It’s Zambia’s 50th Birthday!

No wonder the colors of the Zambian flag are red, green and orange.  Look at these trees!

To celebrate the long Independence Day weekend, we decided to go camping with our friends at Lake Kariba, 2.5 hours south of Lusaka.  Our day started with a stop at The Deli for cappuccino and lunch for the road.  The Deli is a true dream.  The food makes it feel like we’re back home!  BLT’s and roast beef, sometimes chicken pesto, and salads with actual dressing instead of mayonnaise.  We were all pretty happy!

We rolled out of town, through miles of construction and roadwork, soon finding ourselves in the Zambian savannah.

Baskets for Sale…

Coal…

People waiting for the bus.

Our short drive was made easier with a soundtrack of Mumford and Sons, Eddie Vedder, and Michael Jackson.  Jake is the DJ these days and is always making new playlists.  We were excited to get to the campground and start settling in.

The kids collected sticks and rocks to build a firepit, and Mike made the campfire.  We’ve gotten pretty good at campfire cooking!  Tacos, hot dogs, hamburgers, oatmeal, marshmallows and coffee.  The boys also know how to keep busy with books, dinosaurs, Nature Tracking, and throwing rocks in the lake.  Our friends brought a game called Beat the Parents, now our new favorite.

I don’t think it could really get much better than this.

We also went swimming in the pool.  It seemed weird at first for a campground to have a pool, but most campgrounds here in Zambia have them because you aren’t supposed to swim in the lake.

And there are flies here called Tumbu Flies that lay eggs on wet clothes, which turn into larvae and burrow into your skin if they touch you.  So we hang all our swimsuits and towels to dry in the tent.  This was my view waking up in the morning:

This was the other view.  Imagine these five little faces silently peering in the tent windows, as we adults kept our eyes closed and prayed for just a few more minutes of sleep…

it’s a good thing that Corey, Devon, Jayden, Jake and Eli are so cute!!

Eagle’s Rest Resort, you just wait.  We’ll be back.