A Hot and Crazy Day!

Today started out pretty peaceful. We both slept in ‘til 8am. I got up and showered right away, and then made breakfast, and Erika did the opposite. When we were all ready to go, we relaxed and read for a little bit and then Mr. Zulu stopped by to deliver a loaf of bread he picked up for us. He is such a kind and funny man! I really get along with his personality and sense of humor. Erika and I had wanted to go around campus and take pictures of ourselves—nicer ones that we could use on our blogs or profile pictures or whatever. So we started out on our leisurely stroll and on the driveway we met Pastor Sargent who said he was heading into town if we wanted to catch a ride. We were planning on doing that after we took pictures, but since he was offering now we decided to switch plans. We went back to the house to grab our modems, money and purses and then headed into town. Along the way he pointed out the places we need to go when we caught a minibus back.

We stopped first at the Arcade Mall, more like a strip mall, because that’s where Pastor Sargent’s first stop was. We first went to Airtel to try to fix Erika’s phone which hasn’t been able to receive any calls. However, her battery was dead and the guy said he couldn’t fix it unless he could turn it on. But we were still successful because we topped up our modems with 2GB, so that should last us much longer. We also got some more cash out of the ATM; after trying about 4 different ATMs we finally found one that could give us some money. Since Erika needed some passport pictures taken for her visa we had to go over to the Manda Hill mall. It wasn’t too far of a walk there from the Arcade Mall. The fun part was crossing the busy highway with no crosswalk. We found the place where Erika could get her pictures taken. It was really inexpensive and she got a ton of them, not just 2. She only had to wait 10 minutes. Makes me wish I would have gotten mine here too. I definitely paid more in the States, waited longer, and only got 2 pictures. Oh well. While we were waiting for the pictures to get printed, we went over to Woolworth’s and browsed around. It kind of felt like we were in a smaller scale version of Kohl’s. I also happened to notice that I had missed 2 calls on my cell phone. So I called Dee back and she informed me that Charity, the preschool teacher, was sick today and asked if we’d be willing to teach it. It was very out of the blue, and we have not even observed in the preschool, so we didn’t know what we were going to do, but I agreed.

It was 11:30am at this point and preschool starts at 1:00pm. So we headed out of the mall right away and went to the minibus stop. The first person who waved us down was going right to Chelston, so that was easy! We climbed in the bus and got the back seat. We weren’t sure how much to pay. We had heard from most people that a ride that long would cost about K3,500 which is less than a dollar. Other people started passing money forward to the money guy, so I did the same. The smallest bill I had was a K5,000 so I passed it forward and asked if he had change. He had no idea what I said and just kept the money. However, Erika didn’t pass anything forward. The guy must’ve thought I was paying for both of us, and never asked us for any more money. So both of us rode back home for less than a buck. Talk about cheap transportation. And we were never that squished either. At the most, there were only 4 of us on the back seat at a time. We got dropped off a little ways from campus so had to walk the rest of the way back, but it was a nice little walk and we didn’t have any troubles finding our way. J

We got home and ate PB&Js quickly and started thinking about what on earth we were going to teach in half an hour. Pastor Kawiliza also stopped by to welcome us to Zambia. He had been sick the past few days so that’s why we hadn’t met him before. He is a very nice man. He also told us that they’re going to have a little welcoming service for us in the chapel on campus on Monday morning. So that should be really nice.

I piled some of the Early Childhood supplies I brought with me into plastic bags and then we started to head over to the preschool classroom. We have a little back gate in our courtyard that leads right out back to the preschool. There was a padlock on it so I was trying to yank it out since it was rather stuck when all of a sudden I felt a piercing pain on my right toes. Let me tell you, I hardly even remember what happened next--my body just went into auto-pilot. There was a swarm of those huge ants right under my feet and they were crawling on my toes biting the living day lights out of them. I think I would have been funny to watch because I yelled “OUCH!” and started kicking my leg wildly. My flip-flop went flying and I started running toward the stones and grass, stones went flying too. Finally I looked down and didn’t see any more ants on me but I had definitely upset them. There was a huge swarm of them and they were mad—they were making noise, like a buzzing sound almost. I’m usually not a wimp when it comes to things like this, but my foot HURT!! Erika went and told Anne what happened, and she said I’d be ok, but my toes would probably start itching, and she said the itching can last for up to a week. She very nicely let me use some of her anti-itch cream. Well after that slight delay, Anne finished opening the back gate for us and said she’d probably throw a pot of boiling water down on the ant nest. She said she’s been too nice to those ants lately but now they have to pay.

