We got up early Wednesday morning to have breakfast before heading back to the airport. We were tickled to find in the departure lounge a huge, neon billboard displaying the theme of our upcoming Annual Celebration, "Here, There and Everywhere." We took it as an invitation from life to remind all of you blog-readers about the event.
Waiting for our flight in the Johannesburg airport.
The flight from Johannesburg to Ndola is always filled with businessmen in the mining industry. It's an interesting 3-hour window into a whole subculture. The copper mines are booming, but most of the profits are not reaching the average person.
It was a pleasure to see Theresa, who greeted us upon arrival. We loaded the car with our many suitcases and headed into town for our first assignment--find a place to stay. We had found out just days before that St. Joseph's Guesthouse, where we normally stay, has been closed. No one seems to know why or for how long. Pauline and Theresa had been hard at work looking for other places in town that are reasonably-priced, centrally located, and have the capacity for us to cook for ourselves. We chose the second of the two options they had found--The Rehmar Guesthouse. It fits the bill on location and price but does not have a kitchen. We decided that being resourceful kinds of people, we could come up with our own little kitchen set-up that would get us through.
We dumped our bags and headed straight for the water department in search of Mr. Chaila. Our top priority for this trip is drilling the first well in Kantolomba. We were pleasantly surprised that he seemed to expect us. He said the rig is three-quarters of the way through the current job, and we are next in the queue. They will start drilling as early as Sunday.
The team walking into the Water Department.
Our next priority was to meet with Steve, the head of the Ndola Buildings Department. We reached him by cell phone, and he said he could meet in his office in 10 minutes. We jumped in the car, appreciating how quickly the groundwork we laid in our previous trip has allowed us to mobilize our efforts on this one. Steve and his sweet assistant, Noble, delighted us with beautiful blueprints of the community center in Kantolomba. Although we knew they were preparing the drawings, somehow seeing them amazed us. This is actually going to happen!
Theresa, Dave and Steve looking at the plans.
We left Steve's office and passed through Shop Rite to get enough groceries to last us through the next several days. On our way back to the guesthouse, we called Godfrey who agreed to meet us to go over plans for installing the internet tower in Kantolomba. Keeping with the theme of the day, he also brought good news--the tower should be no problem to install as soon as we are ready. Now we have "just" the hurdle of bringing electricity to the property. We shall leave that bureaucracy for another day.
Godfrey and Dave.
We prepared a dinner of cheese sandwiches (no kitchen supplies yet purchased) and tomato and avocado salad. It doesn't seem possible but the avocados seem even bigger than the last time we were here. We remain convinced that avocado farms are the key to sustainable industry here in Zambia, or at least to our own happiness.
Tomorrow promises to be another full, productive day including picking Cheri up from the airport to join us in what is shaping up to be our most productive trip yet.