February 5rd, 2026
The Inverness County Cares Travellers were scheduled to depart for Zambia on February 2nd, however due to a snow storm their flight was delayed by a day. The travellers went to the Halifax airport as originally planned as the weather on Monday could possibly have been nasty and make driving to Halifax difficult. Monday at the Hilton, was very busy as the twelve 50lb suitcases needed fine tuning to be sure they all had the correct weights. We also were still negotiating for a delivery of medical books which had been held up and not delivered to us at home. We are taking bets now, to see if the package will be delivered to Zambia as the delivery company is attempting.
Monday evening, we had a tasty surprise when Etel and Michael Ojoleck arrived with, pizzas, salads, cookies, fruit and drinks. We thank them for their generosity and kindness.
Tuesday morning, we took the 4:30 AM shuttle to the Halifax airport and we were thrilled to hear Air Canada had waived the fees for our extra suitcases. Upon arriving in Toronto, we found our Ethiopian Airlines connection was delayed and we weren’t leaving at 10:30 am as planned but had to wait until 2:33PM that afternoon. This meant we missed our connection to Lusaka from Addis Abba. The rescheduled flights had us arrive in Lusaka at 1:22 AM with our connecting flight next morning at 10:15AM. We opted to change our Zambian domestic flights to Saturday February 7th for a chance to rest after all the delays and uncertainty.
We arrived in Addis Abba about 7:30 AM and during that flight Betty Jane was called on to assist in a medical emergency. We were picked up by the Skylight Hotel shuttle and taken to the hotel, where we all collapsed in bed. After a very nice buffet supper at the hotel, we were picked up by the hotel shuttle to travel to the Airport. The bus was caught in traffic and when we arrived at the crowded airport, we needed wait in a long line, go through security twice, as well as immigration before we reached the gate area. During that time several of us had to go through a second inspection and then in all the rush, one person left their phone at a security point. That began a stressful series of events leading to recovery of the phone. We thank airport employee David for retrieving the phone and then leading the lot of us to the final gate. Made it just in the nick of time and were the last passengers to board.
We arrived in Lusaka about 2:30 AM (with all the bags) and were greeted by Sr Marjorie, Sister Catherine, Sister Gloria, James, Lewis and Tobias. They arrived with two half ton trucks, one being the Toyota Hilux, purchased by ICC two years ago. We filled the Hilux to capacity with our bags and the other took our personal luggage. Tired as we were, we were very happy to meet with our old friends. After a short drive we arrived at the Kasisi Retreat Centre and we happily settled on our beds. Meanwhile, Sr Marjory, James, and Lewis planned to set off for Kawambwa with most of the bags, a 14+ hour drive (947km).
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Supper at the Hilton in Halifax, courtesy of Michael
and Etel Ojoleck, as we winter out the storm
which delayed us on our way to Zambia.. |
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| Waiting in Toronto with our new friend Jagdeep. |
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Our flight to AdisAbba was delayed so we
had to wait in Toronto. |
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Awaiting a shuttle to Skylight Hotel in AdisAbba,
because of our long layover. |
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| Supper at the Skylight Hotel in AdisAbba |
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Last people to board our flight to Lusaka.
We just squeaked in. |
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| Arrival at Lusaka. We were picked up by good friends, |
Sr Catherine, Sr Marjory, Sister Gloria, Tobias, Lewis and James.
