Macha Innovative Christian School (MICS) had its 2nd annual Fun day!
Students, parents, teachers, and our classroom helpers gathered for a day of games and entertainment.
We had clowns, relay races, bingo, marshmallow games, hula hoops, and even a tug-o-war!
At the end of the day the children performed for the parents by singing.
Last week, while all our visitors were here, Mrs Esther planned a Traditional Tonga party for all the guests.
The local people that are from the area around Macha are known as the Tonga people (there are many different regions within the country of Zambia)
Mrs Esther served Tonga chicken and nshima (corn based staple in the Tonga diet)
We had a bonfire with traditional games and singing.
Some of the local women performed for us and danced in the traditional "Tonga style"
Kim, Britnee, and Dorien were not afraid to try to learn something new!
We had a wonderful time. Lots of eating, laughing and celebrating!
Friends of ours from Modesto, California stopped in to visit us last week. 
Doug Wesson and his son Aaron were in Africa on a mission trip, they planned their trip so that they could spend a couple days in Macha before meeting up with the rest of their group. We showed them the school, the hospital, local shopping, and the village. Then we took them on a true African adventure. 
Doug, Aaron, Kim, and Britnee came with us on an extended weekend to visit Chobe national park in Botswana,
the Zambezi river, and Victoria Falls (one of the 7 wonders of the world).
The trip required traveling by single engine plane, some major four-wheel drive roadways, car ferry, and even a passenger boat. At one point we even saw giraffe while we were driving down the highway! 
Everything went off without a hitch...we thank the Lord for watching over us!
The past 5 weeks we have had 2 Girls living with us and helping around Macha.
Kim is from Wisconsin and is a teaching student concentrating in sports.
She has worked with the kids at MICS and at the government school to teach them new games and have fun. She also brought balls and more to donate to the government schools.
Britnee is a nursing student from New Hampton, Iowa.
She has been working at the Mission Hospital and has spent much time in the maternity department helping deliver babies.
It has been a wonderful joy to have these 2 girls stay with us. We are going to be very sad to see them leave!
The 4th grade boys earned enough points in class to take us fishing at the Macha dam. The boys dug the worms, made the fishing poles and showed us how to fish. 
We caught about 30 tiny (about 2inch long) Kapenta that the boys ate at home. 
We also celebrated Christopher's birthday. He is 14 and had never been to school before this year. This was his first birthday party ever! 
He lives in the village where only bottles of soda are available... he was not sure how to open or handle a can of Sprite! We had a wonderful time enjoying the outdoors and getting to know these boys outside of the classroom setting.
We had the privilege of having the Dutch ambassador to Zambia and his wife, visit Macha recently.
During his tour of the village they stopped to see the progress of MICS.
The children welcomed them to the school by painting Dutch flags on their cheeks.
The ambassador was amazed with the advancements in the village and he was impressed with how far MICS has come in such a short time.
We wanted to let you see one of the churches in Macha.
This is one of the churches that we regularly attend. It is called the Pentecostal Assembly of God Church.
They just had major renovations with brand new plaster and the floors were redone...they are very proud of the new look. They really did a good job!
After the service, everyone goes through a greeting line to say hello to everyone else.
If you visit Macha, we will gladly take you to local church service!
