Peter working with Brendan and Lazarus on fort
Well, we have had power consistently for the last few days so that is good. However, lightning struck the MEF water pump Monday night and fried it. This meant the water was off for nearly 24 hours. They managed to turn on the water yesterday evening around dinner time, probably using the emergency pump. Not knowing how long we would have water, we filled all our buckets and the bathtub, and quickly washed all the dishes that had piled up. Sure enough, it only stayed on for an hour and it has remained off since. This morning I was a bit stymied as to what I could do. It is amazing how integral water is to my life. I couldn’t bathe, do laundry, clean, wash dishes, cook or bake. Not knowing when the water will be on again, I better save the water for the necessary things like brushing teeth, flushing the toilet, and making dinner. The internet is also not working so I couldn’t go to Peter’s office and send email. Seeing as it was pouring rain outside and kind of cold (for Africa), and since Peter took the boys to school, I only saw one option. I climbed back into bed and stayed in my pajamas until 11 a.m. I spent the morning reading and resting and relaxing. It’s not like a sick day, because I’m not sick. And it’s not the same as being depressed, because I’m not. It was more like a compulsory vacation and I must say, it was luxurious!
Thursday, February 7, 2008
I am constantly amazed at how long things take to get done here. I walked to the pottery place on campus to see if the covered casserole dish I ordered three weeks ago was ready. When I ordered it, they set it aside and said they would glaze and fire it when they had power. Apparently they did fire it but the dish cracked in the process. I figured they would begin making another one for me. But when I went in today, I had to place a new order with them, reiterating the size I wanted and the color glaze. The worker assures me that they will make it today and I can pick it up next week. I think I’ll wait a bit longer because I have my doubts as to whether it actually will be ready.
Same thing with our garbage collection. We heard that there was a service in town that would pick up our trash and dispose of it at a dump. This sounded very appealing since it is next to impossible to burn your trash when it rains every day. Not to mention the toxins we are putting into the atmosphere when we burn plastic. And then there are the rats (Brendan poked one the other day thinking it was dead) that like to live in the trash pit and the snakes that know they can come there for a quick meal. So we heard about it in November and have been asking around to try to get more information. Peter finally found a guy at church who could give us the number but then he wasn’t in church or we weren’t for the next few Sundays so we couldn’t get the number. We finally got the number and Peter has been calling for several weeks, trying to get them to drop off a contract. We now have a contract and were told that they would come by Tuesday to pick up the contract and the fee so we could begin services. That didn’t happen and so now we are waiting to see when they will come.
This type of thing is very frustrating to my North American way of thinking that is driven by consumer values. If they want the business, they should do things quicker and more efficient, I think to myself. But that doesn’t take into account a different value system that places more importance on relationships and people, instead of making a profit. It also doesn’t take into account a variety of factors such as frequent power outages, lack of training, broken down vehicles, and any number of things that may be just as frustrating to them. I can learn a lesson or two about how to be patient and not demand things immediately and to realize it does no good to stress when things are out of my control. Eventually the dish will be ready and the trash service will begin. I can wait.
Friday, February 8, 2008
The trash guys came today and now we will begin having regular trash service! (Regular may need redefining but something is better than nothing!)
Still no internet. Admittedly, it is much easier to be patient about things like casserole dishes and trash service. It is a little harder when it involves internet, power or water.
Saturday, February 9, 2008
For Christmas, Patric and Gemma (school friends of our boys) got a pony from Santa. Jason wondered aloud why he and Brendan didn’t get a pony for Christmas too. Today, Georgi invited us to go with them to the Polo Club to ride Lightning. Georgi also has a horse that she rides several times a week. So we had a little picnic at the Polo Club and the children all had a turn on the pony. Gemma and Patric take riding lessons every week and are quite good for being only six and three. It was a special treat for our boys and something different to do on a Saturday, which was wonderful for all three of us.
Leading Lightning to the arena
Brendan awaiting his turn
Future polo player?
Gemma and PatricIt finally dawned on me that our boys need muzungu friends just like I need time with Carmen and Adrian and others. As much as we, and they, enjoy Zambians, there is an ease that comes from being with people who identify with the world we left behind. I think I knew this at some level but I am intentionally trying to work at it, hoping it will ease Jason’s homesickness in particular. We had a playdate with Lisa and her children (from Finland) on Wednesday and Patric and Gemma (from Australia) came over to play Friday afternoon for several hours. Jason and Brendan get along brilliantly with Patric and Gemma and I think it was soothing for them to have an extended period of time with them. After playing together yesterday and then spending a good part of today together, I thought they would begin to unravel but they continued to get along famously.
King Jason and Princess GemmaI think I deserve an award for flexibility today. I decided to make muffins this morning using the leftover cut-up apples from our picnic yesterday. I didn’t happen to notice the bugs in the wheat flour until after it was almost all mixed. I dug out about five of them and no more seemed apparent. I wasn’t about to waste good muffin batter so I decided to bake them anyway. I found one more critter as I was putting the batter into the muffin tin. What’s a little more protein, right? (I promise that if any of you come to visit, I will not serve you muffins with bugs in it!)
