On Sunday morning we left early for Zambia, South Luangwa game park. The first half of the trip is not bad - crossing the border is always interesting and time consuming, but the roads are OK until you get past Chipata in Zambia. Then you are on a dirt road for hours. The good news is that they are in the process of building a new road, with tarmack! The bad news: who knows how long that process will take? Enroute to the game park, on one of the bad stretches of road, we heard a loud bang and then a horrible noise from the car. Jose pulled off the dirt onto the grass shoulder and checked - the pipe attached to the muffler had come loose (weld had broken). Immediately a crowd gathered, including about 50 small kids who 'petted' the car, flipped the door handles (?trying to get in?) and literally licked the windows. Ladies with babies showed up and wanted to show us their babies, and a nice assortment of men, who offered to help fix the car. Unfortunately (according to Jose, who was out there with them, while Katie and I stayed safe in the car) they smelled like they had been drinking the local brew. We needed a rope... when Jose asked if anyone had a rope, one of the men went to the side of the road, pulled some long grass and started braiding one right there! (we are planning on carrying wire and rope in the future!) Jose ended up using a strap from Katie's bag, and we were shortly back on the road. Unfortunately, the strap melted through pretty quickly and we were once again on the side of the road, although not so close to a village, and we had made it to the tarmac leading to the park. This time we only attracted a few people, and Jose fixed it with a long sock.. it held!! The lodge in the park has a shop and they re-welded the pipe for a small fee. However, I was - and am- impressed with the sock fix! We spent Sunday through Tuesday in the game park, with Katie getting to see the 'animals' of Africa. The Texas group (Majiga clinics) came on Monday so it was nice to see them, too. The lodge and drives are always fun and it was a time for us to catch our breathe after the last couple of weeks. We had a very nice guide, Alick, who managed to find us leopard one night. Our trip home (to Malawi) was uneventful compared to the 'going' trip, and the weld held! Wednesday, Katie's last full day in Malawi, she did a little curio shopping, picked up Lidson and went to the orphan village, dropping off pictures to the teen age girls (from the last visit) and stopping by the see the guys. Only 4 were at home, the others either still in school or off on an outreach to nearby villages. I did get to see my other sponsored child, Alex. And of course, Lidson always enjoys a road trip in the car! In the afternoon, Katie and I went to the Crisis Nursery, where we got to feed some of the babies and spend some time playing with them. Katie had one set of twins, Jesse and Justina, and I had Shadrack - his twin Meshack was still sleeping. The Ministry of Hope is the organization under which Crisis Nursery operates. You might recognize Ministry of Hope as the group that does some village clinics, where Jose has gone several times. They really do good work here. The Crisis Nursery takes in babies that are high risk of death due to the death - or desertion- of the mother. These are generally village babies, where formula is either not available, too expensive, or there is no clean water to mix it. The nursery folks take them in, clothe, feed and get medical care for the babies. They stay at the Crisis Nursery until they can eat the traditional foods of the villages. If there is extended family (which is often the case), they are brought in to bond with the child, learn basic hygiene, etc. so the child has a place to return to when they are eating. The nursery then does follow up visits to make sure the child is thriving. I know of two cases where the child had to be returned to the nursery because of inadequate care in the village. If there is no extended family to be found, those kids become available for adoption. I know people are concerned when they give money to different groups if the money is really being used for the stated purposes. I have been blessed to see first hand what some of the groups here are doing. If any of you readers are interested in donating to a specific group (or missionary) mentioned in this blog, please contact me! The picture with this blog is of the village crowd we were leaving as we drove off from the first vehicle break down.
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