We're back!! What a pleasure. We say this every time but it is more and more true--it is good to be home.
We are here in Ndola for just eight days. This will be enough, we hope, to check in on our projects, to maintain important relationships, and to have a little fun before dashing back to the Monastery to continue our work there. We are a team of two: Jen and Dave. Our specific goals for this trip are:
–To see how the building of the Living Compassion Community Center is going, and to meet with Gaudencia (our contractor) and Steve (our engineer) to communicate about the next steps.
–To reacquaint ourselves with Jennifer Musundu, the Permanent Secretary for the Copperbelt province. Besides being a charming individual with a big heart, Jennifer is also politically the most powerful person in the area, and so someone we are eager to have on our side.
–To meet with Annie —- about the possibility of her becoming our official English teacher for the Living Compassion Team in Kantolomba.
–To check in on the expanding food program and discuss next steps.
–To try again to get the Living Compassion car going.
–To put the finishing touches on the well.
–To get Anne from the Living Compassion house enrolled in a program to learn hair-styling (her chosen profession), and to look for a good school for Ken.
WHAT ELSE?
We have vast experience with how difficult it is to accomplish things here, and so, though we have set our sights high we are keeping our expectations low. It will be interesting to see how it goes.
We landed in Ndola on Monday around 1:00 after a pleasantly short delay of only two hours.
Waiting in the JoBurg airport.
Of course, it would not be a proper beginning to a trip without lost luggage. This time we were 100%–none of our luggage arrived. We took the news in good Zen, Zambian style--whatever. It did give us the chance to meet again with one of our favorite friends here, Peggy, the fabulous woman at South African Airways who seems to run the whole operation. She assured us she would have our luggage to us by end of the day tomorrow--good enough.
Theresa (head of our projects here in Zambia) met us at the airport with her usual huge smile and warm hug. She handed us our Zambian cell phones and we were off and running. We got Muyunda, our favorite taxi driver, to come collect all of us and take us to Castle Lodge. The owner, Eunice, was waiting with another big smile and more hugs (we were starting to feel spoiled at this point). She showed us to our rooms and delivered the unbelievable news that since we were last here she has installed wireless internet. We warned her we might never leave. She assured us that would work just fine for her.
Eunice in the reception area of the guesthouse.
We took all of about 10 minutes to set out things in our room--not having much to set out– and then jumped back in the taxi with Muyunda to take care of business. First on our agenda was to deal with the car. Those of you who followed the last blog (July 2007) will remember that our poor car spent three weeks being diagnosed and rebuilt with no success. It has been sitting idle in a parking lot ever since waiting for us to return and continue our efforts. We stopped at the Living Compassion house to pick up the keys and say hello to the children (more big hugs and smiles), then dashed off to the parking lot.
For once we had our camera ready for the reception. Ann and Dave hugging.
Finita in the living room of the house.
When we got to the lot Dave got in the car and started it with no trouble. He set off for the mechanic while Muyunda took Theresa and Jen back to the house to collect the things we leave here between trips--pots and pans, dish soap, mosquito spray, etc. The plan was to have Jen and Theresa take things back to the guesthouse then go collect Dave at the mechanic. But just a few minutes down the road we found Dave pulled over at a gas station. The car was stalling out and emitting clouds of smoke. We put in more gas hoping that would help and set off again with the taxi crew tailing Dave as an escort. Within minutes the car was spewing enough black smoke out the back to elicit shouts from pedestrians warning Dave, "Your car is burning!" Our Zambian contingency felt it was just too risky to continue--cars are impounded regularly for problems such as these.
Dave pulled the car over and the others followed. We all got out and stood around for a while, wondering what to do. None of us could ever remember seeing a tow truck in Zambia. Finally Muyunda told us that if we could locate a "towing bar", then he could haul our car the rest of the way to the mechanic using his taxi. In Africa, we are learning, you can do anything with a taxi. We readily agreed.
Jen took off with Muyunda for the mechanic's shop in the hopes he might have a towing bar, while Dave and Theresa waited in the shade of a Eucalyptus tree. Just a few minutes later Jen and Muyunda returned and elatedly announced they had found a bar and we were back in business.
A towing bar, it turns out, is a steel bar about ten feet long with metal loops in each end and clamps used to attach it to each car. Muyunda and Dave installed the bar and we were off. Muyunda drove the taxi while Dave steered the Living Compassion car ten feet behind. In this way, slowly but surely, we made our way at last to the mechanic's shop.
Muyunda attaching the towing bar.
Dave in the car being towed.
The mechanic's name is Mr. Mbewe. He puzzled over the smoking car for a few minutes, then named a number of dire possibilities that might explain what is going on. All he could do, he said, would be to take the motor apart and see what he could find. Our hearts sank as we imagined a repeat of the endless mechanical drama we endured last time. We asked Mr. Mbewe to wait to begin work until we could consider what he had told us, and that we would call him in the morning.
Diagnosing at the mechanics shop. Steve, our engineer, on the far right.
While we talked with the mechanic, Steve drove up and greeted us warmly. It was great to see him. We are fortunate to have some truly wonderful friends here in Ndola. We couldn't help noticing that Steve drove a brand-new Toyota king-cab pick-up truck. The contrast between his ride and ours was poignant, to say the least. We asked if he would trade, but he refused. Friendship will only go so far, apparently.
After saying good-bye we made the first of our traditional visits to ShopRite for groceries, then returned to the guesthouse for dinner and some much-needed rest.