Zambia - A country lost in time.

I am home.  I am zoning today as I adjust to the 7 hour time difference.  I was wide awake and functioning at 3:00 a.m. I am paying the price at 3:00 p.m.   I keep thinking "oh just take a little nap and you will be fine" however I know better,  No Nap!!!

My internet connection in Mongu was weak at best and I was not able to do a daily entry of this wonderful adventure.  As I reflect on the past couple of weeks and not being able to post everything as I had planned I am actually glad it came about this way.  Each day was filled with so many experiences, thoughts and emotions that I could not have shared adequately my observations, thoughts and blessings.   I feel that the best way to describe what I just experienced is like peeling an onion.  I have the whole onion in my hand and each experience is a layer.  I peel off the layer only to find another equally intense layer.  So if you want to journey with me, the experiences will be many, the emotions all over the place and hopefully this blog will be an introduction to you  for a very remote area of the world that would have no voice had Hands of Hope and Zambia Works chosen to work elsewhere.  Greater than that, I hope that my adventure gives you a desire to find your own and that you would choose to make a little difference in this rough place called the world.

I will begin with our arrival in Lusaka, Zambia. The airport (International) was simple, old and lacking amenities.  After spending 10 hours in Terminal 5 of Heathrow, London, with every amenity one could probably need at an airport, then flying 10 more  hours to Zambia, was to  step back into time at least 40 years.  Checking into the country was long, we were the last to get through their customs.  We were finger printed, all fingers and our thumbs.  It was a most interesting process and again, very antiquated.   I was about to learn that life had just slowed to a pace foreign to me and that this was just the beginning of living in another world.  

Our anxiety of going through customs was high.  We were bringing in 'goods' to gift those we were going to visit.  This government is one that will take bribes and charges a very high fee to bring in products or gifts.  God miraculously answered our prayers and we paid nothing!  For those of you who do not believe in God or that He does not take interest in the small details of our every day lives you might view these 'miracle' encounters for us to be 'luck'.  Luck??  The law, we found out, states that customs is to charge 'dollar per dollar'  fees. If we brought in $1000 worth of goods we would then pay $1000 in customs fees, even if it was donation and we had paid nothing the face value was to be claimed.    No one even checked our bags. :) 

However :) we did get duped by two young men who were helping to load up our bags into our vehicles.  We headed to use the restrooms and they ran after us stating they had not been tipped. So I gave them $20 only to find out that had been tipped at least one other time.  Oh well!

If you have traveled a great distance you will know how tired and dirty you feel at the end of your journey.  Well, we started our first morning in Luska at a beautiful hotel where we rented one room to freshen up and change clothes, to then sit down in a beautiful, outside eating area with birds nesting over a pond and partake of an incredible breakfast of fruits, coffee, pastry, omelets, orange juice and ???   Little did I know that from this point on how much life would change drastically for the next 8 days. :) 

I will end this small chapter of our entry into Zambia with this thought.  It comes from the Bible the source of wisdom that guides my life.   Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the LORD that will stand. Proverbs 19:21