford anything soccer related because it is not a necessity. So to make up for having a soccerball they make trashballs. They will find bags and light weight trash and fill it and shape it into a circle. Then the kids will sow cloth around it or tie rope around it to make it structured. Then they will play with them until they disappear into the trash fields that they are playing on. So I bought a couple of soccerballs in town and are trading them for their trashballs. It is so awesome to see how stoked these kids get when they get their own real soccerball! It see their face is well worth the cost of buying the balls.





Dirty Hands
We visited Chezanga again. The Director (Holy Yoda) asked us to take the kids out to a big open dirt field. The ratio of kids to us was about 1 to 45 easily. There were so many kids and so little of us yet every single kid wanted to shake our hands personally. Hundreds of bouncing children rushing through the dirt to shake our eight hands. Their hands held dirt, mud, snot, tears and an assortment of other things. By the end of the day it takes two trips to the sink to wash off all of the grime from our skin. These children are no different from me other than being born in two absolute opposites. One in poverty and one in wealth. Everyday I clean my dirty hands from playing with the children I think about how unfair all of this is for them. I have no clue why I was chosen to live in California or why Richard was chosen to live here in Cheezenga. I don’t think I will ever know why God does the things he does but I do know that it is so very important to be thankful for what God has given us and bless him for it. We need to remember to praise the one who hands out gifts. Even though Zambia may be in complete poverty there are some things here that America doesn’t understand. One could be jealous over the joy in this place. A part of me just sees these situations from a dollar value standpoint, but in all actuality these people have so much that California is missing out on. Like family, joy, and commitment. I think that wherever we are raised or born that we have been put there for a reason. God has put us in our families for a reason. He has graciously given us gifts in different nature and placed us in settings for a reason.



[ Friday June 5th ]

Ride to Mufulira
Our week in Lusaka has come to an end. The concrete jungle of mortar and rebar and the smell of burning trash has imprinted a memory of how far we have really come. We are the team that God has sent to this place. We are no longer waiting for the trip to happen, it is happening. And our first week in Lusaka ended in a busport while the locals stole our soccerballs and played while we waited for our whole team to board a certain bus. We waited for our 20+ luggage to be crammed in the underbelly of the giant beast of a bus. We watched seven hand picked bags who could not fit underneath the bus pass by and dropped in the middle of the isle for every unaware passenger to trip over. As we left the remains of overambitious third world developers failed visions behind us our minds and hearts were set on whats next… We got what our leaders called “a taste” of what is to come. We simply put our big toe in the pool of what is coming our way. Our packed bus is off on its bumpy burny road to Mufulira. The 5 hour estimate from our leaders holds no ground in actuality. Due to the whole country functioning on “Zambian time” means that the 5 hour estimate tie given to our leaders means an 8 hour amount in actuality. Thanks to toilet breaks, random stops, and road problems the ride to copperbelt sucked up a lot of time. When we arrived at a copperbelt station we found that the tickets Kennedy bought us had an imaginary and non-existent final destination. So plan B to getting to our final stop was packing all of our stuff and us in a tiny shuttle transportation vehicle. We tetris packed our burdensome baggage into the back two seats of the tiny Toyota bus. Which naturally left us eight seats. Perfect! Think again you westernized thinkers. Little did we know that this little shuttle wanted to business a couple more clowns into this clown car. So four others with their own luggage crammed into the little frail bus with us and joined us for packed 30 minute drive. We have witnessed the way people shuttle around Zambia before, but we couldn’t leave without experiencing it now could we? The little Toyota’s shocks were non-existent as we all got our very own harsh vibrating chairs from the beat up dirt and paved roads and every once and a while after hitting a mammoth speed bum a section of our luggage would fall on top of us. As soon as B.O. and sweat became familiar we arrived at our new guest house. This guest house was a bit nicer and even more cheaper in price.

[Saturday June 6th]

The Day All of Zambia went Wild!
We found out that our time in copperbelt was going to be complemented with an official match of futbol between Rwanda and Zambia. Because of the awesome opportunity we decided to go. What an experience! We drove to Konkola Stadium in two rental cars. At about 70 mph we were playing chicken with oncoming traffic for who would get the better driving space. Zig-zagging left and right, on and off the road dodging gaps missing in the road which seemed easy for the local drivers. But would be easily penalized if quick thinking isn’t complimented with timing and steering. Every penalization takes a toll on the car resulting as a scrape of its underbelly. When we arrived we were greeted by crazy colorful fans of the land in which we were standing. Horns honking, loud yelling and screaming, and Zambian colors graffitied the streets. We stuck out like usual and luckily were rooting for home soil. We busted our Zambia shirts and wore them with pride as we bought tickets from a seller outside because they were sold out. Kennedy bribed him down to a reasonable price. We then joined the congoline of Zambians to get in the stadium. We sifted amongst each other as we passed four guards who each had a tear gas gun. After passing the camouflaged carriers we gave our ticket to some big black men as they ripped our tickets they fell to the ground joining the thousands of other fan’s tickets who were already enjoying the game inside. Energy at games in the states really pose no threat to what we witnessed at the Zambia Rwanda game. Lets just say that Africa is passionate about futbol… People were decked in color and screaming like no other. Organized chaos is the best way to explain it. We watched an awesome high energy game where Zambia fell short of lucky and missed some opportunities. Until it happened. Zambia scored a goal. There is no way you would have missed this goal. The crowd erupted! My ears started ringing due to horns going off on all sides of the stadium. Fire torches light up to my right and a couple of colorful Zambians run the torch around the stadium. All this movement complimented the crazy drunks. Trying to get the smoke out of my eyes I decide to look up finding rain of all Zambia’s favorite drinks falling upon me as the bottles fly overhead dropping the juicy bombs. The bottles started to fly everywhere on the field for there was not one left in the stands! Zambian’s started rushing the gates and hanging on top of the fences screaming with all their might. As five minutes go by the audience doesn’t lose its fire. Kennedy then told us we should head out to beat the traffic. What Kennedy wasn’t telling us was that last year during this game 31 people were trampled on and died. Last year Zambia didn’t win and the fans made it hell for the Rwanda to get out of the stadium. So as we jet out of the stadium we rode the wave of fans getting out of the game. Luckily we made it out fast and headed to the guest house on the sketchy roads. We were greeted by all of Zambia on the streets as waves, branches, smiles, and praise were thrown at every car that passed. It was the most chaotic awesome Zambian experience! Zambia 1 – Rwanda 0. Good game, good game!



We are currently doing some hard labor at an orphanage called Murundu. I don't have any current journal entries to share about what is happening currently but will keep you guys posted as soon as possible.

In His Grip,
Jeremy Dennis Pedron