Friday, June 4, 2010

Leaving our Home stay and Petauke, May 17

I got up at 5am to get packed and help Esther, but I realized quickly I can’t do a lot of organizing/folding/packing with 4 people asleep in a small hut.

I brushed my teeth, packed what I could and then started waking people for “morning baths.” We had breakfast, took pictures, and then we presented the family with some gifts and Doug read Philippians 1:3-10. Pastor Mwenda read it from his Bible too, in his language for his wife to understand and said he felt very encouraged by us, our visit, and the scripture.

We walked back to bush camp, which had been dismantled, and got such a nice welcome from everyone. We loaded the bus and headed north by 8am.

We arrived at Ibis Gardens around 3pm. It is SO nice. Someone had told me that it wasn’t too nice of a resort, but I’ve lived in Africa long enough to know “nice” when I see it! It is an awesome place for rest after having stayed in many other places.

I unpacked, organized, and started washing clothes in the sink. Kylie and Karis took hot showers while Doug went running, and then it was time for Caleb and me to shower. I had been waiting for this since Arua. It had been a long time since I had had hot water coming out of a shower with much water pressure.

No hot water.

The girls had used it all. Such a let down. Maybe tomorrow.

Ibis Gardens was four days of relaxation, debriefing, and learning about how to learn a language.

On the fifth day, twelve of us got up at 4:30am to catch a 5:30 bus to Livingstone, the home of Victoria Falls. We thought we had arranged a private bus to take us straight to Livingstone, but…this is Africa.

We stopped in Lusaka for 45 minutes and then at least every hour after that, sometimes every 30 minutes to pick up people and drop people off.

And of course, what would a cross-country trip be without a tire blow out? The driver, conductor (the guy who takes the money), and an assistant fixed it pretty quickly.

It took us 9 ½ hours to get to Livingstone. (On the way back, we rode with a different bus company, and it only took 6 hours and 15 minutes!)

In Livingstone, our guesthouse provided us with transportation or gave us numbers of taxi drivers to call.

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