We went to church even though our boys were totally faking being sick. Brendan insisted he had a high fever (not true) and diarrhea (quite possibly true). Jason had a pretty good fake cough going and insisted he was very sick too. Sunday School is hit and miss depending on a number of factors including the teachers being present, if there is rain, or some other reason but we never know which. It is hard for them to sit through two hour services and I understand that. Today, when it looked like Sunday School wasn’t going to happen again, I decided to take matters into my own hands. I led the children out and made Sunday School happen. Since I had never attended their Sunday School, I asked the children what they usually did and they explained it all to me. So I did my best to follow the format though I still made it my own. We pulled out the benches from the dilapidated and extremely bare Sunday School room and gathered under a tree. After the Bible story I was supposed to ask them questions, I assume more fact related to see if they were listening. I asked wondering questions instead to try to get us into the story. When I thought we were done with the question time and ready to move on, one of the girls told me that we needed to do the questions, because whatever I did wasn’t what they usually did I guess. And then during the prayer time, I had them do “popcorn” prayers and had them pop up and say the thing that they were thankful for or the name of someone they wanted God to help or comfort. We had great fun with this. I hope I didn’t step on anyone’s toes by filling this role today but it felt necessary for our boys to have some positive church experiences again so that we don’t get the “I’m so sick” routine every Sunday morning!
The power went out in the middle of the service this morning. I’ve never been so thankful for a power outage before. The church recently purchased a new sound system and keyboard and it is driving me crazy! I miss the spontaneous singing from the congregation and being able to hear and pick up some of the Bemba in the worship songs. But now, all we can hear is the keyboard. And he spends the first few verses of hymns trying to pick up the chords (which in hymns is not easy) and so you hear him trying lots of different notes while the congregation keeps singing. While people are talking or praying, he continues to fiddle around and sure, he may try to play a bit softer but on an electric keyboard you really have to just turn down the volume. So when the electricity was cut, I uttered a spontaneous “Hallelujah!” I think only Peter heard me and he was more than ready to add an “Amen!”
The power cut which at church was a blessing, caused a tantrum by Jason when we returned home. We have a little propane stove but sadly, there is no propane in the entire country and hasn’t been for quite awhile now. Not sure when it will be available again. So we had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Jason had his little heart set on burritos but it is hard to make tortillas if there is no power. I assured him that, if the power came on later, I would make them for dinner. Otherwise, we would go to a take-away place because we were out of bread. I was kind of hoping that the power would stay off but no, it came on in time for me to get my own personal tortilleria going.
My sourdough bread, which we originally were going to eat for dinner with soup, did not get baked until after dinner. I put it in after dinner and thought all would be well. Little did I know that the power would be cut halfway through the baking time. I kept the door shut and hoped for the best. Brendan insists that it will be great because he loves bread dough and if it isn’t baked all the way through, he will get to eat more dough. His optimistic side made a rare appearance.
And if that wasn’t enough, the mice are back. Perhaps the relatives want revenge. They don’t know who they are messing with . . . I may be flexible and a pacifist but the flexibility was used up on the rest of the day and my peace-loving conviction has a clause written into it that justifies killing when it comes to mice that wreak havoc in your kitchen!
Monday, February 11, 2008
So the sourdough bread didn’t work out so great. Not only because it was quite spongy but because it was terribly salty. I never took chemistry in school but maybe I can blame the extra sodium on a chemical reaction that happens when power is cut during baking. Or maybe I should just accept responsibility and own up to adding too much salt.
It was a perfect morning – blue skies with fluffy white clouds, brilliant sunshine, and a cool breeze. But did we get to enjoy it? No. Peter, Carmen and I spent the morning in a beige hallway in the Road, Traffic and Safety Administration Building (like our DMV). Peter pushed his way through the mob at the front of the building to ask where we needed to go to get Zambian driver’s licenses. We went around to the back and were given applications. We then joined a line formed in the hallway to await the Manager. After an hour of standing in the hall, we learned that the Manager’s computer was broken and so he was working in another part of the building. Carmen worked her magic and was finally able to get someone to take our papers to the Manager wherever he was working and then things started to happen. After standing in the same hallway but waiting for a different agent, we were finally ready to be seen. We were kind of hoping someone would explain the process to us but we just went with the flow. Little did we know we needed to take a test that involved explaining to a gentleman what thirty different traffic signs meant. While Peter took his test, a kind woman also waiting let us take a quick look at her photocopied manual. The people around us tutored us in some of the more interesting signs. It felt a little like a game show during the examination, because the examiner would point to a sign and I would say, “OK, this is a picture of a cow which means that there may be cattle crossing at this juncture. I would slow down and be prepared to stop.” Or, “This is a picture of a cow with a line through it. It means that I would not allow my cattle to cross at this juncture.” It soon became clear that I could just describe all the symbols and then say that I would slow down and proceed with caution and he liked that answer. The gentleman testing us was very kind and he passed us all on our first try. He asked me how long I have been driving and I replied that I have been driving for twenty years. He seemed a bit taken aback but then asked for my thumb so he could take my thumbprint. The computer that takes our digital picture is broken so he gave Peter his phone number and we can call him later in the week to see if the computer is functioning before coming in for the second part of the process. Two and a half hours in a hallway and it could have been much worse. I was amazed at how patiently everyone waited, not complaining or pushing and shoving. The hallway was full but not claustrophobic, and many of them must have bathed recently because it wasn’t smelly at all. We got to chat with Carmen and we were kid-free so we only had to worry about ourselves. The only bummer was that it was overcast by the time we left the building and our gorgeous morning was gone.
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