Our Amazing Time with Kayla...

We are so blessed to have had 10 days to spend with Kayla in Zambia! We did so many things that I could blog for a day about all of our adventures! The pictures below will tell the story of Kayla's first trip to Africa and what an awesome time we had! We are so blessed to have a cousin that loves the Lord and feels called to serve Him as a missionary one day! Praise the Lord for the blessing of family and GREAT times together!

She cooked a traditional Zambian meal of nshima and Chinese rape!

And she baked cinnamon rolls complete with icing!

She ate sugar cane with Mr. Henry Chipanga.

She ate nshima and pork at Daisy and Henry Chipanga's house!

After lunch, we picked cotton in the Chipanga's field. 

Then we helped the Chipanga's shuck corn!

We said goodbye to the Chipanga's and they sent her away with groundnuts!

 

Our next stop on our day in the village was to visit Kawere Village where our dear friend, Bertha lives! Kayla wanted to carry water on her head, and I knew that Bertha was the perfect teacher, because she taught me!

Kayla was awesome and didn't spill one drop!

We said goodbye to Bertha and Cynthia and headed back home after a long but fun day in Petauke!

Our kids love Kayla and she was so sweet to spend time reading them their favorite books!

The next day, we visited one of our Peace Corps friends, Tabatha, at her home at Ndake. Tabatha works with the Ndake Basic School. We got to meet the head teacher and visit with a few of the 700 students.

We went to Tabatha's home and met her Zambian family that takes great care of her!

Then we headed to Lusaka where she met several missionary families that live and serve in Zambia! We had a birthday cookout for a missionary kid, Abby!

We went to the Last Saturday Market and ate burritos and other yummy food!

On Sunday, we began our journey to Victoria Falls. We arrived, ate lunch, and went right to the Falls for our Zambezi River Bath!

 

Ellen, Lily, Kayla, and Lauren explored the scene with David Livingstone!

 

This was Kayla's face when she first saw the Falls! It was awesome to be with her, she was so excited!

 

We got really wet!

The next day we had an adrenaline filled day! It began with Abseil...

Then the flying fox...

And the grand finale was the gorge swing!!!

 A free fall of 53 meters or 57 yards before ever feeling the jerk of the rope!

 

We saw animals, like this crocodile named "Brainless". He has eaten three people and was brought to this crocodile farm!

And she held a crocodile!

A mama giraffe washing her baby!

Impala

And the sun beginning to set over the Zambezi River.

Lauren was Kayla's buddy the whole time!

Before she left we had to see the Falls one more time! This time we had a beautiful rainbow and awesome views of the river and the falls!

We all enjoyed having Kayla here, especially her second cousin, Kendall!

COME BACK REALLY SOON, KAYLA!!!

Catchin' Up with the Kiddos

 Easton always finds way to entertain himself with the simplest of things!

And he knows where to find the food! He was caught in the act!

Lauren sitting with Zeria at church on Sunday morning at the Nyimba Youth Meeting.

Lily loves to play!

The little boys wanted to play with Easton, and he wasn't so sure!

 

While we went to baptism, Zeria stayed behind to feed the kids a lunch of MREs (Meals Ready to Eat). Easton told us, "MREs are my FAVORITE food!" The Zambian children were entertained by their lunch.

Easton taught Tiffany how to hand wash her clothes!

Tada! All done and my socks are white again!

Lily washed too!

 

Easton found another "road" for his cars!

Lauren loved the see-saw at Protea in Lusaka! She laughed the whole time!

 

Waitin' for church to start!

Easton's photography!

The Free Fall of a Lifetime!!!

On our vacation to Victoria Falls, Kayla and I took on the Gorge Swing. I said all day long that I would not do it, but after abseil, and the flying fox, I was ready for the swing! It took a bit to get my heart and my mind in sync before this "swing" but it was awesome! The ride is like nothing I have experienced before! We free fell for 53 meters/58 yards/174 feet before we felt the jerk of the rope! We then enjoyed the swing across the gorge, it was awesome! So awesome that we did it AGAIN! Later that night, we had a hard time going to sleep because we always felt like we were falling. Our bodies were tingling and our hearts would race. This is an experience that I will NEVER forget!