Snail Mail Address

A few people have e-mailed for our snail mail address.  I'm glad to say we have it sorted out (at least for a time). This box belongs to a friend of mine.  She kindly said we can use it.  She'll be in Zambia another year at least.

Feel free to send mail to:

Michelle Potts (or Andrew Potts)

P.O. Box 630083

Choma, Zambia

If you are sending mail to our kids it would be good to put our names on it anyways (as many times you have to show ID and pick it up in person!)  

We do have to pay a (small) fee to pick up packages but I don't think it's anything too crazy ($1) - so if you feel the desire, please send away! :)

The Tale of Two Dogs

This lovely house that we have in Choma (remember I cried when we moved in!) came with 2 stray dogs.  Yep.  The last people to rent the house had left them.  The guy (Caleb) that rents that small house in the back yard, this small white house pictured below, fed them when he had a bit extra; which by the looks of them wasn't very often.  

When we arrived at our new house there was a dead dog carcass just outside our gate and they had been eating it.  EWWW.  Yeah.  Gross.  The landlord told us he'd get rid of them (I didn't ask what that meant.  I didn't want to know nor did I care).  The kids were scared of them and wouldn't go outside.  The dogs didn't bother us much as they were pretty scared of humans and you could say "boo" at them and they'd run away.  (I'm guessing people probably threw rocks at them when they were out scavenging).  

We slowly learned a bit more from the Caleb, the guy that lives behind us.  We could tell that one was the mom dog and the other her puppy.  I assumed all the other pups had died of hunger.  I found out there were 4 that were given away by Caleb to homes, but this last pup he could never catch.  So it stayed.  The puppy was sort of cute (once you got past the fact of what it had been eating to stay alive).

Now, I'm not a dog person (as my friends know) but still it was hard to see these (more than) half starved dogs around our place!  It was also a pain since my kids finally had this huge yard and they were scared to go out by themselves!  After a month we realized that the landlord probably wasn't going to get rid of them.  Then one day a new dog came into the back yard from the street (our gate is just cast iron bars that they could get in and out of easily).  We figured that this dog was probably the father of the puppy (now when I say puppy- it's an older puppet, but it's still in the puppy stage - but probably just barely).  Andrew was out with the kids when this strange dog came by.  The strange dog was not quite as fearful of us and was more bold and aggressive.  (Nothing happened - but Andrew had to scare it away and bring the kids inside).  So we decided we HAD to put chicken wire up on the gate to keep something like that from happening again.  But then "our" two dogs couldn't scavenge.  We found out MCC's policy is that we could keep one dog.  ONE dog as a guard dog.  We were encouraged to put up the chicken wire anyways and feed the dogs a bit until we could figure it out.  We waited a few days as we didn't want to feed them and have them get too attached to being fed!  I talked to our gardener to see if he knew anyone that wanted a (wild) dog. I was joking.  Who wants a wild dog?! He said he'd take one of them. I knew he had a few dogs already, wants to be a vet, and lived on a farm, and actually fed his dogs real dog food.  Not a bad home for a wild dog so, I asked him which one he wanted… and he said either.  So we decided to try to keep the puppy and sent him with the momma dog.  (I was still picturing her eating that dead dog… and I figured good for her for keeping them alive but I put the scavenging blame on her!)  

The mom dog

Our gardener, Lwiindi, came back on a Saturday morning with a friend to get the dog.  They ran ALL over our yard (front to back mostly) trying to catch her.  For at least 30 minutes (do I have to mention it was hot even at 7am?!) It wasn't a pretty sight and luckily the kids didn't really look until after the dog was caught.  Andrew drove them all back to Lwiindi's in the car as we knew they'd never get that dog way out to that farm on the bike they brought!   I asked Lwiindi what he named the dog a few days later and he said "Cookie."  :)  I'll have to ask him again to see if it's changed.

The day the mom dog left us happened to be the Saturday that we went up to Livingstone (Victoria Falls) for our 10th anniversary.  We felt bad leaving the other dog by herself right away after taking the mom dog away, but we got the neighbour kids to give her some food.  (We're pretty sure it's a her). 

So, now we have this dog, Cookie. (Named by Kate).

Our dog, Cookie, on the back step.

