Thinking out Loud: Sunday, July 11, 2010

At first we were told to get up at 4:50 for cleaning then group devotions at 5:30, but no one actually got up till 6. We cooked our last meal of nshima and IMANA before catching the 10:00 boat.

Cooking IMANA on our outdoor stove.

We had to use sticks instead of coal the last couple days, so we weren't cooking inside!

We found a couple toads around the house as we were packing. Most of the missionaries and all of the children were grossed out by Michelle, Lovemore, and myself touching and even picking up the toads. They wouldn’t even let us come near them with it. While packing and playing with toads, there were people going in and out of the house picking up the free clothing and we would give some specific items to the children outside.

That's as close as the children got to us holding the toad

Lovemore got to be pretty brave with the toad!

Jones wasn't to impressed!

Passing out clothes to the villagers

We took a freight boat this time, not the post boat. Chama and Tecla were estatic to see Michelle and I again, as they thought we were already in Lusaka heading home. While we were loading the boat, a pastor was performing baptisms. He went from island to island as they were picking us up and performed the necessary baptisms with our Bible study contacts! 115 baptisms in 3 weeks!!

The Freight Boat

Baptismal candidates on Chishi Island

Baptismal candidates on Mbabala Island

After saying their vows as a group, they filed into the water and were baptized one at a time.

The boat ride was used as reflection time and connecting with the missionaries we hadn’t seen in a while. I saw some guy wearing a University of Michigan baseball cap. That was kind of funny! When we got to Samfya, we loaded the boat onto the bus (and surprisingly, everything fit), had a group meeting, then headed south. On the bus ride each team gave a report of the work they had done in their village. This is where Lovemore announced the official changing of our names. Michelle was now Michelo Hamidoton and I was Elina Gondwe. Thankfully there were no movies playing on this bus ride so sleep was successful!!