So, there are only six days left before I’m on an airplane on my way to London for the night I have layover there. Just saying this brings a strong bump of emotions to me, but the words to describe them seem far away and distant.

Like any trip, this one has had ups and downs and I don’t only, in this case, mean the weather. Just yesterday we had our first of the 40 Celsius days. For those who are lost in the conversions to Fahrenheit that is 106 degrees. A lot like Arizona, however, it is a dry heat so while you sweat it evaporates off your arms.

I’ve started to give away my extra things. I traded a pair of shoes that cost me 100+ dollars in America for 10,000 kwacha worth of gifts. That’s two American dollars. Its little things like this that has made a fond memory of the place. The price of things here is completely out of whack; some things we pay just as much as it costs in America to get and other things we give to them at a lot lower then their cost.

It is definitely not that I wanted more for the shoes, for the sole purpose that I brought them was for them to stay in Africa, but the barterer inside me wanted more then two dollars. The way I justify it is that the man could have charged a lot more for the gifts he was giving me then he had chosen to and I was just giving him a good deal.

One of the funny things I’ll take away from this place is how small of a community it is. Even though, with the hospital, I see so many Zambian’s that it feels like this is a large city the news of what I do gets around quickly. Take for instance, my choosing to agree to give basic chess lessons to one of the nurses who asked me for them.

Every time we met it was in a public place with people around for the obvious reasons, what this did however, was get me eleven or twelve kids asking at all times if I could also teach them chess, as well as an anonymous message that when I teach chess it needs not to be in my house, which it never was.

Small town antics caught me by surprise, I guess, but it wasn’t an unpleasant surprise just something I hadn’t thought of.

Things I will miss from Chit are the simplicity of life, the hours available to reading that just don’t feel available in America, and the re-watching of certain DVDs over and over because there isn’t a theatre around and sometimes you just need to escape to cinema.

I think that may be one of the first few things that I do when I get home, go see a movie. It seems such a luxury to be able to go see a movie at any time after living in the bush of Zambia for only three months.

That’s the other thing that amazes me. I’ve only been here three months. It really does feel I’ve been here for a year or more and that I’m accustomed and knowing of the ways out here and could handle anything. I’ve only been out here three months, I haven’t seen a lot of the surrounding country and I definitely could not navigate my way home if I wanted.

This little bubble of experiences has been a fond one, and it has allowed me to meet people I will always remember and hopefully always have an opportunity to keep in touch with. If only the McAdam boys I will keep in touch with, that was still a friendship I would have otherwise never had.

So I’m thankful for my time here, and I’m thankful for the opportunity my parents made available for me to just uproot and be gone for three months without having to worry about everything at home while I’m away. I’ve lived care-free for the most part out here and for that I am blessed.

I’m also very thankful to the Whitfields, who have been my host and friends during this experience. If it weren’t for them this really WOULDN’T have been available to me and I would have never known anything about Zambia. Before them all my knowledge and heart had been for Kenya where the missionaries that my father supports are. They opened up another world to me and possibilities of helping out in the future and for that I am a better person for.

Not only did they do that, but they provided me meals and took me in as a fake son and I’ll never forget that hospitality. I’m not sure how I can make it up to them, but I’ll definitely work on thinking of ways that will show that their sacrifices to include me were taken very thankfully. I’m glad they had me out here for the time that was allowed.

Carl

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