Still transitioning...

Although we were gone for only 5 short months, there has been quite a bit of adjusting back to life in the States.

We are back in our home, thanks to some hard work from our very good friends. The kids are back in school and trying to get back in the swing of things. They didn't miss a beat picking back up with their friends. I'm so thankful for that!!
At dinner two nights ago Bradley asked, "What country are we going to next?" You gotta love his sense of adventure.

Work for Erik is tough. We have picked up a few jobs and are grateful for whatever work we can get. We are pursuing new avenues and trying some new marketing approaches meanwhile trying to stay as lean as possible during this economy. We know that God is Good and His provisions are enough!!

Merry Christmas!!

As Erik and I reflect on 2008 we start with New Year's Eve...

We were at the Orange Picker lot eating Chili's beside a bonfire, with the Littles, of course. We were looking forward to the final stages on construction and moving into our houses. All the fun times ahead - who would have known that life would take us in a different direction??

My new Zambian phrase: "Only God knows!"

We moved in the house in March. Erik took a trip to Zambia, Africa in May to check out the possibility of building some hostels for the 2011 All-African games. The hostel job did not work out but the opportunity to bring some construction skills to some Zambian men and provide a better wage and quality of life was put on the hearts of Erik and Bob West. After months of prayer and discussion with a Zambian contractor, we moved in August to Lusaka, Zambia to start Z-Con. Although the business did not turn out as we had hoped, we were so blessed this year with such an adventure.

We learned so much about the African people and made many good friends. God taught me a little more about differences, love and the meaning of life. He taught me to rely on Him for all my needs and He would provide and He has been faithful.

We are ready to return home to our family and friends and begin the next chapter with a different perspective. I pray that Erik, Chelsea, Bradley and I always remember this experience and we all grow from it. Thanks for sharing it with us!!

Merry Christmas and God bless you all-
Much love- The Kaspers

The final countdown...

We arrived back in Lusaka!! My friend, Nubia, picked us up and took us to her house for some food and fun. Her husband, Julio, had grilled hamburgers, sausage, steaks- here we call that a braai, not a barbeque:) They had two new puppies so Chelsea was entertained while Bradley played and swam with Nubia's 3 sons. It was a very nice afternoon!
We returned home to a very happy Moses! He was happy to see us and hear all about the "big" city. We were excited to check the progress of the garden and there was a little green pepper. Our first vegetable! Moses said it rained here all week so the vegetables looked bigger and there were also lots of mangoes on the trees. I will hate to miss the harvest:(
I was overwhelmed tonight as I looked around the house and thought of all we needed to pack. We were fortunate to sell most of our things to friends and we donated the rest. We are coming home lighter than we came over here, at least in the luggage department. We still have a van to sell!
We have a lot of running around to do tomorrow then a fun night at bible study with Christmas celebrations. We will hate to say good-bye to all our new friends but feel blessed just for knowing them a short while.

Rhino and Lion Park

I will let you figure out how we started the day!!!

The Rhino and Lion Park was about 40 minutes away so we headed off around 9:00am.

The park starts off with a self-driven game drive. We passed through and saw a cool looking antelope and a few birds but were honestly a little disappointed. We drove into the Lion area and searched all over. The drive was mountainous and there were many rocks that were the color of lions so as we drove over 30 minutes and Erik just finished saying, "I want my money back"- he spotted a beautiful female lion sitting on a rock. She was definitely camaflouged and keeping watch. We called her, "Here kitty, kitty" but she didn't bat an eye. Probably a good thing. Erik was feeling much better.

We then turned the corner and saw a Rhino on the side of the hill, then saw a Mama Rhino and her baby. It was so cool!!

The Park has a Rock mine so we took the Wonder Cave tour. It was discovered by the Italians back in the late 1800s. They mined Limestone for about 10 years then it hasn't been disturbed since, except by tourists. It was cool inside, actually 62 degrees cool- year round.

We then made our way to the baby animal section. We were able to pet a black panther, tiger, and white lion. The panthers just lay there as we pet them and picked them up but the tigers were so fun. They actually sat in our laps and tried to chew on our shoes. It was awesome!!

