Day One: Warm Welcomes

As I mentioned, we arrived very early on Saturday morning, so our goal for the day was to stay awake as long as we could to help with adjusting to the schedule here.

The House of Moses - where we are staying - is an orphanage for children from birth to 18 months. The grounds are surrounded with a tall, thick cement wall with shards of glass protruding from the top. The whole picture would be rather imposing if it wasn't for the colorful mural covering the front gate. It depicts an African woman carrying her baby in a sling across her back. In the background there is a little church and many different African animals. Once inside the compound, it looks very much like a preschool in the states. Little Tykes playground equipment and a see-saw scatter across the yard. The lawn and driveway are shady and cool. The house is a very large two story structure made out of brick and cinder blocks. We are immediately greeted by the staff who are so excited to meet us and learn all our names.

Our rooms are dormitory style - one for the men and one for the women - with bunkbeds and mosquito nets hanging from the ceiling. The food is delicous but very American. It's obvious that the staff is used to having teams of Americans come for a visit.

The babies are adorable! Some are orphaned but many have been removed from their families by the Zambian version of child protective services. The goal of the Alliance for Children in Zambia is to help these kids find homes preferably with their own extended family but also in other Zambian families and occasionally adoption into other countries. There are about 30 babies living at this house.

Points for Prayer -

Malaria - The unusual weather has made the mosquitos more of a problem then they ususally are at this time of year. I'm using a lot of bug spray but its still more of a risk than expected.

We've Arrived

I arrived safe and sound in Lusaka, Zambia in the wee hours of Saturday morning after two very long flights and a quick stop over in London for gyros. Its very hot and actually very humid here - which is unusual for this time of year. More to come soon!

Zambia - The Pre-Trip

Hi All!

Tomorrow I wing my way to Lusaka, Zambia!

With me is coming a TON of kids underwear! Thanks to my extremely generous coworkers, these kids are going to be the proud recieptants of 346 pairs of underwear. For kids who share everything, having their own pair will be a huge treat for them! In case your curious, here are some pictures of what that looks like. I can tell you it weighs about 41 lbs.

For those of you who are praying for me while I'm on my trip, I greatly appreciate it. Here are some points for prayer at this stage:

- Traveling Mercies: Pray that my flights go well, no luggage is lost and I don't get sick (no swine flu please!).

- Team Unity: The group I'm traveling with has had limited interaction at this point and we are all arriving separately. Pray that we will establish trust and rapport quickly so that we can have maximum impact.

- Culture Shock: This is not my first third world experience but traveling to a new country always brings its own set of challenges. For me, it is almost always the food - I'm a terribly picky eater. Prayer that I'll find a dish I like and can rely on for the trip.

Just Grillin'!

I bought a grill today - figured it would be a good use of a portion of my tax refund and a good way to eat fast and healthy this summer.

My new neighbor Darrell helped me carry it to the backyard and set it up. Darrell also gave me some tomato plants for my back yard. And helped me figure out how to turn on my sprinklers. Darrell is very helpful - too bad he's forty plus and a smoker. ;)

Anyway, back to the grillin' . . .

So, I grilled myself up some chicken and I made a little foil packet of peppers, onions, carrots and garlic (Thanks for the idea Meredith!) and it was delicious!

I sat in the sun on my back patio and enjoyed my meal while reading a book and watching my cats frolic through the grass chasing bugs.

I think I'm going to really like this summer!

Things I'm into today . . . .

Whoa! Long blogging hiatus! Sorry for that. I've had tons of things to blog about but just couldn't find the time to sit down and write! So, I thought a good way to get back into the swing of things would be to highlight some things that I've been really into lately.

• Finding Financial Peace - In January, I decided it was time to take control of my money and not let my money control me. I'd been feeling a little overwhelmed and frustrated with managing my finances. So, I began taking Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University at a local church. For those of you who aren't familiar with Dave or his program I highly, highly recommend it! Dave presents a straight-forward and Biblicaly based system for managing your finances. I am not good or interested in financial stuff but Dave is really funny and his program has me on a budget and with a plan . . . . pretty amazing for me!

• Tap Dancing - I've been taking Tap Dancing lessons since September and I'm loving it!!! I have a recital in June and we're dancing to Chicago's version of "In the Mood." (For those of you who are familiar with both Chicago and the song "In the Mood" you are not going crazy, I guess Chicago has a big band album.) I'm sure I'll be Ginger Rogers by then.
  

