The beginning of our African Adventure!

Hello family and friends!!!

Mwabuka Buti (Good morning)! Thank you all so much for your prayers and support this past week as we started our 3 month long journey to Zambia.  Because we know just how much you love us we are going to kindly keep you updated on what is going on in our lives, half way across the world.  

This week Natalie Theriot and Ashley Showerman are reporting live from Zimba, Zambia.

Hello and welcome to an insider scoop of Zambia 2k15, my name is Natalie Theriot. I hail from the great land of Carmel, Indiana. My hobbies include consuming large amounts of queso, admiring sunflowers, and talking in accents.  My name is Ashley Showerman and am from the beautiful state of Michigan.  I enjoy all things that have to do with fall, long naps, and breakfast foods.  In all seriousness, we are both super excited to be here in Zambia.  We have already been extremely blessed in the brief time that we have been here and we look forward to growing closer as a team, forming relationships with the Zambians, as well as deepening our relationship with Jesus Christ. 

Sit back, relax, and enjoy reading about the beginning of our amazing African adventure.

Day 1/2: Travel Days

On this day we all met at the circle in front of the nursing building where we said goodbye to our professors, families, and friends. After a few tears were shed we loaded up two fifteen- passenger vans, made a pit stop at Panera (we needed some comfort food), and were on our way. As you can imagine getting eighteen girls through security is not an easy task especially since half of us had to take items out of our checked bags (stupid 50lb weight limit), but we boarded with no hiccups and were Washington D.C. bound. We arrived in Washington and immediately boarded to Ghana. Ten short hours later we stopped for fuel and then flew six more hours to South Africa. Arriving in South Africa turned out to be quite the ordeal considering our plane landed late and we had to go through customs and security again. We literally had to run through the airport and made it to the gate as they were closing it. They had to hold the plane for us, oops. Two hours later we arrived in our temporary home, Lusaka, Zambia.  At that point we had been traveling for over 24 hours and could not have been more thrilled to have our feet on Zambian soil.

Above is the guest house that we stayed in for a week while we were in Lusaka.

Day 3:

After a long day of travel, we were thankful to have a slow and restful morning the first day that we were in Lusaka.  We were thankful to have stayed at a beautiful guesthouse, with Wi-Fi, a pool, and amazing food that made us feel as if we were still in the States…it was definitely a good transition period for us.  Once we were all awake and ready we headed out to meet Bishop Reverend Dr. Kilembo, who is the bishop of the Wesleyan church of Zambia.  It was truly an honor to meet him and hear all about what his dreams and visions are for the country of Zambia.  After meeting with him we headed out into one of the villages where the Wesleyan church is building a clinic.  Although this clinic is unfinished due to inadequate funds, it is exciting to see the vision of healthcare being provided to those who otherwise would not have it.  As we were driving through the village, children would see us and start chasing after our bus.  Once we arrived at the clinic there were about 30-40 kids outside of the bus wanting to play with us, I think this was one of the biggest blessings of our first day here.  These children were radiating joy and it was contagious.  We played tag and made handshakes with them.  It was cool to see that even though there was a language barrier and we couldn’t communicate with words, that we were able to develop relationships based on joy, smiles, and non-verbal communication. 

Day 4/5:

These days we spent time in Zambian hospitals and we were absolutely blown away. The nurses were so knowledgeable and passionate about nursing. We learned so much from them even though we only were with them briefly. The first day we visited a private hospital called St. John’s and we left having so much respect for the staff and for how the hospital was run. The next hospital was called Beit Cure and they only offered surgical interventions to children with disabilities like hydrocephalus and clubfoot. We were able to spend time in the wards as well as interact and pray with the children and their mothers. Both hospitals were so beautiful. 

Day 6:

On our last day in Lusaka we went to the market, which was quite the experience.  At the market they sell clothes, bags, wood figurines, jewelry, as well as many other things.  We went from nursing students to business people, as we had to barter for all of our items.  Bartering was very interesting and new to many of us…as it is not quite appropriate to do it in America.  Often times, the vendors would increase the prices because they knew that we were Americans so we had to respectfully barter down the price. 

This picture shows just two of the huts at the market that we traveled to.

Day 7:

We traveled for hours to get from Lusaka to Zimba, our new home.  We will be here in Zimba for four weeks and finally get to start our clinical experiences.  The place that we are staying is very comfortable for us and feels like home.

We want to thank you once again for your continued support and prayers.  We have already been stretched emotionally and spiritually and have grown stronger as a team.  We miss you and love you all! 

With much love from Zimba, Zambia,

Natalie Theriot and Ashley Showerman (and the Zambia 2015 team)