She's kind of cute but she's still untamed.  We figure that she's NEVER been touched by a human.  I thought the following Monday after we got back from our trip that we'd load her up, take her to the vet, get her vaccinations, get rid of the fleas that I'm sure she has, and the worms too?  And that would be that.  I realized really quickly that wasn't going to happen.  There's no way we could catch her to take her to the vet!  So now we're on project "Chan the dog" (Kate wrote it on paper and it's on our wall - Train the dog).  We bought dog treats and we're slowly getting her to come closer and closer to us (Andrew or I).  I was making progress - I had her getting it from about 6 inches away from me.  But then she started barking at me like crazy (she wanted another) and I didn't like it.  Andrew took over.  (I think I lasted like 3 times!)  He's slowly been working with her.  And now Cookie follows Andrew around like a puppy dog…. LOL!  He got her to lick the treat in his hand just before we came up to Lusaka.  She didn't actually take it out of his hand though so he eventually had to put it down on the ground for her again.  She still barks at the kids when she thinks she might get food.  Malachi doesn't seem to care as much but it really scares Kate.  I'm not so fond of it either.  It sounds really scary (she growls too).  Though I finally taught Kate to say "STOP" firmly and WALK away when she's scared.  (She used to run - so you can all guess what the dog did right?! At least, right now, the dog is to chicken to get close enough to touch anyone)!  However, the other day Kate was calling the dog to follow her (though she wasn't so sure when Cookie actually was following her!)    Cookie's started to sit at Andrew and my feet (a couple feet away, with an eye open) when we're on the porch.  Though Cookie was actually almost sleeping near us the other day (without that eye on us).  So it seems like there has been progress.  I told Andrew he has until the end of December to train the dog.  (AKA: get her tame enough to go to the vet!)  In some ways it would be easier to get rid of this dog (easier said than done) and find a new puppy to grow up alongside the kids (and bonus if it's one that was handled as a pup)!

So, Andrew's been reading some tips online about how to train a dog.  They all assume that the dog has been touched by human hands before though!  LOL!  We should be looking up "how to tame a wild dog!"  We figured feeding it is the first step!  When we get back to Choma I'm going to buy some de-worming treatment to put in the dog food.  The dog doesn't seem to be gaining weight even though we've been feeding it for almost a month now.  Though she is getting pickier about her food! :)  She gets dog food for breakfast but because it's expensive she gets Nshima - the cornmeal ball that the Zambians eat - but cooked with chicken broth, and some chicken for supper. 

I also noticed the day before we left that she has what looks to be tics on her back.  It was a good reminder to keep my kids out of the longer grass!

So - prayer request this time is for our dog, Cookie.  That she could become a pet AND get to a vet! And I'm always afraid she's going to get comfortable around us AND still be wild and perhaps bite?  (I told you I'm not a dog person right?!)

You can also continue to pray for our time in Lusaka and our drive back home next Saturday (Your Friday night).

We'd still like a cat.  (Kate seems to be more of a cat person too).  There is a wild one up for grabs... LOL!  But I think we'll try for a nice kitten that we can take to the vet right away!

Working as a Teacher Mentor

I've been working a bit lately.  Probably not full time yet but slowly working up to it.  MCC has been very gracious at giving us time to get settled and time for the daily living adjustments… how much time it takes to mop the floor in dry (read dusty) season, get the kids settled into this new house, get the house set up, call the plumber for leaks in the toilet, and cook and do the dishes.  Slowly we are adjusting to the changes (no dishwasher!)  We have the washing machine working - but it does need someone to watch it while it's going incase the hose pops off!  

Andrew's been working at Chodort every Tuesday and Thursday for awhile now.  I've been home with the kids and supposedly "working" in my home office.  Alas - this has not yet happened for more than an hour here or there!  Hopefully we'll be getting some house help soon and the desire is to find someone that can help the kids out by at least feeding them and washing their dishes! That would free up a lot of time!  Though today I didn't get anything done in the home office in part because we are starting to have some new friends drop by.  

I have been to 6 of the 8 schools I will be working with.  So far I've been meeting the head teachers (principals) of the schools and most have given me a tour of a few classrooms.  The first time out to each of the schools I have been taken by a fellow MCC worker, Kajungu, who is also working at the Brethren In Christ (BIC) schools.  I asked the Education Secretary (who is in charge of the schools) if there was a map and he laughed at me!  So Kajungu, the MCC worker, has been showing me around and has been introducing me.  He is working in the same schools but doing peace clubs.  His recent passion is helping the BIC schools get rid of corporal punishment.  Corporal punishment has been illegal in Zambia for awhile now, but it is still widely used.  He's trying to get BIC schools to be leaders for Zambia and to be some of the first schools to get rid of corporal punishment. 

