we are here!!



This is where we stayed the first four nights. SO nice! And, this is only half of it!




A couple girls (Katana and Mel) and I at one of our lunches out.




The market I had so much success at! It was one of the larger ones we will be at.

 We have finally arrived after what seems like FOREVER in the air! But, it was well worth it! Zambia is ending their spring season, and it is about 80 degrees here with everything in bloom. It’s just starting to get hot, and it is beautiful!

Our travels went pretty smoothly, with only a few hiccups along the way.  One of our girls misplaced one of her boarding passes, but had her receipt and they let her on without question.  That was a miracle!  Our long flight to Johannesburg left over an hour late, putting us in danger of missing our connecting flight to Lusaka.  However, because we were such a large group, the plane waited for us!  If they hadn’t, we would have been stuck in the Jo-burg airport until 1 am, which would have added on at least six more hours to our trip.   And then several of us, including me, only received one of two of our luggage bags.  Thankfully, we were able to pick those up today, so we didn’t have to suffer too long.  That’s about as bad as it got, and we were so thankful!! Oh, and I had a horrible time trying to sleep on the plane!  No position was comfortable and we had a 1 and 4 year old in front of us.  All of our feet and lower legs were swollen from the super long flights and our whole team was dehydrated.  We have been guzzling water like crazy today and propping up our feet whenever we can! To say the least, not much rest was had, and we were all exhausted when we arrived.

Once we arrived in Lusaka, missionaries John and Erin came to pick us up, along with a couple drivers from World Hope International.  We are in a guest house right outside of Lusaka for a few days that is very, very nice!  We are paired up with one other person, we all have our own beds, and each bedroom has its own full bath—this place is huge!  The outside of the building is very tropical.  Tons of flowering plants, a pool, and green grass!

Last night, our cooks had an authentic dinner ready for us.  After 4 airplane meals and a weird schedule, we weren’t very enthused about the meal, but it was actually very good!  We ate at 11 pm, took showers, and went straight to bed.  Best night of sleep ever.

Today has been relaxed.  Our team went to a couple mall areas in the city.  There, we were able to exchange our American dollars for Zambian Kwacha.  We ate lunch out wherever we wanted (I went to a pretty amazing pizza place!) and then we shopped around for a bit.  This part of Zambia is very westernized, and doesn’t look at all how Africa is typically viewed.  It looks just like our outdoor malls, and in some parts is pretty fancy.  I had the chance to go to one of the grocery stores today, and everything was very similar to what we see in the states.  Laura and I bought some treats at the bakery, which involved chocolate...soo good! After a couple hours in the mall, I had to return to the airport to retrieve my lost luggage, but it was really fun to drive through the downtown.  I definitely saw some of the poorer areas of the city.  We passed many shanty-houses, children working (they were sitting in the dirt, breaking rocks with hammers to make gravel- very different from anything I’ve seen), a huge soccer field of course, an orphanage, and many hole-in-the-wall shops.  I had my first experience riding on the left side of the road on the way!

Tonight we had a speaker that came to talk to us about African Art and Literature.  He actually wasn’t that impressive with his teaching, and we are hoping the speakers we have the next 2 nights will be better! Tomorrow the plans are to attend a local Wesleyan church, which starts between “9 and 9:30.”  I thought it was funny how they allow a half an hour to start the service!  It will be interesting to see how long it lasts too- from what I hear, they can be very long!  Then we will eat out for lunch, and hopefully have time to purchase some chitenges, large pieces of material used for anything and everything around here!  We are still catching up from our jet-lag and taking it pretty easy.  It has been a great beginning so far! 

We will probably not have internet at our next stop, Chikankata, which will be about a week long.  It will be our most primitive site, and is pretty far out there.  Thank you for your thoughts and prayers—your prayers have been felt and answered here!  Love to you all <3

Oh, and mom, there is a boy cat that lives in the house.  He is extremely affectionate, and I’m about the only person who is paying him any kind of attention!  He is really great : )