Happy Thanksgiving

Although they do not celebrate Thanksgiving here in Zambia, I want to wish everyone in Canada a very happy Thanksgiving! The Canadian High Commission is having a Thanksgiving Day celebration tomorrow so I will be able to celebrate with everyone in Canada.

Sorry about the pictures from the last post. For whatever reason, Claudia and I (and our friend Vanessa) can not get pictures to post on our blogs. Maybe it has something to do with being in Africa, who knows! Anyway, I will send an e-mail with pictures attached so people can get an idea of what it's like here.

I've been here for two and half weeks now and I've been out of Canada for almost three. I am enjoying it here. The people are pretty friendly and I am getting to know people. I just tried to add a picture and it worked. This is the cooks at the Lazarus Project, a gentleman named William (who speaks French better than English so I've been practicing - boy am I rough!!) and me.


Since my bag got left behind in London and didn't arrive until the Thursday after I did (I arrived on Tuesday) and I left my razor in it, I didn't shave for 5 days. So I decided to not shave for a few more days. I think it wasn't until the next Saturday that I shaved (almost two weeks). Nick, you're not the only one with a red beard!!

Anyway, I guess the big news for this week is that I was out driving a tractor for the first time. I got to practice a bit on an empty field and then I had to plow a small part of another field for Oscar, one of the garden workers. I think I will be doing a lot more plowing in the next couple of weeks, as we have to get the fields ready to plant the maize as soon as possible. Besides planting maize, we are also going to plant soya beans. They are more profitable than maize so as long as we grow enough maize for the boys to eat we can sell the soya beans for some cash. They also help the soil a lot by fixing nitrogen that can be used the following year to grow other crops.

Other than that, not too much else is new. I am enjoying my time here and it is always nice to hear from people. Also, if you would like me to send you a post card or letter please e-mail me with your address and I will send one (my e-mail is dj4brown@gmail.com).

Here are the rest of the pictures that I couldn't post last time. The first is Frau Koehler (First Lady of Germany) who was here on the Friday after I arrived. She was with UNICEF-Germany. It was quite impressive actually. I imagine Claudia and her parents are a little bit jealous that I got to meet her. I would have spoken German but I only really know one sentence (and it's "Do you speak German?") so it would have been a dumb question to ask Frau Koehler.

The second picture is the boys at the Lazarus Project at church the first Sunday I was at the project. Brother Paul led the service and we had it right at Lazarus. It was pretty neat.

The third picture is what Nshima looks like (their main meal). They eat it at pretty much all their meals and it is made from ground up maize. Before it is cooled it's called mealie meal.

The fourth picture is Paul standing on a pile of garbage. We walk over this pile every time we want to go into town. It usually smells bad and it's not the greatest sight in the world (especially for someone with a BES degree or a health degree!!)

I guess that's all for now. I didn't bring any other pictures with me but I'm sure I will have more next time. I hope everyone is doing well in their respective countries.

It would be great if people could pray about the hiring of a new Farm Manager. Pray that the right person would be hired to help make the farm self-sustaining. Pray also that I get my VISA (to stay in Zambia) sorted out. It is never an easy task to do.

Thanks for all your support. Goodluck and Godspeed