January 10, 2012

   Well we arrived to Ndola in the late afternoon of the 8^th after 18 hours on two different planes, a 9-hour layover in London and about a 5-hour car ride from the airport in Lusaka. Praise God all of our luggage made it. After we brought up all the bags I took a quick cold bucket bath and headed into town to buy some electricity (one of the many things here that is pre-paid) and go grocery shopping. I walked down to the nearby shops to buy my electricity and ran into so many familiar faces. I spent a good 20 minutes greeting different people, exchanging hand shakes, hugs and updates. After finally getting my electricity I headed to the grocery store. I hadn’t bothered making a list and as I walked through the aisles of the store I tried to remember what I needed to buy and then realized…everything…lol…the house is completely barren of all food and most cleaning supplies. I first went down the water aisle and found there were no large containers of water, only the 500ml bottles, I grabbed 9 bottles. I got most of our “food essentials” so headed to the cleaning supply section. 5 out of the 6 cleaning supplies I normally use were completely out of stock and there were no substitutes for any of them. I don’t think that would ever happen in the states, when I was there on furlough I literally got overwhelmed at the amount of choices. But seriously, do I need 50 different choices of deodorant?? I finished at the grocery store then hit the market to get my fresh produce. As I walked into the market I saw many familiar faces of women I regularly bought produce from. The joy on their faces to see me truly warmed my heart.  After that I went to one other shop to buy bread and sugar…2 of the items I forgot to buy at the store. I believe my forgetfulness was a symptom of my sleep-deprived body. Nonetheless, I got what I needed and headed home. I called Swazi to see if her and Oksana (my friend from my home church who is visiting for 2 months) could help me carry up the goods. Only one of the 4 elevators was working and there was only room for one of us on the lift. I sent Swazi ahead of us and me and Oksana took the stairs. By this time it was dark out and I had totally forgot one very important fact:  Most of the lights in the stairwell don’t have bulbs so it was pretty much pitch black. We made our way up carefully and then on the stairs at the 3^rd floor Oksana tripped and fell hitting her leg pretty hard. I was so very concerned and wished right away that it had happened to me instead. I knew she was tired, in a new land and experiencing so many culture shocks all at once. I thought to myself, oh great!! I didn’t know if this on top of everything else would cause her to just break down.  We made it up the last flight of stairs and luckily it wasn’t too bad, she was just a little sore. I had her take some Aleve and then made her a grilled cheese and mad a bowl of rice crispies with banana for myself.  Soon after that we all got ready for bed. I spent some time praying with Oksana because I know how hard it is to be so far from those you love paired with exhaustion and being somewhere new. I’m so proud of her though!! She even took a cold bath on her 1^st day here!! She will be just fine.