Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Another Day in Zambia

On the scheduled day of our departure the stars simply were not aligned. The bus driver never arrived to pick us up to take us to the airport (later we found out he had a flat tire), Mikala really wanted us to stop by ZAMESIE (the special education training college), traffic was awful, we were stopped three time by road blocks and when we finally arrived at the airport there was a problem with our tickets (ticket numbers had changed and Kenyan Air did not seem to know this). The employees at Kenyan Air told us we had to leave the airport and go downtown to their offices in Lusaka. Needless to say they were not helpful at all. I was on the phone with Delta airlines over 2.5 hours trying to figure out a solution. Initially we were not going to get out until the 18th of April and it was going to cost each of us an addition $2,800. In the end we are leaving one day later, arrive home one day later and it cost $62.50 each.

The good news is that it was one more day in Zambia with Mikala and her family. Jean got her giant avocados for dinner and I got a few more bananas. Most importantly we got to listen to many more stories from Mikala and learned more about Zambian traditions and various tribal similarities and differences. I slept better then I have the entire two weeks and Jean is getting some needed rest as she has developed a full fledged crud in her chest type of cold (seems it has been passed around here for the past few weeks and Kelly, Jean and I were unable to escape it).

It is 7:15am on Wednesday April 13th and the driver has already arrived. Everyone here felt terrible we were not able to get out yesterday. The driver has arrived about 3 hours before we asked him to so that he ensures we are there on time. That just seems to be a way here – putting concerns of others first and praising God for it.

I am sure we will have a safe journey home. As always I have learned more then I could have possible taught. I look forward to the next journey here and to on-going relationships with my colleagues in Zambia.

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