This weekend was extremely eventful. We had some sad news Saturday morning before we left for a trip to Choma. We found out that baby Alfred passed away early that morning. We were very sad, but Alfred had been struggling to breathe the past few days and now he isn't struggling at all! That's the only way we can have peace about it, to know he is with our God in Heaven!

After a quick stop in Kalomo to fill Khaki Jackie up with gas and get some snacks for the road, we headed off to Choma. We spent some time at the little crafts museum and then we went to the grocery store (Super Spar) and got some lunch (a quarter of a chicken and chips, or fries). Delish. Then it was market time! Mrs. Mono, our neighbor who sews all the cute purses and stuff, asked us to go to a store for her and buy some thread while we were there. We had no idea where this store was so we asked an older man at the museum. He said, "Oh, it's too difficult to explain, I will just walk you there." It was like a 10 minute walk! What a nice little man! We walked passed some guys and they called to the man and said, "Boo yah! something something something" haha it was in Tongan, not English. He yelled back to them and I heard "boo yah" again. I asked him what that meant... it means grandfather. When I told him what we use it for in English he laughed hysterically! I love it. He was a funny old man. He said he finally feels like a grown up because he just got some grey hairs. Love it. Anyway, when we got to the shop it was closed. Bummer. We gave the man some candy in appreciation. He loved it. Then Jaime helped me pick out some chitenges for a quilt! I am going to take them to some of the ladies who are at Eric's house and they are going to make me a quilt! I am really excited about it. We decided we had enough chitenges and wound our way back to the front of the market. All along the front stalls, there are tons and tons of dried fish, rice, and other grains. We're not completely sure, but we think it's like a snack for them. No way you could get me to try it!

When we got home we watched Twilight and just chilled because we had a later dinner tonight. There is another orphanage about 20 min away (awful dirt roads in the bush) called 7 Fountains Farm. And the family that runs it invited us over for dinner. They are from South Africa so they have a cool accent... it's like British and Australian mixed. There are also a few pharmacy students from Lipscomb who just got here today that came to dinner too. The family made us a South African specialty called poikey (no idea how to spell it) but it means little pot. You apparently normally cook individual little pots of it, but they just made one massive one. It was basically just like a beef stew, plus we had rice, salad, and rolls. Then they made a ton of desserts and we had tea. It was like a 3 hour deal. It was delicious, too. Kaylee, Lacey, and I ended up sitting across from the Tulli (Dr. Tullos, his wife- Kerri, and their 13 yr old son- Ian). We talked to them about tons of stuff and by the end we were getting bored so we started playing ERS. Everyone else was looking at us like we were crazy because we were screaming and laughing, but we had fun.
Right as we sat down to eat, the power went out! So we ended up having a nice dinner by oil lamps!

This morning, we were invited to attend services at the Kasibi Church of Christ where Leonard (our amazing cook) is an elder. The drive out to it was crazy! The roads were super bumpy and in the middle of nowhere but we made it! When we arrived, some of the women of the church came out to greet us by singing and shaking all of our hands.
The entire service was done in English and Tongan. Dr. Tullos helped with the Lord's Supper and Will, a guy from Texas who is visiting with his family, preached the sermon. These two guys in the picture did most of the translating and they kept cracking us up! At one point Will said something about "athletic clothes" and the shorter guy was translating. He thought for a minute and then rambled out a bunch of Tongan and ended it with "sports attire." We all laughed pretty hard at that one. When the service was over, the Kasibi Singers (pictured below) sand a few songs for us. They were great! Then we were asked to sing a song for them. We sang Wonderful, Merciful Savior and even though we're not the greatest singers, they all loved it. After church, Leonard had us over to his house for a lunch he had prepared. His house and their little village was a few hundred yards away from the church. We had to drive Khaki Jackie since we weren't coming back to the church. Almost everyone decided to walk, but Lacey, Marja, and I decided to ride since we'd driven through some tall grass. Didn't want to risk being surprised by a snake! Since there were only 3 of us in the 12 person vehicle, we opened up the doors and motioned for the little kids to get in with us. They ALL wanted a ride! It was excellent. There were 27 of us in all! It was great. Leonard had fixed us a delicious meal and we all felt pretty special to be eating in his humble home. After we had cleared our plates and had a piece of his "Welcome to Kasibi Church of Christ" cake, we headed outside to listen to the band with the rest of the village. Dad, don't you have this shirt??? Love it. Maybe you two were on the same boat? The band was awesome. They all had homemade instruments and they all sang. As soon as they started playing, all of the kids started dancing around the band in a circle. I mean, they were dan-cing! It was crazy. After some convincing, we all jumped in there with them! It was so much fun.After about an hour of dancing, we finally decided it was time to go home.These two were my dance partners! They were so cute.

When we got home, we had a nice couple of hours to just relax. After dinner, we were back at the house talking about therapy tomorrow and.... the power went out. We decided to have our own head lamp devo at home instead of going to church since we wouldn't be able to hear/understand anything without the mics and in the dark. We were all set for that when Dr. Weaver came in with the best announcement ever! Ian decided to be baptized tonight!!! What a blessing! We walked over to the Mann house and everyone gathered to witness. After Ian was baptized, another person stepped forward and decided to be baptized. And then another. And then another! Altogether, 6 new brothers and sisters were added to our family tonight! When we first got here, Ian immediately made a new friend, David. They are the same age and Ian has spent a lot of time hanging out with David and even went to school with him a few times. They have become great friends and tonight both of them put on Christ in baptism. So special! You would have thought Ian had 10 extra moms tonight because we were so proud of him! What a great way to end the weekend.

Tomorrow we start our final week of therapy at the Haven! I can hardly believe our time is coming to a close!