Three lifetimes ago now, on Thursday afternoon, four monks—Caverly, Alex, Jen, and Dave—left the monastery to begin our journey to Africa. We ran our final errands on the way to the Zen Center in Palo Alto, and we finished packing by the lights of the van in the parking lot behind Waverly Street. Between us we brought ten suitcases, filled almost completely with donated school supplies, clothes, and other things for the children in Ndola.
On Friday we flew across country and spent the night outside of Washington, DC. Saturday morning we left Dulles International Airport on a seventeen hour flight to Johannesburg, South Africa. Eight or nine hours into the trip, thirty-seven thousand feet above the west coast of Africa, we gathered in the back of the plane, the four of us, for group. Together we marveled at the amazing good fortune of our adventure, and each of us in her or his own way expressed the gratitude we felt and continue to feel for the spiritual practice that brings us together and supports us in our journey. What more could we ask for?
After a short layover in Johannesburg we boarded a flight to Lusaka, Zambia. When at last we arrived Brother John greeted us with his gigantic smile. “We were praying for your safe arrival,” he said. Two other African friars had come with him to welcome us. They loaded our bags into the back of an old mini-bus, then we waited for an hour for the next flight in, which carried Brother Timothy, the head of the Franciscan brotherhood in Zambia, back home from Nairobi. We are hoping to be working with Timothy extensively while we are here setting up our next projects.
Together we all piled into the van and drove a half an hour to the Franciscan friary in Lusaka, where we are spending the night. It is a wonderful place, with endless vegetable gardens, chickens and geese, and a beautiful chapel with a thatched roof. After all of those hours of travel, nothing could be more welcome than the peace of this place amid the unfamiliar African landscape.
Tomorrow we plan to travel to Ndola, a five hours journey, with the hopes that we will be in time to visit the Living Compassion house for the first time in the afternoon. We are so excited to see the children! We will spend four days in Ndola. This will be the time when we will focus most exclusively on our new projects, laying the groundwork for our next year’s work in Africa.
It will be dark soon. It is winter here, and the sun will set early. At seven we will have supper with Father Don, our host, then settle down at last to rest.