Stepping Into Zambia

We have arrived! After 3 long days of travel, my teammates and I have arrived in Lusake, Zambia. The original plan for leaving Germany was to go through Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, however, when we were supposed to start getting our tickets and go through security, we discovered that the flight had been canceled. After some running around we were able to get on a flight to Johannesburg, South Africa. We rushed through the airport, but we made it with plenty of time to spare! I got an aisle seat and the seat next to me was empty so I slept better on that flight than I had on the previous one. From Johannesburg we didn't have to wait long for our flight to Lusake. We were met by Lloyd N'gambi (pronounced Nambi) and his son, Bon, at the airport. Lloyd is a head hancho of youth coordination of a Presbyterian church for all of Zambia. We are staying here at his house until Tuesday, when we will take a bus down to Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe. It felt wonderful to get here and lay down to sleep in a real bed. I had no trouble falling asleep even though the time is 6 hours ahead of what we are used to. To end the day we had butter sandwiches with tea.

Today we went to church with Lloyd. My favorite part was the singing. For some of the songs we had a song book so we could sing along. During the message, the pastor spoke in a few different languages, including English so that we were able to get the drift of what he was teaching. This afternoon Lauren and I ended up taking a 2 hour nap. Then we took a few samples of the water that the N'gambi's use for everything and get from the city. These will be our first of many this summer. The rest of the day has been spent helping where we can, washing and drying dishes, and being pestered by the youngest boy, Gift. He likes to try and scare us by waiting around the corner or knocking on our bedroom door and yelling when we open it. We are now extremely suspicious whenever someone knocks on our door :)

Please pray for me and Lauren as we attempt to learn the language. Since we were in Germany I keep wanting to respond to everyone in German! So pray that everything that we learn would stick with us.