A little Update

Hi friends and family!! Hope all is well in the good ol' U.S. of A.
Just thought we'd give a little update on life here. Well the rainy season has officially begun. Yesterday it was a full day drizzle/rain and we were reminded of how muddy it gets here. But we are thankful for the cooler weather (over the unbearable heat) and the change of scenery. Also it is our last season in Zambia, which is cool and weird at the same time.

Lately we've been feeling really hopeful and excited about the special education project. Stephen has been working really hard at putting all the pieces together for a boarding unit. We've found that there are 29 other deaf children in the surrounding area who can't go to school. So we are in the process of renting a house in town to serve as a boarding facility until an actual building can be built. Stephen is working with the spec. edu. teachers, the Ministry of Education and an organization called the Liliane Fnd. to try and start the temporary boarding house and get children sponsored to attend. Please be praying about this project. The pieces are all there but now they have to be put together, which can sometimes be difficult. We'd really love to see this succeed though because these kids need to be in school. So just pray, pray, pray. :)
All of our other projects are going along quite well. The walls of the church building are completed and the roof will go up soon. My friend Edah has already told me that soon we will be dancing in our new church..."even you Mrs. Castle, you will dance." So I guess I'll be dancing at church. I can't wait! And we have tasted our first mango of the year! It actually wasn't completely ripe and it had fallen off the tree...but we ate it! That means the time is getting very close and the sounds of mango jam are in the air.

Last week we attended the first ever Farewell Party for the 7th graders at Kangombe Basic School (the little school in our village). It was quite the event with dancing, games, and even rolls and pop!! We didn't know it but we were the guests of honor and Stephen even gave an impromptu HIV/AIDS talk. There was one point too when these kids were dancing and they were awesome! They were doing all these great moves to rival Michael Jackson (sort of). I was seriously tempted to get up and bust a move with them but thankfully my little bit of maturity held me back. Anyway we got the kids on tape so we can show it to you all when we return.

Other than that we are just hanging out with friends and relaxing together. A group of guys have started to work out at our house. They even call Stephen "trainer" and it's been fun for him to teach them about all that stuff. Some of them we've never really hung out with before so it seems the fame of the weight room is spreading. Which by the way, it may be saved from the rains after all by a wonderful thing called plastic sheets.

Oh also, the HIV/AIDS awareness event we were planning may be at a standstill. Unfortunately the funds did not come in time for the orginally planned date and it had to be pushed back. However, we aren't quite sure when it's being pushed back to...maybe indefinately?? So at this point it's all up in the air but hopefully we'll be able to do something.

And for anyone wondering about our chicken eater cat Rambo...well he is doing all his usual cat things now (minus chicken eating) under the supervision of the missionaries. We even heard that he attacked a cobra and lived to tell the tale (well not really "tell" because he can't talk, but you know) :)

Well I think that's all for now. We really miss everyone and are really excited about seeing you all again. It's crazy to think that in like 5 months we'll be heading home and our time here will be over. Please continue to keep us in your prayers, both for the remaining time and projects here and for our future plans.
We Love you!!!!

Heather and Stephen