So, yesterday I went - by myself - to Macha, which is about an hour from Choma.  I had been out on Friday with Kajungu but many of the teachers were away as Thursday was a holiday for Zambian Independence Day.  Most of the way is nice paved road.  The last 10-15 minutes is dirt but not too bad.  This is the just shortly after the turn off from the paved road but after this (right now dry) river crossing the dirt road was pretty decent!

The narrow bridge.  And yes, I was taking a photo while driving... but I was almost stopped.... ;)

There are 2 BIC schools in Macha; Macha Central and Macha Mission.  On the way into Macha is another BIC school, Hamoonde.  I stopped at all 3 of the schools yesterday.  I spent most of my time at Macha Mission and that is where the following photos are from.  I was welcomed into their classes to watch.  The teachers and students were mainly speaking in the local language, ChiTonga, but the teachers were gracious and spoke both English and ChiTonga while I was in the classroom.

Macha Mission Basic school.  The left building is the staff room and head teachers office.  The right building (left side) is the Grade 1 room in the morning and the Grade 3 room in the afternoon.

Mrs. Hiinga doing a lesson with her Grade 1 class on the carpet.  I think she said she had 40 students. 

A Grade 1 student, Mary Chikashi, doing her seat work.  Many of
the students did not bring their pencils or paper.

The Grade 3 class

At Hamoonde I had to pick up a report that needed to be photocopied and returned.  That's right teacher friends - NO PHOTOCOPIER at the school!  Can you imagine teaching without a photocopier?  I took it to the Macha hospital where I was told there was one.  I got there and it was out of toner.  Luckily the nursing school nearby had one!

I am starting to figure out what I want to do next as a teacher mentor. The head teacher at Macha Central talked with me for quite awhile and I got many good ideas from him.  (He mentioned some things he like from previous teacher mentors that were very helpful!)  But this next week we are heading to the big capital city of Lusaka where we have MCC meetings.  We're heading up early so that I can finish some assessments in a couple schools there that the previous teacher mentor started.  (The school year starts in January and ends in December - so I'm doing year end assessments!)  We're looking forward to our time in Lusaka.  Hopefully we'll buy some things that we haven't been able to find in Choma AND we're staying at a place with a pool for our team meetings!  It should be good!

Prayer requests:

- travels to Lusaka - driving in the BIG city on the left hand side (double round-abouts - shudder!)

- decision about possibly putting Kate into a private school starting in January

- that the mosquitoes would stop biting Michelle so much

Counting my blessings

 Happy Thanksgiving 

(to my Canadian friends!)

I want to count my blessings today, many of these have a "grumble" behind them that I am readjusting my attitude about and realizing how blessed I truly am!

I am thankful for....

-hot water and a running shower

-two bathtubs and a handheld shower in the kids' tub

-flush toilets (with running water again!)

-hot weather (it must have been 35 today with a lot of humidity too!)  And it cools off at night.

-two turbo fans!

-food in our fridge and in our cupboards (our metal cabinet)

-electricity to run the fridge!

-A store to buy the groceries at (it's called Spar) as well as the market

-Kate is helping with the dishes!

-a healthy family, including me

-a large house

-furniture in our large house

-INTERNET (to look up how to cook pumpkin leaves!), facetime, facebook

-new friends and old friends

-my Bible study ladies back in Abbotsford and that I can facetime into study with them!

-new friends that babysit and whom my kids are already comfortable with

-a vehicle

-a backyard that is looking awesome thanks to a very hard working gardener

-that we can employ a gardener!

-a soon to be planted garden in OCTOBER!

-Kate is loving Kindergarten - at home

Our word wall is started!  The words Kate knows.....

Doing Science (looking at bugs around the house)

-the kids are having new experiences, including eating pumpkin leaves, and know how to say Nshima

-an awesome language teacher (we had our first lesson for ChiTonga today)

-a washing machine that works

-lots of time to read books in the evenings!

-the encouraging messages I get from friends (facebook and e-mail... btw: e-mail is easier to get / read / respond to as I can sign off and on the internet to do it - amkmpotts@gmail.com if you feel inclined to write! I love long e-mails with lots of news about how you are doing and what you are up to! Hint, hint!)

