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 Wednesday, January 2nd, 2008 (Back in US) Happy New Years!
We made it back on Monday, December 31st after being en route for more than 30 hours. This time our return trip was somewhat uneventful. We had enough time on planes to relax and reflect over our experience in Zambia.
 It was difficult leaving Zambia especially after being sent-off by the orphans and Derrick from NAPS at the airport. The orphanage arranged for eight of the orphans to bid us goodbye, much to our surprise. The children looked wonderful. Some of them had wet eyes. These eight orphans were not just orphans to us. They were also our friends. We were beginning to get acquainted with each one of them. We encouraged them at the airport to study hard and not give up. They presented us with a banner and wood carvings of the big five groups of animals in Africa. We were all fighting back tears. On the plane, it was interesting reading about David Livingstone’s experience in Africa. There is a mythi
 cal image of him being the perfect Medical Missionary Doctor. However, the biography dispels some of these sentimental myths. But rather, the biography depicts Dr. Livingstone as a fallible, complex individual who struggled to find balance between being a frontiersman in Africa as well as preserving the native culture. He made a lot of mistakes in his Africa. In fact, he only had one convert. Somehow, he laid the groundwork for other missionaries and eventually for British Colonialism. You may be wondering why I’m spewing all this stuff to you. David Livingston is known as the first missionary to Africa in spite of his shortcomings. Likewise, we were missionaries for God during this Christmas break even though we felt inadequate many times. Serving God is the highest calling. It involves sacrifice, and adventure. We hope that this call does not end in Africa for us.…It was kind of odd that on our way back, two of the African countries that we flew through in the last fifteen days, were experiencing election-related political unrest. Kenya and South Africa have uncertain futures ahead. We don’t usually comment on political situations. But, safety is a grave concern.
The political situation in Zambia is fairly stable. I say it with caution. We felt comfortable in Zambia other than being overcharged by our taxi drivers and market people. There were some concerns about our safety when we were at the orphanage. The orphanage is in a rough neighborhood in Lusaka. We were threatened with jail initially for taking pictures without permission. We were constantly watched by drunks and stragglers around the Orphanage compound. Our guardian angels were busy. We wonder how the orphans thrive in such uncomfortable environment. In one of my surveys, some of the older orphans cite Independence Day as the worst moment in their lives. On this day, there are more drunks, abuses and violence.
We take so much for granted in the U. S. We are very blessed here. When we touched down in Chicago, there was a sense of relief. We felt like we could let go a little. We did not have to be on guard for the quality of our food, water, mosquitos, political unrest, overcharging for transportation, corruption, and etc. It was nice to get back to our safe haven.
Right now, it is pretty early in the morning. We are experiencing a bad case of jetlag. Thank you for sticking with us. Sorry for our stream of consciousness or some of you may say unconsciousness (lol!!)… We need to go. We will have one more blog, as promised earlier.
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