"So Now You Are at Home"

“So now you are at home. You are one of us”. These are the words the one of the deacons spoke to us after we finally rode in to the Namwianga Mission in our big yellow (container imported) unairconditioned school bus. We pulled up to a crowd of Zambians singing, clapping, and dancing up clouds of dust as they waited to greet each one of us individually with handshakes. But maybe I should start back at the beginning...

We boarded our flight from Atlanta to Johannesburg without difficulty, and surprisingly the 16 hours cramped up in the middle seat of the middle row did not bother me as much as I first anticipated. I think I even got up three times :). Even the little kids of the faculty in our group (two and three years old) did great! We landed in South Africa a little after 5:30 in the evening, and cleared customs without any issues. Stepping outside, the smell of Africa immediately came back to me. I can’t describe it exactly, but if you’ve been here you know; it just smells like Africa and it made me very happy. It took about two hours to transport everyone (35 of us) plus luggage (lots) to our lodge for the night. This was because there was only one van, so we had to wait for the 30 minute round trip for our ride to come back to the airport and load up more people. Once we got to the “hotel” (and put on sweatshirts due to the 50 degree weather), it was nearing 9:00 and we ordered dinner. This process was African style-meaning the plates trickled out one by one for two hours until everyone had their food. It was so nice to shower, stretch our legs out, and SLEEP! Unfortunately everyone had pretty much the same story this morning-five to six hours of sleep and then eyes wide open staring at the ceiling until the alarm clock sounded. For me that was 3:30 am.

I headed back to the airport with the first group today (Thursday) morning so Ba Janice (what my former nursing teacher and other instructors names are prefaced with here in Zambia) could bring up the rear. We left at 7 am to get everyone back to the airport for our 11 am flight. This may seem like a long time, but it was down to the wire with the last group running it at 10 am right before boarding started. The flight to Livingstone, Zambia was much shorter, and we again cleared customs uneventfully and were met by one of the American missionaries from Namwianga and our bus driver Buster. They had pizzas and drinks set up for us out of the back of the jeep, so we sat under a tree and couldn’t stop expressing how happy we were to be in Zambia!

After lunch we piled on the bus and drove 15 minutes to Victoria Falls. How do I even begin to describe them? Victoria Falls is twice as wide and twice as high as Niagara Falls (thank you Travel Channel for so conveniently educating me on this fact last week) and it is impossible to see all at one time. Even now in the dry season, the water sprays so much that we were soaked after walking along the falls for a few minutes. There is a bridge that stretches along the center of the falls and at the edge of the bridge was a gorgeous rainbow. We could not stop taking pictures! Baboons were running rampant around the paths; scurrying by us, eating out of the trash cans, tightroping along the railings, and giving the baby baboons piggy-back rides. One almost jumped on my head as it launched out of a tree branch above me-that was an adrenaline moment! We walked about a mile around until we could see people viewing the falls from the Zimbabwe side. I almost tripped on the way out of view of the falls because I just couldn’t stop looking at them!

Once we left the falls we had about an hour and a half drive (which took a little over two hours due to the road conditions) to the mission. We sang a Tonga song as we approached the crowd of Zambians, so thankful for our safety, our arrival, and the months ahead with God’s people here.

I’m sure I will have plenty of time to describe the mission as I get more acquainted with it (we are touring tomorrow) but I will try to do justice to the house I am staying in with Ba Janice, the Blacks, and the two PA students here for six weeks. It is a brick house with an open living/dining area consisting of a couch, a table, and a bookshelf. The kitchen and pantry are empty as we are all eating at another house, but the cabinets are held closed by a wooden spoon through the door handles. The floor is cement, but we have three bedrooms and two baths. One bathroom actually has a shower; the other is a tub with an extendable nozzle. Ba Janice and I are roommates and we get two drawers, one shelf, and eight hangers apiece. We unpacked mostly by flashlight because we came back from dinner to find that only the fluorescent lights in the living room and bathroom were still working! When we also discovered that the only water we could get to work was from the sink faucet, we just laughed and proclaimed “TIA” (this is Africa) and commenced to taking sink baths. Hopefully we will get this fixed soon!

Now I am sitting on my bed with my mosquito net tucked in around me listening to the African crickets outside my window thinking about how good it will be to sleep. Here’s to hoping the alarm wakes me this time instead of the jet lag! Internet is a little shaky (ok a lot shaky) but I’ll try to post pictures when I can. Thanks for your continued thoughts and prayers!