It’s really difficult to get connected up here! It’s all about where in the house you are for the best signal – here on their farm those hot spots are the anthill or on top of the kitchen cupboard.
I bought some talk-time; 100 000 Kwacha’s worth – that's about R 120 (should last a month). The shop I went to only had that amount in 10 000s and 5 000s – twelve recharge vouchers!
Struggling to get in contact with me family had started to take its toll and I was feeling a little discouraged but after talking to them a little on Skype chat and checking my Facebook messages, I felt much better.
Two calves were found to have contracted ‘heartwater’ that same day. This illness has killed livestock at the farm before and is often carried by illegal livestock brought in from Tanzania – we're very close to the border here.
Grant gave them some anti-biotic injections and then ‘zapped them’, hooking them up one by one to this electric machine that somehow kills the infectious bacteria painlessly (for the cows at least), but this treatment doesn't always work. There isn’t much chance the cows will live but we’ll see what happens.
We went the Schaefer family’s Mbala Baptist Church on Sunday. Zambians take their dress very seriously, especially for church. The service started at 9 but nobody shows until about 10.
We made our way through the doors to our seats; men on the left, woman on the right and children and a mixed group on the centre benches. The languages spoken were almost entirely Bemba ( a common Zambian language) and Maambwe, another Zambian dialect. The sermon was given in good English by the Pastor and translated sentence by sentence into Bemba by another church leader. Afterwards songs were sung where a handful of different worship leaders each led the seated choir African style worship songs, shuffling out of their seats and ending up at the front or returning back to their seats. The vibe was great!
The choir sung a final song ( at about 1 o-clock) and shuffled out a side door, line by line. We all followed bench by bench as the choir sung on outside.W all lined up out the door and shook each others hands – the whole congregation.
We went to collect some chickens later from a friend just a few km’s down the road. Lynne let me drive the old Toyota Hilux. It’s super weird to drive but of course loads of fun!
Turning the steering wheel is like steering a planet, and the gears leaver in where the indicators have always been!
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