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Mulibwaji (Hello in Nyanji language)

 After waking up from practically a coma last night, we spent the day organizing and preparing for our first day of VBS tomorrow.  We had a two hour planning session that went very well.  Organizing our VBS luggage content was exciting for our NAPS friends.  They are looking forward to learning American Baseball.  I’m not sure how we will pull that off, given that it has been raining straight for the last two days.  Rain has been projected through the remainder of our stay in Zambia.  We’ll just have to be creative. 

 After our planning session, we went to the market to purchase food that we will serve the children.  Mark felt a little like Donald Trump.  Since he was in charge of the money, he transacted over 2,00,000….Qwachas today.   I was also a little shocked, at first.  However, the exchange rate is about 4000 Qwachas to 1 American dollar. 

The town market is unique.  We went shopping around Cha Cha Cha street (I’m not making this name up!)  There were people idly laced along brightly colored kiosks that offered identical products.  Inside the kiosk, all the products were behind a cage.  A customer has to request for specific item from shopkeeper.  In the United States, a salesperson is expected to put out very best service to woo the perspective customer.  However, I thought it was funny that there were a bunch of customers yelling here, trying to get the shopkeeper’s attention.  With so many people crowded in each small shop, I was a little paranoid about getting pick-pocketed.

 Before we knew it, we ran out of time.  There is no sense of urgency in Africa, as far as time and meeting appointments are concerned.  There is constant traffic all around and other uncontrollable variables such that we were only able to complete a small fraction of errands.  For instance, the traffic was in a total standstill for 15 minutes when we were trying to get out of a small strip shopping mall.  I thought I heard couple gasps and Oops in the vehicle as Evil Knievel (our driver) drove over couple curbs to get past the standstill.  Unfortunately, we did not have enough time to do a site visit at the orphanage.  We plan to do that early tomorrow morning.

 At the end of the day, we met up with my sis and went to a nice restaurant. As she was having a mediocre day, we exchanged some notes.  Just at that very moment, “Christmas in Dixie” by Alabama bellowed out in a restaurant.  We all burst out laughing.  Talk about coincidence!    We also exercised our stomach muscles when we realized that our after-dinner mint was actually after-dinner cough drop…. Oh well!  It’s all good! 

 As the taxi dropped us of at our Guest house, the reggae-style song on the radio succinctly sums up the gracious attitudes and patience of the African people:  “Life is hard!  Don’t worry!  As long as we are satisfied…” 

 On that note, bookmark us at home, work or wherever….  It’ll get better.  Tomorrow, we will get to the heart of our mission – the children and Orphanage.   May you experience God’s blessing this day!

Goodbye!  …

Nellie   J

Ps. – Good News! The two missing blue tubs arrived at airport later today.  We will get them in the morning.  Thank God for answered prayers! 

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