Harley and Logan Arrive

I was up at 3:30 a.m. and on the road by 4:00 a.m. The trip to Lusaka went very well as the road was relatively clear of traffic at that time of day and the road repair crews had not started yet. I was at the airport by 7:00 a.m. and the BA flight landed 15 minutes late at 7:05. It took Harley and Logan quite a while to clear formalities and they only came through just before 8:00 a.m. Good to see them both and we headed into town. I left them at Manda Hill to browse for a couple of hours while I went over to see Heather at The Lowdown to send and receive e-mail and check on some logistics with her. She said that I was lucky to have found them at work and proceeded to relate the saga of the public holiday that was supposed to happen that day. Apparently on Tuesday there had been an announcement that Thursday would be a public holiday - Women's Day - just like that. Of course there was much out-cry from businesses and organizations about the short notice for this so late on Wednesday there was another announcement saying that there had been a mistake and that this new holiday would only take effect in 2008. But many people would not have heard this news simply because they don't have immediate access to radio or TV so they would have just gone ahead and taken the holiday anyway. (Back in our area the school was closed for the day as they had not heard of the change in time to let all the kids know to come to school after all !)

Back at Manda Hill I met up with the guys and we did the grocery shopping after which we met up with Jerry from California who is involved with Seeds of Hope - an American missionary group which has been working in Zambia for a few years particularly in the area of water and sanitation. Harley had been communicating with SOH before we left and he was aware that Jerry was on the same flight as them from London so made the plan to connect for a quick chat. They are based in Ndola which is about an hour and a half drive North from the farm so we are hoping to visit them for a day as they have offered to help in any way they can. After that we hit the road for the drive back to the farm and the trip went well - fortunately no rain along the way so the luggage in the back of the truck didn't get wet.

Milt had had a good day going around the farm with the manager and learning more about the farming in this part of the world. He was pleased to see us back and to catch up with Logan and Harley over a late supper.