Arrival in Zambia!

I want to start this post off by letting you know that roosters don’t crow in the morning. They crow continuously. I think when Paul wrote 1 Thessalonians 5:17 they were listening, because THEY…NEVER….STOP. I know this for a fact. It’s 4 AM right now, and I’ve gotten approximately 1 hour of sleep. They need musical training. The dogs do too.

Well, on another note, after flying for more than 20 hours, spending a good six running through airports, and driving for one, WE’RE HERE, in the heart of Zambia!!!!! (Actually though, since Zambia is kind of shaped like a baby in the womb, I thought I should probably clarify that we’re more accurately around the knee area, so maybe we should change our ministry name to *drumroll and fanfare!* Reaching the Kneecap of Zambia!)

If you don’t like this email (or if you like watching videos!), we created a short travel montage of our flight, which you can watch by clicking the link at the bottom of this email. (It’s short. 7 minutes isn’t long when you’re awake for 30 hours.) But if you do like reading, I’ll catch you up a bit here. I’ll try to be brief, but who knows? If a picture’s worth a thousand words, then…hmmm, let me do the math real quick…24 frames per second, times 60 seconds, times 7 minutes, times a thousand words…this update could get really long😂 10 million words might be a reasonable estimate??

So we arrived at the Nashville airport at 3 AM, and things got real interesting real quick when we waited at the baggage check in…and waited….and waited. There was no worker there! Or at least if there was he was taking a nap. Or watching a movie. Or maybe he was waiting for a rooster to crow?? Anyways, we stood there for at least half an hour, with our flight time slowly getting closer. But eventually a really nice worker arrived and got the line flowing. When we finally got to the front, though, most of our suitcases were either too heavy or too light. So we had to spend some time reorganizing before we got them all to 50 pounds. Apparently our scale at home doesn’t work. Even though it’s new.

But we made it through, and got through customs pretty seamlessly, even though Matthew’s backpack got stopped because he packed beef jerky. I guess you can make bombs out of beef jerky?? But we made it. That’s the important part😂 We ran to our gate (of course, the last gate!) and made it on the plane in time!! Actually, in plenty of time. It was kind of nice though, since we didn’t have to sit nervously at the gate for an hour! It was also Savannah’s very first flight, and she really enjoyed it!! Actually, in the video she said she wishes she could fly all the time. Now?? I’m not so sure!! But she was pretty excited😂

In two hours, we arrived in Chicago. We thought we could take a nice leisurely walk through the airport, but we had to take a bus to Terminal 5, the international terminal! We got there in, but we ran a little! Then we went and had a late Burger King breakfast. We were rather desperate. And Savannah got us real Chicago popcorn, a family favorite! (Real as in “made in Chicago”. Important clarification 😂)

Soon we were on our big flight, the 14-15 hour trip from Chicago to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. It went well, but I think Savannah described it better than I could when she said we were “pretending to use [our] time wisely—watching movies, eating, drinking, sleeping, reading a little, sleeping, and tickling.” You can’t be too hard on us, we were very sleep-deprived!! But if you are curious what we watched, Tomorrowland is a pretty cool movie!

When we arrived, we rushed to our gate again and had extra time in line. We met some other missionaries to Zambia, which was cool! Then we boarded our last flight!! All of us tried to sleep. Two of us did. Two of us didn’t. Or at least it felt like that! One of us did a little. And one nameless person woke a poor nameless soul right when she was about to get to sleep, as a prank. Our trust levels are quickly plummeting, and I fear a quick, brutal retaliation!😂

Finally, around 1 PM Zambian time, we arrived in Ndola, Zambia!! We got our visas and went through customs pretty seamlessly, though we were scared for a minute when Daddy accidentally wrote “Micah” instead of “Savannah” in our official welcome letter. But it turned out fine! We got all 10 of our 50 pound suitcases (did I say there were 10 of them earlier?? Well, there were), and then Aaron and Charles (the director of the ministry and the leader of the school, respectively) arrived and we got a warm, Zambian welcome. And after an hour or so in the car, we arrived at Aaron’s house in Luanshya, Zambia!

We’re here, and we’re ready for God to use us!! If you’re wondering, we were actually at the school yesterday morning (Thursday the 27th), but I think I’ll have to save that for next time. And just to make sure you’ll read my next email I’ve got to give you a little teaser…Anna and Savannah are going to teach a math class together. I’m not sure which will be more interesting though: them teaching math, or them teaching math together. Anyways, you’re not going to want to miss our next update!😉

I desperately need to go to bed now. It’s 5:40, and I still haven’t slept, and I don’t want to be raving like this all day. So now for a Zambian farewell….Twalamonana!! (“see you later” in Bemba)