Alive and well.

I am alive and well.
I hope you have been following on zmm2008.blogspot.com while internet has been scarce.
The trip has been amazing.
We flew to Livingstone, Zambia airport and drove 4 hours to Namwianga Mission. There, we stayed with our host family, the Sitimela's and their extended family. A bath was the luxury to be had there- in which our host mom carried buckets of hot water from the fire in the backyard and poured our bath. We felt bad for the inconvience, but it was necessary after 3 days of camping at a time. One night, we had a family dinner and soon after Leigh suffered the consequences for about 24 hours.
Our group of 150 persons or so, loaded up on American school buses and drove on pot hole laden roads or just dirt roads to a total of 4 clinic locations/villages for 6 clinic days. There our clinics were set up in school rooms. I saw about 60 patients per day. Chief complaints included backache and headache (Rx ibuprofen), abdominal pain (Rx albendazole), fever, cough, blood in urine, etc. Lots of referring for TB testing done. We were able to test about 2000 people for HIV and about 12% were positive. In all we saw about 9000 patients, extracted 2000 teeth, around 140 baptisms done, and ate about 96 fresh chickens. I took some pictures of interesting patients as well as some real cute babies I'll share later. Side note, I need some queso real bad. And a margarita... Our tent mates were Ellen Little, a medical missionary in Uganda, and Carol Buchholz, a doctor in Alaska. I really enjoyed serving the people. We were able to distribute a lot of necessary meds and I was blessed to be able to pray for every patient I met.
The Zambians are so happy. The children run from their huts as the buses pass by. One boy was stark naked outside his hut, peeing with one hand and waving with the other.
Now, we are in Livingstone. Last night we enjoyed a sunset cruise. We saw a white rhino (who was babysat by two men to protect him from poachers), hippos, and a beautiful sunset. Our lodge is delux, especially compared to our recent previous digs. Today, we went on our safari in Chobe park. My favorite was the elephant families. We also saw giraffe, hippo, kudu, impalla, sable, baboons, crocodiles. We made one croc mad when we woke him from an afternoon nap... no lives lost. I probably owe 20,000 kwacha for this internet time, so I will say goodnight. I will leave one joke as I go... What do you get if you cross an elephant with a rhinocerous? Ell-if-I-know! I love you! Mel

From luxury to the unknown...

We have been so spoiled in Cape Town. We have eaten some of the best food ever in our life and very much enjoyed exploring the city and its environs. Our favorite things have been visiting Cape Point, seeing the seal and penguins, eating, shopping for African originals, and getting to know each other. Now, we head to Zambia and meet up with the team. We are a bit nervous about being doctors there since we are not as familar with tropical medicine but we will learn by immersion. This morning from my balcony overlooking Table Mountain (which for the first morning we can see since the clouds have finally parted), I prayed for protection, wisdom, and a serving heart. We miss you family and friends and look forward to seeing you again and sharing our experience. We may not have a chance to blog again, but will try if we can.
XOXO, Melissa

Eight Things I Loved About July Eighth

Today was brilliant. There is too much to say but I will type some of it out.
We decided to take a tour to Cape Point with a group of 7 others in a van
and one tour guide. We were apprehensive but it was the only way to travel to the most south-westernly point on the continent and it would be less expensive than a private tour.
Walter of "Wal-tours" showed up to pick us up and we were the only tourists on the trip due to it being winter, slow season, and possibly the coldest day of winter (around 50 farenheit). So, we got a private tour that turned out to be so fun! Walter was a most excellent guide.

Eight Things I Loved about July 8th:
1). Peter Boy- the seal at Hout Bay who has befriended a local fisherman. The seal, in exchange
for fish from his friend's mouth, will allow tourists to sit on his back, hug him, and snap photos.
Peter was huge, probably 500# and soft with puppy dog eyes. That was amazing. At the end of the morning he just dives back into the ocean. I still feel the seal fur on my face.
2). Penguins- at Bolders beach, small penguins live, mate for life, and our not afraid of strangers.
I was two feet from the penguins and they did not care.
3). Whale sighting- A woman's job is literally to scope out sharks for the local surfers and she says she has seen only one whale last week as whale season has just begun. While chilling with our tuxedo friends, an Asian tourist yells out "whale"! What luck to see a huge whale.
4). Constantia winery- I tasted the wine that Napolean drank and was said to have been his last request before death. It was a dessert wine, so Napolean was kind of girly.
5). Kirstenbosch gardens- We saw their beautiful national flowers, the proteus, plus acres upon acres of plants, trees, paths... Walter pointed out the highlights and we managed to avoid the rain.
6). Cape Point- The vistas were unspoiled and majestic, yet it was a cold, windy, short-of-breath hike up. I have never seen anything like it.
7). Cape of Good Hope- Leigh decided to touch the Atlantic Ocean (it is quite cold and we called it the Artic since the next piece of land south is Antartica). She got a little too close and as a wave approached she got scared and slipped! I captured this on camera so if anyone wants to see Leigh fall into the Artic, this can be arranged on my return.
8). Return to African Villa- after laughing vigorously at Leigh, I later ascended the steps to our villa and slipped on the first step and belly flopped on the front entry way. The hotel managers and two other guests were just on the other side of the door and heard all our laughing at ourselves.

The only bummer about today was that I was unable to get Cale on our dang cell phone to wish
him a Happy Birthday. Today, he turns 31! Happy Birthday Cale! I love you! Cheers!

Happy Independence Day!

We have arrived. The traveling was similar to a call day. We woke at 5am, traveled from 6a to about 3pm the next day, and felt drunk and with a headache on arrival to Capetown. It started out grand- our first flight was "severely delayed", meaning we would miss all our connections. After God tested our patience (and won) by standing in line for 2 hours, we hitched a ride on a nonstop to New York but our bags would have to be transferred to the other plane. The check in lady confirmed with the bag guy (Stan) who we heard over the walky talky say "two big reds and one green" bags found. We love Stan. We were not to know if our bags were really on board until J-burg and we were so excited when we saw them we ran to them like they were our lost Buddy cat. But Buddy is not lost either, he is with Cale. The plane ride was not too bad. 9 hours from NYC to Dakar for refueling and then another 8 hour leg from J-burg. Mel was excited about a myriad of movies to watch on demand, but the dramanine taken on the second leg worked a little too well. When we finally reached Cape Town it was 10pm local time and our "driver" was waiting for us with my name written on a sign, who safely delivered us to An African Villa. The villa could be described as modern African. It is clean, with free internet (thus this long blog), and boasts our own bath and shower with a towel warmer, and breakfast included. We could not be more pleased. After taking the longest shower of my life, I layed my tired head on the pillow (interrupted by some heavy rain and strange dreams)...
Today, July 4th, we slept in and then headed out for some shopping and dining. Leigh is quite the negotiator. She will be doing all my bidding. She bought some awesome African paintings on canvas. Lunch was tapas. Dinner was Italian. The Coca Cola light is so good here, we think there may still be cocaine in it.
Tomorrow, we are going to Stellenbosch and surrounding countryside with a personal tour guide...
Hope everyone enjoyed the fireworks- Can we play with sparklers when we get back?
Love you! Melissa & My China (Leigh)
p.s. My China is what you call a good friend in South Africa