Friday, August 13, 2010

Here are some pictures of our stay in Zambia. They aren't in order either......:(
During our stay in Zambia, we went to a game park in Botswana & saw various animals. Some of them are listed below. We saw this elephant swim across the water with a buddy.
Crocodiles were not an uncommon sight!





Uncle Steve with his namesake! :)



Skyscrapers!!!

David Livingstone's monument.... how neat to tread the ground and see the sights that he saw!

This is the compound. Scenes like this were right next to scenes like the picture of the skyscraper.

Here is the resort that we stayed at one night on our way to Uncle Steves.



Corbin & I at Kalombo falls. Uncle Dan is behind us.


Another picture of the resort....


Victoria Falls in the dry season...not quite what I expected.


Another picture of the resort on Lake Tanganika. Beautiful would hardly describe it!


Corbin and I zipped from Zambia to Zimbabwe! What a ride after getting after the nervousness of signing our life away as one African described the paperwork!

This is what choir in Zambia dressed like.
We had a great time with our 5 cousins and our Aunt and Uncle!

Monday, August 9, 2010

Before I start with the pictures, I have to apoligize that they are in random order. I will try to group them, but they won't be in the order that we did each activity.


Corbin & I really enjoyed a beautiful waterfall that in Tanzania, that we had a lunch at.

This bride sure looks happy! As a cultural note, the bride in past years couldn't smile on her wedding day, or she would get told that she was proud for the rest of her life. They are beginning to pull away from that tradition, so this bride showed her happiness! :)


Uncle Ted is building bee hives as a way to bless the Africans with another food source, along with raising pigs, fish, gardens, and fruit trees.




Here was an orphanage in Sumbawanga, Tanzania that we visited. See all the blue mosquito nets?



Here is Uncle Ted with his helper, Yuda, working on the bee hives & showing them off to us!

Another thing that Uncle Ted does, is pull teeth. That was quite the experiance....


I never imagined that I would get the experiance of delivering an African goat, but the Lord sure blessed me with the oportunity. I was walking home from women's group with Aunt Terese, Danae, and 2 or 3 native women. Alongside the road, was a goat in labor, so I walked over and delivered the kid! The Africans were quite surprised and called me a "nurse". I sure wish it was that easy to get a nurse's degree! :)



All the kids would swarm around us & as soon as a camera was out, would pose for the picture!


Here are some of the wonderful missionaries that we met....
Teaching kindergarteners a Bible story......

An adorable little boy that was born during our stay in TZ.


Learning to take care of twins! :) Actually, they are from the orphanage, and not related. They were fun to take care of!!


Another picture of one of the weddings we went to. As another tribal custom note, girls are taught to look down and not look an elder in the eye. At marrying age, they are just beginning to be allowed to look up more, but it is hard to break the habit.....

One of the 8 choirs that danced and sang at the double wedding.


God's handiwork!!




The Maid of Honor & Groom's Man completely take care of the bride and groom during the day.


Walking down to the village square to do "girl's group."



Spaghetti dump!


Zach in the "boy's car" doing a thumb's up. See the "girl's car" on his thumb?





Pig dump in which we ate the ears, nose, tongue, eyes, and brains!


A pigeon that Corbin shot with his buddies.


Teaching English sure taught Corbin and I how much slang is in our language & how you have to pick words carefully. Take for instance, "you did pretty well." If they know that 'pretty' means beautiful and 'well' means good, it could be translated "you did beautiful good." We enjoyed teaching, though!


A church/picnic with all the missionaies in the area!
Such cute kids!
It was not uncommon to see a baby strapped to the back of his mom or sister, while they were doing their work.
These pictures were taken from our stay in the bush of Tanzania.

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Hello all - this is Corbin.

