Our not so uneventful morning

     Yesterday morning started out as uneventful and a pretty slow day at the office. We are quickly learning the extent of the event orientation lifestyle here in Zambia. Some days we will show up to the office, ready to roll and end up waiting for several hours only to find out that there is not much for us to do besides catch up on blog posts and emails before the kids get out of school at 4:00. Yesterday was one of those days. After refreshing our email pages for a few hours and waiting to find out there was nothing more for us to do in the office, we decided to get out of the office for a little and go to the internet café to grab some lunch and relax for a few hours before the kids got home from school. A pretty low key afternoon right? Right. No wait….Wrong.

     Just as we were getting ready to meet our taxi driver out front Shelby realized her bag that was just in front of her minutes ago was now gone. Okay, no big deal it’s probably in this pile of stuff somewhere. No wait. Huge deal. It is nowhere to be found in the pile of our stuff and inside the bag is her passport, drivers license, some personal cash, and the key to her room with the address of where we are staying on it. We all tried to remain calm, double checking everywhere around us and retracing our steps from the day, but after awhile of searching and our taxi driver waiting on us we decided to call it quits and leave our number with the security guard in case it was turned in.

     As soon as we got back to the office and informed Maretta and Caison about the missing bag scenario they were certain it had been stolen. Apparently this is not the first time Mzungos have run into this problem at Arcades. After conversing with them and making a few phone calls we came up with a game plan and put it into action. We will head back to Justo Mwale (where we are staying) to figure out the key situation –hopefully there is a spare key, and or they can change the lock so that whoever has Shelby’s bag cannot access the room and the rest of their belongings, and then go back into town to file a police report. Side note: on the way to Justo Mwale there was a huge traffic jam due to a Mzungo driver running into a kid carrying dozens of eggs on his head. The kid was fine, but the eggs were not. This day just keeps getting weirder.

     Once we got back to Justo Mwale and spent some time finding out that the key person would be back later in the evening, we decided to split up. Christina and I would stay back in the room that we still had a key to while Kate and Shelby would go with Maretta and Caison to talk to the police. As Christina and I waited patiently in the room for the gatekeeper to bring us a spare key, we hit another small bump along the way. The electricity went out. Did I mention it gets pitch dark here by 6pm? After another couple of hours of waiting while Kate and Shelby were talking to the police we finally got news. And the verdict is: there is no spare key. Alas, the four of us crammed into one tiny room and had a sleepover after scrounging to fin an extra mattress to use for the night. A bonding experience to say the least.

     Our not so eventful morning turned into quite the afternoon –thankful that we are all safe and trusting that all will be well despite the chaos of the day. And today we are off to conquer the Embassy! Prayers that all will run smoothly from here on out and we can get Shelby a new passport.