Eventful Day!
Yesterday was a packed day
of so many exciting things! The day can
be summarized in three major events…
1.
Dutch Reformed
Market. As Mel and I wrote about back
in March, we had another opportunity to go the market to pick up some souvenirs
from our time spent here in Zambia.
Although it was the same market, it seemed as though there was so many
different things!
2.
Munda Wanga
Environmental Park. After a couple of
hours at the Dutch Reformed Market we headed to Munda Wanga, a wildlife sanctuary
and botanical garden about 30 minutes from Lusaka. We were invited to the park by Pastor Sargent
because it was the annual family fun day there for all the WELS pastors, their
families, and the missionaries.
Mrs. Birner, Molly,
Mel and I arrived just in time for devotion and the lunch. We were told it was a potluck with very
delicious African food and so Mel and I thought we would contribute apple
slices and a peanut butter dip… Unfortunately not many took the dip most likely
because they weren’t quite sure what it was or what it was used for.
After lunch we met
up with a tour guide who walked us through the park and shared some educational
facts about the animals. We enjoyed many
sights such as baboons, monkeys, zebras, bushbuck, bushpig, camels, caracals,
crocodiles, tortoises, dik-diks, duiker, rabbits, porcupines, warthogs, mongoose,
lions, and much more! The lions were a
huge hit and we even saw two of them being fed a nice fly-infested slab of
meat. After watching some lionesses
munch on lunch, we walked down to see a few more in a different cage. As we watched the lions basking in the sun up
on a large platform, the tour guide gave us survival tips if we ever game face
to face with a lion in the wild. I
thought this might be extremely valuable information to share!
1.
Make eye contact with the lion and never ever
turn your back on it. It will take the opportunity
to pounce!
2.
Make yourself look
bigger than you are. Raise your arms
above your head and wave them. You can
even hold up a jacket, blanket, small child, anything to make yourself look big
and intimidating.
3.
Make loud,
confident noises to show the lion you are not afraid.
4.
Back away slowly
until the lion is no longer in sight.
5.
I personally
thought he missed one strategy and that would be PRAY! I sure would be saying a
lot of prayers for safety and contentment if I came face to face with a lion…
Although
the environmental park was nothing like the Milwaukee Zoo, we enjoyed seeing
the animals so up close! Most of the
animals were eating within five feet of the fence and we were able to get some
close-up pictures. It was a beautiful
day that we were able to spend with some pretty amazing people!
3.
Lost IN
Lusaka. We left the park around 4:00 and
headed for home. We had no idea how bad
the traffic would be or how long it would take us to get home. Mrs. Birner was doing everything in her power
to make sure we didn’t get stuck in a traffic jam. We tried every side street after side street
to find a way around the major traffic-congested areas but we couldn’t find our
way around. We drove and drove until we
realized we were pretty lost. This is
when the giggles started… Here is just a few conversations we had with either
ourselves or some of the locals.
-
Conversation within the car: Hey, the sun sets
in the west so we know that is the west! (That helps us in no way because we
don’t know which direction we are supposed to be going!)
-
Asking a local
walking along the road: Excuse me, where
are we? Can you tell us how to get the
Lusaka? Local woman, “Bahaha you are in
Lusaka!” Well, can you tell us how to
get to Crossroads Mall? (Blank stares
and confused look) Is it that way? Local woman, “Yes, yes!” Begin driving “that way” with no idea where,
when or if to turn. Not very helpful…
-
Asking another
local brother and sister: Excuse me, can
you tell us what compound we are in? “Avocado” (At this point I had lost it in the back seat
with Mel because they were selling avocados)
Molly’s response was, “Oh, avocado…”
The two smiled back with great delight and we tried asking again. Needless to say it wasn’t a productive
conversation.
-
The last woman we
asked was very helpful and pointed us in the right direction. Unfortunately we were so turned around that
we stopped listening to her instructions after her first suggestion to “take a
right”. We had to giggle because we
realized after taking that right that we should have listened because we ended
up right where started!
All
in all it took us about 4.5 hours to get home after getting lost. Ok, we stopped at an Irish Pub for some
appetizers so celebrate knowing where we were.
We had so many laughs, happy tears, and another great day in
Lusaka. Molly and Mrs. Birner are both
heading off on different adventures starting next week. We are going to miss them dearly! They have been so kind in letting us tag
along and inviting us places with them.
Thanking God for the kind people here who have made this opportunity possible!
Today was another adventure and Mel will be sharing about
the amazing foods we were able to try today!
I think America needs to try this sometime… If you are intrigued check
out the blog tomorrow! Have a wonderful
rest of your Sunday!
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