We were so thankful to have Georgi’s truck to use because it seemed we were traveling a lot over the past week. After spending the night in Lusaka, we drove another four hours down to Choma where our team meetings were held. Jason was reunited with his sweet friend, Talya, and they ate every meal together. I was doing “tease control” with the other kids because comments were flying every which way. The country reps from all of Southern Africa were also present as they were having their regional meetings at the same time. We got to know James and Joan Alty who are the reps for Swalesa and discovered James knows my Uncle Edwin from Niverville. I was also glad for the chance to reconnect with Cheryl Hochstetler-Shirk, whom I had met at the Regional Retreat in December 2007. I had nice conversations with Marcellin and Esther, reps from Zimbabwe. We had time to visit with the Moellers as we were staying at the same place, and made space to visit with the Sanfilippos. We took a day trip out to Macha Mission Hospital and got a tour of their facilities. We heard a very interesting presentation on HIV/AIDS from Dr. John Spurrier who has been serving with the BIC church at the hospital for decades. In the afternoon, we toured the small Macha area and ended up at the Sanfilippo residence. Having never been there before, I now can picture them in their own cute place that they have fixed up so beautifully.
Talking to Dr. Spurrier in front of Macha Mission HospitalOur family returned to Lusaka, where we had an outing to the dentist (no cavities, hooray!) and to the movie theater (saw the Tooth Fairy which had the boys laughing). After a bit of shopping Saturday morning, to pick up the items not available in Kitwe, we drove home. We had the next morning to unpack, shop, and do laundry before picking up Bruno and Lois Baerg, the Regional Directors for Southern Africa, from the bus station. They hadn’t been up to Kitwe yet and we were pleased to host them. They are delightful people, so easy to converse with, and so encouraging. We’ve had other chances to be with the Baergs but only this time did we realize that they knew some of my family in Saskatoon. It was a quick visit but we were glad to have hosted them.
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Remember the bad potholes I described on the road from the MEF gate out to the main road? The road where I said you had to choose between avoiding people and avoiding the potholes? A truck made the wrong choice and avoided the pothole, but hit and killed a young lady walking to her teachers training college. So sad. The potholes were filled with dirt two days later.
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Jason is now officially seven years old! He has been anticipating the big day for several weeks now and every morning at six he is at my bedside whispering how many days are left until his birthday. And then he always says, even though he knows it is futile, “I wish I could have Coco Pops today.” One of our birthday traditions is that the birthday boy gets to choose a sugar cereal and have it for breakfast on his birthday and in the coming days. Jason’s choice was Coco Pops and I bought them in Lusaka because they are hit and miss here. So he knew I had them and he figured he might be able to wear me down by asking for them each and every morning. But I prevailed and he waited until his actual birthday for his special birthday cereal. In the afternoon, we made cupcakes to share with all the MEF kids but we didn’t do an actual party. We were preparing for a birthday party with school friends on Saturday that was enough of a headache, that we didn’t feel we could do both. Yet we didn’t want to ignore the neighborhood friends so we came up with the compromise.
For his birthday meal, Jason wanted to go out for pizza at the Greek Club, since we heard it was very tasty and we hadn’t tried it yet. So we headed for the Greek Club, along with Adrian, and ordered our drinks and looked at the menu. When the drinks came, the waiter said, “Oh, and by the way, we don’t have pizza tonight.” Are you kidding me? That was the whole reason we came. Apparently they didn’t have any cheese. The waiter even went so far as to say there was no cheese in Kitwe. I had noticed the serious cheese shortage but I figured restaurants must have a secret stash of mozzarella somewhere. I guess not. Without opening our cans of soda, we left that place in a hurry, ready to try our luck at Mona Lisa’s, the place we usually go for pizza. Sure enough, they had cheese so we were able to get Jason’s birthday pizza after all. Whew!
Because Jason’s birthday always falls in the middle of the term holidays, we have to plan ahead and get invitations out to classmates before school ends. But that means there is a two week lag time between handing out the invites and the actual party. This is not good because people don’t seem to plan ahead much here. In addition to that, no one usually RSVPs despite being requested to do so. Most kids throw huge parties and invite the whole class so it doesn’t matter who comes and who doesn’t. But that is a bit out of our league so we do smaller parties with activities and a bit of structure instead of letting the kids run around like chickens with their heads cut off. We gave out seven invites but heard back from no one. Two days before the party, I ran into a mother and she assured me her kid was coming. One confirmed kid does not a party make so I was getting a bit nervous. The boys were attending extra football lessons all week so we brought four more invitations and gave them out to football friends, knowing at least that they were in town. Saturday afternoon came and I was praying we would have more than one kid and less than eight since that is how many party bags I had. In the end, nine kids turned up and I was able to stick the goodies for two brothers in one bag. Whew again!
