A Letter from Africa and A Trip to Mpika

I recently received a letter from one of my best friends, Tim Solfest. He is currently serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer in The Gambia which is located in West Africa along the Atlantic. I received word of the letter from my mother back home. Funny how I am receiving a letter from my friend in West Africa when I am just south (and a little east) of him in the same continent. Tim, if you are reading this I will write back soon! It just may be through email or Facebook considering mailing things here is quite difficult. Thanks for the letter!

So, the days since the ordination have been much quieter now that the visitors have come and gone. Sunday was filled with holy mass. The mass here usually runs two or two and a half hours long which is quite long for my taste, but with it being the first mass of the newly ordained priest it went even longer. Close to three and a half hours! Mass is supposed to be a celebration after all.

Considering Sunday is our relaxing day we mainly just hung around the monastery and village. We attended the football (soccer) game which Katibunga village competed against a nearby one. It was fun to watch, but the American in me still prefers to watch American football and baseball. You can take the boy out of America, but you can’t take America out of the boy.

All Sunday we were concerned for Francesca because we thought she had come down with a bad case of malaria. However, after taking a malaria test which turned out to be negative and giving her antibiotics she began to feel better. She is completely fine now. We aren’t sure what it was, but at least it wasn’t malaria.

On Monday Zack and I were finally able to travel into Mpika. We passed through Mpika when coming to Katibunga, but it was night by that point so we could not see anything. This time it was during the day. The city sits 45 km away from Katibunga and you must travel a very beat up dirt road to get there. It takes a little over an hour to do so. We traveled with 12 people in a car that seats 6 comfortably. It was a long drive to say the least. Once we arrived in Mpika we began by dropping off people at their designated places. Some went to houses and some went to the bus station. Once everyone was dropped off it was just Zack, Br. Augustin, Br. Simeon, and me. The reason Zack and I had to travel to Mpika in the first place was to check in at the immigration office to confirm that we are actually doing what we said we would be doing. Good news, we are not getting deported. We have been admitted for another 30 days. So every month on the 23^rd or 24^th we will have to head to Mpika to get readmitted. You may be wondering why we would even bother going every month considering they aren’t going to come hunt us down. Well, when it comes time to leave Zambia they will check to see if you have been keeping up with immigration and if you haven’t been things can get a little tricky. The last thing we want is that.

After checking with the immigration office we drove to the bus station in order to buy our tickets to Lusaka. We must travel to Lusaka and then to Livingstone because there is no direct bus route from Mpika to Livingstone. Our bus will be leaving at 8:00AM on Sunday, August 30th. We were unable to leave Saturday because Chiara and Francesca have something going on. In addition to buying the tickets we were able to stop at a bank and pull out cash. This was my first time pulling out money in Zambia because we haven’t had a chance to and didn’t need to before. I believe the exchange rate sits somewhere around 8.2 Kwacha to 1 USD. And I have friends wondering why I moved to Africa ha.

It is nice to actually have some money in my pocket. After withdrawing money we grabbed some lunch at a local restaurant. Guess what I got…chicken and rice! Ha or at least I would have, but they were out of rice. So I picked chicken and potatoes.

Once we finished eating we had to wait for both the brothers to get what they came for. Buying groceries for an entire monastery takes a very long time, especially when shopping in Africa. Everything is scattered around. We had to make many stops to pick up everything. It became a very long day for Zack and me. We left for Mpika around 9:00AM and were finally back on the road towards Katibunga by 8:30PM. We were excited to go to Mpika, but a trip once a month might be all that we are up for. Also, it makes you appreciate Katibunga a lot more. It’s much less crowded and most people know us here by now. I can’t say the same for Mpika. We were stared at constantly and many people were asking for money. It’s hard because it’s all because of our white skin. The stares and constant attention wears on you emotionally. The experience was tough, but it creates a good lesson that we can learn from.

For me, Tuesday was spent lesson planning and at the clinic. These are some of my favorite days. I enjoy reading up on biology; especially biopsychology which is what the nervous system and brain mainly is. It also allows me to relax and go at my own pace in the morning while offering me a few hours spent at the clinic in the afternoon. I am now able to plan my final lessons without the internet because Chiara and Francesca happened to have documents of medical books on their computer. They sent them over to me and they just happen to cover exactly what I need! God is good. Now I will be able to finish all of my lessons before the term starts. Also, I just received four very expensive medical school textbooks for free; one being the famous Gray’s Anatomy textbook.

Yesterday Francesca taught me how to stitch a wound. We practiced on a piece of paper by cutting a slit into it and threading the needle through it. Threading the needle is the easy part. The knots are a bit more difficult, but I am mastering them. I don’t think I will be putting in stitches while here, but if it was absolutely necessary I truly think I could make it happen. They taught me how to use a clamber (I think that is what it is called) as well as how to tie the knots by hand. Super cool stuff. I am putting my time into learning as much as possible even though I may never use the skills. My thought is that I might as well learn them still.

Today, Wednesday, I am currently typing this blog post while lesson planning for my biology class. Later today I will be heading to the clinic with Chiara and Francesca. Then Cheapo, a friend of Zack and I, invited all four of us to his house to get a good look at what one looks like. We know Cheapo through tutoring (he’s the 29 year old) and he also works on the construction crew that is building the new secondary school.

I am also attempting to send some emails this morning, but accessing Gmail is like jumping and touching the moon – it’s flipping impossible. I wouldn’t have guessed Gmail to be this way, but it is. I hope to get this email off to my grandfather in the next hour (Doc, if you receive an email from me count yourself lucky ha).

Well, things are still going well here. My sister Grace heads to the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University tomorrow to start her college career. Woop! Have fun, Grace! It’s the best!

Thanks for reading!