• Africa Trip - In case you didn't know, I'm headed to Africa in May for two weeks with my ex-roommate Melissa and her church from Seattle. We'll be working at an orphanage in the Zambian capitol of Lusaka. I'm so excited for this trip!!! My team is awesome and I think it will be a great opportunity to see God's work in this African country. We are taking each child in the orphanage a backpack with socks, flip-flops, school supplies, a treat and underwear. I'm responsible for getting underwear donations and my non-Christian co-workers are all over that! It's hilarious, all they talk about is getting underwear for this trip. Its amazing to see God work in progress!
  






• My New Church - I've finally found a church in the Tri-Cities that's a fit for me! It's actually a church plant of a bigger church I tried and decided wasn't for me. It's kinda funny because it meets in a movie theater so church always smells like popcorn. But the fellowship is amazing and I'm finally feeling at home. I also just started going to a small group and I think this is going to be a great place for me!
  
  
  
  
• Contra Dancing - This is a form of folk dancing that sort of a blend of square dancing and line dancing. If you've ever seen the new Pride and Prejudice movie with Keira Knightly, they do it in the first dance scene where Elizabeth Bennett meets Mr. Darcy. I know it's kind of hoaky but I used to do this every now and then when I lived in Seattle but its so much fun and such a good work out, I decided to make it a more regular event. They have a group here in the TC that dances once a month and there is another one in Walla Walla that meets once a month. It should be great fun!
  






• Summertime - I'm so ready for it! Gardening, hiking, camping, canoeing, eating out-side, BBQ's, Boccie Ball, Goof Ball, chores, farmer's market, craft fairs, wine tasting, evening walks, star gazing, playing with dogs, sun-tans, tubing, croquet, swimming, Miller Island, Mt. Rainier . . . . . and so much more!!!

So that's what's keeping me occupied right now! Here's to much more frequent blogging!

Princeton!

Hello Folks!

I've arrived safely in Princeton, NJ for my big trip! I'm visiting my dear friend Meghan who was my best friend in middle school and is one of my oldest friends! She's a smart-one and is currently getting her PhD in French Lit here at Princeton. Today is all about seeing her world and meeting her friends. Tomorrow we'll head into the Big Apple for our grand adventure! More to come soon!

Speed Dating!!!

Sorry for the long hiatus guys! With the holidays and work finally picking up again, I've been pretty busy. But I finally had such a life event I had to blog about it!

After much begging, pleading and down right coercion. I gave into my coworker's request to try the speed dating event she'd heard about on the radio. Most people heard that ad and thought "That sounds like fun, I should go to that!" She heard it and thought, "That sounds like fun, Jessica should try it!" What can I say, my married coworkers live vicariously through my singleness.

Well, despite my best intentions to have a HORRIBLE time, it was actually pretty fun. Most of the guys were very nice - old and divorced - but nice. Filling up the three minutes wasn't too much trouble - although some of them were pretty quite. It was too bad that most of them had been married before and most who had been married before had kids - a couple had high school age kids! NO THANK YOU!!!

Now, it would be very lax of me to not share about the two creepy guys who you knew had to be there. One was in his fifties and we discussed his plans for retirement. He said he would note me by my pink shirt because it would be inappropriate to use other aspects of my appearance to jog his memory . . . . he said this while staring at my chest. Yes, the conversation just got worse from there!

The worst one though was actually a host at the radio station - and I'm really hoping he doesn't get my name and number through some tricky way because he works there. He was over the top! "Do you like to hike? Great! I love to hike! Ever hiked Badger Mountain? No, well we can go together!" "Oh, you grew up in Walla Walla. I love Walla Walla! We should go there, we can go visit your parents and then I'll take you to all the wineries I love!" "Do you like good food! Let's go to lunch! You just say when and where!" When I asked him how long he'd been in radio, he said longer than I'd been alive. Now, why does a guy easily old enough to be my dad want to show me the town?! Cause he's a creep! That's why!

Anyway, they've been doing this for a while and I guess it's pretty successful but they took a break over the holidays so things were a little slow today. There were about 6 guys to visit with. They also said that crowd usually has guys more my age. I think I'll give it another try. I gave the go ahead on 2 different guys who were normal and nice - we'll see what they think tomorrow!

If nothing else, most of the guys were engineers so I might get some good candidates out of my dating endeavours!

TTFN!