Jason had wanted a football birthday party so Peter came up with different drills and games that they could do together. Much of the time, they just played football in the front yard and had a great time. I had almost passed out in Shoprite that morning due to a certain medication I was taking. It said dizziness was a possible side effect and they weren’t kidding. So Peter was my hero and ran the party while I took pictures and got the food ready. The power was off much of the morning, while I was lying in bed with the room spinning, but it came on in time for me to make the birthday cake. Jason was thrilled because Francisco, a Brazilian boy who is in Grade 5, came to the party. That is big stuff for a second grader.
We were exhausted by the end of the afternoon, normal for parents throwing a birthday party, I assume. But we were also a little irritated. One parent had dropped her kids off for the party an hour early because they had a lunch date. They just walked in and then asked if it was OK. What can you say? We made it clear to them that the party was ending at 4:30 since, on a previous occasion, they dropped off their kids in the morning and then left town and didn’t come back until eight hours later, even though we said our project would only take two hours or so. They were prompt in picking up their boys from the party but a different kid stayed an extra hour and a half waiting for his driver to come fetch him. I guess it is just different cultures and different views of time.
But Jason was a happy seven year old and enjoyed his party so that is what truly matters!
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Our friends, Brent and Erin, have their parents visiting them from Spokane, WA and since they live so close to Peter’s parents, they graciously agreed to bring a suitcase from the Smiths to us. We were all so excited as we sorted through a fifty pound suitcase full of gifts and snacks and books and love. Peter’s dad had recently gone to Costa Rica on a missions trip and had brought back football jerseys for the boys.
These are my favorite lines the boys said upon seeing the contents of the suitcase:
Brendan: "Life suddenly just got a lot better! You don't get this much cool stuff every day.”
Jason: "With Costa Rica shirts and goalie gloves, we are going to be 'bad news'!"
There were so many amazing things in the suitcase that we will continue to enjoy for a long time. But I think one of the greatest gifts was a Patrick McManus book for Peter. He has been quite down the past few weeks, the troubles and problems here at MEF weigh on him because he wants to do good work and be part of an organization he believes in but that is not always easy here. But he picked up that book and a smile came to his face. When we were first married, we read McManus aloud to each other and laughed so much. He opened the book and I told him he had to read it aloud so I could enjoy it too. For the next forty minutes, he read and laughed so hard he was crying. Sometimes I couldn't even understand what he was saying because he was disintegrating into laughter. He would wipe away the tears and sigh, "Good Golly." And then he would attempt to keep reading but would burst into laughter again. I was laughing with him, but mostly I was laughing at him, finding his giggles contagious. He really needed to laugh so we are thankful to Mom and Dad for providing the perfect medium to make that happen.
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Yesterday I put in eleven hours of work for the Lechwe PTA. The wife of a board member, who is also a member of the Hindu Society of Kitwe, came up with the idea to have a family fun night as a fundraiser for the PTA. As a businesswoman in Kitwe, she is well connected and she was able to get Pepsi to donate drinks, a Greek family who owns a bakery to make moussaka and baklava to sell, Indian women to make samosas and curries, and others to donate paper goods, tables, chairs, alcohol, etc. It was the job of the PTA to run the event. So I spent three hours in the morning helping to set up the event, then returned at 4:30 to finish last minute preparations before guests arrived at six. The big entertainment was that there was going to be three rounds of Tambola, which I learned is pretty much an Indian version of bingo. We needed 200 pencils sharpened for that and since we received an electric pencil sharpener (one of the best inventions EVER) in the suitcase of goodies, Peter and the boys came early to do a lot of sharpening. I ran the ticket booth from 7:30 until nearly 11:00. When it came time to purchase tickets for the next round of Tambola, it was mayhem around our table. Have I ever mentioned that people here don’t know how to form lines? Yeah, that bothers me. The last few Russians left at 11:30 and we finished cleaning up by 12:30. It was a long day but we made a lot of money.
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
This morning I dropped off Heidi and Mario at the bus station to go back to Lusaka. Heidi is from Virginia and here for one year with the MCC SALT program. Mario is from Indonesia and here for one year with the MCC YAMEN program. It was good to have them in our home and show them Kitwe.
It is the start of a new term and therefore the start of a new mental health curriculum for Lechwe. This term I have the primary grades looking at Grief and Loss. I held an inservice with the primary teachers on Friday afternoon. It went well with lots of discussion and laughter, despite the serious topic. Monday morning, I was asked to teach the Grade 6 class since they were worried about Justine, the girl whose mother was murdered a year ago. I enjoyed teaching the lesson and hearing their thoughts on grief. I emphasized that we all have losses, from friends who move away to pets that die to family members that are killed. Justine was talkative but so was the rest of the class and they focused on writing in their Grief and Loss journal at the end. Tuesday morning, one of the Grade 1 teachers asked if I wanted some feedback on her lesson. I admit to being a bit worried but with a huge grin, she said they had a terrific lesson. She even said that she brought up a bit about anger management, which they studied in October, and they remembered a lot from that. So that was very encouraging. Tonight and tomorrow afternoon, I will meet with parents. The notices went out in a timely fashion so that is good but we didn’t do RSVPs so we will just see who shows up.
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