just when it couldn’t get any worse….

after a wonderful week in zanzibar (i won’t write too much about that as i don’t want to spoil it for the lucky few who will be receiving postcards) it was time to get back to real african life. things started badly when i returned from zanzibar with a ridiculously dodgy stomach causing frequent toilet stops and general unpleasantness. i had a day to try to recover before we headed off into the bush again, this time for just a couple of nights (phew). we were heading to ngabwe, which is a small village in the central province. lifeline, who we’ve worked with in ndola, are involved in the village but only get to visit every couple of months because of it’s remoteness. the plan was to spend a few days with the lifeline volunteers: visiting homes and doing children’s ministry.

but…..this is africa….
we left at 7.30am on tuesday, with an estimated arrival time in ngabwe of 2pm (remember that). i had a horrendous journey and was pretty ill, so the plan was to take a malaria test when we got to our destination. the village is the other side of the kafue river which you can usually cross with vehicles using a ferry. we arrived at the river (late, of course) and discovered that because the rains have been so bad the river was flowing too fast for the ferry to be safe. so, we began loading our belongings into canoes ready to row across a fast flowing, crocodile infested river. joy. we reached the other side by 5pm, realising that our afternoon’s activities would not be taking place. we were then told that the truck which would be carrying us the last 20km to the village (the only vehicle on that side of the river) had a flat battery. tim and dave had to cross back to the other side of the river, take the battery from our vehicle and bring it back to us where it would then be taken by motorbike to the lorry. we waited. i’m not ashamed to admit that my emotions got the better of me at this point but i was ill so it was totally allowed. the lorry arrived with much celebration at about 7pm. hoorah. surely now we could pass freely to the village? about 2 minutes into the journey we all screamed as the lorry slid off the road and began to disappear into the river at the side of the road. everybody jumped off and started to push but it soon became apparent that it was a much bigger problem that than. we offloaded all our luggage and began several different attempts at moving the vehicle. stones were collected from the river, trees were chopped down, villagers were sent for (who then arrived drunk) and about 4 hours of work began…then just when it couldn’t get any worse…..at about 11pm….the battery died. hideous. at that point it was decided the best (and only) thing to do was sleep on the roadside and take a fresh look at things in the morning. we had 1 tent between us which i was allowed to take because of my illness and everyone else slept on the road. a night of damp sleeping bags and mozzy bites began.

we finally got moving at 11.30am the next morning, arriving at our destination almost 24 hours late. TIA!

unfortunately, our delay meant that we only had one full day of ministry in ngabe, but we made the most of it and had a wonderful time! we are now safely back at kaniki and have resumed our normal programme…for a week!

p.s. i don’t have malaria but I do still have the runs.

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