I don’t know why Africa has always called to my heart but it has. Having never been or known anyone who had been my only reference was what I had seen on TV. Its raw, untouched, and wild nature is what captured my interest. Ten years ago, January 2006, I was sitting in my door room and I don’t remember what sparked the thought but I decided it was time for me to go to Africa. My family thought I was nuts and would never happen but I was determined and started planning for the trip of a life time. Since then I have been to many other countries but Africa was always the one place I had in the back of my head and what I would answer whenever anyone asked me ‘where do you want to go?’ Later that year I was talking to my best friend and asked her if she was interested in joining me to which she agreed. A dream list was made and a time line of 5 years was set. Well one thing led to another and 5 years later I had gone back to school for a new degree and my best friend had just bought a house. The dream was still alive in both of us though and so we decided to push it back another few years so we could save up for it. Then 2 years ago I started planning it in earnest. It would be 7 weeks to 7 countries set to take place summer of 2015. By fall of 2014 everything was finalized and I was set to book it all and pay for it come January 2015. Much to my surprise God had other plans for my upcoming year. That same fall God called me to the World Race. I still wasn’t ready to give up on my dream of Africa but wanted to obey God so I asked Him if the World Race was what I was supposed to do that he would put roadblocks in my path for my own planned Africa trip. December 19, 2015 He did just that when my best friend told me she would no longer be able to go on our trip. Normally I wouldn’t have let that stop me and I would have been prepared to go it alone but I knew this was the roadblock I had asked for.
While I was excited for the journey a head I still had to grieve the end of the trip I had planned. Even though I knew my race would take me to Africa for 3 months I knew I had to come to terms with the fact I would be there to do ministry and not travel to the extent I had planned.
Fast forward to the January 2016. I was about to head to Africa. It was finally happening! I was supposed to go to Mozambique for January but we had a change and it ended up we were going to be in Zambia. Zambia had been on my original dream list because of Victoria Falls and while I was super excited to head to Zambia I was trying not to get my hopes up about going to the falls as I knew from my research that where we were in Chongwe was a good distance from the falls and transport isn’t the fastest to take. I had already grieved the loss of my own planned trip once, I didn’t want to have to do it a second time. I was also nervous about going to Africa in general. It has been a dream in my mind for so long I was scared of reality not meeting my dream.
We arrived in Johannesburg and I was so excited I couldn’t contain myself. Then we caught the train to Pretoria where we spent 2 nights before heading to Zambia. While on the train I just kept looking out the window stupidly looking for wild animals….stupid because we were in the city lol. But what I did see was such lush green vegetation it was beautiful! Somehow I felt, ‘this is right, this is Africa’. After our 2 nights in Pretoria we loaded on a bus and prepared for a 32hr bus ride to Lusaka, Zambia. Again this was what I had expected, know what I knew about my own Africa research. The border crossings were a sight to behold. Chaos; that is the only word for it but again it was nothing I didn’t anticipate. Finally 36hrs later we are at our host family’s house in Chongwe. While it was what I would expect an African house to look like on the outside I guess I had never imagined the inside. It was cute. It was small but it had a kitchen, a living room, and three bedrooms. The ‘bathroom’ and shower were located outside. I say ‘bathroom’ because it was a seatless toilet that had the bottom missing because it sat on top of a nice deep hole. The floors in the house were plaster, the same as the house and walls. There is no ceiling only a tin roof held up by wooden trusses as the walls do not go on the way to the roof. There were no light fixtures, only the odd socket hanging down. No running water, all water had to be collected from a tap outside that drew from a well. The kitchen had a small apartment sized stove and a small bar fridge. The living room had an area rug, two loveseats and a chair, as well a small dining table and three chairs. The furniture was well worn but stuff you would see back home; apparently China does good business in Zambia. The most surprising thing in the whole house was the modern 38inch flat screen tv, which is never turned off. I have not seen in the parents room but the other 2, one in which we stayed, are small with mattresses on the floor. Ours was about 10×10 and the other is maybe 8×5. While a small house it was still sizable enough that I would buy a house that size back home for a starter. Except this isn’t a starter home. This is a home for seven people! I knew Africa was small houses with big families or sometimes even multiple families living in them but seeing it was different than just knowing it.
Our ministry for the month was working with a recent church plant and doing door-to-door evangelism. Not something I would have thought I’d find comfortable but it actually wasn’t too bad. Luckily our translators would do most of the talking and we would just offer up a word from the bible or a prayer or some kind of encouragement.