As you heard we arrived safe and sound Thur. evening. The wedding was wonderful!!
We are still experiencing some jet-lag as Jord and I slept 11 1/2 hours 2 nights ago! The flights and airports all went smoothly up until Seattle. There we had about a 2 hour lay-over. Because we had purchased the Seattle/SLC ticket towards the end of our trip, we had to claim our luggage, then recheck it. We also had to go through customs as we were re-entering the states. So, we were planning on being busy, but, we weren't expecting .............. the following delay.........
First I will give you a little history on the subject. I didn't know if it was legal to bring a snake skin into the country so I packed mine in between clothes so that it would hopefully not be found..........
Well, when I was in the baggage claim section of the Seattle airport, I was not feeling good about the whole thing of trying to sneak the skin in. Then a security officer came by and specifically asked if we had any feathers or skins. I told him that I had some bird feathers and a snake skin and he jotted it down on a piece of paper. When we got to the customs section, because we had the skin and feathers, the officer sent us to an agriculture section, where we would talk with the officers who knew about the agriculture laws of re-entry. They sent all our luggage through an exray machine and then I found the snake skin and feathers for them. A fish and wildlife officer was called. As more questions were asked and items of concern were brought up, the more things we told them we had. We didn't know all the things that they would be concerned about. Like dirt on the bottom of a shoe could bring in microscopic amneotoads (sp)!!
They told us we were not in trouble because we were being honest. I think it was when we pulled out a wooden object that we think had live wood-boring bugs in it was when they had to go through all of our luggage. In our large luggage pieces they dug through everything, EVERYTHING. At one point I told them that they could take it all so that we could be sure to get on our next flight. They said that we couldn't just drop it off but had to stay. Well, it took an hour and 45 min. for all the phone calls to be made, our luggage to be searched, multiple officers to come check it, and for me to sign papers. At that time we were about 30 min. from when the flight took off and 10 min. from boarding time! As you can imagine we were flying!!! Our luggage went on a conveyer belt, to be picked up again upstairs. We were running up and down the escalaters. We had to rent a cart in order to transport all of the luggage but the machine only took 1 and 5 dollar bills. So off to the Delta counter I ran with my 10 dollar bill to get change. They couldn't give me change, but told me where I could buy some mints in order to get some change. I bought the mints and using the change rented a cart. We ran over to the elevator and not knowing which level we needed to go to I picked the ticketing button thinking that that sounded right. And it was!! Praise the LORD!!!!! When we got to the counter to check in our luggage, the lady at the desk said, "let me punch this in real quick before the computer dies!!!" I was nervous. I anxiously watched as she pulled out the first two and then the second two baggage stickers. PHEW!!! Thank you LORD!!! Next we ran down the escalator to the subway station. When we arrived at the bottom I saw our train there with the doors open. And as any of you know that have been on one before, they don't wait long. I could have got on but Jord was a little behind me so I stuck my arm in front of the door so that it wouldn't close. It began to close anyway, so I pulled my arm out and that train left without two very important people. =-) The next one was due to arrive in 4 min. I checked the sign and it said that the train would stop at the "S" gates and that was where we were going, but........ when the train arrived at 2 and 1/2 min. we jumped on and looking at the sign inside the subway it listed all the gates, but the "S" gates!! I jumped off and checked the other sign then jumped back on as the sign outside still had "S" gates on it. As the train rolled along, we prayed that it would stop at the right gate and that we would get on the flight. The first stop was the B gate and the next was S!!! Praise the LORD. We had to take another flight of escalators, then when we arrived at the top, we were in the "S" section. We quickly found the right "S" gate and I saw 2 people standing there and figured that they were boarding. But, when we went up there, the fellow that would be checking our boarding pass, informed us that we still had time. In about 5 min. we boarded. Praise the LORD!!! We were on!!! We had been praying a lot that we would get on and GOD answered our prayers.....with a YES!! The LORD had answered all our prayers for safety and health throughout the return trip and we had a joyful reunion with our family that night at the Salt Lake City Airport.

Thank you for all of your prayers and support. I am looking forward to seeing you all again.