-a job I like (so far) and that I'm excited about

-a church that is friendly, in English and is only about an hour and a half long!  Praise the Lord!

-Geckos on the wall that eat the bugs (wish I had a photo but they are still a bit shy around us!)

-being able to walk into a Pharmacy and buy "prescription" drugs without a prescription and for a very good price 

-coffee made by friends (I'm still perfecting my carafe - what's the proper ratio?!)

-tea time

-coca-cola

-10 years of marriage (on the 18th) 

- Andrew (the best for last!) a friends, helper and so much more!  I'm so glad he's here with me! :)

-a vacation planned for one night in Livingstone to celebrate our anniversary next weekend (with the kids) and a dinner date (without the kids)

-that people read my blog and are praying for us!  Thanks!

If you haven't seen Andrew's blog yet - you can check the latest one out here:

http://eatabean.blogspot.com/

Playground!

We have been going for walks near our house the last week and we discovered a playground within a block of our house!  I’ll let the pictures tell the rest of the story. 

the entrance

swing set, sans swings

The largest of 3 slides.  Looks the best but on closer
inspection looks the least safe!

The second slide... with hole at bottom.
Kate enjoyed it still.
Too tall for Malachi.

Climbing up the ladder

Kate at the top

Avoid the hole!

I think these were teeter totters?

The park looking back

The park looking ahead to the small slide

A steep small slide.  Malachi climbs this and has daddy
hold him down the slide.

And that's our park!

Our new house

Here are photos of our new place!  We are feeling a bit overwhelmed with the amount of work to do to make this home.  It's the little things you can't "see" - all the cupboards in the kitchen need to be replaced.  They are just particle board and I'm scared to put anything in them for fear of them breaking!

We moved in here on Saturday and there was at least 3 other MCC workers that came to help us get things situated.  There is a huge yard but it need a lot of work (some work was done before we arrived).

The water everywhere we've been in Zambia has been fairly safe - but probably not here.  Kate and myself are both sick.  We'd appreciate prayers (especially for Kate - she threw up 10 times last night).  She is keeping gravol medicine done and is doing okay but not hungry and not drinking much.  We'll take her to a doctor if it continues but so far the medicine is working okay.

Here are the photos you are waiting for!

The living room

Also part of the living room - it's down a couple stairs.
I think playroom?  Right now our internet is hooked up
in this room so it might have to be an office too!

The kitchen.  No appliances came with the rental so we got
a new fridge and small stove (still 4 burners) and a hand me
down washing machine that Andrew is trying to fix so it
doesn't leak.  

The kitchen has this really great pantry though! We ended up putting the
fridge in there too.

Hallway taken from the master bedroom
The living room is at the end to the left and the
kitchen at the end to the right.  The bathroom
is in the middle on the right.

The main bathroom

Sink and shower come separately!
There was no hot water when we got here
but the landlord came by and showed us
the switch.

This one is now the kids bedroom
They wanted to share still.  Two beds fit
but barely!  (We turned that one).  Note weird
"plant" decoration that had to be removed!

This one would be another room for the kids
if they decided to have different rooms.  Both
these rooms are next to the Master Bedroom.

The master bedroom - the nicest room in the house I think!

And the ensuite!  For real!  Though the sink is coming off the wall.
Everything is harder to "fix" here because the walls are solid concrete!
Andrew's thinking to build a cabinet under it to support it.

The front of our house!  It's on a bit of a compound - walled in.  The gate needs a lock though - we have one, but we haven't seen our neighbour yet (there's a house at the back that is rented) and I don't think he'd like us to put a lock on the gate and him not have a key!

Prayer Requests:
-That we can make this huge place feel like home.  3 rooms in the middle are not being used by us yet! We're hoping to have a guest room (small) and an office.  And the other room is also a guest room while the kids share.
-For Michelle and Kate to feel better.  It's hard to do anything when you feel awful!

Our first few days (in Lusaka, Zambia)

Thanks for your prayers!  The plane ride over went well.  The kids slept most of the first flight.  There was a great play place in the London airport that we spent most of our layover at.  Kate was asleep before the plane took off on our London to Lusaka flight.  Malachi was out shortly after.  They decided that it was merely nap time though so they were both up around 1am and did not go back to sleep.  The iPad kept them fairly quiet though.  Andrew and I did not get much sleep.

