Business continued, with some drama, followed by . . . HOLIDAY!!!

I have some random photos from I assume the week I couldn't remember last post, so here they are . . .

Sandra with the happening wild life in Kabwe!

Can anyone identify this rock? Jono was given it to find out what it was, it's kinda metallic

Nshima with Brenda

Kapenta (small fish) which Jono bravely ate.  I tried to make it just a few days earlier, and it was disgusting, I couldn't finish my meal.  I'll leave cooking the kapenta to the Zambians, they do a much better job.

We had pretty purple trees :)

Watching the rugby (of course our victory, mwa ha ha ha ha) with some South Africans, in this photo they were experiencing a glimmer of hope before their inevitable demise

This is the old church, the new one is in the background

The second week of school was incredibly busy and also drama-filled!  Peter and Brendah's child Edmond went missing on Saturday evening. We announced he was missing on the radio sunday lunchtime, a couple of hours later Peter received a call that someone had found his child, but after we waited almost an hour at the place the caller said to meet and calling them multiple times, we concluded it was a hoax, which is a terrible and disheartening thing for someone to do, and also wasted a lot of time.
One of our team printed "missing" posters of Edmond and we proceeded to put them up around the suburbs

Then we found out that one of Edmond's classmates had seen him walking along a certain road on Saturday. The hoax caller had also been linked to an army barracks along the same road, and the hoax meeting point was 5 minutes drive away. It felt like we were in the middle of detective work/"prison break" as these clues were lining up with this stretch of road. Time was ticking by, statistically the chances of finding Edmond were getting smaller and smaller, so we littered lamp posts along this road with the remaining posters in the twindling twilight, and talked to people along the way about Edmond, and kept praying.
Finally on Wednesday morning there was some good news, a shuttle driver had seen the posters and recognised Edmond! He was found later that day about an hour's drive north of kabwe, hallelujah!! He'd run away from home and walked a very VERY long distance (almost all the way!!).
This meant that during the mornings I was teaching.  During the afternoons we were out hunting/putting up posters etc.

The weather by then was getting ridiculously hot, as it has continued to be!  I am not handling the heat very well, it does make one rather lethargic ie lazy, ok perhaps it's not weather related, but it definitely doesn't help! (I'm sure it contributes!!)
Friday afternoon we headed to Lusaka, we were making our way to South Luwanga.  We'd planned to go earlier in the week, things got delayed since Edmond went missing.
Saturday we had a very long bus ride, started at 5.30am I think got to Chipata at 2pm, followed by a two hour taxi ride which took us to Mfuwe, home of the South Luwanga national park.

Blurry as we were driving by, but I loved this fire engine!

Also blurry for the same reason, but hilarious "Get Busy Bar"

I wish more people here would read the back of the truck! Excuse the spelling

Hills near Chipata

Oh signs!

Sunday was a rude awakening as for the morning safari we were woken at 5am, breakfast at 5.30, commenced safari at 6am until 10am.  Then we had a break, which of course included a much needed swim in their pool.  Then we had a night drive starting at 4 pm.  Night drives in South L actually spend a couple of hours in the dark, with a spotter, unlike the 'night' drive we did in Chobe.

White frog in our bathroom, didn't know if it was poisonous so asked a dude to remove it, it wasn't :)

Safari time!!

Early morning

3 baby giraffes

Resident python (way way up and hard to see, me likey my camera!)

Sausage tree

Needs no introduction :)

Birdies for Malcolm

A not so well off hippo

I think this buffalo is a few marbles short . . .

A PRIDE OF LIONS EATING A BUFFALO!!!!!!

I just like this pic

Fisherman, with ALL those hippos - I think they maybe insane . . .

So up top you can see our awening, so that means from our varenda you can see . . . 

Vultures

Caught this lion at a funny moment

Another pride of lions! We were spoilt!

Young male

Blurry but cool.  Sometimes I wish my/Jono's camera skills were better!

Like I said SPOILT!!

I don't wanna make you tooo jealous, so I'll save some/most of the safari holiday for next blog!

Prayer thanks
- For safety while we've been travelling
- For the cooler weather we've had
- This last week we've been feeling reasonably good
- Jono would like to thank God for our first thunderstorm we had on Wednesday, it was awesome

Prayer requests
- For more thunderstorms
- For continued safety while we travel
- For my physio registration
- To connect well with locals and missionaries
- For God to be number 1, our marriage number 2
- Guidance over our future plans

Bethesda prayer items
- That the Makalulu group would go well, Jono went last week to discover it had dwindled since we last went.  The poor group has been somewhat neglected as we don't seem to have enough staff and also the leadership handover has been happening.
- Continued prayer for Sandra, especially for a good christian friend.  We heard she's struggling a bit back in Canada
- For the land application
- For growth, spiritually, financially and in team number
- For Bernards application
- For the individuals involved in the vehicle accident
- Peter and Brenda have taken over the leadership of Bethesda so for them as its a big role.

