Elijah Paul Haden Warner

Little baby Elijah whom I wrote a post about a few weeks ago is doing really well.  He is growing and smiles all the time, he is such a happy baby.  Paper work is in the process and all is working well in the adoption process.  Every few days I get to see him and to me he looks like he grows all the time.  Justine and Preetika have honored Joe and Tammy and have kept Haden in Elijah's name!

Colourful, fresh, makes me smile!

Buying flowers in Zambia is very cheap, even though most times the only flower you do get at the local flower shop is roses, 1 long stemmed rose costs 15cents.  I always say that dating in Zambia could be cheap if the lady liked flowers.

I love fresh flowers so every few weeks, I buy a few and put them in a place where I can look at them as often as I can, it makes me smile, gives me a comforting feeling, it does good for my soul!

Homemade Tortilla's

Tonight I made some homemade tortilla's.  My friend Amanda sent me some Fajita seasonings from Canada, so I cooked some ground beef and TACO'S I made, lol, I was pretty impressed!

It is a pretty special treat to have this meal in Zambia!

Christmas Time

No turkey or lamb to be found, so chicken it was!

Christmas crackers from South Africa

This year was a very different Christmas, if did not know any better it would have just passed me by! No shops to shop at which means no crazy amounts of people all shopping at the same time.  No decorations on every house and every street, no snow!!  I could even find any Christmas napkins in the local grocery store.  

I baked lots of goodies though and handed them out to fellow missionaries in town and the local shop owners that I have become friends with.

I spent the day at the base and cooked some good food, it was pleasant and quaint!

Malaria

This last week I had my first experience with Malaria.  For about 3 days I had high temperatures, cold sweats, headaches and stomach cramping like I have never had before.  At first I thought I just had the common flu and did not pay much attention to it,  being the slow season I just stayed home and rested.  A few days later I started to feel worse, friends were visiting and they said all my symptoms were that of malaria, so I went to the chemist and got the medication, a few hours after the first dose I already started to feel better.

Recycling Nazi

Recycling plays a huge part in the LIFE Project yet it is not a big deal in Africa!  In Canada I have a few friends I call the RECYCLING NAZI’S ( Abby and Angie) however after watching them for awhile, it rubbed off and I became one during the last few years I lived in Canada.

Tom helping me put garbage into the huge garbage can (old water tank)

As part of teaching sustainability the LIFE Project trains the teachers of our pre-schools to make toys out if recycled items.  There are many lodges in the Livingstone area and we pick up huge mealie meal sacks of garbage, sort them, store them and then encourage the schools to use them.

This last week I had some time so I sorted out some bottles that needed sorting, we used to store them outside and then rats did get to them but now we are using the containers that stored the vitamins as storage and all will be covered, protected from the rains and rat free!

Here are some pics of the kids playing with some of the toys/educational games that are made out of recycables.

An egg tray and painted stones make a good sorting game

2L coke bottles used as bowling pins

The kids are playing with off cut pieces of wood donated by Kubu Crafts, and a hut that was made of grass and a tin can

Cans and bottle tops used as a game

Once again bottle tops used to make mobiles

Cairo playing with a scoop ball, a 2L milk jug that was cut apart and a ball made out of plastic bags covered by a nylon stocking which stretches.

A shoe box, with different compartments and bottle tops to teach colour

Fairwell ladies until next year~

The year has come to an end, it is officially the rainy season and many of our staff have left this week and the rest leave by the end of this week!  For three months they will visit family, try to rest and refresh and fund raise for the next year and then return to Zambia in March 2011.

Us ladies that were still around decided to dress up and look normal and go out on the town for the night before we all left! It was fun to hang out and reflect on the year and the many memories we made and to also look forward to next year with excitement!

While waiting for our food to arrive, we had some entertainment, a mazungu (white) man about 6 ft tall walked right into the glass door that was facing us, to bad we could not get a picture but the moment was priceless, he was so embarrassed and we all tried not to laugh out loud right away, some of us succeeded but not all, lol