Saturday, April 28, 2012

Many firsts for Rita in Zambia

Well, in the last post you see that Steve drove or I should say rode to Cape Town, South Africa.  I think Grant did all the driving.  What happened to me.  I got to experience a few firsts.  I have done these things in the states, but not in Zambia.

Sunday and Monday we just hung out around the guest house relaxing.  I did still have a few errands to run.  After a week of meetings and all that traveling, I just needed some down time to relax.  I spent a lot of time lying in bed or the chair reading a book and getting lots of sleep.

On Monday night, our team leader, Blake Kimbrough hitched up our trailer to our vehicle for me.  Then, He and my kids with Joel Scheafer’s help loaded up the trailer.  He then got it all lined up so that I could just pull out of the parking lot.  I don’t claim to have any knowledge on how to back up a vehicle with a trailer attached. 

Side note:  Joel Scheafer came down to Lusaka with his dad to see a dentist and he rode back to Mbala with us.  We were glad to have him along.  It turned out to be quite handy to have two teenage boys with us when the trailer came unhitched in Kasama.  They had to do quite a bit of cranking the wheel down to get the hitch up and hooked up again.  The trailer, I think was the heaviest it has ever been.

So, to the firsts:  I do drive, but Steve does all the driving on our long trips.  I drove from Lusaka to Mbala for the first time all by myself!  We did do it in two days.

When we first pulled into Lusaka at the beginning of this trip we met the Sprayberries.  They are missionaries who use to work with our mission and started the 40/40 orientation training we have here in Zambia.  They live along our route to Mbala and invited us to stop over some time.  I jumped right in an asked if it would suit for us to stop in on our way back.  I did ask them if I would have to back up that trailer.  Luckly, they had a circle drive.

So our first day we only drove about 5 hours.  I was all prepared.  While doing long drives to my parents house in the states when we lived in South Carolina, I learned that audiobooks keep me awake.  I can stay awake the whole trip with Steve driving, but put me in the drivers seat and I want to go right to sleep.  So I had two books lined up and that is what we listened to.

Wednesday, we left around 8AM to drive the rest of the way home.  I think we pulled into the Schaefer’s place at 5PM.  Lynne had supper waiting for us.  Tobias and Joel unloaded all of their things.  Then we went home.  It was so nice to sleep in our own beds after being gone 2 weeks and 1 day.

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