Visa and Passport MIA

I haven't yet received my visa for Zambia, or, more importantly, my passport back. That's making me a little bit nervous. I called the Embassy of Zambia in Washington D.C., today, but they cannot disclose passport information for privacy reasons. They're still within the set processing period, but if something goes wrong, I'm up a creek. As a last resort, I may be able to ask Jenny to try to intervene through her connections to get at least my passport back to me, and I'll be able to get a visa at the border... but I'd rather not risk it. As a last, last resort when everything goes wrong, my travel insurance will hypothetically cover it. But I do really, really want to go on the trip.... Time to cross my fingers and hope for the best (as well as hover a finger over the secondary protocol button to intervene.)