Detours

My friend, Amy, was here at the guesthouse this past week, and her husband was attending a meeting in South Africa. I thought it would be nice for the two of us girls and all the kids (that was Coby, Kelsey, Caleb, Abby, Anna, and Luke) to go out for lunch one day. Unknowingly, it was Labor Day in Zambia and a holiday. On our usual route, we found ourselves detoured off the main road due to a parade. I didn't want to go the way they were routing us, so I made my own detour. As we are driving along, Coby lets me know that he thinks we are losing gas, again. That's another story, but anyway, I thought it best to check on the gas situation. PTL, we come upon a BP gas station. I fill up on gas and check for leaks -- none to my sight. While there, I ask of the attendant directions to our lunch destination, which is now already 15 minutes past the time we wanted to be there. The attendant tells me to take the next DIRT road and go until I come to the end, and then ask someone else. Ask someone else? I ask him again if he knows the directions well enough to tell the whole way to our destination, and he promises that I will get to our restuarant by following his directions.

We had a bumpy ride on the DIRT road that went FOREVER, until we finally came to a turn. I decided to stop and ask for directions. The people were very kind and told us to keep following the road and we would end up on the main road that we were looking for. In the meantime, our kids were asking when we would arrive for lunch, as they were starving. Valid question since it was 45 minutes past the time we were supposed to be there! I could see the city buildings in the distance so I knew we weren't lost, but we had no idea how long we had to travel through this compound to get to the tar (paved road). Finally, after one hour of scenery, we found our way to the main road. I think we went in a full circle and came out almost near the place where we turned off.

I'll never forget the following days when Amy tells me that she and the kids went back to the same restaurant with some other friends, and Caleb tells them that he hopes they know the way since Aunt Niki got them lost! I love the honesty in kids!