We got into the preschool room, which was quite small and just thought to ourselves, “now what?” I suggested that we start with letters and chants for ½ hour, then read stories and sing songs for ½ hour, then play some games and then let them have free play for the last ½ hour. This was the true meaning of the phrase ‘make it up as you go along.’ It was very hard because not many of them knew any English words at all—so just the basic communication was difficult. Also, we were brand new teachers, muzungus and we had no idea what their usual routine was. As they started trickling in, we tried to get names down. Most of these kids we had seen before when we played with them the other day, but it was still tricky getting all of their names. Then when it seemed like most of them were there they just spontaneously burst into an alphabet chant they had already learned. After that I used the mini white board I brought and went around writing each of their names and trying to have them figure out what letter their names started with. Then I pulled out some letter flashcards and did those for a while. There were some very rambunctious boys and it’s hard to try to manage them when they don’t know what you are saying. I tried some techniques from the MLC center—doing the sign language symbol for “stop” (they liked that and started copying me), we played the imitation game and copycat. Then we decided it was time to move on. We split the groups in 2 so they were more manageable and Erika went into the other room with hers. I read a couple of books to my group. The first one was a Barney and Baby Bop book. I know it was probably not the most relatable to the kids but they loved looking at the pictures and we just tried identifying different things in the pictures like toothbrush and moon and bed etc. The 2^nd book I read was a book I had made for one of my Early Childhood classes at MLC. It was meant for toddlers, but it worked so well here too! It was the simplest book—pictures of fruit and the word. Who would have guessed back when I was assigned to make that book at MLC that I would one day be using it in Africa? After reading, we changed locations again and this time I sang some songs with my group. We sang Old MacDonald, 5 Little Monkeys, The Hokey Pokey and Ten in the Bed (even acting that one out). They loved these songs, even though I’m not sure they knew what I was even saying. My hope is that if we do enough of them repeatedly, they’ll pick up on the words. After some songs we went outside for some games of Ring around the Rosy and Duck Duck Goose. Then we game together as a whole group again and I taught them What’s the Time, Mr. Wolf? I would say that this last game was the most successful! Everyone loved it and probably could have kept playing for hours. We even invited some of the older kids who were watching us to come and play. After this we just let them have some free play time, so they got toys and balls and cards and just played for a while. I think overall, everything went OK. We definitely felt overwhelmed the majority of the time. It’ll be interesting once we know what their actual routine is and how Charity normally handles behavior issues. It’s always hard as a teacher to think your lessons flopped or you didn’t do as good of a job as you hoped and that’s kind of how we feel. I’m sure it will be better once we know more what the routine is like. It was still so wonderful to see those kids smile and laugh!

We got back to the guest house and pretty much crashed. We were tired and extremely hot. It was nice to catch up on our blogs a bit and relax before our walk at 4:30pm. We forgot that it’s Lent and there are Wednesday evening services, so our walk was quite a bit shorter. We just met up with Mrs. Birner and took a quick walk down the road and back—maybe only 20 minutes or so. It was still nice to talk and be outside. The short walk gave us time to get ready for church. It was nice to go to Bethel church on campus today for the first time. The singing was a capella but there were nice harmonies added. We used the old Lutheran hymnals and they were originally from North Mankato. Small world. At the end of the service we shook hands with the pastor, then joined the line, shaking hands until everyone had greeted everyone.

We came home to our dinner waiting for us. Pasta with a beef stew type thing, cooked cabbage and eggplant. I have never had eggplant before, but it was delicious! There was also some left-over nsima that Anne had made for Pastor Sargent but I wasn’t brave enough to eat any today.

