A drive in a compound

Februarys news.

It seems like only yesterday we were doing an update for January promising ourselves we would be more diligent in February and now February has ended!
The good news is that the rains are getting less. That means some days are very hot. I (Graham) am traveling more on the mini buses which saves money on diesel, but is not quite so convenient. The buses are sometimes barely working with parts falling off. Sarahs first journey was on one of these buses and she wondered why it was taking such a strange route. The reason was because the bus was keeping off the main junctions where the police might be!
A new missionary took his first bus ride with me and just as we reached the bus station, the police had the front seat passengers get out and they got in probably for some road offense. We left as they were directing him where to park. The bus drivers are paid by paying the owner to use the bus at an agreed rate. Then any fares they collect over this rate they keep. This means they drive fast a furious and pack people in. I've started keeping a mental note of the most I have been in a bus with. Currently the record is 22. Bearing in mind these buses are about the size of a large people carrier / mini van - that is a lot of people. Do pray for safety for us - when the get involved in accidents - it is often very messy!

The church I am assigned to work with has a lovely Pastor with a large family. We have had the parents over for lunch before, but this week we braved the whole family. Like many Zambians, they don't like dogs, especially our not so little puppy, so we were provided with some entertainment when the puppy got out into the back garden where the girls were. They huddled together and screamed! He is 6 months old now and weighs more than our German Shepherd. Rachel adores her puppy, and would happily stay in Zambia for ever just to be with him! His voice has just broke, so now his bark sounds more like a proper dog so may be he will turn out to be a good guard dog. The German shepherd doesn't like other dogs and before we left our last house, attacked the three dogs in the house opposite. (I'll let Sarah post a blog about our move. )