Hey, it's been a while. I went to a Casting Crowns concert this past weekend in Iowa. We made it there and back despite a bad snow/ice storm. It was a fun trip for the most part. Fantastic Concert!!!

Here are some randoms shots of the people of Mbuzi and their village.There were many babies. They were actually some of the most content babies I have ever seen.

Here is our arrival in Mbuzi, Mozambique. We arrived around 5 in the evening and being that it gets dark at around 5:30 or 6, we ended up doing most work in the night. We had seemingly half the village around our camp as we were setting up because we were such great entertainment. It was a bit unnerving at that time because we had not really met anyone yet.

Here are picture of me with my first patient. Some of the girls that arrived before me found him and told me of him within a few minutes of my arrival in the village. His name is Givey, and he had gotten a "thorn" wedged in his foot a week and a half earlier. It was in so deep that there was no getting it out, so his mom just wrapped a plastic bag around it. By the time we were there, an definite infection had set in. (These pictures do not do it justice!) Thankfully the next day we soaked his foot, and Kevin Zac tried looking around the wound for the thorn but could not pull it out. I took the tweezers then and was able to pull it out. ( I think Kevin could have done it, he just wanted me to have the fun!) What we pulled out was actually a approx 1x1/4 inch of rough wood. Something that would never have worked its way out on its own. Givey did not wimper, yell or even cry the whole time. I was absolutely amazed! Strong people definitely. Too used to a rough life!! Anyways, we washed it, medicated it and bandaged it almost every day we were there. When we got there, he was not walking on his foot. One of our interpreters carried him home that first night. When we left 9 days later, he was kicking the soccer ball and running all around. It was one of the few things that I was able to do that I really felt had a lasting effect! At least medically.

I will put more posts up here about my trip, but in a few more days I will have a bizillion more photos from the rest of my team, so I will share when I know I have the best pictures to show ya'll. Have great days until then!

We spent the first thursday through Saturday morning at the Zaks and then left for Polokwane, SA where we met up with Samaria Mission. Here we are packing up the combie (van) to head to Polokwane. Kevin Z and 2 of his sons- Nathan and Ben- spent the first 4 days with us in Mozambique. It was so much fun spending time with all 3 of them there and the rest of the family in SA















Sorry some of these pictures are repeats. I don't know how to erase them.

So we had to stop at KFC. It was funny to see their slogan fits in there too. KFC is very popular there. We saw about 2-3 KFC and only 1 or 2 McDonalds.













One of the things we got to do to help Sarah Zak was help her cater a mothers/teen daughters luncheon and tea. (Tea is very big there! Roibos tea.) We had a lot of fun doing that. One thing we found out, is that they do not sell chocolate chips in South Africa. South Africans do not know about chocolate chip cookies. SOO SAD!

Well, everyone I am back from my FANTASTIC African trip. So many stories and exciting adventures. Many sad sites too. I have so many pictures to post. I will share leg by leg of my trip here over a couple of days, and maybe post a lot of pictures on my facebook page. Here are pictures of the day we took off and the first couple days with the Zakariasens. They are one fantastic family! The first full day with them, we visited a Creche (daycare-I thought I had some pictures of this, but I guess I only have video) and also a nursing home. The nursing home was run by a very sweet loving lady, but she only had so much money to work with. Abundant poverty in South Africa. We also got a tour of the Bethesda orphanage, but I did not really get any good pictures there, just a couple. Very nice facilities. We met a young man out in the community one day who had grown up in a Bethesda home. It was fun to talk with him. Elaine bought a (unity gift-headbands) for all the girls to open at the airport the morning we took off.