Little mini adventure at Lusaka airport – Journey Home

Another demonstration of God’s goodness. I was due to fly home on Tuesday 4th at 12:00 on Zambezi Airlines. I checked in and waited in the departures lounge nice and early. My fellow passengers and I knew something was up because on the flights board we saw no check-in or boarding notices all morning. All the news we got was that our flight was ’experiencing technical problems and was delayed’.

Eventually at 13:45 we were all called to the Zambezi office where we were told the flight was cancelled. By that time It was too late to book us on another flight with a different airline and all they could do was arrange another flight the next morning first thing. Well one lady and her husband were super furious and really put up a fight. I tried to call Grant but couldn’t get through to his cell. I really had no clue what to do or where I was going to sleep that night!!

I turned back to the office to find that the manager had agreed, after some persuasion from the angry lady, to put us all up in a hotel that night and arrange all taxi trips and connecting flight for the next day, free of charge!

The amazing thing was that in the end nobody, not even the lady who’d pushed for it, ended up taking the offer. They all arranged their own accommodation. When the manager asked who’d take the deal I was the only one to raise my hand! I didn’t open my mouth once and ended up being well looked after, better than I could have arranged myself. Now if that wasn’t God’s goodness, I don’t know what is!

I spent Tuesday at Kwethu Lodge where many of the Zambezi pilots and air hostesses are housed. I pretty much got my own mini house with flat screen TV, air-con and all meals paid for.  It wasn't perfect (no hot water for a shower) but what a great deal anyway. After the heat in Mbala, the first thing I did after I arrived was put the air-con on to 16 degrees Celsius on full!!

Finally on Wednesday morning I boarded my flight to Joberg and at 13:00 caught the connecting flight on British Airways to CT. I’ve missed family and friends loads. It feels great to be home.

Day 61 – Journey to Lusaka and Victoria Falls

What a ride! I can look back on it now and laugh but at the time laughing maybe wasn’t my first thought – ok it wasn’t too bad. The bus wasn’t perhaps what you’d think; passengers holding down noisy chickens and goats, bags of onions swinging from the ceiling and a tower of luggage on the roof with a racing driver at the wheel. Instead Zambian busses are pretty modern coaches (apart from the mini-buses and taxis), only our seats were unnaturally narrow.

Two hours out of Mbala in Kasama, we stopped to drop off and collect new passengers. As we waited, a smartly dressed man hopped on-board and started preaching up and down the isle, reading his bible and getting quite amped. I was just congratulating him in mind when Grant quietly leaned over to me and explained a little about what he was actually saying (it was all in Bemba).  Turns out he said nothing about our sin or repentance or grace but only what many people want to hear; that God will protect and prosper us all, believer or not. Grant said unfortunately this sort of prosperity doctrine, where God is more a wish-granting genie/spirit than a forgiving loving father seeking a relationship with us, is not uncommon among Zambian churches. I could hardly believe it when, after his sermon, he slowly walked from top to tail down the bus while people gave him money. Maybe they think if they pay the pastor, God will be kind to them.

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves it is a gift from God, not of works lest anyone should boast. Ephesians 2: 8,9

Yes God is good and caring and we receive His salvation by believing in Him (alone and fully), and not by buying it with money or by going to church or reading the bible a certain amount. It is a free gift. Now that’s good news!!

We made good time. The 1000 Km journey took 18 hours through Thursday night and another 6 hours to travel the 490 Km to Livingstone. Some of the highlights/interesting events of the bus trips where when Arnold Schwarzenegger’s ‘Commando’ movie was played three times in a row into the early hours of Friday morning,  reading allot of my The Lord of the Rings, seeing different msungu tourists from around the world, and eating the delicious chicken-mayo rolls Lynne baked and made for us.

Very early on Friday morning, somewhere between Mbala and Lusaka.

This is where we stayed in Livingstone for Friday and Saturday night, Jollyboys Backpackers and Campsite. It was a super cool place, and cheap too. It was close enough to town for Grant and I could walk to Shoprite and the bus stop.

Saturday morning Grant and I hopped on the free 11:00 AM mini-bus from Jollyboys to the falls. We dodged the baboons at the main entrance, hungry for tourists’ fruit, and followed all along the walk ways and over a narrow bridge to the end of the falls.

Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe on the horizon. Not as much water or mist as in the wet season, but  with exposed rocky floor.

What a great way to end my stay in Zambia. By this time tomorrow I’ll be in the air flying back home to CT. In about a week I’ll put up my last post with final thoughts about the trip.