Connor’s Africa Service Trip

What would it be like to have never seen yourself? How would life be different without a reflection? Would we see ourselves differently? How would we dress? Would we spend our time and money on cosmetics and such superficiality?

It’s stunning to realize that some people have never seen themselves before. How would you, having lived in a remote African village without any mirror or shiny surface with which to see your own face?

A mirror changes things. Like the (anonymous) quote goes, “When man found the mirror, he began to lose his soul.”

Perhaps that’s why Africans have such valiant, vibrant souls.

AIDS is tearing apart families in sub-Saharan Africa. As AVERT reports:

An estimated 24.5 million adults and children were living with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa at the end of 2005.

During that year, an estimated 2 million people died from AIDS. The epidemic has left behind some 12 million orphaned African children. (via)

The number of OVC (orphaned and vulnerable children) has only risen since then. Every 14 seconds, a new child is orphaned from AIDS.

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As many of you know, I have now returned from my three week trip to Zambia, Africa. Most of the questions I get from friends and acquaintances are something along the lines of “how was it?”.

What do I even say to that?

I usually respond with a simple “great!”, allowing me to end the conversation there (unless they further inquire, desirous to know details).

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Tomorrow we leave for the USA. The trip has been amazing, and I hope to write some detailed stories and share some photos when I am home and have the time.

The past few days have been bittersweet, as we’ve been enjoying our time here but dreading the day when we have to say goodbye and return home. Yet on the other hand, it’s time to come back and be with our families and friends.

Am I glad I came? Heavens yes! Will I ever return? You better believe it…

Yesterday and today were our “vacation” days of the trip. Yesterday we went on a game drive here in southern Zambia and saw a bunch of animals, including the only white rhino in all of Zambia. In the afternoon we went to Victoria Falls, one of the seven natural wonders of the world. It was awesome. You get soaking wet, and the falls are wide so they go on foreeeever.

Today we went on an all-day safari (morning on boat, afternoon on land cruiser) in Botswana (yay for another passport stamp!) where we saw tons and tons of elephants, giraffes, buffalo, impala, and other animals. It was amazing. I’ve probably taken around 700 pictures in the past two days.

Tomorrow we’ll head back to Lusaka (seven hour drive, cramped on our mini bus). Hopefully we won’t get any more flat tires (we’ve had two already on this mini trip in Livingstone…)!

The world is beautiful.

The other day was a favorite of mine for the trip. Last fall I organized a service project in my ward to raise money for and put together hygiene kits to be sent to Zambia through Mothers Without Borders (the organization I’m over here with).

We raised over $3,000, and put together 900 kits. Each kit had a hand towel, washrag, six toothbrushes, tube of toothpaste, and two bars of soap.

I delivered the kits to the MWB warehouse, and that was that.

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Wow, absolutely no time to write, but I’ll post a quick update. Yesterday we went to Bwafwano, a community center in the Chazanga area. We headed out into the village with some social workers and were able to visit people that were sick and dying. It was quite the sobering experiences, as they recounted to us the problems they face in their life and the lack of solutions.

As we left the first house, the man said to us “Don’t go away for good. Come back and see me!” and then later said “Remember me…” I hope I always do.

We then headed to “grandma’s” house, a 85ish year old woman that cares for a bunch of little children. We cleared her area for a garden and the installed some windows, a doorknob, and got her a bed. She was elated!

Okay, gotta run, I’ll post more later!

Yesterday we headeda out to a remote village for our first Super Kids Camp. We rounded up 186 kids from the village for the day’s activities. We were greeted with some songs and dancing, and we joined in the fun.

We split up the kids between a craft and some recreation activities, and then after a while, switched. The kids enjoyed it, and we all had a good time.

It was so interesting being around these children, many of them orphans. Most of them had dried snot running down their noses, had no shoes, one dingy set of clothing, nappy hair, and dirty everything else. But the eyes… oh man, the eyes. So much pain, so much emotion, so much heartache.. yet at the same time, so much friendship, so much yearning to be loved, so much affection and openness.

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Great.. so I typed up a long blog post (apparently this version of Wordpress doesn’t have autosave), and then the power went out. Three seconds later, two guys show up outside the window, about two feet away, and begin to weld. Right next to us. So I put on my sunglasses since the entire room was being illuminated and then started up the computer again… so I lost everything I wrote.

Brief summary, since I am out of time:

Went to church yesterday, had a great time. Played with the kids all afternoon at the Resource Center. They did their program for us, and I’ve never been entertained so much in a long time. It was amazing I wish I had time to describe it better, but I don’t. Ask me in two weeks.

Today we worked on the new land - 80 acres - all day long. Dug a latrine, made bricks, hauled water from the well, etc. Hard labor, but we made good progress. Those Zambians sure know how to work!

Okay, time is low, so I’ve gotta jet. It’s dinner time. Peace!