MACHA MACHA MACHA

Hello All!!

I’m so excited to update you on all that’s been happening in Macha these past couple weeks. So thankful for this team and the memories we are making. I am so proud of them and can see the Lord working through each one of them. We completed our first course, leadership, on Saturday and will be heading into our community course on Monday. It feels amazing to complete a class and all the major projects that have gone with it. One of them was a simulation presentation. We worked alongside the Macha College of Nursing to prepare and present a pre-eclampsia sim to the senior class. It was amazing to learn more about the students and collaborate on this project. They are some of the most intelligent and humble people I have ever met!

Our delivery count is up to 40 babies currently! One of my favorite days in clinical thus far was the theatre day- AKA surgery!! Dr. Monga let me scrub into surgery for a removal of a lipoma! I felt like I was a real life Dr. Pimple Popper if we are being honest. When he let me finish suturing the wound, I told said his sutures were flawless compared to mine and he replied with something that I will never forget. He said, “it comes with a lot of experience. And that experience is something I want to share with everyone. I will never stop having is the heart for teaching others. Never stop teaching.” In that moment I felt so blessed to be there with him. The kindness that the Zambians have shown us is truly unmatched. Every encounter I have had with someone here, I have come out on the other side uplifted and encouraged. The Zambians are truly amazing!

Another AMAZING person I met was a woman named Jean. She is a seamstress here and came to our compound to add ties to some of our chitenges. I told her that my name was Ashley and a huge smiled popped up on her face. She told me that she had a daughter named Ashley as well. The next day when she came back with our new and improved chitenges, she told me that she wanted to make a dress for me as a gift because I was her daughter too. She said she had the material picked out and everything, she just needed my measurements. UGH WHAT!? She made me the most beautiful dress I have ever seen and will cherish it forever. Not to mention it fits like a glove. So needless to say, I now have a Zambian mom as well.

Our days here a jammed pack with so many things! Two of my favorite experiences thus far were our orphanage visit and our village day. New Day Orphanage is run by an incredible man named Wes. At their orphanage they currently have 44 kids. The program they have set up there is absolutely incredible. Here is a link to their website if you’d like to learn more- newdayorphanage.org . We walked around their compound and learned all about their organization and then hung out with some of the kids. Blessings and I really hit it off- mostly because of my blue fan (thanks amazon 😜). While it was a hot day it was an absolute blast! I can not stress this enough- the Zambians are so incredible!!! We also went on a village day where we lived the life of a Zambian for a day. We made chicken, nshima, rape (similar to cooked spinach), and ground nuts. It took us a couple hours to prepare the meal. A couple of mothers from the villages near by came and helped us cook as well! It was so fun- even though we did not know what they were saying to us half the time they made you feel so welcomed. They were so goofy and laughed at us when we didn’t know what we were doing. Sometimes we knew they were talking about us when we heard musungos – “white people”. The mothers let us hold their ADORABLE babies on our backs too! While we waited for the food to cook, we played with some of the children and chased some Guinee hens. It was amazing to be immersed in this culture for a day. I am so amazed by the women and children- they had very little but held so much joy and generosity in their hearts. Incredibly blessed by this experience.

I am loving it here and will cherish the memories I have made for the rest of my life. I’m so thankful that God even gave me this opportunity and every day I see His hand in the midst of the people and their lives. He’s good all the time! I am missing home some days but the experiences that I have had definitely outweigh the super hard days. And I am thankful that the super hard days don’t come often. I’ve learned so much about God’s goodness and comfort through those days too. I can see that they are not for nothing.

We have one more week before we head off to Zimba! Macha has been so incredible to say the least and I will definitely miss this place.

Ashley