Two weeks!

After two weeks, I am what I would call officially settled into life in Macha. I have started doing more this week out in the community and have gotten to know more and more people!

I will be going out to Macha Girls Secondary School on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday every week and will be helping to coach the basketball team there! I go out there with Muntanga, who is volunteering his time while he is home from school to go out and train the girls. One thing I’ve realized in the 4 times I have been out there so far is that it is totally different coaching here in Zambia than in the United States. Basketball here, or at least at Macha Girls, is structured differently than what I am used to having played Messiah basketball for the past four years. Their skill level is obviously lower than girls back home, as some of these girls only started playing a year ago… and some, just yesterday! It’s also hard to coach when you are working with sometimes over 20 girls on a small outdoor court with only a ball or two. Muntanga and I have to be very creative to involve all the girls in our hour with them and keep them motivated!! In other news, the girls won 2 out of their 3 games last Saturday, which qualified them for a tournament this Saturday in Livingstone, so I am excited to hear how they do this weekend!!

Tuesday and Thursday afternoons will be spent more around the Push the Rock Zambia campus. There are always boys that come afterschool to play football, and there are a few girls that come but usually end up leaving after a couple minutes because they don’t play with the boys. My goal while I am here is to keep the girls here longer and even start some kind of structured program for them that PTRZ can continue after I leave in August. Tuesday was the first day I was around outside in the afternoon, and I started that time by playing handball/football/keep away with a group of about 13 pregnant women that are staying near the hospital waiting to have their babies! It was so fun!! There was so much laughter and joy for the hour or so we played! After these women left I spent some time with some of the MICS (a school) girls that were here, playing some volleyball games and then sitting while they braided parts of my hair into tiny little braids! I’m excited to get to know the boys and girls more that come here afterschool and hang out with them for the weeks I am here!

In the mornings, I will be helping Eric with more of the business side of PTRZ, as well as working on some projects such as videos and mission team evaluations. Tuesday and Thursday mornings I will be going out to MICS and helping teach their P.E. classes. I will be teaching them some new games, but I will really be trying to teach the teacher new games and activities that he can use to teach the kids after I am gone! So all my P.E. majors out there (Chelsea Danel!!) if you have any fun games or activities… I’d love some ideas! :)

I was really blessed to have the Messiah group here for the first week or so to hang out with… Reg, one of my good friends on the soccer team at Messiah, hung out with us here at PTRZ for the week and I also had a running buddy for the week. On one of her last nights here, we ran out to the small airstrip a mile or two away from the hospital and watched the sunset… I love PA and think it is beautiful… but the sunsets here are absolutely incredible. I took pictures, but they don’t do it justice!

I took my first trip to Choma, the closest bigger town, yesterday with Eric, Corie, Elem and the girls. We got some supplies, some groceries, and a little bit of ice cream, which was a treat!! I am going to be really busy for the next 8 weeks… and the World Cup starts today, which, as you can imagine, is huge here!! We are planning on showing some of the games outside on a projector, which will be really fun!

Life here in Macha has been really good! The place and the people are beautiful and I am learning so much every day. These people, though we may see them as poor, are so rich. They are joyful and the friendliest people I have ever met. They live relational lives and they work hard to live. There is so much to learn from them! It is sometimes hard to be so far away from home and there are sometimes that I miss home and people a lot. I realize that I only have 8 more weeks in this place and I want to make the most of my time here! I would appreciate prayers for just personal growth and prayers as I live here, transitioning from college and figuring out what God has for the next part of my life.

Miss and love you all! Enjoy some pictures from my first two weeks!