I'm back from Africa!

Well I sure have not posted in a very long time! I actually tried to write a new entry while I was in Africa, but the computers out there have the tendency to be quite and slow and not such a big fan of letting me upload my posts to my blog...so here's the first post since Africa!

Yeah, Africa was amazing. I learned so much and I definitely did not want to come and would love to go back. I really wish that I was finished school already so that I could go back and work with the people. It definitely gives me more motivation to finish my nursing and to really study hard, because I have seen how much the people in Kitwe, Zambia need medical help - especially those who are too poor to go to the hospital.

I worked in a community school for orphans and vulnerable children, teaching them English and reading with them. I was also able to work at Beautiful Gate ministries in Kitwe, where I taught the grade 4 and 5 students English, math, social studies and science...it was really fun! The kids also really like learning songs, so I had to try and remember all of the little kid songs that I've learned at camp and teach them to the kids! Romans 16:19 was definitely a favorite!

Then I also got to work with a pastor in a poor community, visiting the HIV positive people and encouraging them and praying with them, bringing them food if we had the resources. My friend and I would also teach about HIV and AIDS to the teenagers of the community and played soccer with them. I was also able to work with the street kids in Kitwe, which was actually one of my favorite ministries. There was this one street kid whose foot got run over by a car, and so he had a wound on his baby toe.

There is this street kids clinic that is supposed to be free for the street kids, but really they only get help if the nurses feel like helping them that day, and the medical supplies that are meant to be for the street kids get used by the staff and their families. So anyway, I would go into town with my first aid kit and then I would bandage this guy's foot for him, and would try and talk with him, except that he was usually high on "sticker," which is petrol mixed with other stuff and the kids sniff it to forget their hunger and cold (because it's winter right now in Africa). So after about 2 or 3 times of me bandaging his wound, he finally came alive. He shook my hand and smiled at me (two things he had never done before because he was always out of it and high on sticker) and then he came and played soccer with us and really participated, and it was just so amazing to watch him come alive. I think it really helped that we actually cared for him and he could feel that we actually loved him with a pure love, like with the love of Jesus. Wow, that was definitely the highlight of my trip!

It was interesting though, because on my way home my luggage got stolen when I was coming on the bus from Kitwe to Lusaka. And the funny thing was that it was all of my African souvinours that got stolen and not even my Canadian clothes! And then my luggage somehow did not make it onto the plane and so now it's somewhere in London or something like that...so I came home with just my carry-on luggage! Oh well, it was still an awesome trip and I was healthy (except for one day) and totally protected and safe, thanks to all of you who were praying for me!