Hello all!!!

We have a few days under our belt now. Yesterday, (Sunday), we attended the John Howard Pilgrim Wesleyan Church. It was a very lively service full of singing and dancing. It was one of our first emersions into the Zambian culture. One of our team members, Mim, actually got up front and danced with some of the Zambians. One of our team leaders Dr. Bee (Bud Bence) preached the sermon at church on Sunday. Church lasted about two and a half hours. After church we went back to the guest house that most of us are staying at and ate lunch. Following lunch we had a meeting with a lady named Sarah. Sarah is the Chief nursing officer of nursing education, management, and practice for the country of Zambia. She shared with us about how community health centers and health care in Zambia work. We were able to ask her several questions about how health care is provided here in Zambia as well as cultural views on different aspects of nursing. She was very insightful. After that we had some free time where some of us took naps and others of us went on a walk around the compound. In the evening we all gathered around the piano as Lily/Elisabeth played and we sang worship songs. It was such a great time of fellowship.

Today we had class with Dr. Bee. In the afternoon we were able to go to a cultural village market and buy a few gifts and souvenirs. Many of us got purses and chitenges and some African jewelry. Chitenges are basically 2 yards of very colorful fabric that Zambians wear over their skirts or just as wrap around skirts. The market looked like a traditional African village complete with thatched huts. The huts were all filled with lots of different things like giraffe statues, little wooden chairs, bowls and wooden spoons. Many of us were asked to trade things that we had on us for objects in the market.  After some persuasion, Ashley actually ended up trading the skirt she was wearing for a chitenge in the village. After the market we attempted to be studious and read our nursing textbooks out loud together as a group. So far I have really enjoyed my time here. I am still trying to take in all of the cultural differences but enjoying my time here getting to know the other members of the team. We will spend the rest of this week having tours of local hospitals and meeting with some of non-governmental organizations including World Vision here in Lusaka (the capital) and seeing how they work and what they do.

Love
Margaux

All of us dressed in our Sunday best getting ready to head to church on the bus