Off to Lusaka, Zambia

Greetings from Zambia Africa.
I will try to break into the blogging world while we are serving this mission. It is such a great media form, if I can just get onto it!
We flew out of the winterized world of Utah on Jan. 20th. We were quite frenzied stepping completely out of our life once again. Shouldn't it have been easier the second time around? Andy, Kelly, Rylee and Jakob got us to the airport and were the recipients of our farewell tears.
For some unexplained reason, when our tickets printed, it specified that we were allowed three fifty pound bags, instead of the usual two. We tried to double check with the airlines and they said that if it was on our ticket, we would most likely be fine. So, we had a hay-day packing MORE! But you know the "give an inch and take a mile" rule-- in the end, mom (Grandma Orange) was frantically working with us to lighten our load. Our six checked bags weighed in at exactly 50 pounds each.
At the airline check-in counter, the supervisor looked at our three-bag-ticket and said that only if we were flying first class would be allowed three bags. He told the ticket agent to make sure of that, and then he rushed off to take care of another problem. The ticket agent looked at our missionary badges, asked us where our mission was, and then she whispered to us that we didn't have a first class ticket, but said she would quickly get our bags checked.
When those bags disappeared on that conveyor belt, checked all the way through to Lusaka Zambia, we knew it was a little personalized, missionary miracle.
First we flew to Chicago and then onto London. The church flies couples to Africa on British Air. It is wonderful for one reason, that being that it is an upgrade to World Class Traveler, but it is a drawback in another, that being that in London there is always a LONG layover. Ours was 10 hours! Knowing how awful it is to arrive in London in the middle of the night our time (morning London time), and then fly another 10 hours to Africa and have to hit the ground running without having ever slept for over two days, we did something about it this time. Rand, being the great travel agent that he is, found out we could rent a day room from 7AM to 4 PM in a hotel right inside London's terminal 5, so we didn't even have to check out of the airport. We got to our room at 10AM, slept in a comfy bed for 5 hours, had a shower, fixed our faces and we were off again on our last leg to Zambia. . . wasn't that slick?
The flight out of London got off to a bad start. We sat on the tarmac for three hours while the plane was repaired. . . eternally long. There were, however, very few fliers on our last flight, so we took a whole middle row. Rand studied Preach My Gospel (since we'd bypassed the MTC) and I worked on our laptop, fine-tuning our missionary IPod selections. . . a "must" for our 2nd time around. (The Dibbs, who we'd served with in SA, brought home their 220 Volt IPod docking unit and gave it to us, so we will have stereo!)
We were due to arrive in at 6:45AM, but we were three hours late. Elder and Sister Sanford had been up early to "collect" us. There was no way to let them know of our delay. It was so good to finally meet them. It is Zambia's rainy season, so it is lush with greenery and flowering trees and bushes. BUT, it looks much different on the ground than it does on Google earth! It is a big city indeed, but very impoverished and worn looking. Gratefully our flat is in a very nice, secure suburb. Again, we have full-time guards, and high walls with an electric fence lining the tops. The guards are as sweet and welcoming as they can be. We have been on an early morning walk almost every day and everyone is very smiley and friendly.
Other than those niceties, we are in so far over our heads here that we may never surface. Anyone who knows me knows that I like paper/office work about as much as I like a poke in the eye with a sharp stick. And Rand feels about the same--and that is much of what we are past our eyeballs in. The Sanfords have been running all the office-work coordination for Zambia for the Zimbabwe mission. With three countries in this mission and all the trouble on the home-front in Zimbabwe, it is hard for the President to cover it all. The demand on the Sanfords to help him from the Zambia has been beyond human. And Rand and I are only human! Tomorrow we meet with President Bester and he will probably see that he has ordered the wrong humans. We'll let ya know.
One of the bright spots is that we met Elder Shongwe, a former Priest in a tiny Swaziland branch, whom we knew and loved there. He has been going on splits with missionaries since he was 14, and indeed, he is a remarkable Elder now.
We are being very careful about what we eat and drink. (We think we've lost a few ounces.) We are taking a malaria medication that gives you crazy dreams, but we aren't sure those dreams are due to our circumstances or the medication! As we have traveled to the far reaches of Zambia and met the Elders, we realize that serving with them will most likely be our redeeming grace. Rand is especially happy because there are many priesthood leaders here, including full District Presidencies and Branch Presidencies and prospective Elders. Compared to our previous mission, this is most encouraging.
We will try to keep posted on this sight weekly. Hope to meet you here.
"Work, work, work. There is no satisfactory substitute, especially in missionary work." PMG