OM prayer requests
-Continue to give thanks for the huge donation
- For the leadership of OM Zambia
- For the students as their study draws near to an end

Several good things :) plus a bad :(

Where I left off . . .
Post wheelchair camp we had a week off much to our delight.  Sandra was super keen to head up to Chimfunshi, a Chimpanze enclosure theoretically 4 hours from Kabwe.  9 hours later, after almost ending up in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), we arrived!  Have I mentioned before how difficult it is to navigate yourself around here.  The streets have no sign posts, not even the 'major' highways.  So of course we missed a turn, hence the almost visit to DRC.  Luckily despite not booking accommodation there they had space for us - yay!

Sunset on the way, Chingola

The first day we went and saw the enclosures.  It kinda felt like a bit of a zoo with only one type of animal.  Although more humane as their cages are massive. It contains chimpanzees who have been rescued from poachers, circuses, smuggling, rejected chimpanzee pets, etc

Chimp having a drink

Shame about the fence

Hands of potential doom . . .

Who's a greedy chimp??

Lol! Signs :)

Ant hill to the left, how many ants live here???

Nom nom nom

I've decided some chimps are just greedy!

More of an idea of the number in the enclosure

We also went to see the most gorgeous baby chimp whose mother died during child birth, 3 months old.

The second day we had a pretty chilled out morning then went to the orphanage to see the wee baby again, plus some other chimps and animals.

Just a bit of African tree scenery on the way, nice compared to Kabwe, my standards are slipping

Now now boys . . .

The termite 'graveyard'

Lol! Sign from the bathroom

One of those other animals

The third day provided the highlight of the trip.  We went on a bush walk with 5 chimps.  It was awesome to have them climbing all over you.  The guides gave you chips to put in your pockets to facilitate this!  Jono had a special encounter with one.  He climbed up Jono's back which managed to rip his top in two (cheap Zambian top, obviously poor quality).  They then proceeded to play with the winnings, much to our entertainment!  I also now also have a greater understanding of ants in your pants.  Experience tells me that is not nice, those cheeky little suckers are PAINFUL!
We headed back to Kabwe which only took 7 hours as we didn't have the almost DRC detour, and took a different less pot holey route.

The 'dog' like sheep attacking me

PDA

Prime apes 2 - Jono 0

The spoils

Which Jono BRIEFLY had back

Grooming time

Sporting the new look

The following day, I was feeling unwell all day, which climaxed in the evening.

Luckily I was feeling well enough to attend Gift and Emely's wedding the following day.  We were so blessed to be invited to attend a 'Zambian' wedding.  One must debate how Zambian it is, obviously it's different from any wedding I've been to, but there were definitely western influences.
On the front of the invite to the wedding it said "Who can find a virtuous woman? Her price is far above rubies. . ."  I don't know many people that would quote proverbs 31 on a wedding invite.
It was kinda hilarious the wedding ceremony was meant to start at 9am and finish at 10.  All the Westerners turn up just before 9 as we are accustomed to.  Some of the OM Zambian missionaries turn up around 9.30 including the groom.  The bride comes at about 10.15.  Some of the family were STILL arriving after 11, halfway through the ceremony, an hour after the service was meant to finish!!  While the bride and groom were leaving there was this song being sung "mambo sawasawa" which means "things are getting better, things are getting better, when the Lord is on the throne things are getting better, things are getting better."  Once again I found it amusing to have this song at a wedding!

The groom

The bride

Wilson leading leading the singing

Learning our lesson from the ceremony we turned up slightly late to the reception, not late enough though!! Good chance to chat with people there though.  Another thing I found amusing was the bridal party had this dance worked out to get from the entry point to the table.  And then so did the girl who was carrying the knife to cut the cake.  There was normal western things, food, speeches.  I was surprised there wasn't communal dancing there.  The whole thing wrapped up about dusk (6pm), this would be unusual for a western wedding, although if you're starting at 9am maybe not!

The bride smiling, which was novel in Zambian tradition!

Bridal party dancing their way in

Too cute, the flower girls had their own table

Funny how white people feature on a Zambian cake!

Seems Sandra did one better and got them both smiling, lucky I stole her photos!

School started again on the Monday.  I was pleased to see the kiddies again, I'd missed them over the break (they had holidays for a month).  I don't remember much about that week! Neither does Jono! So nothing important must have happened I guess.  At least that means less reading for you!!

Prayer thanks

• For safety while we've been travelling
• We had the opportunity to go out to Mulungushi Dam again on Sunday after I said I was feeling homesick to someone, that was lovely.

Prayer requests

• For continued safety while we travel
• For my physio registration, Peter went to check on it last week, it's there, complete, still pending.  Sigh. I wonder if I'll get it before I leave?
• To connect with both locals and missionaries well
• For God to be number 1, our marriage number 2
• I've been feeling a bit home sick/drained, so that that'll get better and I'll have energy for tasks.

Bethesda prayer items

• Continued prayer for Sandra (not sure how she's getting on, we haven't heard)
• For the land application, that's still pending, seems that people want bribes or something
• For growth both financially and in team number
• For Bernard's electronics application
• For the individuals involved in that vehicle accident

OM prayer requests

• Massive thanks for the HUGE donation towards buildings
• For the leadership of OM Zambia
• For the students to learn and grow and be well equipped.