It Would be Boring!

It would be boring if everything went as planned, if the shuttle picked you up on time and took you to the airport with no glitches and you didn't encounter any red lights. It would be boring if you were checked in, make it through security and  get to your gate with plenty of time and your plane is on time.

 Well that's not how it happened.  As planned the shuttle arrived at 8:05. Two more people were picked up in my area and we headed toward the airport to pick up 2 more.  We arrive at a given address of an apartment building number but no one is there.  The driver calls and the place this lady is at is not anywhere nearby. One of the passengers then gets on the phone because the driver an Ethiopian is having a hard time understanding this lady, (who it turned out was from India). He can't figure out what this lady is saying either.  She is giving the same address and saying she is near an office Max. The traffic was heavy so we are having a difficult time getting around.  To add to it all, it was raining like it would in Seattle.  We then saw an Office Max in the opposite direction that we had been driving around.  We find her. Then we see that the street number it is the same as the one we initially had stopped at, one of the landmarks she was talking about was also similar.   We picked up the 5th person and headed to the airport, hitting a majority of red lights.
 We get to the airport at 10:20 am  My plane is to leave at 11:45 am.  By the time I get checked in, get through security and get to my gate it is 11:25 am. They changed the gate, now I have only 15 minutes to get on the plane.  When I get to the new gate every one is standing around.  It says the plane is "on time,"  except they have a mechanical problem with the plane. I am not too shook at first because I had allowed myself over a 5 hour layover in Atlanta.

Then the minutes and hours ticked away. It was looking more and more like I would miss my overseas flight.  After 3 calls on my cell phone to get help because the line to the agent was slow and long with people wanting different flights, I began to panic.  My cell phone calls kept getting dropped. The next flight would only give me 45 minutes to make the plane change.  They announced that there were "help" phones down another gateway.  I headed out, got booked on the next flight only to realize that flight was scheduled to leave out of the same gate where the plane with mechanical problem plane was.  When I returned to the gate they were starting to board the plane. I did get my old booking back but the plane didn't leave for another hour.  I made it to Atlanta with 15 minutes to boarding.  Elaine was starting to worry as I was suppose to be there when she arrived.  She did find out that I was on the incoming plane.

I was relieved to make my flight.  Prior to boarding my flight to Atlanta, they announced that if anyone didn't want to fly on the plane that had mechanical problems they would be happy to rebook the flight.  That was encouraging!!!

We made it to Acura, Ghana with about a 7 + hour layover.  The good thing was I could get a 48 hour Visa for 20$.  We went into town and rested in the lounge at The Tulip Hotel, had some refreshments and later some dinner before heading back to the airport.

 The rest of the flights were on time and after a short layover and plane change in Nairobi we  were on our way to Zambia.  We arrived in Lusaka, Zambia...... ON TIME.   With the few things we needed to do before leaving the village and the trip to the village it was close to 47 hours of travel time.   In your time, we reached out destination at about 6:30 am on the 14th.

 We were pretty tired and all we wanted to do was get cleaned up. My water had not been turned on so I had a cool shower but the towel was still warm from being taken out of the dryer.  The air conditioning had not been on so it kept the towel warm.

It is hot here in Zambia.  It is summer and heading into the wet season.  I learned today they have 4 seasons, the Winter Season or cold season, the dry season, summer and the wet season.

We saw 11 kids and 14 adults today.  It was a 9 hour day for me and 10 for Elaine.

It is fun to go to the bank and give them 50$ and walk out with 250,000 kwatchas.

Tomorrow we have a long day ahead. We will be taking a 5 hour drive to check a new child for the Village.  We are going some where in northern Zambia, near the equator.  It will be a 5 hour trip
home also.  I have no idea what to expect.

 Never in my imagination did I think I would be going to some unheard of place in Africa.

So I must shower and get to bed.  We are leaving at 5 am.  So on to tomorrow for a new adventure with God.