To our immense pleasure, Peter made it home on Friday night after all. He arrived a little after 10 p.m., exhausted from having been up for 20 hours. I had spent the afternoon at Lechwe School with Brendan and Jason for a viewing of the movie “Kung Fu Panda.” All the primary children were assembled in a hot and stuffy room, watching a pirated copy of the movie that had subtitles that did not matching the dialogue, which was quite amusing at certain points. The kids talked through the entire movie, making it difficult for the handful of kids who actually came to see the movie to hear what was going on. Sodas were spilled all over the floor, and the smell of sugar mingled with the sweat of a hundred perspiring children. It was quite the experience. One that I will be sure to miss next year.
As we were driving home, we saw lightning on the horizon. By the time we got home, a few drops were beginning to fall and then the heavens let loose and we had our first rain in over six months. The boys ran outside and celebrated the coming of the rain and a bit of relief from the oppressive heat. Other boys joined in the dancing and yelling and soon they were playing a game of soccer, slipping and sliding in the mud and wet grass. Thankfully, we had enough hot water to run one bath for both to share and they were able to warm up and get the clinging grass off their little bodies.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Wonder of wonders, miracles of miracles! After six months, Peter and I are now in possession of Zambia Driver’s Licenses! I can’t believe I won’t have to make monthly trips to the building that issues the licenses. What will I do with all the time I will save?
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
We made use of Adrian as our babysitter one last time for our monthly date nights. He leaves in less than three weeks but we are trying not to think about that. There are five restaurant choices in Kitwe that serve non-Zambian fare. Each date, Peter and I run through the five options and finally make our decision as to which it will be that night. On the way to the lucky winner on this date night, I saw a man walking on the side of the road wearing a T-shirt that said, “The Cheesecake Factory.” Cruel. That’s what that was. Our choices here include grilled meat and French fries or Indian curry. What I wouldn’t give for just a look at the Cheesecake Factory menu, let alone ordering something from it. But my date was really handsome and a good conversationalist so we could overlook the repetitive cuisine.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
This morning we received the sad news that a friend was killed in a car accident. Mwaba Shula was the MCC office assistant in Lusaka and had been part of our team meetings and other outings. He had just recently graduated with a Bachelor of Social Work degree. In addition to working in the MCC office, he spent every Wednesday working at the Chisomo Drop-in Center for Street Kids. His tragic death is a shock to all of us and a huge loss for his family and for MCC.
Friday, October 17, 2008
The power went out last night at 5:45. I know because I was cooking dinner and had to switch over to the little propane stove. We had another rain storm last night which was the cause of the power cut. We figured that electricity would be restored in the morning, when Zesco (the power company) would come to fix the blown transformer. But it was a full 20 hours before power came back. I was beginning to get worried for the items in my freezer but they did OK. However, some of the food in the fridge had to be tossed.
If you ask Zambians when the rainy season begins, they will all say that it doesn’t officially begin until October 24, Independence Day. That is a nice marker but the evidence suggests that the rainy season may come earlier than that – downpours and power outages. Sounds like the rainy season to me.
Maybe the rains were confused because Lechwe School was celebrating Independence Day a week early so they felt they had to come a week early as well. Because the school has mid-term break over Independence Day, the school came together for a special Independence Day assembly this morning. Every class, from Nursery to Form 6 (like Grade 12), had a contribution to make, whether it be a traditional dance, a poem, or an educational presentation on how Zambia gained its Independence. I am always amazed at the full participation of each student. When Grades 5 and 6 came up to sing a song, EVERY child was singing and knew all the words to the song. Jason and Brendan’s classes dressed up and engaged in traditional dances. Jason loved the shield and spear he carried as he danced around. Brendan showed dramatic improvement in his ability to wiggle his hips since his debut last year. I guess the neighborhood kids have been showing him a few moves.
Brendan dancing at the assembly
Jason's class with their striped shieldsFriends of ours have a ritual that they do with their family that we found meaningful and have been waiting to implement for several years now. When a child in the family turns 8 year old, 12 years old, and 16 years old, that child gets to make a special trip with the parent of the same sex. Seeing as how Brendan finally turned 8, Peter made plans for this unique father-son trip. With our limited options and finances, the focus was not on doing something spectacular or expensive (hopefully that will remain the same even if our circumstances change), but rather time together for the two of them. They went to a lodge nearby and spent the night there. They hiked, talked, ate, and Brendan got to view “Star Wars” for the first time. We had bought a Bible in Pasadena before we left, in anticipation of this 8 year old trip, and Peter gave it to him and talked him through it a bit. It was a good trip for them, not because it was particularly profound but because of the bonding that happened when the two were alone together. Meanwhile Jason and I had some bonding of our own. We did arts and crafts, read lots of books, and watched a movie together. It is hard for the boy who gets left behind with the booby prize . . . me . . . but we made the best of it and managed to enjoy ourselves too!
