We have officially been in Zambia for 24 hours! This morning we enjoyed some much needed sleep and eggs for breakfast. Charlie won the award for longest sleep coming in at 13 hours.
At breakfast, a couple new characters joined the crew!– Gilbert Masumba and Kelly Huckaby. Gilbert is Josh and Dominic’s friend from Zambezi, and Kelly is Josh’s friend from the states who has lives here in Lusaka. They each offered a new perspective for our group, and we enjoyed asking them questions all day. Gilbert gave us a much needed language lesson and refresher on greetings in Lunda. Kelly shared his perspective living here for 14 years and running a Christian summer camp, offering his insights from an outsider on many of the complexities of the culture here in Zambia.
We hoped in the beloved Rosa Deluxe (our bus) and headed to the Lusaka National Museum, and in honor of national museum day, we even got in for free! Here we were led by our guide Meshach as we learned about the archeology, history, agriculture, and education of Zambia. Among many other fun facts, we learned Zambia’s country motto is “One Zambia, One nation” to pay homage to the 73 ethnic groups that inhabit the country.
We said goodbye to Kelly and headed to The Hungry Lion, a popular fast food chicken spot. We enjoyed our fried chicken and took our sundaes to-go as we headed to 37D Art Gallery, funded by The Start Foundation. We all perused the art gallery and admired the beautiful jewelry. Well, all of us but Jackson, who enjoyed an early start to our afternoon nap in the bus.
We headed back to our hostel and rested up before having our first reflection time of the trip. We kicked off our reflection with a ballet warm-up taught by Sarah who was our professor for the day, something we will all have the chance to do during our time here. We shared the origins of our names as we practiced our storytelling and continue to learn more about one another. We shared our initial thoughts about our time here in Zambia and reflected on the sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and feelings of this new place.
We headed to dinner at a nearby mall at Nando’s where we met up with Seth Morrison, a former Zag who came on this Zambezi program in 2010, who has returned to Lusaka for medical research through an NIH grant. Some of us went to the grocery store to get snacks for our 7 hour roadtrip to Livingstone tomorrow. (We are putting the miles on Rosa Deluxe)
The night concluded with great excitement! An engagement at Nando’s! The whole restaurant erupted in cheers as the happy couple celebrated.
For me, witnessing the engagement was another reminder to keep an open heart to this experience. Nando’s is a chain restaurant, similar to many we go to at home, and yet we got to witness such an extraordinary event and watch as complete strangers celebrated the love of complete strangers. I am excited to see what extraordinary events the ordinary has in store for during our time here.
We are headed to bed as we prepare for our big roadtrip tomorrow. We continue to play connections and most of us are beginning to understand the game, especially Dominic. While it started with the game, Connections has become quite the inside joke. Dominic loves to point out “Connection” in conversation followed by finger point and hand heart. It’s safe to say we are making lots of connections here. 🙂
Sending love home to all!!
Lots of Love,
Emily Even ’24
Hungry Lion and Nando’s in one day! Y’all are practically middle class Lusakans. I expect the next post to be in Nyanja. Emily, great observation about that engagement: shared joy every day. Keep looking for those moments that teach you about celebrating life and your shared humanity. And, if you happen to get invited to a kitchen party, say yes. Have a great time greeting Livingstone. Miriam and the whole crew will treat you right, and you will start to see all the beautiful differences that make up Zambia.
Safe travels, Zags! Those creaky bus seats (and neat little fold out fourth seats) will become your besties. Livingstone is gorg and you’re bound to bond more and create even more inside jokes on your long, hot journey. If you want a good story, ask Father D about “sister snake” and “brother moon” (or something like that).
Emily, way to go jumpin on the journal early in the trip! It was lovely to hear from you today and Loosh yesterday. Thinking of and praying for you all.
Hi all! So happy that you travelled safe and are hopefully caught up on sleep so you can fully enjoy the days and weeks ahead. Sounds like a wonderful day you had in Lusaka. Dominic never disappoints, I even have a list of his quotes from last year. Just all the profound things he casually said as we walked through the mall with him 🙂
Seems like a lot of love packed into that bus. Enjoy the ride to Livingstone, don’t eat your snacks too early on. I had a very yummy first hour and a very hungry final six. Learn from my mistakes! Sending lots of love and many virtual hugs!
I’d forgotten what an inspiration it has been in past years to go along vicariously on this amazing experience. And to also reminisce about our time going to these same places a few years back. Josh, John Witvliet, showed up at Knox Pres as a visitor today. He remembers you and sends greetings. Talk about connections. We’re praying for your safety and amazing experiences.
Love & hugs, Angie & Bruce Armstrong
woah fried chicken! lusaka looks BEAUTIFUL!
One Zambia One Nation!
“ and watch as complete strangers celebrated the love of complete strangers” what a beautiful reminder of how we can all connect with each other. i can’t wait to connect with you guys and hear about the beauty you are learning about in each other and the people you are meeting. safe travels tomorrow!
it’s also a challenge for me. notice the beauty in the ordinary. thank you emily!
LOVE YOU ALL MY ZAMBIA ZAGSSSSSS
Lusaka sounds amazing!!! Emily, Grace & I miss you!! We are about to board out flights to Amsterdam!! We will report back once we touch down in Europe!!
Have so much fun Zambia Zags!!!!!!!
Loved this update, Emily! Thank you for pushing us to keep an open heart whenever and wherever we can. Soph and I are always thinking of you. (Also – Amsterdam is awesome.) Sending you and the whole crew lots of love!!
Just returned to Phoenix and getting caught up on the blogs! My Spokane to Phoenix road trip was adventuresome. We too saw lots of extrordinary in the ordinary! Praying that each on of you continues to have such beautiful encounters…. Seeing God in All Things… Hey do you go to a Jesuit school?