saying goodbye...

I remember we went to the airport, some family came with us. I was so excited and really scared. I had been waiting for this day my whole life. I'd never ridden on a plan before and I was about to embark on my biggest adventure yet. I was sad to be leaving my grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins but I knew we didn't belong with them and it made my heart happy that I knew that.

the adventure begins...

I don't remember really much of the plane ride but I do remember it felt it took forever! We got to London and had to go through a HUGE customs line. My oldest sister threw up and we got expedited through the line (go DAWN!) We switched airports and had to go on a big bus. I was a little 9 year old girl that was born in a small town, I had never seen such a huge bus. I heard the bus worker ask people about going 'under' and I assumed there were seats under the bus!! I was wrong, he was talking about putting the luggage in the storage compartments...my family laughed and made fun of me (and still do, to this day!). My sister threw up again on the bus...but thankfully it had a bathroom!!! We got to the other airport and for some reason, didn't go in to the departure lounge. We hung out right outside a bathroom (maybe because of the sick sister?!) in these SUPER uncomfortable chairs. We met some other missionaries we knew...which is really random and I don't remember who they were. We finally went into the departure lounge and I'm pretty sure my dad was kicking himself for not doing this earlier...I remember I wanted to kick him...the chairs were WAY more comfy! Finally we got onto the last plane we would be on for our journey and the next stop was Harare, Zimbabwe. We didn't get off the plane, but others did and some people got on. I remember this lady got on and her clothes were totally see through...weird that I remember that! A few minutes after take off, we landed again.

lusaka, zambia...

I remember walking out of the plane right on to the runway. I remember looking around and feeling really excited! I remember walking into this tunnel thing and it said 'Welcome to Lusaka, Zambia'. What I most remember, though, is that I didn't feel scared or weird or sad that I was gone from America...I remember I felt like I was home. We went into the airport and my sisters and I decided we needed to go to the bathroom. We hadn't even gone through customs yet!! We saw a sign off to the side for the bathrooms so off we went. We walked in, looked around and walked right back out!!! There was no toilet, only a hole in the floor!!! Mind you, this was an INTERNATIONAL ariport...to say we were shocked is an understatement. We went through customs, got our luggage and went to meet the people that were going to pick us up. They weren't there!!! We all sat in some plastic chairs and waited. Out of no where, some person yells, 'Hey, Riggs!!!' and we turned to see a somewhat familiar face of another missionary. He was leaving the same day we got there and I think the people that picked us up brought him to the airport. Finally, we weren't alone. We all piled into the car and SUV-ish vehicle of Robert and Patricia Horn...more missionaries that we had never met.

the trip from lusaka to ndola and my first traumatic experience...

I don't remember much of this trip. I remember stopping somewhere and getting my first taste of the best coke in the entire world. It was in glass bottles and Bro. Horn popped the lid off on the side of his vehicle. I must have thought that was pretty cool because I remember it so vividly. I'm not exactly sure when this next part happened, if it was at the very beginning of our journey or some time in the middle, but my mom, two sisters and myself were in a car with Mrs. Horn and we pulled up to our very first police check ever. There were a few police men and maybe some military men in the middle of the road and they held their hands up for us to stop. They also happened to have AK-47's hanging around their bodies. I had never seen any kind of gun other than my dad's shot gun and probably wouldn't have thought anything about these AK's except Mrs. Horn absolutely freaked out! Sometime in her past she and her family had been missionaries in Zaire and they had to evacuate and went through some scary times...apparently involving police or military or guns...not entirely sure of the story but I remember I was scared. My mom was scared...I'm sure my sister's were, too. I was convinced we were going to be shot on the spot if we made sudden movements or something!!! Anyway...turns out it was a normal police check and we passed just fine. PHEW...I still get scared just thinking about that time!!!

the copperbelt...

we finally arrived at the Horn's house where we would stay for the next few days. They lived in Ndola, which is about 30 minutes away from Luanshya, where we were going to live. When we were leaving, I think our sending church had given us all some money. As kids, we got $75. My dad got this converted for us and I remember the stacks of money he brought us were huge!!! The exchange rate was so high and the biggest note they had was so small. I thought I was rich for sure. Our container had not arrived yet so we really had nothing except clothes but after a few days we moved from Ndola to Luanshya into the home of some missionaries that were on furlough. They had a pool so it was awesome!!! I remember they had two dogs, one was nice and the other was mean. They did not have a shower, only a bath. Their washer didn't work so my mom hand washed our clothes. Their pool was freezing...all.the.time! My mom made grilled cheese sandwiches with some weird cheese and they were the most disgusting grilled cheese sandwiches I've ever eaten. They had tons of lizards in their house and we thought the baby ones were so cute! 

my first birthday in zambia...

We moved to Zambia in October and the first major holiday in our family in Zambia happened to be my birthday! November 12th rolled around and I remember just knowing I wasn't going to get any presents. There was not even a grocery store in the town we were living in, let alone a toy store so I remember being sad when I woke up. My mom surprised me BIG TIME when she handed me two gifts and I opened them to find she has brought two barbies from the US for me! They were a black girl barbie and a black ken doll! haha...apparently she thought I needed some black people representation in my barbie collection since we lived in Africa now!!!

church...

My dad had previously visited Zambia for a survey trip and when he came back to the US, I remember two things. He brought me a purse and he talked about a man named Webby. We thought his name was funny and asked if his son was named Spider!! haha (if you know who Webby is to me now and more importantly who is son is to me now...you would be laughing!...hint: he is my father-in-law and his son is not named Spider, but Dennis and he is my husband!). We got to meet this Webby when we went to church and I think our connection to Zambia was real when that happened. Church was very different to what we were used to, for sure! I remember singing the hymn 'Dwelling in Beulah Land' and cracking up with my family for no other reason than how it sounded when everyone sang 'PRAISE GOD'. Good times...

our own home...

Sometime in November our container arrived and we got to move into our house. I remember when we got the container, getting it into our yard was a feat. I also remember it had some random lock on it that we didn't have a key for. I'm not sure how my dad got it off...he wasn't happy about it...but he got it off somehow - which is par for him, because he can do anything! The moving in commenced and again, I don't remember much. We had some dogs, none of which were ours, they were all for some missionaries that were in the US. There was this one, named Tera. She was SO MEAN to outsiders. I remember the vet came one time and she was going after him! We had a guy that worked in our yard named Honson Kabeshi and he calmed her down by calmly saying 'Tera, no.' It amazed me that she stopped. Honson was awesome! Our house was pretty big. It technically had six rooms but only one bathroom. The kitchen had hardly any cabinets. It had a huge pantry. One of the door frames was completely gone because of termites. The rooms had weird tile in them, the middle was gray and they outside of the room was orange or brown. My parents room had two doors in it. My sister's and I had inter-connecting rooms where you had to walk through Dawn's room to get to mine and through mine to get to Renee's. Later, when Dawn left we changed this up and my parents got these three rooms as their 'suite'. It was a lovely house on Butungwa Avenue. And so our life in Zambia began.