In the afternoon, we dragged outside a piece of plastic that Carmen gave us before she left. We turned on the sprinkler and lo and behold, we had our own slip and slide. It was a bit tiny for the action it got from the boys and later, their friends. But it worked and they had fun!
Monday, October 20, 2008
In the past week, I have been asked questions as to the nature and function of the US Electoral College. I did my best to explain this strange system to these Zambians who generally know more about the US elections than I do. I’m sure those in the US are clueless that Zambia is having it’s own elections on October 30th. With the death of Mwanawasa, a new President needs to be elected within a certain number of days. Zambia has a reputation for being a peaceful country, but there have been warnings that there is potential for violence depending on the outcome of this election. One person said that the Copperbelt Province, where we live, could be especially volatile. School is closed for the boys on election day and they have given the following day off as well so that it is not necessary for anyone to go out. We will remain at home and pray that all goes well and that Zambia will remain a peaceful place.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
When it rains, it pours. Not literally, as we are back to our suffocating heat and praying for more rain to cool things down again. I mean, all of a sudden our social calendar is packed. Sunday, after teaching Sunday School to 22 children in the little classroom that I may nickname “The Sauna,” we went for lunch with friends of ours who are originally from Sri Lanka. Anita is a lovely woman who I enjoy very much. She is married and has five children, the oldest of whom is now studying at Texas A&M. They also have a Zambian foster child, Joseph. Anita’s nephew, Noyal, has been one of Peter’s students this year in the Peace program at MEF. He will be returning to Sri Lanka in a few short weeks and wanted to have us over, as well as Adrian who allowed Noyal to live with him during the weekdays. Noyal originally came to Zambia to escape the war in Sri Lanka. As he is a Tamil, it will be difficult when he returns but he is hopeful that he will be able to practice a bit of what he learned over the past year.
Immediately following lunch, I took the boys to a birthday party thrown by the South American crowd. They had a huge jumping castle type slip and slide that put our little one to shame. Then Tuesday we had a playdate with Patric and Jemma. For five hours, our four kids played hard: swimming, riding bikes, playing legos, jumping on the trampoline, etc. They were exhausted by the end of the day and we knew they would go to bed early.
Today we were supposed to have lunch with Korean missionary friends of ours, the Parks, but unfortunately, we had to cancel. Brendan had been complaining of a headache yesterday while swimming. This morning he said he felt hot and cold all night. Knowing that we are heading out of town tomorrow, we took him to the clinic right away to be tested for malaria. Sure enough, he’s got it. He has been low energy with a headache and upset stomach and an added sore throat but no vomiting . . . yet. Apparently, with malaria, everyone gets a customized version and so maybe it is just Jason who vomits with malaria. That would be nice.
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Peter is in the throes of the end of the year flurry of activity. He has been grading papers and projects, sitting in on oral defenses of these projects, listening to participants lament their grades, and preparing for graduation. The participants are eager to return home to their families, having been gone for nine months. One friend of ours, Reverend Vincent from Rwanda, is leaving directly after graduation, not staying a moment longer. I can’t imagine being separated from my family that long but it seems common here. Peter and I attended the “Graduation Ball” on Tuesday night. The only redeeming part of the evening was conversing with Rev. Vincent and Father Patrick, two of Peter’s participants. However, that even proved difficult due to the blaring music and constant squeal of the PA System. In typical MEF fashion (our friends informed me that this is not how all of Africa is), the ball was supposed to start at 6:00. A person in management specifically asked us to be there at 6:00 because they wanted to start on time. That made us choose to go at 6:30 instead of 7:00, as we had originally planned. We should have gone at 7 or even 7:30. The welcoming speeches started around 7:30 and dinner was finally served at 8. They were trying to get dancing going on the stage, not traditional African dancing but modern wiggle your hips kind of dancing. There weren’t too many takers but Peter and I still took that moment to slip out the door and go home.
This morning is MEF graduation. It was supposed to be held next Thursday, but due to the elections, it was bumped up to today. We already had MCC Team meetings in Lusaka planned for this weekend so we will hit the road immediately following the graduation ceremony. It is supposed to begin at 9 but . . . well, this is MEF after all. I had originally intended to attend but with the date change, both boys at home, Brendan running a high fever with malaria, and needing to pack up, I think I will have to miss it.
And Peter just learned that he is being sent to Harare, Zimbabwe in a week to do a peace training with youth. Next week will be a short week for us, as we have to stay in Lusaka until Monday so that we can renew our boys’ passports at the American Embassy. With the elections on Thursday and the results on Friday, everything will come grinding to a halt. We’ll see if all the travel details can be worked out in such a short time. By some miracle, it will probably work out, but it will keep us guessing until the last minute!
1 comment:
Cool trip for Brendan and Peter. What did B think of StarWars? Was it all he had hoped?!
C
Post a Comment