We finally did some lesson planning tonight! I can’t explain how much better we feel about all of the teaching stuff now. It’s like any big project you start—the hardest part is just getting started. Once you get the ball rolling, the ideas keep coming. We have a pretty good handle on the first week of English teaching. We’re doing a kitchen theme: items you find in a kitchen, verbs related to kitchen work and we have a ton of games and worksheet ideas. But I’ll post more information about that as we teach it. Now we’re just curious to see if our plans match ability levels, since we don’t really have a good idea of where these ladies are at yet, as far as English speaking goes. So our teaching flexibility will probably be in full swing next week!

A Rude Awakening and A Scare

It was just after 6am, and I think I had heard Erika get up and go for a run or something, but quickly fell back asleep, only to be awakened again 15 minutes later to the sound of a plastic bag rustling. I had a plastic bag of stuff on the floor in the corner of the room. At first I was confused and thought maybe Erika was digging around in there for something but when I opened my eyes, she wasn’t there. I closed them again. There was the sound again! Finally I opened my eyes and stuck my head out of the mosquito netting and just watched the bag. All of a sudden I saw a frog jumping up against the wall, trying to get over the bag—a fairly decent sized frog. Ugh. How on earth did it get into my room?? So I had to get out of bed to capture it. I got a plate and mug from the living room and when I got back, it was gone. At first I thought it had burrowed into the plastic bag because I still heard rustling noises. So I emptied the bag but no frog jumped out at me. As I was thinking, “now what?” I saw a movement behind me and there it was! The capture was fairly easy—pounced on the thing with the mug, slid the plate under it and dropped it outside in the courtyard. After this I was quite awake, but I have nothing planned for today so there was no way I was getting up that early. I went back to bed for another hour and half. J

Erika also is giving us a little scare today. I heard her go running at a little after 6am, before the frog incident. When I woke up at 8 she wasn’t back, but I assumed maybe she was taking a longer run. I got showered and ready, had some breakfast and started reading my book, and she still wasn’t back. Now it’s 9:45am. An almost four hour run?? Dave and Dee are out looking for her now. Dee called and said they still couldn’t find her and we were just trying to brainstorm what could have happened, but as I was talking to her on the phone Dave called and said he had found her (he was out on his bike).  I guess what had happened was she was out running and got lost, and a lady picked her up and brought her to a part of town. She called Dave to tell him where she was and we were confused as to how, because she didn’t have her phone with her and we know there’s no way she’d have his number memorized. Turns out she got dropped off at an internet café and must have begged to use the computer, because in some e-mails we had gotten before coming to Zambia, we were give Dee and Dave’s number. Good thinking! So Dee is going to pick her up from there. So scary! Pastor Sargent and Dave came over to laugh about the situation; they said this is going to be one of those stories that becomes an urban legend “Lost in Zambia!” Dave also made her a welcome home sign and taped it to our door. J

Dee ended up running some errands after picking up Erika so she didn’t come back straight away. So far she’s been gone 6 hours. Pastor Phiri came over to give me the list of students that need tutoring so I’ve just been working on putting them into the schedule. I think I figured it all out, although it’s complicated looking. We have 19 students and I want to try to keep the groups of kids at 2 each per teacher. So I have five groups of 2 and one of 3. Now I have to double check it with Erika and then show it to Pastor Phiri to approve it.

