Back to the UK
Dear All
I can hardly believe there’s only a week before I’ll be boarding a Kenya Airways flight bound for Nairobi, Amsterdam and Manchester! If you could glimpse the chaos here you probably wouldn’t believe it either.
Even though this is officially the college holiday, I seem to have been extremely busy. On my ‘to do’ list, there are an extraordinary number of things but I’ll get there somehow.
Since last writing, we have been in Zambia for the biannual CAM conference. Although it’s quite a palaver to organise, with visas to get in and out of this country, Zambian visas, and all manner of payments to get the cars through the border, it was well worth it. We left around 8.30 and were through the border by 1pm. A glance at a map will show you it’s not far from Lubumbashi to Kasumbalesa, the border post but there are major road works all the way and it’s virtually single file traffic for considerable stretches of the road. We arrived at the first barrier to be informed we’d have a 15 minute wait, didn’t believe him and waited 15 minutes! At least we were always at the front at each barrier so got to travel at a good speed, without being in anyone’s dust.
The conference was held at Life Springs, a small Christian conference centre near Ndola. I loved having wide open spaces to walk in and had taken my binoculars so was able to do some bird watching, seeing a new (to me) kind of kingfisher (brown headed), marsh tchagras and drongos as well as some more familiar ones. Don’t you love the names? Our afternoons were free, with mornings taken up with business meetings and evenings for fellowship. We go to Zambia because CAM also has 2 couples working there. I had known one of the couples when I worked in Lubumbashi before and it was a delight to meet up with them again.
One super surprise on arrival at Life Springs was to catch up with all our post going back about 3 months and in with the post were all the cards you had sent from the Sunday morning service, encouraged by Lisa. I know our postal service or lack of it is a pain but somehow there’s an extra pleasure in receiving letters never entirely matched by e-mails (although I was touched by Jennifer’s email which she sent that way because she didn’t think I’d be able to read red crayon (!) and which arrived just after we learned of the death of the college director).
This is truly the dusty season. No rain for over 5 months. A pall of dust hangs over the city and the other day walking back across the centre, I could barely see the group of young boys playing volleyball near my house. The wind throws up twisters and woe betide you if you’re in the path of one as they gather everything up off the ground and throw it at you. The rains won’t come probably until after I get back at the end of October. We’ve had some water crises as the electric pump which sends water to the main tank at the centre broke down. For 3 weeks all the water had to be carried. They would have to be the 3 weeks when I had a young friend staying, who loved taking showers and not having to compete with family members for water. Esther has since hit the harsh realities of the world of work for the first time, having found a job at an English speaking school in town. She’s working with the younger children as a classroom assistant. On day 2 she turned up at my house early in the morning, to say she wasn’t going back, the work was too hard! In the end, she did go back, apologised to the head for her late arrival and is now in her second week, bubbling over with stories of her new experiences. Since her father’s death a couple of years ago, the family have gone through some difficult times and it is good to see one member of the family in regular employment. Sammy, Esther’s younger brother, has learning difficulties and last year was able to get a place at a school which caters for young people with special needs. He loves it there and can’t wait to go back at the end of the holidays. His mum and Esther visit each month but from the very beginning, he’s never wanted to come home with them – in fact he’s usually pushing them out of the door because it’s time for him to go and have tea or to watch some favourite television programme. He clearly enjoys the routine of his day and his teachers are pleased with the progress he’s making.
My travel plans are to leave here on Thursday 11 September, fly to Manchester via Nairobi arriving mid morning on the Friday. My return flight is on 22 October. I’m looking forward to a break and to seeing everyone, catching up on news and in no particular order enjoying rain (well, you’re bound to have some given this year’s UK weather!), eating yogurt and parsnips (not at the same time) and hearing Andy play the drums! And of course some walks in the Dales … and…!
With love
Bridget