I have finally arrived in at MICS (Macha Innovative Christian School) in Macha, Zambia after only 39 hours of travel.

Hi everyone, it is good to have some time to sit and write this journal for you all to see. The last week has been an incredible non-stop whirlwind of an introduction to this community. In many ways I don’t yet feel as though I have actually arrived here even still.

I suspect this has to do with the speed at which I transitioned from city life and high tech, super fast travel from Toronto to London to Johannesburg to Livingstone in only a day and a half. It was surreal to travel that quickly across the planet. One of my travel options when buying the tickets was to go the other way if you can believe it and transit through Hong Kong and Dubai. I am constantly amazed that these things we build actually work.

I when I arrived in Livingstone’s regional airport, I met my colleague Sara Kronawetters of Pennsylvania and our taxi driver Lloyd took us to Macha. I was immensely tired and drifting in and out of sleep. Lloyd’s music prevented that though and his tour of the city was useful insofar as I was less surprised when we  arrived at the Shoprite grocery store than I was by the first checkpoint near the airport that Lloyd had no time to warn us about. My shopping skills suffered for the lack of sleep but I couldn’t help noticing that wherever we drove for the three or four hours, through more checkpoints and long seemingly desolate stretches of road there were always people walking on the side of the road. I never felt alone like one sometimes might in when driving through the Canadian countryside. As the sun set on the first day in Zambia the one pervasive image that stuck with me was that of the Sun glowing in a purple hued sunset, seeming to loom much larger on the horizon than how it does back home. I imagine there is some explanation for this having to do with  diffraction and atmospheric yada yada yada but for me it was that which made me realize how different these next three months will be.

Sarah and I were welcomed to MICS at around 7:30 local time by a very receptive and understanding group of new friends. The stresses of travel were laid to rest almost immediately after a very brief tour of the living quarters courtesy of a very helpful long term missionary at MICS, Miss Amy Jantzi, and sleep came quickly.