I woke up today to the windiest and coldest morning (60 degrees with a good wind chill).  The wind really kicks up at night, but usually it dies down in the morning.  One of the local fishermen was paddling a hollowed out canoe close to shore. This is the only type of boat on the lake the locals own.  Holly and I went to the hospital to continue preparing the OR. 

As promised Dr. Lushiku was there with a crew to help start the process of transforming the space into a suitable, safe, clean OR.  We hauled all the non-essential storage out to a different building (the hospital is designed in a ward style with 5 separate buildings), and then started the process of cleaning and disinfecting everything. 

We left for lunch, a visit to the local market (photo of open tobacco stand) and the Samfya bible college (picture of the beautiful Frangi Pani tree).  I found out today that Samfya started as a missionary station in the 1930’s at the site of the current Samfya Bible College.  It’s amazing to me that it’s grown to a town of 30,000.

                 

We went back to Mark and Carmen’s for the rest of the night and a barbeque.  They are really special people who are gracious hosts.  They are not overtly religious and you might not think that they were missionaries at all most times.   Carmen is very organized, setting the schedule, making the necessary contacts and facilitating everything.  Mark is quieter, less assertive, but a consistent and tireless worker.  They both are missionary kids from Africa (Mark grew up in Zambia, Carmen in Kenya) who met in African boarding school in high school and have been married for 15 years.  They are incredibly resourceful and adaptable, cook almost everything from scratch, raise animals, farm, dig wells, fix cars, while at the same time raise and home school 2 children and work for SCCP. They’ve all had malaria countless times. 

I was also able to Skype with Sarah, Andrew and Katie tonight.  It was great to see their faces and hear about their week.  Our guinea pig, Brownie, also had an international Skype date with Nala and Lily’s male guinea pig named Fluffers.  It was very cute to see the kids meet and talk about their shared interest in pets.  I hope that we’ll be able to keep that going even after I get back.  We then sat outside under the visible Milky Way and watched the kids roast marshmallows (unavailable in Zambia). 

Mike has been a great team leader, and I feel the trip so far has been successful.