We are at Singwamba. All in all, the trip was much easier than our trip to

Kanyanga, but the village is equally remote. One of the busses had a flat,
but it was changed in 12 minutes and we were back on the rod. Another of
the big yellow busses has a low step to make it easier to get inside, and
the step just proved to be too low for the roads we were on, so after having
it more or less knocked off by the road, we finished sawing it off this
morning.

There were fourteen vehicles in our convoy and we spread out over about five
kilometers to keep from having to breath the chalk-like dust from the
previous vehicle. We had traveled for about 2 ½ hours on a two-rut-road
into the bush in when we became separated, and though we could still reach
one another on our radios, at least part of us were lost. Our advance team
had marked the path by some orange tape on trees and bushes, but in the dark
it was hard to see.

So we left the "Sunshine" bus alone in the middle of nowhere, and a few of
us in a more agile Isuzu pickup went back to search for the rest of the
convoy. These roads are made by the passing of ox-carts and foot traffic
and don't tend to be laid out straight or direct, so it is easier to get
lost than you might guess. Klay Bartee had realized that the path he was on
did not have any tire tracks on it, and called in on the radio to see if he
could find the rest of us. I had just put fresh batteries in my GPS and
turned it on about 30 minutes earlier, and so it was not difficult to
back-track, and the three groups of our convoy were finally reunited. It
was all much more complex and interesting to live through than it will be to
hear about, and no one seemed to be too worse for the wear.

Arriving after dark is problematic, because it is difficult to find your
tent and get your bearings, but we managed. Now that the sun is up we see
that it is a beautiful area and is actually in the edge of the game-reserve.
When we arrived many of the villagers were out singing to us in mass. If it
came through successfully on the satellite phone, I recorded some of it for
the audio-updates. The village provided us four young men to act as
security guards for our vehicles during the night and two game scouts. It
was not until this morning that we figured out that we are actually in the
edge of the game park and that wild animals are out there:-) The game
scouts are actually paid by the government to prevent poaching but as a
secondary role they do a good job protecting missionaries.

It was not a particularly restful night. Around 2am someone in one of the
tents became ill, and others went down the rows calling for a doctor.
Around 4am some villagers came and got a few of our Zambian nurses to help
save a woman who had just had a baby and was suffering from complications,
and around 5:30 I had to remind our security guards that everyone else was
trying to sleep. Tonight, now that our equipment is spread out over a large
area, we will have to assign some of our own team to act as security guards.
That means that several of our young men and Klay Bartee (who isn't all that

young) won't get much sleep tonight.

Except for minor ailments, we are thriving and doing what we came to do.

I will try to do some more audio updates during the day.

Please forgive the quality of the audio-updates that require the satellite
phone, the sound quality is poor.


Thanks for your interest.