When Pastor Sargent was here briefly in the morning he told me about something happening here in April. I guess there’s some kind of conference or something held on the campus for 2 weeks, with lots of visitors coming. He mentioned the names Prof. Cherney and President Schroeder. Since there’ll be different workshops and things going one, and the wives will most likely be helping Anne cook, Pastor Sargent said we most likely would not do any teaching for those weeks. We’re also moving out of the guest house so the new guests can stay here. We’ll be moving to the Lawrenz’s old house across the street from campus and right behind Dee and Dave’s house. So we’re excited for that! He also said those 2 weeks would be a good time to get some of traveling in, so we’ll have to see what we can figure out. There’s also going to be quite a number of 4 day weeks for us. Pastor Phiri said we should give everyone off classes when it’s a national holiday, and there are 2 in March (one already next week) and several in April because of Easter and then May 1^st for Labour Day. J

Erika got back finally right after lunch. We teased her a bit but as you can imagine, she was tired, hot, hungry and thirsty. If you want to read a more detailed account of her dramatic story you can check out her blog at www.laetezambianadventure.blogspot.com/  If this link doesn't work, you can also find the link to it on the WELS Kingdom Workers page on Facebook.

The afternoon was pretty lazy. I watched some episodes of Friends and read some more of my book. Erika and I took a leisurely walk to that little shopping area that we couldn’t find the other day. This time we were successful, and there was a really nice little grocery shop where we got another loaf of bread, some crackers, and marie biscuits. Erika got a bottle of guava juice, and I just had to drink a bottle of coke. It tasted just like I remembered—I even remembered to wipe the rust off from around the rim of the bottle.  Oh, and we also had a nice chat with a guy in the store and scored another business card with telephone numbers. I’m going to keep all the ones we get and see what our grand total is by the end of our time here.

At 4pm, we headed over to talk to Pastor Phiri, but he wasn’t in his office, so we played volleyball instead. Every Tuesday at 4 Dave, Dee, the wives and some of the students get together to play. Mrs. Birner was there too. It was tons of fun! Normally I would say I’m not the volleyball type, but playing with these people was awesome. They are at the level I am, and there were so many laughs. Halfway through playing we saw Pastor Phiri walk into his office so we headed over there quickly and showed him our schedule. He said it looked good, so I’m glad that’s figured out. Now it’s a matter of finalizing lesson ideas and routines. We went back to the volleyball game and played a couple more before it ended at 5:30ish. Nathan came at the end with his freezie pops, so we bought lemon-lime ones for K500 each. I’m terrible at the money conversions, but my guess is that that’s 10 cents or less. They were delicious and refreshing!

At 6 we had a delicious supper again. This time it was sausages with chips (French fries) and amazing coleslaw with cucumbers and tomatoes. We ate while watching a few episodes of Friends. The rest of the night consisted of writing out notecards with tutoring times that we can give to each student (because our schedule looks kind of confusing), reading, listening to country music and drinking grapefruit juice. We’re running out of internet, so that’s why I haven’t posted more pictures, but when I do, I’ll include a picture of our schedule. Sorry it’s blurry and weird—I took a picture of the computer screen. J We’re hoping to go into town tomorrow to top up our modems. I pray that wherever you may be reading this you had a wonderful day. Again, thanks for your prayers. Erika and I feel so happy and blessed to be here!!

Settling In

What a laid back day so far! I slept in a little bit today, ‘til 8am since the first thing we had to do didn’t start ‘til 9:30. Sleeping in until 8 really did feel like sleeping in, because it gets light fairly early here, plus I’ve been getting such good nights’ rest. So far, we haven’t been feeling the effects of jet lag too badly. We get tired at night around 8 but then we force ourselves to stay awake for a couple more hours and then we’re fine. Mrs. Birner said sometimes it’ll hit you even 5 days after you think you’re in the swing of things, so we’ll have to see if that happens to us.

At 9:30 we walked over to Bethel Church, the one on campus, to meet up with Dee and the seminary students’ wives. There were 11 ladies there, all very friendly and happy that we were there. They were also quite shy, which Pastor Phiri said they might be for a couple weeks, but when they get comfortable with us they will be quite chatty and fun, so I’m looking forward to that! After a quick introduction to the ladies, we headed over to Pastor Phiri’s office—he’s the dean of students—to figure out a schedule for our teaching. He remembered Dad from when he was at the LBI in Malawi, so he was happy to see me (although I’m sure he didn’t remember me). It’s nice to make connections here! So far, the tentative schedule we have is to teach English to the ladies 5 days a week in the mornings, usually 9:30-11, and one day from 8-10. Pastor Phiri was going to meet with the students to see what times their children go to school and then he will be giving us a list of the children that we can tutor, so we’ll try to figure out a schedule for that once we get the information. Once these things are figured out, we will talk to the preschool teacher and figure out what time slots we have left so we can help out there as well. I really hope we have some good chunks of time left so we can do that. The preschool part is what I am looking forward to a lot—seeing as I have a soft spot for the little munchkins.

