I'm a bad blogger

So I have been here in Zambia for over a week now and have yet to write. Sorry my, possibly?, faithful followers. Fear not, though, life is amazing here. I am safe, healthy, and loving life. That is not to say there aren't things I am having some difficulty getting used to. Moving slowly and not be certain of what I am doing, when I am leaving, and even where I am going some days has been an adjustment I am still working on.

I have been racking my brain trying to think of what would be best to write about in my very first blog while here, and decided to settle on what am I loving best here. The people. The Hope Ministries community has been blessed with so many amazing individuals and yet they are so humble about how wonderful they are. Upon arrival, I was given the welcome one expects from their family. Open arms, huge hugs, dinners fit for Thanksgiving(replacing the turkey with Nshima of course), in short, the best welcoming one can imagine. Every day I am here I think they cannot make me love them more, and then every day they do.

My house with Mama Sylvia, Savour, and Humphrey already feels like home. I come home from a long day of work and feel relief when I walk through the front door. They have bent over backwords to make me feel comfortable. Heating up my water early in the morning so I can take a bath, finding out my favorite dishes and perparing them for me even though it is certainly not their cup of tea, bringing me along with their friends when I am sure I am slightly embarrasing with my very loud voice and Western ways, disrupting their sleep to make me breakfast in the morning, in short, I love them. I could not imagine a better place to live while here.

If the amazingness of the people here stopped there I would feel overly blessed, but it does not. Mama Mareen, Pastor Judy, Ba Gertrude, Mama Lillian, the list just goes on and on...I could write pages and pages on the generosity I have received and it still would not be enough. The children sing to me and I cry, the ladies at church pull me up to dance with them and I am overcome with joy, the women engage me in a spiritual conversation and I am compelled to change.

I have rambeled on for quite a while now and still feel I have not even skimmed the top of what I want to say about the people here. You know, Ba Charles told me last time I came that here in Ndola, Zambia they are all about ubuntu, or the people, and he wasn't kidding.

Love to you all back home,
Sara Blumenshine

P.S. Pictures are currently all old, new ones to upload....eventually....