Before school get-away

KaingU Safari Lodge sits on the Kafue River in the Kafue National Park. It is a beautiful setting, and a very peaceful place to stay. We were lucky they had room for us since we made a last minute decision. The drive took us from Lusaka toward Mongu in the western province about 2 hours on tar road, and then we turned off into the GMA (Game Management Area) and continued on dirt roads for the next 3 hours. Once we began driving on the dirt road, we began to hear some rattling underneath our vehicle. The cover that goes over our gas tank to protect it was hanging and had come loose from the bolts. Getting out of the vehicle to look at it was horrific - all the tsetse flies swarming around you and biting you. Ricky thought he was able to tighten the screws enough for us to continue. But later down the dirt road it began coming loose again, this time it broke from the bolt and was unfixable. We stopped and took the cover completely off so as not to have it just hanging there. We finally made it to our destination.

The lodge has been here since 2004. We ate all our meals with the owners here in the boma. The staff was very nice and provided us with as many activities as we wanted to do.

This is our view from the deck in front of the lodge.

This is our chalet we stayed in for 2 nights. It had an awesome view of the river!
We took a sunset cruise the first night. The river is full of huge boulders and there are numerous channels feeding the river. We stopped at one island of rocks and had a refreshing drink and the kids loved climbing on the big rocks.

Look at this gorgeous sunset!

Cat Nap

Sickness and Medicines

This past week our dear friend, Lee Shaw, came down with an awful sickness. She is in a lot of pain. She thought it to be strep…but now the doctor says granular pharyngitis. The ‘granular’ is grains of infection…actually open blisters on her throat. She's been on antibiotic and pain killers for 4 days and nothing seems to be touching it. She went for her 3rd injection of antibiotic yesterday. Please pray for our friend and fellow missionary that God would heal those terrible blisters in her throat.

Lee's son, Daniel, is a friend of Coby and Austin's, and he's been hanging out at our house for the past week since his mom isn't feeling well. Not that this is related, but the last couple of days Ricky has not been feeling well either. His throat began to hurt and then his ears were clogging up, and he has lots of congestion. He began taking some Penicillin as soon as he felt the symptoms coming on. He took the last pill last night, so this morning we went to the chemist (pharmacy) and told them what his symptoms were. They sold us antibiotic right over the counter - no prescription necessary. WOW! This is something that we've had to get used to with living in Africa. You can go to any chemist and get most medicines over the counter that would normally be prescription only in the US. And, not only is the medicine readily available, but inexpensive too. It's amazing how much we spend for groceries, restaurants, and housing, but yet medicine is very reasonably priced. He got 5 days of antibiotics plus some pain medicine to use as needed for 45,000ZMK (approx. $13). So, if you can diagnose your own sickness, then there's no need to visit the doctor, just go straight to the pharmacy.

Basketball with Dad

During our school break, it has been a struggle keeping the kids busy and out of trouble at the guest house. We try to keep them active as much as possible. They have enjoyed taking tennis lessons for the past 6 months, but that is starting to become boring to them. We are members of a gym close by our guest house. Not only do we work out at the gym, but we can also play tennis or basketball too. Ricky took the boys for a little practice while Kelsey & I went to the grocery store (see blog below). Here are some pics from the gym and of the boys doing basketball drills with their dad.

Groceries in Zambia

When we first thought about coming to Zambia, we wondered how similar the grocery stores would be compared to the US. We were very surprised that the two main grocery chains are very well stocked. Yes, there are times when you can't find a certain ingredient for a particular recipe, but all in all the grocery stores here have what we need. BUT, with the exchange rate of 3400 Kwacha to 1 US dollar, things can be quite expensive. I've been saying this to many people, and so now I have some pictures to prove it. I looked quite funny carrying a camera into the grocery store, so I only took a few pictures of what I thought you'd be interested to know. Kelsey got to push the miniature shopping cart around, so she was happy! I really don't see how our other missionary families survive out in the rural areas without Spar or Shoprite. They have to stock up soooo much when they come into Lusaka. We are lucky that we can just drive to the grocery whenever we are out of something. We are very thankful many days to have this convenience.

Long Life Milk (in a box) - $1.09 (500ml) We have cold milk in the half-gallon size, but it spoils really fast.

30 eggs in a crate (notice how they do not require refrigeration) - $5.72 for 30

Rice Krispies - $4.96 per box

Zambia Brand Cereals - $4.41 per box

Corn Flakes (the cheapest cereal) - $2.56/box

Pillsbury Cake Mix - $8.03/box

Pillsbury Muffin Mix - $9/box

Nesquik Chocolate or Strawberry Flavor - $5.19 (500G)

Ketchup (375ml) - $3.02

Miracle Whip Mayo (normal jar size) - $7.21

Eet-Sum-Mor (cracker/cookie) - $1.82 (best price for snack food)

Taco Shells (12) - $6.43

Taco dinner (includes 12 shells, sauce, seasoning) - $9.93

Baked Beans (Spar Brand) - $1.34 per can

Raid Insect Killer - $2.59

DOOM (Zambian Insect Killer) - $4.15

JIK (aka Bleach) - $1.62 (500ml)

OMO (washing powder) - $2.40 (500g) or $5.04 (1kg)

Handy Andy (all-purpose cleaner) - $2.15

Snickers Candy Bar - $1.21

Snickers Minis - $3.85/bag

Skittles - $1.21 (40g bag)

Peanut M&Ms - $1.56 (45g bag)

Doritos - $2.04 per bag

Lays Chips - $2.19 per bag

Lays Stax - $4.91 per can

Congratulations, Megan & Mitchel

Tonight, 8pm our time, and 2pm their time, our friends (who we consider family) got married. We were watching LIVE from Zambia! Is that cool or what?! We did have some evil spirits trying to prevent the Skype from happening... first, our power went off right at 6pm, when my sister, Laurie, was scheduled to call us to set-up the camera system and make sure everything was working. Once we realized that power may not be restored for a while, we walked over to the office building which has battery back-up and internet stays on as long as the batteries do. We were back online by 6:45pm and Laurie was able to get connected at the church. Then, we just sat around waiting for the wedding to begin. It was an off and on experience, and bless her heart, Laurie was trying everything she could to keep us connected. We saw a few clips of the bride and groom, and Kelsey got to see the final kiss at the end before we lost connection again. We were able to reconnect once more to wish Megan & Mitchel all the best, and we snapped this picture of them while talking. It's not the best quality picture, but, hey, this is the best we could do on such long distance. The wedding was held at our home church in Walhalla, SC, USA.








Thank you Megan, Mitchel, Sue, Jim, Mom, Laurie, Mark, Randy Mc, Mike B., Paul, Mary, and everyone else for letting us be a part of their special day! We look forward to seeing more pictures later...

Learning to Ride a Bike in Africa

Before we came on the field, Kelsey had not had the opportunity to learn to ride a bike. So, now that we are in Zambia, she gets her chance. We went out to the Baptist Seminary which has a large open space of dirt. This is where the kids used to play when we attended 40/40 last year.

Kelsey put on her safety gear and was ready to go...

Uh-oh! Looks like she's getting ready for landing...

She's a tough girl! But daddy, why didn't you catch me? YOU GO GIRL!