After that, we headed over to Dee’s to take a look at what materials she had been using to teach the ladies. That gave us somewhat of an idea of where the ladies are at, and what things they’ve covered already. She also divided up the group for us into higher and lower level. I think I’ll be starting with the lower level which has 6 ladies, and Erika will take the 5 higher level  ladies. We do want to get to know all the ladies though, so we might switch around as well, and also try to figure out some things we can do as a whole group.

We also saw Dan Sargent today. He had been in Chipata for a few days and didn’t get back until late last night, so it was good to see him again. He’s still as tall as always, giving Erika a run for her money. It must’ve been nice for Erika to actually look up at someone for once. J

Now we’re just hanging out at home with the rest of the day free. Rough life, I know. We’re thinking we’ll set the grass mat outside and bring the box of teaching materials Tammy and Abby left for us, and start brainstorming teaching ideas while basking in the sun.

Being back in Africa is like a breath of fresh air. Yes, we will be working hard and will be busy teaching and doing things but there is no stress. Everything is laid back and goes with the flow. It’s not like America where there’s always a time pressure and everything is go, go, go! I just feel calm here. I’m blessed!

We spent a lazy afternoon trying to brainstorm for teaching. We couldn’t last very long out in the sun because we were sweltering! It’s hard gauging what the ladies already know, so it’s hard to plan a day’s lesson. We’re going to see if maybe we can watch Dee teach a class sometime this week, just to get a better idea of what level the ladies are at. We do have some good ideas bouncing around in our heads, so it’s just a matter of figuring out the details now. It’s amazing to see all the things Abby and Tammy did last year. We do have big shoes to fill, and we are so happy we have materials to use as an example.

Some of today’s highlights: watching a large train of ants walk back and forth across the concrete in our courtyard; watching Zambian TV—very much like TVM in Malawi. We watched the local news, the MTV music channel of Zambia, and now a Zambian cooking show; the fellow is making spare ribs with honey.

As I’m typing this I’m looking around the living room and only see 3 wall spiders. Mom, they are the flat ones that lie close to the wall. I had kind of forgotten about them too, until seeing them again. We’ve seen several lizards too. A couple small ones on the outsides of the guest house, a large one climbing up the wall, and I did have one that was in my room by the window, trying desperately to get out, so I let him out. In the mornings and evenings the courtyard is also covered with frogs, mostly small but also some larger ones.

We also ate a deliciously ripe mango today. The whole time I was thinking of Dave, Dad and Joe, and wondering if I would break out in a rash, but so far so good.

Also, there were riots in town today at the University. We don’t know why they were rioting, but when they do, people are in the streets throwing rocks and vehicles and possibly trying to tip them over. We were all advised to stay away from town, unless we went the back route. We didn’t go at all.

As I was lying out in the sun again, I heard the preschool children (their classroom is behind the guesthouses) playing outside. I couldn’t resist, so decided to go out there and play with them. I was briefly introduced to the teacher, Charity, and told her we’d love to help out with the kids when we figure out our other schedules. Man, are the children adorable! They all crowded around me, and they were playing with balls, so they all started throwing at me so we could play catch. Thank goodness Erika joined me after a while so she could take half the attention. It was so fun talking to them and trying to understand them. Most of them did not know many English words, so I had Paul translate for me and tell them to stop when they were all throwing balls at me. I learned 2 words. Spelling is most likely not correct. Mwamba=high. I had to throw the ball super high in the air for them to catch. Mvula=rain. It started raining while we were playing. I also learned the word for wind but I don’t remember it. I was having a tough enough time trying to remember the children’s name. The kids by me were: Paul (who knew the most English), Shanille, Emilee, Goshen, Brian, Aubry, Miriam, Maggie and that’s all I can remember. Erika learned the other kids’ names. We sang the ABCs, Twinkle Twinkle, Head Shoulders Knees and Toes, and they sang me one of their songs. It should be fun to teach them, although I can already tell we might have some little stinkers. Which will be good—they’ll make us think up some management strategies, and I’ll have to see if any from my memory bank will work effectively here.

