Well with not much planned for the weekend following the double booking of the training weekend we were supposed to do, we decided to hire the Bible School vehicle and head to Mansa to visit some missionary friends of Roger & Maria's, Ray and Terry Barham.
Donald decided to stay back and spend the morning with Levy. We filled the truck with 25 litres of petrol = K160,000 (K= Kawcha NOT thousand) and Roger suggested we could taxi some people from the side of the road into Mansa and make some cash. We got 5 minutes out of Samfya and the first passenger wanted to go 3/4 of the 80km to Mansa, so we got K20,000. We then stopped and picked up a young boy who had had an accident on the road, his face, especially his mouth was badly swollen, so we did a "Mercy Mission" and took them to a so called hospital for free. Couple more paying passengers for short rides so we ended up pocketing K30,000.
We kept going to Mansa, the roads reminded me a little bit of Uganda in places, pot holes and we couldnt go more than 80km so it took 1 1/2 hour to get there. Great to see some countryside. We went to the Barhams who we found very interesting, they have lived in Zambia for a large part of their lives, serving as missionaries with CMML (Christian Missions in Many Lands) Ray did Chi-Bemba (or commonly known as Bemba) translation and literature tracks etc and they work together with many churches around the Mansa district. Terry is kept extremely busy with many womens ministries but her passion I think is mostly for the young women of the streets of Mansa.
Roger had phoned them at 8am Saturday morning we arrived 11.30am and she gave us cooked lunch, roast chicken and stuffing, mixed veges, cooked beetroot, potatoes and coleslaw FOLLOWED by sponge cake with cream and strawberries, fresh fruit salad and homemade icecream, so much for starving in Africa!!! We spent a couple of hours talking with them and left around 2pm
We headed for a Zambian "Shoprite" experience - by we were nearly knocked out with the smell of rotting meat as we walked in the door, the smell was bad enuogh but the look was worse. The veges had obviously been there most of the week, so nothing much was worth buying. We did stock up on frozen chickens, think they might be the safest option, altho a man knocked on our door yesterday and offered us a fresh chicken for K28,000, we would just have to slit its throat, pluck and dress it!
Back to Samfya was a quiet ride, no passengers this time, but it was extremely hot. We took a drive down to Samfya Beach, white sandy beach and lots of locals swimming, it looked very inviting.
Headed home, showered and then we were invited to the Brubachers for dinner, too much food for one day. It was hot ham and vegetables followed by chocolate cake. It was a great night and interesting to talk with them about their lives in Zambia and Kenya and the work they are currently employed to do here in Samfya with SCCP (Samfya Community Care Providers programme) which helps with the orphans in the area.
