Kerri here! I wanted to share some of the adjustments that our family is making as we learn to live here in Zambia. There are many, many things about the society and culture that we are learning, but in this post I wanted to tell you about some of the everyday things we’re learning on the home front. There are so many little things we took for granted as Americans coming here that are just different in other parts of the world.
First, we are getting used to sleeping tucked under mosquito nets. The kids think it’s neat and haven’t resisted at all. We don’t have a huge problem with mosquitoes where we live and we have the advantage of being able to spray our yard periodically. However, we want to be as safe as possible when it comes to avoiding malaria.
Also, having clean drinking water for our family is an issue. We have city water, but this isn’t necessarily safe. First we boil the water, then we run it through a filtration system to take out any additional impurities. We bottle this water and use it to drink, cook and brush our teeth! We do bathe in the water from the tap and we have had no problems with that. So far we’ve been very healthy!
Another adjustment is washing dishes. Apart from the fact that we don’t have a dishwasher and it feels like we’re doing dishes constantly, there’s also a little added dimension here because we have to rinse our dishes in bleach water after we wash them. This is to kill any bacteria from the water. This is also true of our vegetables and fruits. Before we cook or eat any of them we must soak them for about 20 minutes in bleach water to kill anything that we wouldn’t want to ingest. Then we rinse them with the filtered water!!
Yet another adjustment is meal preparation. In addition to having to bleach all of our fruits and vegetables, it is also necessary to cook most things from scratch, as it’s very difficult to find anything “pre-made”- even spaghetti sauce! So, as you may have guessed, preparing meals takes a bit longer here than it does back home. I’m getting used to it and learning a lot, but I’d appreciate your prayers!!
Pray also for our neighbors, those people who live all around us who struggle with all the same things but do not have the means to do anything about it. Pray for their physical as well as spiritual needs. They need your prayers much more than I!
1 comment:
As one who has lived overseas, though in a much less burdensome society, I certainly understand why many missionaries employ locals to help out in their homes! E.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g. takes longer in another culture. America is so highly processed, we just have no idea how much time things can take!
One of the best bits of advice I received before moving to S. Korea (in addition to 'cut yourself some slack and get plenty of rest'!) was to not plan to get a lot accomplished in any one day. Daytimers don't work overseas. Maybe they have month-timers! :-)
Praying for you as you adjust!
-J
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