An Exciting Train Trip

Hi.  This is my first post.
On the 29th of May we left Kibidula to go to the OCI Retreat in Zambia.

Zambian Kwatcha - equals about $20

We left our house at 4:25 A.M. and rode on a coaster (minibus) to Makambako. 

Makambako train station

We arrived at the train station about one hour before the train was supposed to arrive.  As usual in Africa it was???? – LATE. 
We got on it and occupied almost three compartments (two compartments were foreign missionaries and in the third were five Tanzanians.)  There were six beds in each.
We crossed many bridges. 

Bridge

Another bridge

 We went in, I think, about 5 or more tunnels which were really cool.  In Mbeya we picked up another Tanzanian (the health leader for the conference.)  We continued on. 
When we passed through the first tunnel, my friend and I were in the Tanzanians’ compartment on the top bunk (about 6 feet high from the floor), and every thing went BLACK.  I jumped down and started fumbling for the door handle, because I didn’t know what had happened.  I hadn’t thought that we might go through tunnels.  By the time I got out of the compartment we were close to the end of the tunnel. 

Tunnel

 Late at night we crossed the border, but I was asleep.

Big train station in Zambia

Both days we (the missionary kids) played red light, green light on the train.
We heard that there was a wreck ahead when we were at the first big train station stop during the morning in Zambia.  

Train engine moving around train cars

At this large train station the engineers moved A LOT of train cars while we waited a few hours.  Finally we continued to the Serenje Train Station.  On the tracks ahead was the wreck, we were told

Train wheels beside the tracks

We got off the train and got a mini bus for about 1/3 of the rest of the trip.  Then we were picked up by two Land Cruisers to go to Riverside Farm Institute in Zambia (RFI.) We arrived at Riverside at 11:00 p.m. 

Hippos

The retreat was great.  At the retreat we had the privilege of going to Mkuyu Outreach and Chongwe Adventist School.  At Mkuyu the outreach is literally on the edge of a river. It was about 10-20 feet from the old grass roof house. The river is the mighty Zambezi river.  We saw about 8-10 hippos in the river. There are also crocodiles in the river, but we did not see any of those.  The people have to have an electric fence to help keep out animals.

The man who was killed by the elephant rests here.

 The brother of the man who now runs this project was killed by an elephant in 2005 not far from that house.  I was told that one night this man that was killed was awakened by the sounds of elephants around his house.  The next morning he went out to see the damage to his garden.  When he went out, he probably wasn’t totally awake.  When get got to the garden, and was looking around, he didn’t realize at least one elephant was still there.  The elephant attacked him and put his tusk through him.  The elephant, as many elephants do, put him in a hole and covered him with rubbish.  Later the house girl came and heard him moaning.  She dug him up and he told her that he was alright with God and that he would die.  But she tried with the help of some friends to transport him to the hospital.  He died before they got there.  So now his brother is running the project.    

At Chongwe there is a small well for water.  I decided that I wanted to bring some water up for the fun of it.  I opened the lid and instead of walking on the ground, I walked on the cement edge around it.  I accidentally bumped my shoe into the lid and it fell off.  Where did it go?  It went in the worst place.  It went down the well.

The man is about to go down the well

Me thanking the man (can you tell which shoe went down the well?

 I told someone that my shoe had gone down the well.  He said that we would try to get it out.  First we tried to fish it out with a bucket, but it didn’t work.  Finally they decided to send a man down the well on a rope.  Fortunately it didn’t break, and he got my shoe.  I am very glad to have my shoe.

 

A view of Riverside from the Mountain

There are two passenger trains that go between Tanzania and Zambia.  On the way to Zambia, we rode the Tanzanian train.  On the way back, we rode the Zambian train.  I like the Tanzanian train better, because there was more room to play in the lounge car. 

On the way back to Kibidula we arrived at our final train station at approximately 2:30 a.m. and we got home about 4:00 a.m.  It was a great trip.

A python caught on the mountain at Riverside