Last night (Friday) we arrived here in Zambia around 10:30pm ( 4:30 at home). Our travel time had a few dilemmas along the way. While driving to Indy we hit some traffic leaving us with about an hour and a half to check in and go through security. While checking in we had a hard time with the weight of the bags. Several of us struggled. But the United worker who was checking us in did not charge us for the overage or the extra bags in which a few of us brought!!! Already Thursday morning we saw God at work!! After our flight from Indy to Washington DC (Dulles) we had about a four-five hour layover. After we got lunch at Chipotle we walked around for a while preparing for our seventeen hour flight to Zambia. While walking around the airport we stumbled upon an interactive “shape maker”. After struggling with figuring out how to do it we were finally able to complete two puzzles.
With walking back to our terminal we stopped at a booth to pick up a little dessert… Ben and Jerry’s! Also during this layover we had to cut our carryon luggage down to one bag for more room on the plane. This took some strategic packing (thanks dad for teaching me well!) Our flight was supposed to depart at 5:40 but we waited on the plane for close to an hour waiting. This caused panic for us because we only had an hour and a half layover in Johannesburg, South Africa but God had a different plan once again. They held the plane for us in Joberg so we could make it to Lusaka last night still. The long flight was not as bad as I had imagined. Yes most of our feet swelled and are still swollen but there were plenty of opportunities to walk around and stretch. We did land in Dekar, Senegal for about an hour which we did not know about but we were not allowed off the plane. For our total time of about twenty-one hours with spending time on the airplane I probably slept about six-seven of those hours despite taking melatonin. This was the only part that was bad but it did help with the jet lag. When we did land in Joberg we had to practically run through the airport through customs, and immigration. But we did make our flight!!
Last night (Friday) we arrived here in Zambia around 10:30pm ( 4:30 at home). Our travel time had a few dilemmas along the way. While driving to Indy we hit some traffic leaving us with about an hour and a half to check in and go through security. While checking in we had a hard time with the weight of the bags. Several of us struggled. But the United worker who was checking us in did not charge us for the overage or the extra bags in which a few of us brought!!! Already Thursday morning we saw God at work!! After our flight from Indy to Washington DC (Dulles) we had about a four-five hour layover. After we got lunch at Chipotle we walked around for a while preparing for our seventeen hour flight to Zambia. While walking around the airport we stumbled upon an interactive “shape maker”. After struggling with figuring out how to do it we were finally able to complete two puzzles.
Last night (Friday) we arrived here in Zambia around 10:30pm ( 4:30 at home). Our travel time had a few dilemmas along the way. While driving to Indy we hit some traffic leaving us with about an hour and a half to check in and go through security. While checking in we had a hard time with the weight of the bags. Several of us struggled. But the United worker who was checking us in did not charge us for the overage or the extra bags in which a few of us brought!!! Already Thursday morning we saw God at work!! After our flight from Indy to Washington DC (Dulles) we had about a four-five hour layover. After we got lunch at Chipotle we walked around for a while preparing for our seventeen hour flight to Zambia. While walking around the airport we stumbled upon an interactive “shape maker”. After struggling with figuring out how to do it we were finally able to complete two puzzles.
With walking back to our terminal we stopped at a booth to pick up a little dessert… Ben and Jerry’s! Also during this layover we had to cut our carry on luggage down to one bag for more room on the plane. This took some strategic packing (thanks dad for teaching me well!) Our flight was supposed to depart at 5:40 but we waited on the plane for close to an hour waiting. This caused panic for us because we only had an hour and a half layover in Johannesburg, South Africa but God had a different plan once again. They held the plane for us in Joberg so we could make it to Lusaka last night still. The long flight was not as bad as I had imagined. Yes most of our feet swelled and are still swollen but there were plenty of opportunities to walk around and stretch. We did land in Dekar, Senegal for about an hour which we did not know about but we were not allowed off the plane. For our total time of about twenty-one hours with spending time on the airplane I probably slept about six-seven of those hours despite taking melatonin. This was the only part that was bad but it did help with the jet lag. When we did land in Joberg we had to practically run through the airport through customs, and immigration. But we did make our flight!!
So we arrived here in Lusaka around 10:30pm after figuring out who did not have their luggage (about 6 bags were lost and with the turn around it we were all surprised that we had so much luggage here) we went to our compound. There they had supper waiting for us which included rice, beef, chicken, N’shima and greens which they call rape.
Today (Saturday) we woke up and had breakfast. We had about an hour to walk around the compound and see everything. It is so pretty here and amazing! It is almost like we have not left the US with all the same foods and all. But there are differences like driving on the other side of the road, Kwacha (sp?) instead of dollars, and other differences. After breakfast which was also like American food we went and exchanged our dollars to Kwacha. One dollar is equal to 4860 kwacha. For lunch we went out to lunch at Mandahill Mall. There we ate at Mugg and Bean which is like a Panera/Starbucks/sit down restaurant. I played it safe… err Dutch and went with something I knew I would like. I got the smoked chicken wrap which had a cream cheese paste, avo, cucumbers, and a red pepper type sauce. And yes Trisha, they do have ketchup here!!
For the five us our total came to 220000 kwacha which seeing that number seemed unreal for us. But that figures to about 45 dollars. After lunch we walked around the mall for a bit which was very similar to an American mall. We came back to the compound while others went back to the airport for their luggage. I took a nice nap during that time.
We had a guest speaker come in tonight and talk about African Art and Literature. It was interesting to listen to him. For supper we had another very similar American dinner. Spaghetti, potatoes, rice, and fish. After supper we learned more of the language and greetings. So far it feels like we are not in Africa but in a few days we will be moving to a new location which is more rural/village.
Tomorrow we go to church. Then I think we may have a guest speaker planed as well as free time on the compound and shopping around.
Love you all and thanks for all the support!
Sarahlyn
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