Sunday, April 8, 2012

Chronicles of Zambia #6 Traveling Home

Traveling home


The next morning we couldn't get on the road fast enough for me, but there were huge delays. Finally we were all packed up and on the road shortly after 9. Koos prayed for "an incident-free day," and the Lord granted us that. Our destination that night was Mansa, where we stayed in Chukyuma Lodge with running water! Showers! Lights! Luxury!!! Whoop-whoop! Everything nice except I had not reached my beloved.
We had to travel another day to get to where the car was being fixed, and we found Paul at last in beautiful Loza Guest House. That was a happy night. The kids were trying to fill each other in on all that had happened since they were parted, and I loved to see their happy reunion, while I enjoyed my own with Paul. The garden was so beautiful it made me want to cry. Beauty will do that, too, after a bit away from a certain type.

Loza was wonderful, but a little too expensive to linger long, so we just had the one delightful night, and then moved to a camping area called Forest Inn. We got there on Friday, and as I write, we are still there on Monday, still waiting for our car part to arrive. I'm seizing the moments to use the computer.
We had dropped Peter and Henry before we got to Loza, which is in Mkushi.  

Mkushi is becoming special to us as we keep spending time here. Koos gave a little intro on Sunday morning at church to the South Church congregation, and we just loved the fellowship there. It was about 50 people meeting in a chapel in the rain. (Hey, I read somewhere that rainy season is until February. What is all this rain in April?)
We are using the days here well, with Paul preaching in schools each day, and Koos networking with the local farmers who are really on his heart. These  farmers were mostly driven out of Zimbabwe.

Today (Wednesday) we think our long-awaited part for the car will come. It got hung up in Customs for an extra day, but we heard it cleared yesterday. Thankfully, the 7 of us are getting along well. Jeni has relaxed enough to read a book, and we're getting invitations out for meals, feeling part of the Mkushi community a little bit. When Paul preached an Chengelo Christian School, we got a complete tour of an impressive place! I think it's the top school in Zambia, out in the middle of nowhere. It has been there 25 years. It would be a great place for a teacher who wants to contribute internationally. It has European tendencies, but a few American teachers.

Later:  Several times we have done our last wash of clothes, charged our batteries for phone and camera "one last time", and given away whatever we could live without. We've given away clothes, camp chairs, and excess food, but we didn't leave. Today it happened again! We left Mkushi early this morning with our sights set on Livingstone, and getting a visit to Victoria Falls.
We stopped for a wonderful breakfast at the Fig Tree Restaurant in Kabwe ooh-la-lah! It was a delight. I took a turn to drive after that, my first time to drive in over 3 weeks. These roads freaked me out a bit, and then our car has been injured so much, so it felt strange to be at the wheel of the Land Rover again, and I couldn't seem to keep up with Koos! How embarrassing, but Paul told me he thought the clutch was slipping.

I only drove about an hour, right to the edge of Lusaka, and we did a Chinese fire drill at a police check so Paul could drive again. We made it through Lusaka, and then our troubles began. Again. Police held us up for a few minutes at one check point, and we lost sight of Koos. We missed a turn toward Livingstone, and headed for Zimbabwe, unbeknownst to us. But the road was through mountains, and that clutch didn't like that. We drove over 1/2 hour before we realized we were on the wrong road, and then turned around, but that car wouldn't go. We struggled along at very low speeds on the hills and then finally quit right in the center lane.

We ended up getting towed behind an 18 wheeler, back to Lusaka, and finally just left that Land Rover there.  We camped yet another night, and then piled into Koos' Land Cruiser and headed south.

1 comment:

  1. This post was a cliff-hanger. You've left us right in the middle of the road in a broken down car.
    Off to the next...

    ReplyDelete