Hello readers of the blog! Our trip to Livingstone began early in the morning. We left campus around 6:20, got to the bus stop by 6:35, and were comfortably seated and on our way to Livingstone by 7:45. Minimal heckling and pointing happened today, too. I had expected much more with the events at the bus stop yesterday, but maybe it was too early for the rowdy bus crew to talk to us too much.
The coach bus was really nice. Less than $20 to ride 450+ km. There was music, a few music videos, and they played Once upon a time in Mexico, too. That was weird. We arrived in Zimba in one piece after 6 hours with only one hitch. Pastor and Mrs. H graciously opened their home to us to spend the night at before heading to Livingstone. They told us to get off the bus in Zimba, the last stop before Livingstone. And the bus stops only every hour or so. Now, our tickets were for Livingstone since we thought we just got off when they stopped at Zimba as we were told to just yell out our destination. Since we didn’t hear any of that, we just assumed they’d stop and we’d get off. That’s where our mistake was made. Well, Zimba came and went in a blink. With a quick call to Pastor and T’s awkward and rushed conversation with the bus attendant, they informed us of our error (our tickets didn’t say Zimba on them, but Livingstone) and promptly stopped on the side of the road. T and I were left 30 seconds later with our bags next to a charcoal stand, 5 km past Zimba in the middle of nowhere. And man, was it hot! (Thankfully the thunder and rain held off for a bit!) It was quite hilarious, actually. J But, Pastor found the two Mzungus quite easily on the side of the road as he came and picked us up. (And I hope you, dear readers, are laughing at the silliness of the situation just as much as we were!)
The H’s house is GORGEOUS! It reminded me of a really nice American house decorated with African decorations. Their daughter, C, was in my class at college, and I got to sleep in her room. J It’s amazing how much C’s parents look like her (or the other way around actually!), especially her mom. They rent a house on a tobacco and beef farm run by a Brit. The H’s also have chickens and recently started with pigs. They had their first batches of piglets, so T and I got to play with the one month old piggies, too. So cute! All the big pigs had obvious personalities, too. It was quite entertaining. We spent the rest of the afternoon watching the usual afternoon rainstorm from the veranda. The thunder and lightning were extremely close, though….We enjoyed some nice chat time and planned our morning for tomorrow.
T and I had wanted to go to a bush church for the Lenten service, but the H’s don’t go to church on Wednesdays for Lent since all the congregations are 2.5+ hours away. So after dinner, which was a lovely meal of French dip sandwiches, pasta and veggie salad, and chocolate nut brownies, we had a “Lenten service” aka, Pastor read a few Lenten readings from the Bible by light of the flashlight. (The power had decided to go out midway through our meal…) We are getting VERY used to power shortages here. I’ve lost track. They always seem to happen at night, too….After dinner and Lent in the dark, we moved to the living room for some chatting by the light of a bigger battery lamp. We all jumped when this went out too and we were in the complete darkness! Before turning in, Pastor walked us over to the guest house where we were staying and pointed out the Southern Cross. T has been wanting to see the Southern Hemisphere constellations for some time now, so it was nice to see it tonight, since there was no light whatsoever. J
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