24.4.06
And now, our feature presentation.
In the past week and a half a lot has happened; I’ll summarize.
*Excuse my lack of paragraphs.
A team of 6 adults from 100 Mile House in BC came. They were living in the guest house behind our house, and Elaine moved into our house. On Sunday the 16th we went to the Potter’s House Church. On the Monday I stayed home to catch up on school a bit.
April 18-21 – Each day I went out to VOH, and did school, then on break times I played with the kids. I definitely know at least 10 names now (this means I can identify them no matter what clothes they were, or what their hair style is). I even played basketball one day, and discovered that 12-year-old kids are better than me…oh well. Twice I helped Elaine with cookie baking in the houses. Also, we had lunch twice in one of the houses. This meant a full out meal of 2 kinds of potatoes, 2 kinds of chicken, 2 bowls of rice, and large bowls of sauce and salad, along with a drink. It was crazy how much food was left over. I enjoyed talking with the team in the visitor room, and had fun going through the VOH guest book; so many people have been there! Norway, Nunavut… you name it.
April 21 – Our visas expired on the 23 (Sunday), and since the immigration office wasn’t open on weekends, we tried to renew it on Friday. Tried. It turned out that ours was actually a business visa (which can be used 30 days per year), not visitor visa (which can be used up to a total of 90 days per year). This meant that as soon as our visa expired on Sunday at midnight, we had the possibility of imprisonment or deportation (according to their website). The immigration officer wanted to see a receipt from our work permit (that we do not have yet). The officer almost tried to take our passports away until Monday. This turned out to be quite the ordeal, because the PAOG(Z) in Lusaka were the ones who had filed for it, and had apparently lost the receipt. One lady from there was at the immigration office in Lusaka all day, trying to get things sorted out. It also happened that the person who was working on our work permit file wasn’t there that day, so someone else had to help her. Nancy was calling this woman every 15 minutes to see how she was doing/to keep her moving. With four minutes to go before closing time, we arrived at the immigration office in Kitwe, without the receipt – because our work permit file had been lost – and vowing to not give up our passports. Nancy, with her sweet-talking charm that Graeme had experienced, smoothed things over, and we saw a much gentler side of the gruff officer from earlier that day. His last words were, “Don’t worry, Zambia is a friendly place, I’m sure we’ll get things sorted out.”
April 22 – We went to the 2nd Graduation Ceremony for Agape school. The team, and the rest of us got to sit on the stage (which seemed kind of weird, because the choir, or grads should have been up there), which was covered by a big tarp, and had chairs with armrests to sit in. Each of the “Special visitors from Canada” got a nice cold bottle of water. The decorations were authentic. Balloons everywhere, and triangle construction paper with veggie tale stickers strung together. The best part of the ceremony was when the group of grads did a line dance – African style – that went 2 steps forward, 5 steps back; so it took a while. I had to leave early to go to Ndola, but apparently there was a sweet dance party afterwards where my mom was dancing with the African ladies, and my dad was dancing too…how I wish I could have seen that!
April 23 – Acts Community Church, with pastor Albert, was pretty sweet, but 3 hours long. I found out that none of my shirts match my skirts. There was an eleven-year old girl (Albert’s daughter) playing the drums – and was pretty good. I notice that a lot of times (well twice) there are girls playing drums, when generally, at home, its boys.
April 24 – We headed down to immigration at 10:45, after hearing from the same lady from PAOG(Z). She said she would be at her office in half an hour, and had just come form immigration in Lusaka. At 12, and three phone calls later, we went to the Bersaglio’s (who were in Lusaka/Harare, but Shelly, their housekeeper was home) to receive the fax of the receipt that the lady said she would send. (The immigration place in Kitwe has no computers, no fax machines, no printers, no copiers. But they do have electricity… and cell phones) Then she said her fax machine didn’t work, and had to take public transport to get to another one. At 2:30, and 6 phone calls later, we headed to immigration Kitwe, with the faxed receipt in hand (and another copy, just in case). After getting there, the immigration officer told us to photocopy the visa stamps in our passports, and our passport pictures at the store next door. This meant going up a flight of incredibly rickety iron stairs, and walking through a hallway including a hair & nail salon, computer store, arcade, and what we were looking for - the photocopying place. After this, we returned to the Immigration place, and waited another hour until my dad was asked to go into the officer’s office. During that time a lady sat on the bench beside me, and with her arm stretched out along the back of it, began to play with my hair. She seemed like a nice lady, so I wasn’t too freaked out, but it was weird; I put my hair over the opposite shoulder. While my mom and I were waiting for my dad in the office, we happened to change benches, and found that we could hear what was being said in the office – yes, we were eavesdropping. Finally, at 16:55, after 6 hours of waiting, we had our passports stamped with another 30 days of a business visa.
