Zambia!

We left for Africa Monday. We stayed one night in Johannesburg, South Africa. Then we arrived in Zambia yesterday afternoon. As we flew in we saw Victoria Falls from the plane window. It was amzaing! I can't wait to see it up close! We drove to the base in one of Overland Missions' famous trucks. We stopped in town on the way. The town was surprisingly very modern and clean. It was kind of funny though, because as I was sitting in the back of the truck thinking about how modern the town is I saw two woman walking down the street carrying carrots in a bowl on their heads! Most of the locals speak English (at least as far as I can tell at this time) so that is nice.
The Overland Missions base is so nice. I was not expecting it to be as big and nice as it is. The base is about one hour by truck from the town. It is amazing how the town is so modern and just a short ways out it is very primitive. For example there are hut houses and dirt roads. The main center overlooks the gorge. It is so beautiful! Our "classroom", which is actually a pavillion like structure, is near the edge of the gorge and the view is beautiful. Tim and I are staying in a tent. It is on a concrete slab and has a roof-like covering over it. The tent has two twin size beds in it. We were told that maybe later on we may get a double bed. Today, some of the guys here began working on setting up an electrical line that runs into our tent. This will allow us to have a light bulb in the tent as well as an outlet that we can plug a fan into. It gets dark pretty early so it will be a blessing to have an electrical light in the tent. Right now the temp feels like it is around the mid 80's. At night it actually gets pretty cool, maybe around the 40's. It will be warming up a good but though. We are expecting for temperatures to get up to 120 degrees.
The bathrooms are also nice. There are two bath houses. Each one has four seperate bathrooms with a sink, toilet, and shower. We have hot water for showers in the morning and evening.
The food here is really good. We had oatmeal with fruit for breakfast. Some type of African dish for lunch that was made by the Zambians here. Then for dinner we had rice with a beef mixture, mixed vegetables, salad, and amazing garlic rolls. I was not expecting the food to be so good.
We had AMT orientation today. Philip Smethurst, founder of Overland spoke to us today about the history of the ministry. This afternoon we had a class session on GPS. (This is not the type of GPS we use at home when we go on vacation.) We will be using GPS to reach people in the bush. I have so much to learn! Sunday we will be leaving the base to go on a six day expedition to the bush. I'm a little bit nervous but very excited!
On another note, we saw baboons on the base today. We were told they are theives and have been known to go up to people and take whatever they have like cameras, etc. So we have a little adjusting to do to African life.