We arrived at the Lusaka airport and easily got our visas and all our luggage and cleared customs.  It was the easiest African airport I've been through!  Ron Mitchell, one of the Zambia country representatives for MCC, met us right away as we walked through the door.  We are currently staying at the "MCC House" in the "MCC guesthouse."

The backyard of the MCC house!  Can't believe
 everything is flowering so much in dry season!
Gorgeous!

Our flight arrived at 6:15am and we tried hard to stay awake all day.  We went to the mall in the morning.  Yep.  A mall.  Andrew got his first cell phone!  We had naps and at supper time the electricity went off so we went back to the mall to eat at Wimpy's.  It had burgers, wraps, breakfast food and a children's play place.  Our kids didn't eat anything.  They were ready for bed.  Malachi woke up around 2am but went back to sleep.  Kate woke up around 3:30am and did not go back to sleep.  Andrew dozed on the couch a bit.

Tuesday we played around the MCC compound for the morning.  A long morning (when you get up at 3:30am!)  We had brunch with the Mitchells, though it was more of a second breakfast for us!  I got to see the stuff for our new house in Choma that was packed up for us (well I got to see the furniture and was told what was packed up!)  The truck that was arranged to take the furniture and household items to Choma showed up - an 18 wheeler!  It didn't fit in the driveway.  There had been a misunderstanding, but they loaded the truck up and it was going to stop back at the depot to swap for something smaller before driving to Choma.  I also got to browse the MCC library.  The afternoon consisted of naps for the kids and reading over the orientation booklet for us.  We chatted with the Mitchells about our job descriptions and how to start.  Then we tried to wake the kids up... I fell asleep trying to wake Kate up!  We woke up in time to have supper with the Bishop of the Brethren in Christ Church (it is the BIC church that runs the schools I'll be working with).  The kids went to bed late (around 10pm) and us shortly after.  Andrew woke up around 1am and Kate shortly after.  While trying to put her back to bed Malachi woke up.  Only Malachi managed to get a bit more sleep after that (and me!)   The jet lag has been one of the hardest things - especially with the kids as our sleep depends on theirs in a way.

Wednesday was Kate's 5th birthday.  We went to a nice place called Jackal and Hide which was a cafe / restaurant / shop / organic farm.  We had coffee break there and lunch and were able to chat with the Mitchells a bit more as it also had a playground for the kids.  When we got back after lunch I tried so hard to keep the kids awake while Andrew went for a nap.  I looked over and Kate had fallen asleep.  I picked her up, bounced her around, put her down and she crawled over to the couch again.  I started chatting with Ron about finances and I looked over and noticed Malachi had also fallen asleep.  I decided to give them an hour tops!

We had a birthday supper for Kate and she was barely awake (it was very difficult to wake her up!)  There were the Mitchells and their two kids, another MCC family lives on this compound too - they have 3 boys, (the 5 kids are between the ages of 10-14 I believe).  Another service worker from near Choma was here visiting too so we had quite a group for Kate's birthday!  We served cupcakes very quickly after supper as she was fading fast! Here is a photo from the party.....

She asked to go to bed after and I put her to bed at 6pm.  I crawled into bed at 7pm thinking that I might have to get up with her at 1am!!  Malachi and Andrew followed closely behind.  Kate woke up at 4am but went back to sleep after an hour or so and slept until 8!  She was definitely more herself today and I think we hit a turning point in the jet lag!  (I hope!)

A much happier Kate... technically the photo was taken
only 7 minutes past her actually North American birth date
was over....

Today we played around the MCC guesthouse and did some laundry.  Then we had lunch with some traditional African food.  (I liked it, the kids liked the beans and the chicken, and I think Andrew liked it too - I'll have to ask him).  I forgot to take a photo though!  After lunch I went shopping with the ladies for a few more things for our house in Choma.  We went back to the mall and to a store called "Games" which was pretty much a Wal-Mart (I think the MCCers mentioned it's owned by Wal-Mart?)

Here is us playing around the MCC guesthouse today:

Ready for another nap!

The tire swing!

Tomorrow we leave for Choma.  We're planning to spend a night in a guesthouse while we organize our house to live in.  A couple of the MCCers are going to come down with us - which is good because though I feel I could probably drive our "new" vehicle.... I'm not so sure about driving on the left side of the road in Lusaka to start out!

Prayer requests:
-continual adjustment from the jet lag
-our move into our new home and making it feel like home
-learning to drive on the left side of the road, safety!