Day 13

Saturday. Departure day. We loaded all our luggage into one of two vehicles, piled everyone into the other. Then drove to Livingstone.

The road had acquired a few new potholes in the past week. It also generated opportunities for some of the poor and desperate with entrepreneurial spirits. Quite a number of people living along the roadway had figured out that if they dug up dirt from near the side of the road and used it to fill in some of the potholes, then stood by the side of the road asking for money, some of the drivers would stop long enough to express their appreciation with a few coins or dollars.

They weren’t doing this when we first went through two weeks ago but this had clearly become a growth industry in the interim. The road was noticeably less painful. Dr. Kari said the people living along a similarly ruinous rod between Cancun and Yolosocha had discovered this same means to supplement their families’ meager incomes on her first mission trip in Mexico five years ago.

We visited the open-air market to look for souvenirs, met up with Mark and Diane, checked into our hotel and then went for lunch. Later in the afternoon, we got picked up to take a sunset river cruise on the Zambezi River above Victoria Falls. The cruise followed the shoreline of an island in the middle of the great river where we could watch for wildlife. We saw baboons and impala at a distance but were able to get close to quite a few hippopotamus feeding and frolicking in the river. As we sat there enjoying the scenery, we also chatted with some of the other passengers on the cruise. Some were other missionaries. One was production manager for motion pictures who had just finished work on the film “Australia” which stars Nicole Kidman and many other famous Australian actors and actresses. It is due out in December. Dr. Kari chatted with her for quite a while. At one point, Larry suggested to Dr. Kari that she should describe the story Anna had told us. We thought it would make a great movie. Larry was curious if this woman in the industry would agree. Dr. Kari summarized much of what Anna had told us and this woman was quite taken by the story and Anna’s commitment to now trying to find ways to improve the lives of other women and orphans in Zimba. The woman gave us her name and address so we can send her a copy of the videoed interview. She has worked in script development previously and has many contacts in the film industry. Wouldn’t it be terrific if a Hollywood film producer wanted to buy the film rights from Anna and she could use the money to make a profound impact on Zimba and the widows and orphans in particular. Perhaps the confusion in our departure days that led to our taking this cruise and this chance meeting with this film production manager was a God-thing as a part of plan to turn Anna’s tragic story into a great blessing – turning lemons into lemonade.

It was a very nice relaxing way to end our trip to Zambia and brace ourselves the 34 hours of travel home that begins tomorrow.