We Made It!

We are finally in Mpulungu, and it only took 20 hours of flying, one long layover, a restless night in Lusaka, and a 17 hour bus ride.  It really did feel like that bus ride lasted about 3 eternities, and at times I thought we'd never make it.  God was so good to keep us safe and healthy the whole way though, so we are very grateful.  We drove through the night and arrived at 6AM without having had much sleep on the way.  We were so excited to see Holly that it didn't really matter how tired we felt.

The bus picture before we left.  You would NOT want to see what we looked like when we got off 17 hours later!

Holly, Sunday, and me

I can't believe we're actually here.  After years of saying we wanted to come to Zambia, it's finally a reality.  I've seen so many pictures of the people and the town that in some ways I feel like I've already been here before.  We traveled here with our new friend Susanna, who is from Finland and came to the Lake last year.  It was good to have her to help us know a bit about what to expect.

Patrick and I are staying in the dorms, which are usually used for big groups coming to visit and work with the missionary team here.  Since there won't be any groups for awhile we have the whole room to ourselves.  Holly decided that "Dorm 2" is a boring name so we could choose a new name for our new home.  Since we'd already met Mr. Tumnus the baby goat, and Puzzle the cat, we decided on "Spare 'Oom."  I suppose only true fans of Narnia will get the reference, but that's alright.

Our room, "Spare 'Oom" is the one on the right

The inside of our room

Holly and Mr. Tumnus the goat

The first afternoon we had a prayer meeting with the missionary team, or at least everyone who was here.  It was really great to spend some time praying with the team and join with them in our common mission of seeing Christ glorified here!  Later that night we had a big dinner with the whole team and a chance to meet everyone.  There are probably 20 or so missionaries and their families, most of whom are Zambian.  It's going to take awhile to learn everyone's names, but I think we can do it!

Patrick helped make the Nshima, one of the food staples made by pouring cornstarch into boiling water