Today the team left for a safari, and will continue home, along with Elaine, who is staying in Lusaka for a few days, then going home. Yesterday the Dukoral I took was put to the test when I accidently used tap water to make pancakes. (I was fine.) It was a forgetful morning, because I also forgot to take my malaria pill (for the first time). Also, randomly when we were at the airport in Ndola, a group of 10 little kids in suits, and fancy dresses wanted to take pictures with us. They were from the Congo.
*Excuse my lack of paragraphs.
A team of 6 adults from 100 Mile House in BC came. They were living in the guest house behind our house, and Elaine moved into our house. On Sunday the 16th we went to the Potter’s House Church. On the Monday I stayed home to catch up on school a bit.
April 18-21 – Each day I went out to VOH, and did school, then on break times I played with the kids. I definitely know at least 10 names now (this means I can identify them no matter what clothes they were, or what their hair style is). I even played basketball one day, and discovered that 12-year-old kids are better than me…oh well. Twice I helped Elaine with cookie baking in the houses. Also, we had lunch twice in one of the houses. This meant a full out meal of 2 kinds of potatoes, 2 kinds of chicken, 2 bowls of rice, and large bowls of sauce and salad, along with a drink. It was crazy how much food was left over. I enjoyed talking with the team in the visitor room, and had fun going through the VOH guest book; so many people have been there! Norway, Nunavut… you name it.
April 21 – Our visas expired on the 23 (Sunday), and since the immigration office wasn’t open on weekends, we tried to renew it on Friday. Tried. It turned out that ours was actually a business visa (which can be used 30 days per year), not visitor visa (which can be used up to a total of 90 days per year). This meant that as soon as our visa expired on Sunday at midnight, we had the possibility of imprisonment or deportation (according to their website). The immigration officer wanted to see a receipt from our work permit (that we do not have yet). The officer almost tried to take our passports away until Monday. This turned out to be quite the ordeal, because the PAOG(Z) in Lusaka were the ones who had filed for it, and had apparently lost the receipt. One lady from there was at the immigration office in Lusaka all day, trying to get things sorted out. It also happened that the person who was working on our work permit file wasn’t there that day, so someone else had to help her. Nancy was calling this woman every 15 minutes to see how she was doing/to keep her moving. With four minutes to go before closing time, we arrived at the immigration office in Kitwe, without the receipt – because our work permit file had been lost – and vowing to not give up our passports. Nancy, with her sweet-talking charm that Graeme had experienced, smoothed things over, and we saw a much gentler side of the gruff officer from earlier that day. His last words were, “Don’t worry, Zambia is a friendly place, I’m sure we’ll get things sorted out.”
April 22 – We went to the 2nd Graduation Ceremony for Agape school. The team, and the rest of us got to sit on the stage (which seemed kind of weird, because the choir, or grads should have been up there), which was covered by a big tarp, and had chairs with armrests to sit in. Each of the “Special visitors from Canada” got a nice cold bottle of water. The decorations were authentic. Balloons everywhere, and triangle construction paper with veggie tale stickers strung together. The best part of the ceremony was when the group of grads did a line dance – African style – that went 2 steps forward, 5 steps back; so it took a while. I had to leave early to go to Ndola, but apparently there was a sweet dance party afterwards where my mom was dancing with the African ladies, and my dad was dancing too…how I wish I could have seen that!
