A small scare at Immigration and the Chicken Challenge

Yesterday we went to Immigration to check up on our work permit. This time the same officer that we dealt with the previous time was very helpful and stamped our passports with another 60 day visa till the beginning of June. No mistakes this time but when she had stamped our passports she told us to go and see another officer.

We went there and waited for a bit and then when he looked at our papers he started looking through a very thick binder with pages and pages of names. He went through the whole binder looking for our name for about a half hour but couldn't find it. Then he went back to the officer that we had first seen and started looking through all the files on her desk. He even asked Gert to look through a stack of envelopes to see whether there was one that was addressed to Every Orphan's Hope. That was not the case and the file was not on the officer's desk. Then we went back to his desk and he started looking through some more files and binders but couldn't find our name. Then he left and went upstairs and while we were waiting another lady said that probably they had lost our file. That was not a good sign and we were hoping that that would not be the case. After a little while he came back with a notebook and started looking in there. At first he couldn't find us either but then he started over again and finally he found our name. After that he said that we were fine and that we could leave. For whatever reason the computer did not indicate where our file was and in what stage so they had to get that sorted out. Fortunately they found our name in the register and hopefully from there they will be able to locate it. It took about an hour and a half and we had some nervous moments but in the end it all worked out.

Today we went to the Dutch Market and bought a few more furnishings for our home. It starts to look more and more cozy with now also some smaller knickknacks. While we were at the market we ran into Barb Miedema, one of the GEMS trainers that we have met on a previous trip about a year ago. It was great to see her again and we heard that the rest of the team will arrive on Thursday and that Jan Boone was arriving today. So we will get a chance to meet up with some more people that we know in the next two weeks. This afternoon Jan Boone called us to see whether we could meet again and we decided to invite her to come with us to church tomorrow and then spend some time at our house. It will be great to catch up again.

This past week we had the final delivery of the chickens from the EOH chicken farm. This time we had again some challenges with transportation but fortunately we had no mortality of chickens, even with the extra 3 hours wait. Over the past two weeks we found that there were some issues with our manager and how he handled some of the finances that he was entrusted with as well as the chickens. We had some good talks and we'll need to continue that but more importantly is that he repents of his mistakes and asks God for forgiveness. We are not to judge him but only to rebuke and point out the mistakes he made. We hope that he will turn his heart to Jesus and away from some of the bad habits he displayed. Please pray for a good ending of this all. We are also in the process of finding a new buyer for our chickens. We hope to find one that can take all the chickens at once and who has its own transportation and baskets. With everything going on around the chicken farm we jokingly talked about the Chicken Challenge that we had these past weeks. But things seem to turn around and we hope to be able to finalize a new contract with a buyer this coming week and resolve and settle some of the other issues.

Looking at the weather in Canada we are still very fortunate here in Zambia. People keep telling us that this time of the year is probably the nicest time with lush green still around, no more rains and sunny days with nice temperatures. It is hard to believe that it has been almost 3 months that we left Canada behind at the start of what turned out to be a good winter with lots of snow. We missed that all and I can't say that we are really sorry about that. We got our rainy season here in Zambia which is not the same but for Zambians it counts as the season where they can't get out and around much. So for them it feels like our winter. With this nice weather upon us we have started some work in our garden around the house.

We got some fruit trees from other long-term residents here at Justo Mwale and the gardeners have been great in getting us some vegetables and herbs. Now we'll just have to wait and see how it will all work out. Maybe in a few months we will have our own lettuce, tomatoes and herbs and in a few years we might have our own bananas, avocados, papayas, mangos and guavas. Once they are a little bit bigger we'll show them to you.

Finally, this week we received the paperwork for our vehicle that we purchased about two months ago. Hopefully in another 2 weeks or so the vehicle will arrive in Dar-es-Salaam in Tanzania. From there we will need to pick it up and drive back to Zambia. In the office, Humphrey already volunteered to pick up the vehicle for us and it seems that he has done that before. We will figure that all out in the next week or so. Finally there is light at the end of the tunnel of not having our own vehicle. In a few weeks we hope to be able to show you some pictures of the house with our new vehicle parked under the carport.

Blessings to you all and know that Spring is around the corner (at least in Canada).