Flying to Ndola - 10 Jan 2012

Getting to the airport early and watching Susan and John talk their way into all the excess luggage being only 5 kg over. Sue paid the excess and all was good. They were carrying in cheese, salami,

Flight was okay with South African airline – then a long wait at Ndola airport to get through immigration. Pay $50 US for the visa and none of our bags were checked. But the keyboard was held till john can get a clearing agent to get it out. Seeds of hope has charity status and does not pay any Zambian Tax, but the custom people hold the keyboard just incase.

Then we drove out to Grace Academy in the bus with Kerry ( the project Manager for Seeds of Hope). Susan and John showed us around the school and kitchen and dorms and the church and the new secondary school buildings. We had lots of kids come up and introduce themselves and shake hands. We met some of the teachers and the dorm mums and some of the building team.

The standouts of the day was meeting Maureen. She is about six year old. She has burns to her face and arms and delighted in trying to give me a massage like one of the other girls was giving Mamma Susan. Oh and then there was Mapalo, orphaned by rich parents who adored him and then his relatives took his inheritance. Just sitting next to him was a delight. You could tell he had been much loved by his parents; he just had that deep seeded peace about him. He is 13, loves maths and his favourite music is gospel. Sue

Phil and Sam went with Pete and John into town to buy some doors for the secondary school. Travelling in the back of the little truck. Into the centre of town, Indian owned hardware shops that didn’t have much of a range. Found some wood grain hollow doors for 350000 K each. Also exchanged some money - $500 US becomes 2.5 million Kwacha. The man with the rifle at the door made sure we got safely back into the truck.

Then it was out to the airport with the doors stacked up to pick up Jordan, Shane and Alex who had just flown in via Etheopia, with their bags full of cheese and tools etc.

We had dinner then John took us to buseko so we could settle in. Nice little 3 bed house all to ourselves. In a lovely garden, all fenced with a person to open up and let us in.