Sunday, December 6, 2009

We are home and well!

Hello friends and family!

Sorry this is so short, but I wanted you to know that we survived the 43 hours of travel and are in SLC safe and sound!! We are experiencing jet lag, but were able to be a part of the rehersal and wedding, which was great.
Thank you all for your support and prayers!

Saturday, November 21, 2009

Hello Everyone! This is Jordan.


We taught the pastors on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Word got out on what we were teaching, so we also taught a group of schoolteachers on Wednesday and a group on Thursday!!

We have another 2 teaching assignments next week, besides again teaching the Pastors Monday, Wednesday, and Friday!!

I am still teaching school to Bradyn each morning. That is going really well and has been lots of fun.

Please pray for her, as she is suffering from a fevor and neck pain.

Every afternoon, we play games with the girls. I don't know how many times I have played the card game Rat a Tat Cat. We are now making up our own rules. Whenever I sit down to play, I have 1 or 2 girls asking to brush and plait (braid) my hair! I don't mind as it is very relaxing for me to have my hair played with.

The orphanages are still a mix of joy and sadness for me. It is so nice to know that I am touching a life, even if it seems as if a few minutes wouldn't do much to help them. The kids are so adorable and ... well, I would take them all if I could. It is so hard though to see and know that most of them will never have the joy of having a family. Also, several of the babies each week are hot to the touch.

One girl is blind in one eye. At least one child is hydrocephalic (sp), several of the babies usually have a fever. One little child came to the orphanage so malnurished that he was just skin and bones. When we went back the next time, we were told by some people that he had died and by some other people that he was in the hospital, so we aren't quite sure what happened to him. Most of the kids come to the orphanage malnurished. I was holding one boy and he couldn't stand at all. I was thinking by his size that he was about 5-6 months old and by his strength that he was 2 months old. He opened his mouth and I saw at least one tooth. So, he could have been 5-6 months like I guessed, but even if he was only that old, his strength sure didn't match his age. Most of the kids follow this description....they just seem really small or weak compared to what they should be at their age.


I can't believe how fast time is going!! Uncle Steve has been taking us out to see a new part of the city each day. It is amazing how different it is here then in the bush!!

One of the differences here is that there are compounds- really poor, dirty, stinky places- alongside the middle class Africans. The middle class here is probably equal to the low class Americans, but still very rich compared to the poor.

Another difference is that here, like where the Allens and other missionaries live, the houses are surrounded by brick walls and electric fence. There are big tall gates that block the driveway and have to be opened from the inside. Then inside the houses there are big iron gates that can be pad-locked.

There is boxed milk here. Cheese that is cut in slices and packaged.
This is just a start, but I have to go eat dinner and I wanted to get this posted! :)

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

In the heart of Africa!


Hello to all. I know that it has been awhile. During their travels, there was little communication and then my computer crashed. Yesterday, I was able to talk on the phone with Jordan and Corbin for and hour! It was great. I started to get a glimpse into all that they have experienced. God has provided more diverse cultural experiences and opportunities with many different missionaries then we could have ever hoped for!
A recent note from Corbin......
Today Jordan and I taught WTTB twice!! Once to some school teachers, we had only an hour so did just a shortened version of Jesus' life. We Then did the class with the pastors, they are now to number 28. We will teach them again on Friday, next Mon., Wed., and Sat. Tomorrow we will teach another group of teachers at about 10:30 am. I enjoy teaching the pastors the most. This is something new to them, as one pastor put it, (but not in his exact words) kids in Sunday-school do hand motions now we are laughing because we are doing it to! The pastors realy get into it. They treat us with alot of respect even though it is different here for some as young as we are to be teaching someone their age
They have both said that no amount of movies, books or stories could ever bring to reality what it is like to be there. Jordan did say that she may not have much patience upon hearing complaints from people in our blessed country as she has now seen what a "hard life" really can be.