I'm at home in the Bestes House...

The rest of our flight to Nairobi went well. But I can’t tell the story of this flight without mentioning the Kenyan woman I sat next to! She was older and spoke very little English. I was able to discover that she spent the summer in Minneapolis and was travelling home to Nairobi where she lives with her son. During the flight I was able to sleep quite a bit, but whenever food came around she would wake me up by slapping me on the arm and saying, “Food!” When she needed the use the bathroom it was the same situation: “Bathroom!” Also, she enjoyed taking her shoes on and off, but once they were off she couldn’t reach them to put back on, and so she slapped me some more, saying, “Shoes!” All this to say, she was very friendly, smiled a lot, and enjoyed talking to me! At one point she asked if Ms. Bingham, one of our chaperones, was my mother. When I told her she wasn’t, the woman said, “I be your mother,” and proceeded to tell everyone around her that I was her daughter! At the end of our flight, she gave me my first truly African hug!

When we got to Nairobi it was already completely dark, although it wasn’t even 8pm. We waited in the airport a little over an hour before boarding our final flight—and around 11:00pm Zambian time, we safely arrived in Lusaka! Because it was so late, the airport was virtually dead. We filled out customs cards and then went to the baggage claim and found out that less than half of our team’s luggage made the transfer in Nairobi. Luckily, the bags were sent down on a flight the next morning, and everything made it!

Namwianga sent several men to meet us in Lusaka, where we all stayed overnight. They took us on their school bus to our hotel; during this drive I turned 19! The hotel was very nice, even by American standards! After breakfast in the morning, we got back on Namwianga’s bus and rode more than 6 hours to the mission.

Between 4 and 5pm we finally pulled in to Namwianga. The property is about 7000 acres, so there was a lot to see! We drove by the medical clinic, George Benson Teachers’ College, and the havens. As we pulled up to the Hamby House (the central place at the mission), we saw that all of the children and many other people had assembled to greet us. They were holding a sign saying “Welcome Harding” and were singing a Zambian worship song that talks about how beautiful Jesus is. I was, of course, crying! When they finished singing, the Zambians came to greet us, each person shaking the hand of everyone else. The children were far from shy and many of the smaller ones immediately begged to be held!

For dinner, Leonard (the chef at Namwianga) made tacos and fruit salad. Afterwards we had birthday cake! They even had 19 candles! Later we headed to our houses to unpack. I am staying in the Bestes House, which is brand new (literally! It was finished only an hour before we arrived!). I have two roommates, Niki and Erin; and seven other girls also live in our house. The building is much nicer than any of us expected! We share a living room, kitchen, and two bathrooms! It is much different than an American house, but we are making it our home and are quickly adjusting to the differences.

We were greeted last evening by our first African wildlife—a small cobra! Weston, the night watchman that patrols the area around our house, found it on the porch and killed it, so I didn’t actually see it alive. But it was obvious that it had been ready to attack because the sides of its neck were puffed out (for lack of a better explanation)!

Today (September 4) we had orientation and a tour of the property. We visited the havens (orphanages) and the clinic, which I will tell more about once I have more experience there! This evening the local people had a reception at the church (called Johnson Auditorium) to welcome us! We sang worship songs, listened to several welcome speeches, and ate cake and drank Coca-Cola out of glass bottles!

So far everything here is WONDERFUL! I am so grateful to have this opportunity and can't wait to see what God will teach me over the next three months!