"Welcome to Kabwe, City of Salvation"

I am sitting here on a Dora the Explorer blanketed bed after my breakfast of 4 penne pasta noodles and instant coffee (which, as an avid coffee junkie, I swore I would never drink). The smell of sweat lingers in the air despite my chilling cold bath last night, and a little brown cockroach just crawled down the wall next to me. I have been in Zambia for 38 hours and I already find it difficult to think of how life was before I came here. Why is that, I wonder? Is it culture shock? Is it a coping mechanism to make adapting easier? Don’t think of how it was before, then what it’s like now will seem normal. And maybe it is normal.

Would you like to hear about how I got here? It’s quite a good story, actually. Or maybe it’s one of those ‘you had to be there’ experiences… either way, I’ll try to relate it as best I can.

Getting through the Lusaka airport couldn’t have been easier. All they took at the customs desk was my passport and customs form, no letter of invitation or proof of finances or return ticket required, and when we got to baggage claim our 4 bags were sitting together on the floor next to the conveyor belt, all ready to go. We were asked to show our bag tags as we exited, and one of the guards asked if I had brought him anything from Johannesburg, that he expected I brought him something. “Of course I did!” I exclaimed as I reached into my bag and pulled out a chocolate bar. He thanked me and wished me a pleasant visit in Zambia. On the other side of the doors were Brooke and Jed, the Peace Corps/Hands at Work couple meeting us to drive north to Kabwe. I couldn’t help thinking, wow, I love God, I prayed for ease getting through customs, but this was incredibly smooth! All that was left was the 2 hour drive to the orphanage, and how hard could that be?

Don’t ever ask that. It’s just better not to I think, it gets you into trouble. A little more than an hour into the middle of nowhere there was a loud pop from the front of the truck, and a little after that we pulled over in a little town with smoke/steam rising from the hood. A belt had snapped and popped the radiator hose.

As it turn out, we had pulled over just a little way down from a bar, and this friendly fellow ambled over to provide his 2 cents about what should be done before wondering on. While Jed called Lawrence in Kabwe to find a car to come pick us up, another man came out from the building next to us to take a look and came to the same conclusion as us. He proceeded to go back inside and blast some African reggae out of his impressively loud speakers to make our wait more comfortable. A little while later he reappeared with his brother-in-law who had a friend with a land rover who they said they’d ask if he had a spare radiator hose – which of course he didn’t.

The next couple of hours held very little. It hadn’t taken us long to notice the little shack beside us catering to people’s drug needs, and our friend with a land rover came by a couple times to check us out as he guzzled a beer. At about midnight we heard from Lawrence that he had found a car and was on his way but it would be another hour before he would arrive. I took a sigh of relief.

Don’t ever take a sigh of relief. It’s better not to I think, it gets you into trouble. As we waited for Lawrence and his friend Sydney the rainy season decided to begin. It hadn’t rained since May and on our first night in Zambia, as we sat broken down in the middle of nowhere, the heavens opened in all their glory. I was just opening my mouth to comment how God has a sense of humor when the electricity went out and the little light we had from a street light and the drug dealer’s lair vanished, leaving us in complete and utter darkness. I broke out into laughter.

Fast forward to our rescue… we fit what luggage we could into the trunk and 4 of us squished into the back of Sydney’s little car. Sydney pumped up the stereo, which was not unlike an African Savage Garden with a Spanish guitar, and with a little laugh Lawrence translated the words of the song. They went something like this:

“All your problems seem bad, but turn to God and He will bring you through.”