oh well

We tried to go on a little break on Monday. After a long weekend, we were looking forward to just going somewhere. We booked a room at a different safari lodge and finally got going, expecting some rest. Well…it didn’t really turn out that way. Truth be told, I guess it was just too much like our own house! The chalet was very nice and all…but no tub, the hot water went out when the kids showered, there was no curb for the shower so the water ran to the carpet, there was only one very poor TV channel, it was too cool to stay in the water and the room itself was cool. We went on a game drive, but had to use our own vehicle because theirs was not working. We drove 20 minutes before we saw anything. I think they have just too many acres for the small amount of animals they have. Hailey wasn’t feeling the best, so we just left. It cost us a little for the use of the room for the day, but wasn’t too bad. As the day just kept going, it just kept feeling more and more depressing. We could have stayed, but we didn’t want our “break” to be left that way. So we packed up and drove back to Lusaka and found a small lodge to stay at there. We all had hot baths and the kids got to watch the Disney channel for awhile (I know, it’s very sad when we are that excited about watching TV for a few hours.)
We figured it was fitting-we had had a very tough weekend emotional and spiritually, the day after just wasn’t much better. One of the highlights was at breakfast at the lodge. We were visiting with an older couple; he turns out to be a safari hunter guide. You can just imagine how much Brian enjoyed visiting with him. He told us how to treat snake bites and was going to check on some other info for us. We traded our contact info and we hope to meet up with them again someday. If you want to check out his web site it is www.panohunting.com.
We ARE excited though for a missionary care seminar we are going to at the end of September. It is on the banks of Lake Kariba which is on the Zimbabwe border. There is a speaker sharing about stress on the field and burnout. Just what we need! Praying the time goes by quickly until then!!
Since we had driving time, I took the time to do some writing on a bunch of things. I should have just typed it, but I was writing and talking too fast to keep up anyway. Paul once told me, “most ladies have nice writing, but yours is horrible!” I quipped, “I know; it’s ‘cuz I am so gosh darn smart that my hands can’t keep up with my brain!” Lori liked that one too!

You know it is spring in Africa when the sky is gray, but there are no clouds.
You know you are in Africa when the shoulder of the road is better than the tar.
You know you are in Africa when you can’t bank from your vehicle or get drive through food, but you CAN get towels, hats, papers, talk time, fruit, toys, games, tummy tuckers…