Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church

After a twelve hour flight from New York to Dubai followed by a three hour layover; an eight hour flight to Johannesburg where we enjoyed an overnight stay at a wonderful bed and breakfast; a two hour flight to Ndola and a 45 minute car ride we’ve arrived in Kitwe, our new home for the next year!
Thankfully our travels went off without a hitch. We did have one minor delay when South African Airlines in Johannesburg would not let Brent board the plane to Ndola. Apparently we had failed to pay an excess baggage fee. Why didn’t the woman who checked us in tell us that we must pay an excess baggage fee? We have no idea, and neither did the gate agent who was proving to be an obstacle between us and Zambia. After about fifteen minutes of pleading with the gate agent she received a call from her supervisor that Brent could board the flight. They called it a “peace consent.” We have no idea what that means and we didn’t ask.
Our plane touched down at the Ndola Airport on September 3 around 12:15 p.m. or 6:15 EST. We had been traveling for 47 hours! We deplaned and walked about 100 yards across the airstrip to a small building where we breezed through customs and retrieved our bags. (All four of our bags made it! After the debacle in Johannesburg we were a little concerned that Brent’s bags might not make the trip.) Bob Louer, the man whom we are replacing, and Richard Chimfwembe, our colleague at TEEZ, picked us up at the Ndola Airport and drove us to Kitwe. Until Monday we are staying at a TEEZ operated guest house (a mix between a small hotel and bed and breakfast) and then will move into our small two bedroom guest house where we will live for the next year.
As I write this from our room in the guest house I am listening to Zambian children splash around in the pool and Shakira playing in the background; an odd mix of sounds. With Bob we toured downtown Kitwe today including the marketplace. This massive sprawl of space confronted us with many sights and sounds; some wonderful, others sad, and some a bit puzzling. We look forward to however, this life that we experienced today becoming ours and are thankful to be able to reflect and share it with you as we go.

Twelve hours ago we took off from JFK in New York City and now we are in Dubai. Emirates airlines has treated us well and thus far has been smooth sailing. We are waiting to fly to Johannesburg, South Africa where we will overnight and then fly to Zambia on Sept. 3rd. We are really excited to arrive and so thankful for the prayers, support and encouragement from all the people back home.

We have our blog up and running and we will be adding more info soon. Our departure date to Zambia is quickly approaching, only 8 more days.