Sunday Drive

Tracy and Baobob Friend

Recently Tracy and I took a drive down Makeni Road, traveling in a loop that took us south and west of Lusaka. Feeling the need to get away, we grabbed the iPod and a picnic lunch. 

Not far away was this huge collage of baobob trees, four and a half total. Ever since reading The Little Prince I have been fascinated with baobobs, some of them hundreds of years old.

As we continued down the dirt road we listened to a sermon by Paul Miller on prayer~so simple and profound. It made me ask God to revive my prayer life. 

While listening we also began handing out candy, or sweets, to the children who were walking alongside the road. While their reaction surprised and saddened us, it was very understandable. Most of them ran away in fear and only took the candy when we dropped it out the window. I'm sure they have seldom seen azungu, or white people. In fact, there are fears in some areas that white people are witches. As I thought about the children's fears, I realized we've always told our own children to be careful around strangers, that they could be harmed by them. Stranger danger is worldwide.


Nearing Lusaka on our return trip we stopped for lunch near a banana grove and under a jacaranda tree. The banana trees looked pretty pathetic and needed some TLC. The jacranda wasn't in bloom but their seed pods littered the ground. While we ate our lunch I waxed poetic~Robert Frost was near as I recalled his poem about a snowy day in the woods. Here's our Zambian version: Whose banana trees these are, I do not know. His shop is in the village though. He will not mind us stopping here, . . . (and, he really wouldn't!) or, a version of The Village Blacksmith~Under the spreading jacaranda tree, the missionaries rest. That's about as far as I got~gives a different perspective! 

Before we finished our lunch we shared a sandwich with some passing children. Unafraid, they accepted the food and as they walked away, I figured they would probably do two things~share the sandwich between themselves and drop the wrapper on the ground. Within seconds of walking away they split the meal in two as Zambians are so quick to share~one dividing it and the other choosing. Just like our children. And, I began to count~one, two, three~yep, there the plastic goes on the ground. There is not the same concern for littering as there is in the States, but we are making progress. But, not that day.

Getting away for the day recharged our batteries. And, we were ready to return to begin a new week. Thank you, Lord~