Hello Chitokoloki!

Such an amazing first week, I only have time to talk about the first day so watch this space and I’ll write about the eventful first weekend!

I arrived into Lusaka after 5ish hours sleep on my 10 hour flight from Heathrow. After getting my visa and clearing customs – thank God my luggage got through – it was about 2 hours before I was up in the air again, who knew it was so slick in Africa! So my travel arrangements from Lusaka to Chitokoloki was on a 6 seater plane flown by the amazing Canadian pilot Don! I was so excited as we walked by the large British Airways plane I had arrived on, to the tiny plane in comparison. It was such a cool flying experience and as co-pilot for the journey, Don let me steer the plane a bit. He also showed off some of his tricks, I felt like I was back on a rollercoaster in Alton Towers except with amazing views of rural Zambia – it became clear how remote we are at Chitokoloki! The services of British Airways were topped by Don’s interesting stories about his life and Zambia (brilliant tour guide) and from the in-flight refreshments of sugar peanuts and coke provided by Don!

Plane I arrived on

Transport from Lusaka to Chit

co-pilot

view from above

We landed into Chitokoloki after 2 and a half hours and I met some lovely people and was shown to my cosy guesthouse, which I share with 2 brilliant, hilarious ladies. After unpacking and playing with 2 wee girls next door Tanis, a permanent nurse here asked if I wanted to go up to the hospital then and I thought why not, so went along. Straight away I was shown where to go and get stuck in so I whipped on my scrubs and went to the operating theatre where I saw 2 operations and a breach birth back to back. I was so amazed that firstly, I was already watching operations (having never seen one in real life before) and secondly, that I was able to do more than just watch but help out quite a bit. I found it so interesting as the surgeons and nurses kindly talked through what they were doing; I have learnt so much from them.

My humble abode

View from the guesthouse

We had got changed back into normal clothes ready to leave, when a lady was rushed to theatre to give birth. I felt like I was on a special episode of ‘One Born Every Minute’. It was a breach birth so quite a dramatic one, but thankfully everything was ok and a sweet little girl was born and I got to clean her – what an amazing experience.

Lydia, Georgia and I buying coke in our scrubs

We then left the hospital at about 5.30 and got dressed and ready to play some pool volleyball, which is a very serious activity that goes on at Chitokoloki. I was put on team World as the British had a couple too many. However this may have been an unwise decision as the absent World members produced a protest that that was against the rules and may have been the reason why they lost that match! It’s all joking obviously but often enters into discussions even during surgery, which we find quite funny.

Later that evening a few of us met to play some card games, 2 of which are student doctors who just passed their finals and who are very helpful at hospital showing me where to go and talking through some of the diagnoses and treatments. Georgia who was hosting us is a very sweet American girl who is visiting, as her Dad is a surgeon temporarily working at Chit. We have many things in common as she grew up in Kenya and is about to start a medical course (BioMed) so I have really enjoyed getting to know her. She’s been such a blessing to me as she has shown me round and has helped me settle as she was in my position a few weeks ago, I will be sad to see her go next Tuesday.

I then made the wise decision to go to bed however it took me longer than usual to get to sleep. I was just buzzing off everything that had happened that day and so amazed that it had all occurred the day I arrived!

Other things I have loved about being here over the last few days: Sunshine and heat, beautiful singing in morning devotions, bonfires by the Zambezi river with cooked maize and sweet potatoes. It’s like I had forgotten how much I love living in Africa, I am in such a beautiful place here and I’m so excited for what’s to come.

A Fun Filled Few Weeks!

The last three weeks of my placement with Myton church have been brilliant and varied – hard to believe it’s ended! It’ll be a struggle to explain it all so I understand the teasing I’ve been getting about not updating this for a while. I thought I’d spend this spare time on the train home from Warwick to Sunderland to write it up.

I can’t believe in just 1 week and a day I will be reminiscing in the sky as I fly past my old home Sudan on my way to Zambia! I had a few days off a couple weeks ago so took the chance to get some things for my time there – (shopping in Birmingham is quite stressful!). There are a few more practical things that I need to equip myself with but I’m hoping my week back home won’t be taken up too much with that as I’m hoping to spend as much time as possible with family and friends.

I was very thankful for the days off I had halfway through the placement before 2 busy weeks as I was able to visit family friends in Birmingham with my brother which was fun – we took advantage of the March snow and went on a search for a snowy hill to sledge on! I then had a lovely day out with three sweet girls from Myton church who took me to the interesting town of Stratford and I spent a reminiscent Easter Sunday with a lovely Egyptian lady called Natalie and her family who have connections with Khartoum. It was brilliant being reminded about the amazing truth of Christ’s life, death and resurrection over Easter and I hope you had the same experience too!

