Newsletter (August 5, 2010)

Dear all, Time flies and three months went past quickly and we are now back to Ndola. We had a very good time in Dunedin and Hong Kong, managed to do most of the things that we needed to do. However New Zealand was too cold and Hong Kong was too hot and humid and both of us were sick for a while. Nevertheless it was so nice to meet all of you again and we were touched by all the things that you have done for us while we were back. It was also very nice for Timothy to meet his friends in the library and the departments. We also were able to catch up with many Chinese friends in Dunedin.

Hong Kong was very hot and humid but we were thankful that it was not the hottest during our short stay there. There were two tropical cyclones affecting the region and we got some rain and cooler weather, so it was slightly more bearable. Timothy’s mum is 92 and she is still quite strong and reasonably well. Zara’s parents are also very well. They are now very committed to their church and they have many friends and are much happier than before. We spent time with our parents, did some shopping and did not have much time meeting many friends. However, we did manage to meet some of them and it was a blessing to be able to see them again and we did have a good time together.

We arrived home safely on Sunday. Zara’s employment permit is still under renewal as the authority has mislaid her application and the permit but there was no problem getting in. The immigration officer did not even ask what happened to her employment permit. She just assumed Timothy’s permit covers both of us. So we praise and thank the Lord for His help. We also had no problem passing through customs. They asked us to open only one bag and we opened the biggest one. We then noticed it has been tampered with. When we got home we had a closer look and the luggage was definitely forced opened but do not think we lost anything as it contained no items of value. We did notice there was a small padlock there, so the people must have opened some other people’s luggage and threw the lock into ours.

It is good to be home again as the weather here is very comfortable at the moment. At this time of the year Ndola is very dusty so many things in the house are covered in a layer of dust. The garden looks good and very green and our worker has done a very good job in looking after it. People in TCCA are very happy to see us again. Outside TCCA, people in the post office, shops and other places also seem to be very pleased to see us and they all asked where have we been as we seem to have disappeared for a long while.

We still have some jetlag but are not as tired as the first few days. We have started working and both of us have lots of work to catch up on. There is a by-election nearby today (Thursday) and there was lots of campaigning in the past week. Campaigning in Zambia is totally different from New Zealand and here it is very noisy and lively. Sometimes things can get out of hand. The President and Vice-President also came and we could see their motorcades speed past in front of our house. There were many policemen standing at all the street corners and the atmosphere was a bit tense. Some people told us not to go out today and tomorrow but the election seems to be peaceful and we have not heard of any problems at all.

So this is our first week back in Ndola and praise God that things seem to be going well. With Christian love.