Loading the Airplane

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The First of Many Hurdles:

The Zambia 13 boarded the plane in Denver this morning! The group arrived 3 hours early and with the help of a friend who works for United Airlines, all of the boxes and bags were loaded on the plane. United waived their extra baggage fee, but the group had to pay the South African Airways fees. It was quite a scene; bringing in all the boxes, marking them, loading them, getting tickets... . The pictures will give you some idea, but everyone was nervous about just how many boxes and bags United would accept. But the group is over the first hurdle. The plane is loaded and they are in the air.

All of the adults seemed tired. Most of the kids seemed excited. Either way, the Zambia 13 have set out. Meghan (number 14) and Sandy will be waiting in Lusaka at 9 pm tomorrow night. So there is lots of travel ahead and plenty of time for the adults to catch up on their sleep and be ready for the experience of a lifetime.

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Photos

Bringing in boxes
Andy and Sean help the airport porter

Checking in boxes
Katie Joe bringing order to chaos

Dave and the giraffe
He needs it to sleep at night

Will they take them all?!
Boxes all lined up

Carry on
The carry on luggage was moved to the side

Boarding passes
The nice lady at United was very helpful

Sarah and the giraffe
There's that giraffe again

Sean helps
The boxes get checked in one by one.

Matt and Artie
Each box had t o be tagged so it got on the right flight

The gang is all here
Here they come!

Comments

[Chiti Lackson]

Mwaiseni Mukwai!
Welcome to Zambia dear friends, We are anxiously waiting for you! We remain in prayer as we wait for your arrival in Sts. Michael and Noah Parsih, Chamboli. Mwaiseni Mukwai.

[Sandy]

Bring it on!
So glad to see pictures of what all the luggage looks like. We are ready with a 24 seater van and a 16 seater van and the Beast which holds at least 7 people! Water will be waiting the group and lots of smiling faces...an entourage really:) Keep checking back in to the blog and don't forget to add some of your own comments!

[sandy]

arrival in zambia
Yeah! The group has made it. They arrived on time but took forever getting through immigrations. Meanwhile unbeknownst to the group, our legendary Sr Josephine Mulenga (who has been to OLP twice) was already in full action with her own super story. Fr Clifford was her muscle man with the luggage. They were able to get into baggage (where I joined them later:)) and began finding all the boxes and boxes and bags and bags of the team. They hauled them to the buggy carts and began to put two boxes and one bag on each...so by the time the group finally made it through immigration, she already had their buggies set to go. Sr Josephine and Fr Clifford organized everything and made the first of many small miracles happen. Once Katie Joe looked everything over, only one bag was missing...it will probably arrive sometime today. It was a donation bag so no one is missing clothes, toothpaste or anything. A light dinner of soup and bread and cold water waited them at St Bonaventure College. After a quick meal and briefing about the next morning, all were shown their rooms. I think most were sleeping finally around 1 am! Today they are recovering from their trip and making one short visit to a new medical clinic operated by the Missionary Sisters of St Francis.

[Grace Linn]

Thank you!
Thanks so much for posting the notes on the blog to tell us what is happening! It is so exciting to know the OLP travelers have arrived.

[Marge Harmeyer]

We are thrilled that you have all arrived safely in Zambia. Really marvelous to follow you via this site. Look forward to hearing about ALL of your adventures and experiences. Stay safe and healthy! Harmeyer Grandparents of Sarah Patzner

[Royce]

Just catching up
Looks to me like Sean is doing all the work. What's with those other two lazy McDowski boys? :>)