Then the busy week began down south in Fareham at Duncan Road Church! I was part of a team of 5 from Myton helping out at the holiday club for 4-11s– Space Academy and youth club for 11-17s – iTruth. In the mornings I was team leader of the red stars who had the most points by the end of the week, might I say. My first experience of helping at a holiday club was very fun – I really enjoyed getting involved in the songs, games and crafts for the kids. It was great seeing their reactions throughout the week and this reminded me how important these events are for kids growing up! The youth had fun afternoons as on a couple of days we played games in the park then on the other two we had indoor activities, much to the relief of those who don’t like the cold – I thought it was supposed to be warmer down south! Then we were back in the evening for food, more games, a testimony, a talk and discussions – yes we managed to fit all that in! I really enjoyed getting to know the youth at Duncan Road church and was so encouraged by their responses to the teaching they got. I read Ephesians chapter 1 verses 17-18 during the week and it became my prayer for them.

The leaders at Space Academy on Onsie Day

Busting out some moves with the youth in Fareham

We had brilliant discussion groups

I had a quick turnover on the Saturday back with Eileen to get some washing done and packed ready to leave at 7 the next morning to travel to New Word Alive in Prestatyn, Wales. I had been put on the 0-5s team, helping looking after the babies under 18 months. I soon realised how you really do need at least a 1 to 3 ratio of leaders to babies and to be creative and enthusiastic about playing and singing to keep them occupied and happy. Although tiring, I found it quite fun and learnt a lot about looking after the little cuties! I then had the rest of the day off which allowed me to take advantage of the many things that go on at New Word Alive including fun activities and brilliant teaching in the talks. Here’s a little shout out to the wonderful group from West Street Baptist church in Dunstable and all the others whom I met there, and spent the week with – cheers, guys! Was so thankful to have a really great time with a bunch of people my age. It was amazing to be encouraged by God in the worship and teaching there as well. I especially felt the teaching was helpful preparation for starting university in September. An unforgettable week to finish my UK church placement!

Great worship in the evening meetings

Hoping the babies want to play sleeping lions for the last session

Hurray for human pyramids!

Felt like kids taking advantage of the activities on offer

‘This power working in us is the same as the mighty strength which he used when he raised Christ from death and seated him at his right side in the heavenly world.’ Ephesians ch1 vs19-20

Miss Independent?

I’ve been at such a range of activities from toddlers and youth groups to a service for adults with learning difficulties. I’ve felt very welcome as I’ve been invited for meals, a messy church in Kenelworth with a family with 4 bubbly kids and a Housegroup. Met so many lovely people involved in different things in the church that I’ve had to concentrate on remembering names. It’s been a busy week; I’ll not bore you with all the details, just some of them.

As my host, Eileen, has been on holiday this week, she bravely entrusted to me the job of looking after her big house and little cat. This started with me probably waking up the whole of Warwick as I set off the house alarm. After that slight panic I managed surprisingly alright and Eileen has returned to a house still standing and Alfie who thankfully hasn’t run away.

This morning I even did some acting, which I haven’t done for a while! An organisation, who works in the area, called cross-teach are telling the Easter Story in a fun way to the year 7s in a couple of schools for a few days this week. The little groups have to be detectives and collect evidence at the different ‘crime scenes’. I was the sad, distressed then happy and excited Mary Magdalene and did my little act 8 times in a couple of hours having not seen the script till this morning, but by the last one I had just about enough practice to get it almost right.

I was very excited to hear my placement in Zambia is finally coming together! Relief and preparation mode sets in! At the moment it looks like I’ll be at Chitokoloki Hospital for 6 weeks and in Loloma for another 6 weeks so sounds like another varied experience to be had. I have started getting inoculations sorted for my travels, which involved getting lost as I cycled to the nearest health centre.

I’ve also enjoyed a couple of days off! Despite the freezing weather and occasional blizzards I have briefly explored the small town of Warwick. I even had friends visit and so it was nice to see some familiar faces and have people to play table tennis and pool with in the games room at the back of Eileen’s garden!

Part 2 of FirstServe has commenced!

I arrived at Leamington Spa yesterday and was picked up by the lovely Eileen, the lady I’ll be staying with while in Warwick. I’m looking forward to the programme organised for me for my placement with Myton church. It looks fantastic, there’s so much going on!

Thinking about the three others on the FirstServe programme. It was so great meeting them at Tilsley College up in Motherwell. We had a great two and a half weeks getting to know each other and the students at Tilsley, it was a lot of fun – my belly hurt from the laughter! We learnt lots from the different people we met and received a lot of helpful information and teaching as well – the whole Bible college experience was a brilliant one.

It was sad to leave but it’s nice knowing the others are in the same boat as me at different churches, Deborah in Swansea and James and Hannah in Barnstable, and it’ll be encouraging keeping in touch with them especially through our time on FirstServe.

Meeting my mentor, Jackie, today to run through my programme then I’ll be at a young adults event this evening so looking forward to it!

A lovely walk after a long day of lectures at Tilsley

Thanks for reading my blog, I hope to update it at least once a week. I’m not the best at writing, so bear with, I’ll try to make it interesting!