R.O.C.K in the USA

We have had an absolutely amazing time these past 3 weeks here in the states. We've been really busy traveling between the thumb and Southern Michigan but it was great. We had the opportunity to see so many family members and friends. It was wonderful. Although we're not looking forward to the extensive traveling we have ahead of us we are excited about returning to our village. It will be great to see our friends there again. Thanks so much to all of you who opened your homes to us and traveled distances to see us. We are truly blessed to have such good friends. Our time here has been very rejuvinating for us and has encouraged us to stay motivated and fully engaged this upcoming year. We have done a little bit of updating to this blogsite. We deleted some of the old postings and have put on quite a few new pictures in the photo gallery. Also, we want to put all of our contack info. on here again so you can stay in touch with us if you are so inclined. Our snail mail address is: Stephen and Heather Castle P.O. Box 120045 Kasempa, Zambia Africa Our phone number is 011-26-099-460-744. There are different plans you can use to make calling pretty cheap. Penny Talk, which my mom uses is like 15 cents a minute from a land line. To get that you call 1-877-736-6925 and can put minutes on a card. There's also www.zprepaid.com which is suppose to have cheap rates. Also, skype or other interned calling has worked to contact us as well as general international calling cards. We love you all and hope to be able to stay in touch throughout this next year!

Diarrhea and Wheelchairs

(From September 12, 2006) Greetings All! Things here in the bush are still going well but as the title implied things here have been mushy at best. But thank the lord the worst is past. After our training in the capital city it was nice to get home. The first week back, we attented the church conference for the church's in Kasempa district. It was similar to church camp in the states except for no amenities and basically it's just how you always live (camp fires don't have the same novelty when you always use them for 3 meals a day) I think the people really enjoyed us being there and they welcomed us warmly. Upon returning from the conference we got sick for a little over a week. Numerous other people in the community got sick also so there must have been some bug going around there. So after a very slow paced week we pretty much mended. And none too soon either because the mission hospital close to us invited us to a potluck last Friday evening so our complete motivation for the week was getting our stomachs ready for action. Also, we're excited because we are starting to see a few of our projects taking off. The church has started a sunday school class for the children, we have introduced some rabbits into the community to start breeding, an dnext week we'll be delivering 2 wheelchairs to a few disabled people in our community. The wheelchairs are awesome and I might have a hard time parting with them. They are these all-terrain three wheeled hand cranked tanks. We can't wait to deliver them. Another exciting thing is that our tomato plants our doing well. We take pride in our gardening and are okay with the fact that we are becoming very old for our age. Yes life in the bush is slow but it is good. And what makes it even better is that our nearest town is slowly developing to cater to American needs. A few evenings back, Heather and I had a hamburger and fries while watching a Marc Anthony/Westlife DVD in a tiny restaurant. It was incredible! Marc Anthony never sounded so sweet. And we've noticed that our appreciation for pretty much anything American is constantly increasing. I can honestly even say that I truly enjoy hearing Michael Bolton. He's the hottest thing here right now and I'm okay with it. I even encourage it. So not too much excitement going on but not too much stress either so I suppose it balances out.

Homemade Safari

(From July 11, 2006) Sorry it has taken so long to write, this is the first opportunity we've had to use a computer in almost 3 months! Work has started to pick up for us lately. It is not at the pace of America yet, but I'm sure it probably never will be:) We have had opportunities to ride out and visit numerous community schools to introduce ourselves and our work. The basic issues we've been encountering have been similar. Since the schools basically run themselves with very little government help they have problems with teacher payment and support, teaching and learning resource material availability, and school struturly problems. So we hope that in our time here we will be able to work with some of these issues and better link the communities with resources and help them learn how to make the most of their existing resources. But seriously now, mostly what we do here is play. A few weeks back there was a group of missionaries here from Philedelphia. They built a church building and then had a pastors conference in the new building before heading home. We had the opportunity to work a bit with them and get to know them. They were wonderful. And we also went to the pastors conference and it was great to hear some sermons in English! One day, while we were th4ere, we saw our first black mamba. A local chopped off it shead before it was able to eat us though. Then, just last week we decided since we are in Africa we should go try to find some animals. So, we had our own Pee Wee's Big Adventure (a movie in case you don't know). A huge national park is about 60 miles from us so we left one morning at about 7 with a tent and some food and started out on our bikes. The riding wasn't too bad until the road pretty much turned into a beach. The sand was so bad we had to walk for over an hour. Finally though, we reached a random market that sold rolls when it was starting to get dark. We asked a village person if there was anywhere we could pitch our tent and since people are wonderful here he brought us to his house, we pitched our tent, he fed us buffalo, made us a bath, and even gave us tea before bed. And then, it just so happened that staying in that same village that night was a national park ranger. So the next morning he took us to his work, strapped on his AK-47 and became our personal safari guide. We went right to the Lunga River Lodge workers camp. We were going to pitch our tent there but one of the workers thought we should meet the lodge managers (This is a $ 400 a night place) We weren't looking so classy after our day and a half of writing but met them anyway. The owners then insisted that we stay in a spare sweet for their pilots (beautiful room) and have the workers make us the same meals the guests were having. And then they had us go to the bar and grab a coke on them. We were singing many praises at thie point to our wonderful lord:) The next morning we went out with our guide and saw some impala, hippo, wart hogs, monkeys, and a few other things. After our biking safari our guide took us to a nearby copper mine to see if maybe we could hitch a ride back with one of the trucks back to our town. There were no more trucks going that evening so we thought we'd pitch our tent but lo and behold the owner put us in a guest house with satelite tv, a basketball court, and pool table. We humbly accepted. Next morning after some wonderful omlettes prepared by the chef we road back to Kasempa. Our lege were very happy not to have to bike back and our hearts and minds were weirded out at how this bushy bike advernture turned into a luxury outing. God is Good!!!

Home Sweet Hut

(From March 17, 2006) We just got back from a week at our new home in Kasempa and we love it! It was so wonderful to actually see our site and meet the people who live around us. Kasempa is a beautiful little town with hills and fields everywhere. It reminds us of a miniature smokey mountains and the town itself is really clean and peaceful. We can get pretty much everything we need in town for food and supplies which is nice. Our actual home is in a village about 3 miles outside of the Kasempa town and it is in a great community with a school and church close by.
There are some great families placed right around us with some really great kids as well. Everyone is so friendly and welcoming. We were also able to meet some of the people at the ministry of Education that we will be working with. They seem very welcoming. We absolutely love Kasempa and for the first time we really feel like this could be home. Our hut is pretty cool too....as far as huts go. It's a good sice and it's divided into 4 rooms which is nice. It also has a tin roof and cement floor which will help with animal/termite control. Our kinzanza (outside cooking area) is really big and it has high walls which are really nice. We also have our own mango and banana trees right in our yard! Then to top it off with have a dog named Tosh and we like her a lot. So that's our home and we can't wait to get back there for good! We only have 2 more weeks of training and then we'll have our swear in ceremony. Me miss you all like crazy but been greatly affirmed that we our where God wants us to be. Pray for us as we finish up our last couple weeks of training and prepare to enter our community.