At 4:30, Erika and I went on a walk with Dee and Mrs. Birner. We took some back dirt roads and the afternoon was gorgeous. The most beautiful blue skies! We took a good hour and 15 min walk at a brisk pace, and it was so nice to just enjoy being outside and talking. I definitely got my first African sunburn today. But not too bad, where it hurts or anything.

When we got back, Anne had our supper all ready for us. It was delicious let me tell you!! Brown rice, chicken in the awesome tomato and onion sauce, and cooked veggies—carrots, green beans, tomatoes, pumpkin, and my favorite, cabbage.

The evening was uneventful. Watched a few episodes of Modern Family, had a brief power outage and read some more of my book. We might go out and look at the stars before bed too, since they shine so brightly here!

Day of rest, rain and spiders

I had a wonderful night’s sleep last night! After coming back from supper, we went online a little bit and then went straight to bed. We were so tired we were at the stage where we couldn’t even talk in coherent sentences. It was strange sleeping under a mosquito net again, hearing the sound of African insects outside. I slept so soundly, hardly waking up at all during the night, and when I did I had the quick thought, “Where am I?” Then I would remember I was in Africa and go right back to sleep with a smile on my face.

I had a pleasant surprise when I woke up at 6:45 this morning. A rather large spider was on the inside of my mosquito net, way up at the top so I was staring straight up at it. It was a harmless thing, but still rather gross. It just made me wonder how it got there…  So the first thing I did today was kill a spider. Then Erika and I did a workout video before church. It was still fairly cool that early in the morning, although not quite cool enough to make the workout super comfortable. After a cold shower (on purpose) and getting ready, we walked over to Dee and Dave’s to catch a ride to the church in town which started at 9am. Dave was sick, so but we did pick up 3 other people to bring with us, so it was a squished ride in the back. It took about 20 minutes to get to Good Shepherd in town. It was a nice church—I probably have been there before because I recognized some of the roads we turned onto, but it didn’t look all too familiar to me. The hymnsoft program was broken, so the Pastor introduced worship with an announcement that we would be singing everything a capella. However, it was discovered that Erika and I both play organ/piano, so they asked if one of us would be willing to step in on the keyboard and at least play the melody. Erika volunteered! Nothing like being thrown into something last minute, but this is Africa. And Erika did a wonderful job!

After church, we were introduced and welcomed to the congregation and got to visit briefly with some people before Bible class started. Aunt Margie led the Bible class on Ephesians and there was a good turnout of women—maybe 14 or so. I always knew this about Aunt Margie, but her knowledge of the Bible is incredible. It was awesome to listen to her speak, and encourage us and really get us thinking. It was a long, but faith-building Bible study. After the Bible study we caught a ride home with Mrs. Birner, because Dee had to stop at Shoprite again to price some things and felt bad for dragging us along (although we wouldn’t have minded). We had a nice chat with Mrs. Birner on the ride home and she invited us to go swimming with them and maybe the Sargents later in the afternoon.

Lunch was a yummy PB&J and a super delicious plum! While chilling in the living room after church and lunch we counted 6 spiders on the wall, that we could see without moving. We didn’t harm any of them.

Instead of unpacking, we decided to take a walk around the neighborhood before going swimming at 3. We got our athletic clothes on and our cameras and headed out. We wanted to try to find the little shopping area that is within walking distance from the campus. So we started out, being typical tourists taking pictures of everything. Right outside the campus gates we walked past a guy wearing an MLC Knights shirt. What are the odds?? Seriously! Unfortunately he was running past us, so I couldn’t whip out my camera fast enough to take a picture. I was tempted to call him back though.

