Communication and Transportation

I've said it before--communication and transportation are our constant challenges. Here is yet another example.

We went to Lusaka June 26-27 to buy formula for the orphanage. The Cowbell Company's warehouse was out of stock, but the manager in charge assured me that they would deliver 18 cases to Namwianga. He got on the phone to the driver in Livingstone and told him to drop off as many cases as he could spare the following day. I asked him several time if I needed to give him directions to the orphanage, and he told me that they had delivered to Namwianga many times and knew where it was. We went back to Namwianga and assumed all was well.

A week later I contacted Cecelia at the orphanage and found out that no formula had been delivered. I called Cowbell in Lusaka and talked to someone who knew nothing about it but promised to have the manager call me. Then on Thursday evening Sue Calder stopped by and asked me if I had gotten the formula that had been delivered to the Internet Cafe in Kalomo. Apparently six cases had been sitting there since June 28. I still had no idea where the other 12 cases were.

Today Don Oldenburg called from Kalomo. He had just walked into a store in the market, and the clerk had asked him if he was from Namwianga. When Don said yes, the clerk told him that 12 cases of formula had been delivered the previous week, and he asked Don to take them to the orphanage.

So all is well. The orphanage has the formula and once again we have overcome the challenges of communication and transportation.