It's been waaaaay too long.

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So it's been almost two weeks. My bad.

Don't worry, nothing bad happened, I just never got back to a computer. I left Ndola last Friday (6/27) for Garneton after our last program in Kitwe. The program ended well with many people receiving certificates and hopefully a better grasp on how to work with children with speech difficulties (as well as other special needs). I was given my first chitenge (sp?) by the "students" as a thank you.

From there I went straight to Garneton, home of some American friars you may have heard of: Fr. Juniper Cummings and Bro. Tony Droll. I have heard about this place from different stories in the past few years and it was great to finally have the visual. Unfortunately, I'm not downloading pictures today, so you won't have a visual for a while either. This place is huge with banana plants growing in just about every direction. This year has not been good for those plants with a recent infestation of aphids, but they have bounced back well with some other projects. Fr. Patrick, Zambian, has plenty of vegetables taking the place of some removed banana plants and Bro. Tony, with the assistance of his secretary (I think, that's her position) Mary, has started raising chickens. Bad things happen, but they prove that good can still come about.

I've been here for a little over a week and keeping it pretty chill. Last Tuesday, though, I was able to go out with Flora Phiri, a nurse here who heads a home-based care team, to a few of her clinics. The clinics we went to mainly consist of a small open church and medicine from the back of her truck. The medicine is basic, consisting of what the most common treatments such as antibiotics, multi-vitamins, aspirin, etc. This is one of the things I had really been looking forward to in coming over here. There are so many diseases that seem to run rampant over here that are practically non-existant at home, such as TB. One man that I encountered had TB for the second time and wanted me to take his picture because of how well is responding to treatment. Of course I obliged, which led to the taking of a few more pictures of some other people there for the clinic. The clinic is a great thing and it keeps from having people like Flora go to each individual's home, but it's so strange to think that this is pretty much their only option. Doctors are expensive and sometimes too far away. One thing I did learn on my outing was that the antiretroviral drugs needed for those with AIDS is now provided by the government. Maybe I'm a little slow on that news, but I was glad to hear that. People are already pinching every penny, there would be no way for most people here to pay for those drugs here. But, on the same note, I also found out a lot of people won't continue with the drugs. They will take them for a while, but if they start feeling better, they stop. Flora says that a lot of the time their only reason is "Because. . ." Hopefully more and more will catch on to just how well these drugs work in the prolonging of life.

Anway, a few days after that I went to Chimfunshi with Sandy, Flora, Fr. Patrick, and five students from here and Sacred Heart in Kitwe. Chimfunshi is an animal orphanage as well as a chimpanzee refuge. It was a long trip there, mainly after the main road. To go about 18km it took about an hour. That's an hour full of bumps (that Sandy negotiated around beautifully) and dust. I honestly think I was a shade of orange when we left. The major perk of that drive was seeing some real Zambian landscapes. There were just wide open fields with nothing between land and sky. Surprisingly, not even smoke. While there we met Billy. Billy is a beautiful girl with sparkling eyes and makes two tons look graceful. Billy is a hippo that was adopted by Sheila, the owner, about 16 years ago. We were being told the story of Billy at mass - long story - when she decided to amble her big ol' body over to see what was going on. Of course they wanted us out of her way, to make sure she didn't step or bite anyone (she has yet to actually do either in 16 years, but does have the ability), and it seems the other visitors there got a little freaked out. Instead of calmly moving to the bird cages as directed, people (not our group) started screaming and pushing like Godzilla was about to attack. After all that I think I would have rather encountered Billy and taken my chances.

After all that we drove a wee bit down the road to watch the feeding of the chimps. Those animals are amazing! I never realized just how big they are. Oh, and from seeing them up close, there's no doubt that we are biological cousins with them. I know they are not people and therefore do not have the same social habits as we do, but there are some amazing similarities. I was a little disheartened to see them in cages when we pulled up, but found out that only two hours each day are spent in there. The rest of the time they get to enjoy the 500 acres set aside for them. And there are two main groups, each getting that many acres. Not a bad life considering the alternative.

On the way home it seems Sandy didn't think we had a big enough adventure for the day and had one more surprise for us. Right before Chingola, Sandy hit a big ol' pot hole. Not too bad until the we could hear the tire losing pressure. Luckily, we had some students that were willing to get right down in the dirt and fix it. Once everything was figured out it didn't actually take too long and we ended up making it back just in time for dinner!

OK, I just don't feel like writing much more. Sorry guys! I'll have access more often in coming days and I'll post what I can. I love and miss you all!!

P.S. Frs. Jim and Martin did make it to Garneton and it was great catching up and meeting with both.

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