Happy New Years!

Today (Friday the 31st) was another filled day! David got his tour of University Teaching Hospital and loved it. He was impressed at the system and made some great friends with ENT Zambian docs. David has been invited back for clinic rounds on Monday.

After David’s tour he met up with the 2 peas in a pod (Bwalya and John) and they went to buy doors and windows for the classrooms we are building at Greenhill School. The discussions on prices for doors was a tough one, and in the end Bwalya’s bartering skills proved us well!



Somewhere along the way the guys ran into this fellow walking down the street. They came home so proud begging me to hire him.




I had another big day of meeting out at Greenhill and seeing the progress of the classrooms. What has been built is impressive. We haven’t built them one classroom, but three, and an office, and a secure room for official governmental papers. I was a bit taken back at this discovery! The classrooms aren’t as finished as I expected but I think it will give us an opportunity to actually get to help build!

I spent the rest of the day running last minute errands and getting our final schedule hammered out.

One thing I had impressed upon Bwalya on Thursday morning that was important was that we needed to get a stand made for Clayton’s pitching tarp before he got here on Saturday. We brought over the tarp that he can pitch into, but needed the frame welded. Bwalya well got a little busy yesterday and forgot so I was nervous about getting it finished in one day, given we are in Zambia.

Bwalya, John, and David took the tarp and their own engineering plans for the stand to a welder on the side of the road. When they arrived back at the lodge yesterday evening with the stand, they couldn’t have been more proud of their masterpiece! And I am impressed! It was like watching three little boys. We had to immediately put the tarp up and then spend the rest of the hour throwing rocks (from the driveway of our lodge) at the tarp attempting to hit the strike zone.



Or New Years eve John, David, and I headed to the Intercontential Hotel for dinner. Unfortunately the main dining area was closed so I opted to take us to another local restaurant with great Italian food. We had a blast. There are lots of fireworks in Zambia which was fun to see.

The team arrives in just hours and tomorrow is our first official day. We can’t wait and will update again!

In Him,
Alissa