God's got jokes.

Disclaimer: I intended on posting this last Friday but ran into some Internet trouble.

It still is kind of surreal that we are in Zambia, a days worth of travel away from home, surrounded by people who look at us like we are foreigners. Oh wait. 
Let's start from the beginning. All of the flights were great. The people were all helpful and friendly (for the most part). Even the 15 hour flight from New York to South Africa was pleasant. Getting Visas and getting into Zambia was surprisingly simple- thank goodness. Oh and did I say that we got to board a plane from the runway? That has always been a small dream of mine. Bucket List... check! Ivor was at the airport with a paper that read: 

LOVE VOLUNTEERS

Ava Michelle Brewer & Risa Chavez

That' s us!!!
After waiting for what seemed likeforever for a taxi, we loaded up our things and headed to Maramba, Livingstone. Then Ivor dropped the bomb. Or bombs I should say. We were informed that we would only be at the orphanage in Livingstone for 2 days (Thursday and Friday), helping with a church's children's program on Saturday, then seeing Victoria Falls on Sunday. Great first 4 days right? Well then Monday we will be boarding a bus for a 15 hour ride bound for the Copper Belt. There we will help Ivor's sister with her children at a Catholic School for "1 week or 2 -however long you like. Then if you want to stay in the Copper Belt we can find an orphanage for you to work there" as Ivor says. Whoa. What?! What about Livingstone? What about Heartspring Orphanage? What about my perfect imagery of walking to work in the mornings waving to people I recognize? What about settling down into our cozy little hostel? Ava  Michelle and I had our little panic attack over all this being sprung on us once we are already in the country. After some prayers and rationalization, and moving into our more- temporary- than-not room, we ventured into town with Ivor to exchange money and get phones.
The exchange rate here is basically 1USD = 5,000 Zambia Kwacha. So we feel a whole lot richer here than in America. As far as the phone thing- you see I have this really sweet boyfriend who went through a lot of trouble and made some pseudo-sacrifices to make sure I had a phone to bring with me. Most of you know that I'm not big on technology and would have considered not going through the trouble of getting a phone should I have any idea what the next 8 weeks holds for us. But because of all the uncertainty I thought it best to have some form of consistent communication. Ha! After visiting 3 stores to get SIM cards, getting the cards cut to fit A-Shelle's iPhone, and trying to get my phone unlocked, we deemed it a lost cause. So for the time being we are going to try our luck with Wi-Fi .
We got a solid 11.5 hours of sleep the first night thanks to not/barely sleeping Monday night before we left then not really sleeping well on planes. The next fiasco was trying to withdraw money to pay our program fees. The ATMs are not American debit card friendly and bankers look at us like we're crazy. Hopefully Plan C to get money will work out today. Throughout all of this my prayer has been that the kids will make it all worth it. We met them yesterday and they are easily some of the happiest children I've ever met. We played lots of games and danced and sang. They made me sing the Star Spangled Banner solo. Poor kids- I'm a terrible singer. They also taught us a song about obeying your parents which coming from an orphan's mouth, is enough to melt even the hardest heart. After a day with them, half of me is excited to really get to know and invest in them but the other half of me wonders if what we do will even matter in the long run. Volunteers  some in and out of places like Heartspring all the time but even if the kids don't remember us, I want to have invested in their future. I want have given them a chance at a life bigger than they think possible right now. Maybe I'm a skeptic, but playing Little Sally Walker isn't going get them there.
I just feel lost right now. Not sure how much of this trip is about me feeling happy and useful versus how much is doing whatever's does (or doesn't) take to make kids smile. It's finding the balance between going with the flow and inquiring about the purpose of what we are doing.
I told Ava Michelle last night that it blows my mind that God has known all of this was going to happen all along the way. Even as we spoke so confidently about our trip at home, He was just smiling and thinking, "Don't have expectations. I'd hate for you to be disappointed." 
So here's to no expectations. Here's to making the most of Africa no matter what. Here's to loving orphans. But most of all, here's to God having it under control. 

Current update: We are in Kitwe, Zambia (part of the Copper Belt where most of the country's mining takes place). We will be helping our guide's (Ivor) sister teach at the Catholic School. Well, that is one of our tasks. Today the teachers of another school told Ivor's sister that she could use our help tomorrow so we are helping teach there. Once the kids get out for Christmas break, we will work at an orphanage near our hostel. Always an adventure...