lessons in patience

Wednesday I ran some errands – had to buy stamps at the post office, change money, buy a fan and a toaster, pick up a birthday present for one of the children, buy a SIM card and talk time for my phone. . .really nothing terribly exciting or complex, or so I thought.

If you do not have patience when you arrive in Africa, you will have some when you leave or you will leave with an ulcer.

We walked all over town looking for a SIM card. Each store we went to said that “it was finished”- they were out of the SIM cards for Zain, but the store just down the way would definitely have it. After a couple of hours and an endless number of stores (or maybe just ten) we finally found a store that had the card I was looking for. Success at last - I can call home! Turns out a 10,000 kwacha card lasts for a five second message of “Hi Mom, it’s me. . .” needless to say I don’ t think I’ll be calling home anymore.