We had lunch at the cafe and there were 2 baby hippos in cage beside the restaurant. After lunch, many more animals were there to guide us out of the park. We saw many types of antelopes with curly horns, cape buffalo, zebras, warthogs and wildebeest. Erik changed his mind about wanting his money back as we left.

Gold Reef City

On Wednesday we woke up to a beautiful day!! We made our routine(as of 2 days) drive through McDonalds for a Coke Light then off to Gold Reef City, an amusement park. We arrived at 9:30, opening hour, and had quite a queue(a line). Nothing compared to Disney but...all in perspective. The price was 390Rand- around $39 for the whole family. It was great fun!!

We saw a peacock- male, female and baby just walking around the park. Then we were off to the huge ferris wheel. Chelsea and I followed that off with to the Golden Loop. We finally talked Brad into going on a rollercoaster and he had a great time!!

All his fear is in the anticipation.

Erik and I mostly enjoyed the lazy river ride- if only it had been longer and a little quieter:)

We spent all day at the park and were exhausted by the time we left.

Dinner was at Ghiradelli's at Nelson Mandela Square. We ordered pizza and discussed our favorite pizza in Jacksonville. Pizza was not good!!

Aparteid museum

We started the day with an awesome Coke Light from Mickey D's drive-thru. Notice Erik driving on the right side and the drive-thru window all backwards!!

We then headed off to the Aparteid Museum. We learned that Europeans "discovered" South Africa and its gold. Quickly the country was a leader in the Gold business bringing people from all over to South Africa. The current inhabitants of South Africa, the Bushman, were quickly pushed out of the way. One cool statement was made by a native of South Africa- "When the Europeans arrived we had the land and they had the Bible, now we have the Bible and they have the land." It is amazing what greed will do to the best of intentions!! After many hundreds of years of fighting over the land a political party was elected to office in 1948 that established "Aparteid"- basically segregation. People were given different identification cards based on their race and that card would determine where you could live and go in South Africa. The "non-europeans (black)" Africans were pushed out of the good lands and made to live far apart from the "european (white)" Africans. Finally Nelson Mandela became President and ended Aparteid. We left the museum in a downer mood. A lot of the pictures we saw from the 50's and 60's in South Africa are still going on in Zambia, the way the people live, survive, the skinny babies.

We went to the African Market and had fun bartering with all the "salemen". They would ask where we were from- when we said "Zambia" all the sudden we were given the "African" price vs. the American price:)

We went Monte Casino as we heard it was really cool inside and had some great food and shopping. Well, we ended up in the game room for the majority of our time. The kids ran into a walking Christmas tree.

We ended our day with Yo Sushi- we sat at a rotating sushi bar. We ate 10 plates of sushi then headed home for a good nights sleep.

Johannesburg

We arrived in Johannesburg yesterday afternoon. It was a 2 hour flight from Lusaka but when we landed we felt like we were anywhere but Africa.

Johannesburg is a big city with big freeways and lots of malls!!

We rented a very small red Toyota Yaris- we piled our bags in and were off. The kids thought the car was so cool!!

We arrived at our hotel around 7pm and we were starving so we ate at a steakhouse, Bull Run, which is attached to our hotel. We were pleasantly surprised at the reasonable prices for dinner. The currency in South Africa is Rand and current exchange rate is around 10ZAR to $1. So when you look at clothes the prices are about 350ZAR or $35.

Our hotel offers a free delicious breakfast buffet. We walked to the Sandton mall today around 9am. The entire mall is beautifully decorated for Christmas and each store is advertising "Big Summer Sale"- it is still odd celebrating Christmas in the middle of Summer! It was cool here today and overcast most of the day with some late afternoon rain!

After a couple hours of shopping, we went to lunch at McDonalds- Erik and the kids were so happy!! We had our first fountain drink is 5 months- it was sooooo delicious!

The kids had their own money and decided they each wanted a Build-A-Bear so we adopted Nola the Giraffe and Mutale the Rhino today.

We shopped some more then went to a movie at 2:00. We walked to an Italian restaurant for dinner then checked out the small shopping area next to our hotel.

We are off to the Apartied museum tomorrow and some shopping at the local craft market.