The walk was very nice! We didn’t find the store we were looking for, so we’ll have to try again another day. I think we realized where we turned the wrong way though, so I’m pretty sure next time we’ll be able to figure it out. The highlight of our walk was getting caught in 3 rain showers. Erika didn’t have her camera case and didn’t want her camera to get ruined, so we stopped under a tree to wait out the rain. While waiting we had about 5 cars stop and ask us if we wanted a ride home. One guy even gave me his business card with his phone number on it. Later on we also had a car stop and a guy wanted our telephone numbers so we could ‘mingle’ sometime. He wanted to take us swimming tomorrow. We politely declined every offer, but it was quite nice for the self-esteem. J

The swimming was delayed a bit until the weather cleared, but then we met up with the Birners, Dee and Nathan and headed over to the American International School. What a gorgeous campus! It was crazy to think that I was at the school that had started my quest to come back to Africa and teach. Mrs. Birner said she will give me a tour sometime and introduce me to some of the head people there. Very much looking forward to that!

The evening was pretty laid back. We finally unpacked and looked through some of the boxes Abby and Tammy left us. Had another supper of sandwiches, since Anne only cooks for us on the week nights. We watched some episodes of Modern Family but I was nodding off so badly, so I decided to multi-task and go online to keep me awake. It's probably going to be an early night for us and tomorrow we're meeting with some of the ladies and hopefully the Dean of Students, Pastor Phiri, so we can figure out some kind of schedule.

I've posted pictures on Facebook, so if you want to see photos you'll have to add me as a friend or just go there to look. I will probably take way too many, but that's ok. I"ll upload as I go.

Airport travel and Day 1

I got to Goerke’s corners around 12:20, met up with Joe and had my last American meal – a 6” sub from Subway. We went back to the park and ride and met up with Erika and then like 4 minutes later the coach pulled in. It was really tough saying bye, but at the same time I was excited for the trip ahead.

The ride to Chicago was smooth and easy. It did snow quite a bit when we were driving through Southern WI, but that didn’t seem to slow us down. We got to the airport in really good time, so good in fact that when we checked in at the British Airways check in, we were the only ones in line and they said, “Do you want to catch an earlier flight?” So we did, which meant we boarded in ½ an hour after getting to Chicago. That was really nice, but meant that we’d have an even longer layover in London. We were also called over the intercom in Chicago. It was weird hearing our names over the loudspeaker! We thought we were in trouble, but no, they just wanted to switch our seats so they could keep a family together.

The flight over was not too bad. I was in the very middle of the plane—the middle seat of the 3 middle seats. I slept a good chunk and also watched two movies. I was having issues with the earphone plug in thing though, so it got annoying. One funny thing about this flight was that the pilot’s name was Benjamin Franklin, with a lovely British accent! At first we were thinking since we had so much time in London we should just leave the airport and see stuff. But as the flight progressed we both started thinking that maybe we shouldn’t, which I was quite happy about. I didn’t want to have to mess with leaving, always stressing about the time, and then having to go through security to get back in again.

London was very boring though. The first thing we did was find a quiet corner of the terminal and go to sleep. It was hard because I was paranoid about having my bags close to me so nobody could snatch them, and the floor was uncomfortable and dirty (I put a blanket down but it didn’t help much) and the floor was tiled, so it was freezing. I think I maybe slept an hour and a half or so then had to get up. Erika did a lot of walking around the terminal and we read our kindles, but I was still so tired I ended up dozing off a lot more throughout the day. We managed to somehow pass the time from landing at 6am something til after 12. Then we wandered around the airport some more, checking out stores etc. Finally we decided to grab a late lunch at an awesome café with giraffes. I got some hummus and avocados and tomatoes and a little salad thing with bread, and a hippy hippy smoothie. It was very good. By the time we left the café we maybe had another couple hours to kill before our flight was even posted. It was finally posted, but no gate number so we just hung out again in some awesome saucer chairs we found. Finally the gate was posted and instead of being 20mins away in Concourse C like I predicted, it was the gate about 4 gates away from where we were hanging out. So it was a quick walk over there to the small gate and I already knew we were at the right one when I saw Zambians there.

