Visitors and Safari

These past two weeks have been busy and flew by way to quickly. My sister Lynda and niece Rebekah came to visit us, and it was such a joy to have family here with us. Its hard to be away from all the people we love, so having them come out to see us sure filled our buckets 🙂

The first few days were spent at Grace. We gave them tours of the grounds, introduced them to all the wonderful kids here and did a few odd jobs. One of the jobs on the list was to clean out the medical room. I don’t think its been touched in some time, the layer of dust on everything was VERY thick. Many hands make light work though and soon everything was sorted through and cleaned up. We also sorted and went through all the donations they had brought from Canada. They are efficient packers and we had so much to put away. Thanks to everyone who donated clothing, shoes, deo, shavers etc! It will most definitely get put to good use.

It was fun to play games and do crafts with the kids at Grace. They sure loved having some new faces around to play with. Soccer games were played as well as lots of games of bump! Hair was braided and bracelets were made and traded!

Friends of ours that live nearby invited us to go to Lake Kashiba with them. October is hot here and a lake day sounded amazing. Plus we got to go somewhere new and beautiful with our guests. It was a 2.5 hour drive there, and another 2.5 hour trip back home, on less than great roads, but it was so worth it!! A cool, clear beautiful lake to dive into! We cliff jumped, swam, paddle boarded and enjoyed our day to the fullest.

October 18 was a holiday here, so we had arranged with Sister Josephine (another organization nearby that AJ’s dad has contact with) to do a feeding program. Some people from Canada generously donated money towards this. Sister Josephine does these more often and finds the neediest families in the nearby villages to come. We were counting on 100 children, but 105 showed up. They all received breakfast and while they ate we handed out supplies for them to take back to their families. Eggs, sugar, oil, soya chunks, maize, salt and some extra treats like candy and biscuits. Not only do the children get a meal but their families now have supplies to provide many more meals at home. We were happy to be able to help in a small way, but it makes you think. How is life at home in Canada so rich and abundant? and here in Africa so many don’t have the basic necessities of life like food and clean water to drink.

If anyone reading this would like to donate to another food distribution please let us know, we would love to do this again!

Part of our time planned with Lynda and Rebekah was a short safari in the Lower Zambezi National Park. We drove to Lusaka (5ish hours) and spent the night there. The next morning our guide picked us up and drove us to the park (another 5 hour drive). After arriving we unpacked, had a little break and then went for a game drive. To say it was incredible doesn’t begin to describe it. We saw elephants with their babies, a pack of wild painted dogs (a rare sighting!), some male lions and then some females with their one month old cubs! There we so many impalas and water buck and alligators! It didn’t feel like it at all but we drove another 5 hours looking at all the animals.

The next morning we woke early and had another full day of driving and looking at all the animals. This time we found the kill of a leopard tucked in the bush and the leopard hiding in the next bush over. We didn’t get a good look at it but still so neat to catch a glimpse. We also stopped for a picnic lunch that ended rather quickly as an elephant and its baby tried to make their way to the water. We were in the way and had to get in the vehicles and out of the way before she charged at us. That evening we had a great dinner overlooking the Zambezi River, with the sounds of hippos and elephants all around us. When we woke the next morning we were treated to a river cruise to an island where we would have lunch. The neat thing was this island was half in Zambia and half in Zimbabwe! There we had a wonderful lunch with elephants a short distance away and on the boat ride home many schools of hippos just floating alongside us. It was an amazing 3 days in the bush.

Sadly we had to bring our guests back to the airport. It was hard to say goodbye. Seeing them made me realize how much I miss all of them. We are so thankful they came out to see us… and we are hoping more people want to come visit Zambia 😉