Sunday, April 8, 2012

Chronicles of Zambia #1 Traveling to Mokopane

Phase 1, Traveling to Mokopane

Off on another missions trip! We were all excited for this one as it was our first trip to Zambia as a family, first time to be camping while on ministry, and first time to be with a team for an entire trip.
First perk of the trip, was a stop in the Hex River Valley to stock up on fresh grapes. This is becoming a tradition, a GOOD tradition for our family.


We had our family devotions, private devotions, and had settled in to do school as we traveled, when the idiot driver (me!) tried to straddle a piece of metal with the car. I thought it was just a stick, but there was a terrible noise, and we could tell immediately that damage had been done. I pulled over and we could see a trail of diesel behind us, and hear it gushing out underneath the car. NO!!!! We could not be having car trouble in the first 4 hours! We had more then 6  DAYS of driving to do.
Paul thought we could limp into the next town, 22 km away. I thought we were going to explode.


We did limp into Laingsburg, and soon got hooked up to a reputable mechanic. He got on the job quickly and stopped our diesel leak and glued us back together. He was very kind. He didn't charge us a thing, but he also didn't guarantee the work. The real pain in the neck was that we had to wait 4 hours for the glue to dry.
I had long been intrigued with a Flood Museum in Laingsburg. How could there ever have been a flood in such a bone-dry-looking place? We decided to use some of our 4 hours to find out. First we had to buy Evangel some new flip flops. Hers had already broken--was this a sign of things to come?
I need to quit being intrigued by museums. I got intrigued by the one in Beaufort West, and we got stuck there for 3 days. Now here we were in Laingsburg. It was a terrible flood. They may look dry, but they receive rain from 3 different higher places. Back in the '80s ( I think? ) it had been raining around there for days, and all that water came and dammed up at their bridge and the overflow went very high. Many were killed, though 12 people who were swept down river survived. One girl lost her whole family, but she was found in a tree and saved.


We only made it as far as Richmond that night, which meant day 2 would need to include a lot of driving. I don't remember anything about day 2, until we reached Mokopane, except that we listened to the beginning of The Cat of Bubastes by G. A. Henty on our handy little gadget that plays audio from a memory stick, through the car's speaker system.

We spent 2 days in Mokopane preparing for the trip. We had a meeting with Koos and Jeni Basson, who are missionaries with IMD Africa (IMD stands for Institute for Ministry Development), and we helped with the food shopping. I avoided going in the car as much as possible since I knew we had so much driving ahead of us.

We saw Mopane worms for sale on the street, and Evangel is now dying to try them. Ewww!

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  1. OK!!! Gloria suggested I read your blog, and it turned out to be 7 entries (or 8)...I'm beginning at the beginning. I have listened to The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency audio books for years, and I've heard the name 'Mokopane' spoken...is it in Botswana? I bet those worms are good...Korea has its brand (roasted silk worms) and they were pretty tasty.

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