The hardest part for me this month was accepting the fact I was in Africa. Even though I expected a lot of what I saw, kids everywhere, small plaster houses, women carrying stuff on their heads. I don’t know if it was just still surreal that I was in Africa finally or if I was afraid to admit I was slightly disappointed, but it didn’t feel like Africa. To me Africa is wild animals even though I know they won’t be see everywhere especially near villages or cities. When I would look around it looked like I was in Jamaica or the Dominican Republic; same vegetation, same style of houses, same colour of people, and same lack of wild animals. Regardless I was determined not to be disappointed and I made the most of my first month of Africa. Our team kept talking about Victoria Falls but still wasn’t holding my breath but finally it was set and we were going to leave right after church on our last weekend off and spend a day and a bit there.
It wasn’t until the bus ride that I finally felt like I was in Africa. I hadn’t seen anything different but just the idea of heading to the falls was enough for my brain to register this as Africa. We arrived at 11pm. When I had planned to go to the falls before I had planned to see them from both the Zambian and Zimbabwe side but I was told that I would not be allowed to go to Zimbabwe alone. Given the fact that we would need a visa to get into Zimbabwe and another visa to get back into Zambia I didn’t think it was likely to find someone who would be as willing as I was to dish out that much money just to see more of the same falls. Most of my team had their plans figured out with white-water rafting and bungee jumping but I was still unsure of my plans when I went to bed that night. The reason I wanted to see them from both sides is because Victoria Falls is the world’s widest waterfall at 1.7km and 75% of them are seen from the Zimbabwe side. I feel asleep feeling like I was going to miss out on my dream despite the fact that I was actually here.
Luckily the next morning two other teams arrived at our hostel so I wasn’t alone in not doing the white water rafting. So a group of us loaded on to the hostel shuttle and headed to the falls. Upon arriving I was pleasantly surprised to see the lack of commercialism. Outside of the part gate was a small craft market but it was easily avoidable and one you entered the park it was you and the falls and that was it. It was like Stonehenge, I looked up and suddenly there they were! Something I had only seen in pictures was suddenly and in front of my eyes and I couldn’t believe it. They were gorgeous! While only 25% of them are seen from the Zambia side I was amazed at how long it actually was. All that separated us from them was the gorge below us that the falls fell into so we got to walk along looking right across at them and they seemed to go on forever! The mist was intense and we quickly were soaked and while I was worried about my camera I was determined to get some good pictures. I couldn’t stop smiling as I took hundreds of pictures and walked around soaking wet. By the time I got to the end of the walk I could no longer hold back the tears. While I stood there crying all I felt was joy and thankfulness. God had been so faithful in bringing me to the falls and making them more than I could have hoped for even though I originally thought I would be missing out only seeing them from Zambia.
“For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” Jeremiah 29:11
“Take delight in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart” Psalm 37:4
God is good! He knew giving up my dream trip to Africa would be hard but I was faithful and obeyed and trusted God that He had a plan for my life. And in doing so he has made some of my African dreams come true.
Not only did I get to see the falls but that I had planned to go on a sunset cruise in hopes of seeing some animals and the gorgeous sunset which Africa is known for. Originally there was going supposed to be a good size group of us going but due to a stormy afternoon that looked as though it would continue all evening everyone else in my group decided to rebook for the breakfast cruise instead. I was torn but decided to trust God that I had not signed up for the sunset cruise by mistake and that He would be faithful yet again. While the rain didn’t stop it did slow to a drizzle and while I never saw the sunset I did get to see animals! I had the joy of seeing baboons, hippos, elephants, and even baby hippos and elephants! I couldn’t have asked for anything more!
God has not just been faithful in Zambia; this month my team and I are in Jeffrey’s Bay, South Africa, another dream destination of mine. For those who don’t know, Jeffrey’s Bay is situated on Indian Ocean on the southeast coast of South Africa and it boasts some of the world’s best surfing. Every year Billabong holds its annual Supertubes Tournament here. Yet another place I had wanted to see on my African adventure! Our ministry this month is with a Christian camp. We have already had our first camp, working with grade 7s. We will have two more camps and then also a week of teaching bible lessons in high school. While this sounds like an easy ministry for a teacher it was actually something that made me very uncomfortable. I have never wanted to be a camp counsellor. I like my quiet time and my ‘me time’ but when you have campers who you spend 24hrs a day with you don’t have time for to think about yourself. While planning lessons to teach in school should be a breeze I have never planned bible lessons before and having been out of the classroom for so long left me feeling terrified; like I’d rather be doing anything else but that! Well I am happy to say that I have survived my first camp, and actually really enjoyed it. Much more than I thought I would have. And while I haven’t taught my lessons yet I feel really confident about them now having been able to practice them on people. The fear of the classroom I was feeling worried me, that is my job, I didn’t want to return after this journey and no longer be able to do my job! But being in with the kids and practicing my lessons I felt my love for teaching return. I enjoyed interacting with the kids and teaching them things and seeing relationships being formed in such a short period of time. I know this is going to be a busy month with not a lot of me time but I trust and I know that God will sustain me. He will not allow me to burn out as I was previously worried about when I learned of our ministry schedule. God is good!
