It’s been less than 24 hours since I’ve arrived back home to Lusaka, and I have a plumber at my house. It’s pitch black, the power is out, and all I can hear are tools clanging together.

When I think of Zambia, I think of constant adventure, curiosity and moments that just make you wonder. Flying here, I somehow got seated right within a Zimbabwean football team, and the whole flight from Nairobi to Lusaka was filled with many questions about Canada, and a rowdy team yelling and laughing. And there I was right in the middle of it. I got home after midnight last night. I found a lizard in my bathtub, and no water coming from my taps. I decided to close the bathroom door, pretend the lizard wasn’t there, and figure out the water situation in the morning.

I asked my neighbour if she had water this morning. She did – everyone in the complex did. I thought that was kind of weird that I didn’t have any, so I went to the security guard and asked him. Its not that I didn’t have water, but instead, they physically turned off my water. I was shocked and embarrassed to find out that I had left my water on while I was away, and everyone found out when they saw water pouring out from under my doors! Right before I had left for the airport 3 weeks ago, the power had shut off at a weird time while I still had the water in my tub running. I turned the faucet off – and then I started to second guess myself, and second guess if I had turned the faucet the right way. The only reason I second guessed myself was because every single faucet in my house is installed a different way, and I couldn’t remember if it was left or right to turn this one off. I fiddled with it for about half an hour, was pretty convinced that I turned it off properly, and prayed that it was correct because I wouldn’t know as I was leaving for the airport in an hour. While I was home in Canada I thought about it a couple of times, but was sure that it would be fine. Even last night when I got home, everything was dry, so I was so excited knowing that I did it right! Nope, it’s just that in three weeks, the floors dried.

When my security guard turned the water back on for me today, and turned on my water pump, everything was good for a couple of hours, and then the pump started going crazy. Loud noises, sounding like it was going to burst. Hence, the plumber.

Honestly speaking, it was a lot harder preparing to come back to Lusaka this time. It’s different when you’re going somewhere and you don’t really know what to expect – that’s exciting! However, I knew that I was coming back to random daily issues like power outages, long line ups, crazy traffic and presidential elections. It was hard to leave everyone that I love and it was really hard knowing I wouldn’t have a Starbucks green iced tea lemonade anymore ;). But when I remind myself that God has called me here for this time, and I am sure of that, it makes settling back in much easier. Reminding myself of Jim Elliot’s quote that wherever I am, to be all there. Reminding myself of that helps me to focus on what I am doing here, the relationships I am building here, and helps me not to let my mind trail off too much where I start thinking about Canada, and all of those things that could be at my finger tips so easily. But really, when I think of it, its such a blessing to love two places so much – I never feel like I’m sick and tired and need to get out of one place, and go to another and I have people in both places that I love dearly. It is truly a blessing, and with that I will choose to serve the Lord wherever I am with joy.