Andy and Ashlee have had a great first week in their village. When I spoke with them yesterday they had just returned home from playing volleyball with their village at the church and were experiencing their first big thunder storm. They gave a speech that they wrote in their new language to the village. There is one local man who speaks very good English and he reviewed their speech for them before they gave it and they only had one word wrong so they were very excited about that. After their speech they had the village tell them what they would like to learn from they while they are there. Ashlee said that she was a bit surprised to hear that they wanted to learn how to do a household budget and learn about business planning. They also wanted to learn more about raising chickens, what to do with bananas and how to do karate. I went to the book store yesterday and got a book and set of flashcard for them to learn the basics about karate and Aundre mailed it out this morning. Andy said that he would try to teach them some basic stuff, even though he does not know much about karate. If there is anyone who knows anything about it and would like to mail or email them some additional information that would be great. I picked the book that was the easiest to understand and had a lot of pictures. Ashlee said that everyone in the village has been great so far. They are respectful of their privacy and they had been warned that the children would hang around and stare at them, but so far the kids have helped pitch in with work when needed, but have not been bothering them. She said the previous couple had the children over to color each day and so they have been keeping that up. She said that she tells them words or points to things and the kids all draw it and then help her with the words. So far they have really enjoyed that time. If you ever send a packaged she asked that you include a couple of dollar store boxes of crayons as she said it looks like they will go through them pretty fast. I sent a couple of boxes in my package. They are going to work with the village school to start an art club as there is not art program in the school which she said will be great experience for them as they both plan to go into teaching when they return to the States.
They saw an Adventist church in Kasempa and decided to go to services on Sabbath. There is an Adventist church in almost every little town. Ashlee said that they were shocked to see her boss, the school principal, head mistress, language teacher and several others they had come in contact with at the church. Her boss asked them if they had come to town to look for him and when they told him no, they were Adventists and were coming to church, he was thrilled. She said that the sermons are in English and are then translated into the local language so that will be a good learning tool for them. The language teacher for the private school was there and it sounds like she may help in tutoring them which they were excited about. They can get Bibles and hymnals in their language so they are also planning on order each of those to help them learn. They were very excited to meet so many Adventists so far from home. Ashlee said that most of the people in church were educated professionals and they all spoke good English for the most part. She said they will plan to go every week.
They also made a stop at the market and bought a delicious pineapple which is very expensive ($1 US) for the locals, but Ashlee said is was very good. She said they can get a head of cabbage for $.50 and tomatoes for $.25. Fruit this time of year is pretty limited so she said if we send packages to add dried fruit. As soon as mango season hits they will have fruit coming out of their ears but for now it is pretty limited. I sent them some dried apricots, fruit leather and some Vitamin C drink mixes. She said that they have a great BOMA, nearby town (6K), that has everything they need so they are very excited about that. Some other volunteers have a 50-60K trek to the closest BOMA.
They are very happy and getting settled in. They should have their solar charger soon and will have their phone on all the time. More later…
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