April 23 – Acts Community Church, with pastor Albert, was pretty sweet, but 3 hours long. I found out that none of my shirts match my skirts. There was an eleven-year old girl (Albert’s daughter) playing the drums – and was pretty good. I notice that a lot of times (well twice) there are girls playing drums, when generally, at home, its boys.
April 24 – We headed down to immigration at 10:45, after hearing from the same lady from PAOG(Z). She said she would be at her office in half an hour, and had just come form immigration in Lusaka. At 12, and three phone calls later, we went to the Bersaglio’s (who were in Lusaka/Harare, but Shelly, their housekeeper was home) to receive the fax of the receipt that the lady said she would send. (The immigration place in Kitwe has no computers, no fax machines, no printers, no copiers. But they do have electricity… and cell phones) Then she said her fax machine didn’t work, and had to take public transport to get to another one. At 2:30, and 6 phone calls later, we headed to immigration Kitwe, with the faxed receipt in hand (and another copy, just in case). After getting there, the immigration officer told us to photocopy the visa stamps in our passports, and our passport pictures at the store next door. This meant going up a flight of incredibly rickety iron stairs, and walking through a hallway including a hair & nail salon, computer store, arcade, and what we were looking for - the photocopying place. After this, we returned to the Immigration place, and waited another hour until my dad was asked to go into the officer’s office. During that time a lady sat on the bench beside me, and with her arm stretched out along the back of it, began to play with my hair. She seemed like a nice lady, so I wasn’t too freaked out, but it was weird; I put my hair over the opposite shoulder. While my mom and I were waiting for my dad in the office, we happened to change benches, and found that we could hear what was being said in the office – yes, we were eavesdropping. Finally, at 16:55, after 6 hours of waiting, we had our passports stamped with another 30 days of a business visa.
Today the team left for a safari, and will continue home, along with Elaine, who is staying in Lusaka for a few days, then going home. Yesterday the Dukoral I took was put to the test when I accidently used tap water to make pancakes. (I was fine.) It was a forgetful morning, because I also forgot to take my malaria pill (for the first time). Also, randomly when we were at the airport in Ndola, a group of 10 little kids in suits, and fancy dresses wanted to take pictures with us. They were from the Congo.
# posted by alanna @ 11:23 PM 
Comments:
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baby-o baby-o baby-o!!!!! GUESS WHAT!!!! it's like summer here! kelly and i went on a walk along the river and put our feet in the water and ate gelato and wore hot summer clothes, etc. it was awesome. but i should get to do that with you...OH! i hung out with graeme yesterday! and nat and annie. pretty sweet. graeme raided the dorms and came away with a few stained t-shirts with holes in them. i ripped one in half and forbid him to wear it, it was so bad. i did that to one of his socks too. gross! ok, i must study for my apologetics exam tomorrow @ 9am. then go to the beach, then bar none, then sleepover, then job interview on wednesday night, then my youth seminar. love you!!!
kris
p.s. you need more dance parties. everyday.
p.p.s. i like cookies.
kris
p.s. you need more dance parties. everyday.
p.p.s. i like cookies.
# posted by 
: 9:22 AM
: 9:22 AM
ALANNIE- you let random ladies play with your hair? Weirdness. Sounds like quite the ordeal- don't worry I was praying- and Graeme was hanging around saying that you would probably have to wait around for 7 or 8 hours and then it would be ok. It's true that your brother has become a scavenger though- you won't believe the amount of things he 'inherited' from bible college- he's a pack rat Alanna. A pack rat with a home with no crawl space to store things in! OH well- gotta love him.
You're awesome and I miss you lots...and lots and lots
-Anna
You're awesome and I miss you lots...and lots and lots
-Anna
# posted by : 7:22 PM
: 7:22 PM
ahhaha suckers!!!!! just another day in the life of africa. no bigs. theylll definitly be more expereinces that consume copious amounts time. its africa. ha. get used to it.
# posted by : 11:07 PM
: 11:07 PM
haha and as the year goes on your blogs on here will get more and more rare i expect.
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# posted by : 11:08 PM
: 11:08 PM << Home
