Sundays in Zambia

This will be my last Sunday in Zambia until the new year. Starting on Tuesday I'm posting all the poems Dr. M & I have sent out for last 17 years - plus the one for this year which is has yet to be written. Ideas anyone?

I think I mentioned before that I would probably skip around some with these posts. I always think of my mother a LOT at Christmas, so I decided to skip to the visit that she & Mamaw (my dad's mother) made to Zambia while I was there. Most of the text of this post was written for the photo album - I'm just cutting & pasting. Although I'm going to add a couple of bits that I left out the first go round.

Mom and Mamaw came to visit for two weeks in January 1988. We had a wonderful time—even though finding food for them to eat was a challenge (well, it was a challenge when the missionaries didn’t feed us). I took them to Kitwe to meet a missionary couple from NC. I also took them to Victoria Falls. We had great adventures on that trip:

• Let’s see, first on the way there I had to give a soldier from one of the checkpoints a lift…I sang the national anthem while I was driving: “Stand & sing of Zambia, proud & free.” I think he thought I was a little strange. 
• Hoof and Mouth disease was prevalent in the country at that time, so along the way we had to stop to place our naked feet into a tub of grimy looking water that supposedly had disinfectant in it. Eww!
• Then when we were almost there I started feeling really sleepy. This made me want to drive very fast (reportedly 170 kpm, but that can’t be right!) to get there quicker. I thought Mom & Mamaw exercised great restraint when all they did was ask if I wanted to stop & rest awhile. Oh yes, I wanted to stop on a deserted road in Africa when night was approaching…  Note: Mom wrote this on a postcard to Daddy: Can't believe it, not one fuss - even about her driving. I close my eyes a lot...
• Then we went through a little drive-through game park where there were reportedly lions lurking. We didn’t see any--& it was a good thing since we got stuck in the mud. We had to get out & put rocks under the tires to make the Kombi budge… 
• Then when I took them to the market in Victoria Falls Mom pulled out U.S. $ & the little ladies there went crazy—“Come here amai—I have some beautiful goods here!” I told Mom that it was illegal to spend American money here & the ladies just laughed and laughed. They enjoyed seeing me scold my mother.
• We stayed in a nice cottage while we were at Vic Falls. Mom & I sat on the porch and talked late into the night. The next morning I counted 30 mosquito bites on one leg! I stopped counting at that point.

The infamous "mosquito porch"

The top of the smoke that thunders - with the ever present rainbow...

Mom & Mamaw climbing to the platform on the Lookout Tree - you could see the falls from there

Pretty impressive!

Me!

Back in Lusaka, we went to a local zoo (a very sad speciman of a zoo) and I took a couple of pictures.

Mom at the zoo

Mamaw watching one of the missionary kids pet a deer.

One of the missionaries took us all to a local church & then on a tour of the city. She found a place where Mom could (illegally - cameras were NOT allowed downtown!) take a picture of the skyline.

After church - Mamaw, my housemate & me to the right of the picture

I loved having them there--& not just because they cleaned the oven & refrigerator while they visited. I was glad to have someone back home who had seen and would understand…

Mom writing postcards with my housemate's cat Mpingo.