We boarded really quickly and we were on a nicer plane than our previous plane. There weren’t many people on board, so people could move seats after we were in the air. Erika ended up going to the back of the plane, but then she had 2 seats to herself, and so did I. A window seat at that! I had some good conversation with the people in front of me. One American that had lived there for a while and was going back to visit his daughter in the Northern Provinces, and one native Zambian who had been living in Dallas for 15 years but was going back for his visit. He was from Chelston—right where the sem. is. Small world!

This flight was nice because you had more choices of movies and TV to watch, plus we could spread out. Before you knew it they turned the cabin lights on and breakfast was passed around and we were only 1 ½ hours from landing. I said before that I didn’t think it would sink in until we were flying over Lusaka ready to land. And that’s about right. Seeing the African landscape again was truly like coming home. Flying into the tiny Lusaka airport, seeing Zambians everywhere and hearing their accents—just wonderful! We got through the airport fairly quickly with no problems, and Uncle Ernie was there to meet us. The weather was wonderful—seventies and partly sunny, not very humid.

Driving on the other side of the road again, with pedestrians lining each side of the street was so awesome to see. Aspects like this make it seem like I never left. Later however, when we went into town it was quite different. We went to the Dutch Reform market where a bunch of vendors set up their curio stalls and we actually made our first purchases of the trip. No wasting time here! Then we went grocery shopping and bought our internet time and phone minutes. It was a long day of business but all important things. We ate lunch at a super snazzy Nandos in the mall. The mall is so modern. When I wasn’t thinking about it, I would never have guessed we were in Africa.

We got back to the guest house just in time to quick get on facebook, but then went over to the soccer field where Dave was having a kickball game with the kids. Erika joined right in, but I couldn’t resist sitting on the grass with a bunch of adorable Zambian children talking to them and tickling this one adorable girl. They were so funny, labeling all the parts of the body, counting to 20 and saying their alphabet chants. I don’t think I would have wanted to be anywhere else in that moment. Back home, surrounded by young children, laughing and talking with them even though we hardly understood one another.

After an awesome afternoon of catching up with missionaries, playing with the kids, and taking a quick walk around campus, we headed over to my aunt and uncles’ for supper. We had a delicious meal and good conversation, and even a power outage for a welcome back to Africa.

Still haven’t unpacked, but after church tomorrow there’s nothing really planned so I figure I’ll have tons of time to really get settled in the guest house.

I also forgot to mention that we have a wonderful housekeeper/cook named Ann who is just so wonderful! She already is taking such great care of us, protecting us from snakes getting into our guest house area (yes we already guess there might have been a black mamba in the drain outside), getting the transformer on so we can have power and just making sure we have everything we need! Our other wonderful caretaker is Dee. She was the one who took us into town earlier. Without her we would be completely lost and confused. Thanking God for providing such wonderful people to help us while we're in Zambia!

Here We Go!

This is the first of many blog postings to come. : )

At times it seems like it's been ages since graduation, but at the same time the past two months have been a whirlwind of getting everything ready for Zambia. I think I have all the forms and paperwork I need, and my three suitcases are sitting in my room ready for the last minute things to be packed.

I don't think the reality of going home to Africa will sink in until we're flying over the airport in Lusaka, ready to land. I cannot wait! Not only am I excited to be back in Africa, but I'm also excited to teach again. I'm ready for the challenges and the rewards, and building friendships with the seminary family in Zambia.

Our flight leaves from Chicago at around 8pm Thursday the 23rd and we'll arrive in Lusaka, Zambia at 6:50am on Saturday. We have a stop in London first, with an 8 hour layover. I'll let you know how our travels were when we get to Lusaka and get our internet up and running.

Thank you to everyone who has supported this ministry with their offerings and prayers! We pray that you will continue to do so. I can't wait to keep everyone updated with this blog. Feel free to ask questions or post comments.