I drove down to Lusaka Sunday morning, and after a quick lunch, picked up Cynthia and drove out to the Chilenje Brethren in Christ church. Lucille Mudenda, host mother to Chris Taylor in 2008-2009, had heard about the African Indigenous Christian Counseling course that I conduct and so made all the arrangements to make sure it happened. Together with Pastor Soko, they invited deacons, counselors and youth leaders from the seven or so BIC churches in the Lusaka area. We had twenty-three participants for the course and they were all eager to learn and engaged with the subject material. The course consists of ten 1-hour videos with a Kenyan psychologist speaking on various topics. Following each video, we would have about half an hour of discussion. However, with only two and a half days, I summarized a few of the chapters with power point so that we could get through it all. I was pretty proud of myself for managing to set up my computer, the LCD projector, use power point and have it all work smoothly each day. That was a first for me so I had been a bit worried. It helped that the church had power every day!
It is cold season here in Zambia and Lusaka is even colder than Kitwe. The high temperature one of the days was 62F but we were in a concrete church with tile floor and it was frigid the entire time. It was also windy and overcast which made it worse. I drank many cups of tea those days to keep warm and when the training was over, I would crank up the heat in my car to thaw my frozen feet and ankles. Yes, you might say that I have acclimatized to the mild climate here so that these cold days chill me to the bone!
At the end of the training, participants received their own copies of the Christian Counseling book and DVD so that they can train others in their churches. I had also made certificates for everyone. Before the graduation, we spent some time talking about what aspects of the course were particularly helpful and how they would work at implementing these learnings into their churches. The course emphasizes the value of traditional culture, a new concept for most. Here, when you choose to be a Christian, you make a break with tradition. It is a forced choice and the two are seen as incompatible. Much of our discussion focused on what aspects of traditional Zambian culture were good or had good original purposes and how they can be used or redeemed in the church. It was exciting to see them wrestling with these new ideas and see the value once again of their traditions.
After having dinner with the Moellers the last night of the training, I went back to the MCC Guesthouse. I walked into my room and found my hairbrush handle wrapped in aluminum foil. That was curious. Then I saw the straps of my sandals covered in foil, then the suitcase handle, and finally I noticed the sticky note on my mosquito net that said, “You’ve been foiled again.” Kathy decided to take my last blog title literally and “foiled” me. I could just see her chuckling to herself as she put her plan in action. The best was my toothbrush head wrapped in foil. That made me laugh. Nice one, Kathy!
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Before heading to the airport to pick up Peter’s parents, I arranged to meet with Issa to discuss the curriculum he wanted me to be writing for the Peace Clubs. Since the only time I could come was around lunchtime, I essentially invited myself to lunch. He was delighted because that is a very Zambian thing to do. I had to laugh because he was trying so hard to be sensitive to my culture as well. When he served me a piece of chicken to eat with my nshima, he made a comment about the chicken skin. “You Americans take the skin off because you don’t need more fat but Zambians eat the skin because they need the fat.” True. Later, while we were trying to talk over the noise of the TV, I said, “Pardon?” Issa quickly replied, “I should have looked more closely at my notes. Americans like to turn the TV off during meetings.” I learned later that having the TV on is viewed as a gift for the visitor. When televisions were first coming to Zambia, there may have been only one set in a village. When people came to visit, what they really wanted was to watch your television. So when guests arrived, the television was turned on. That tradition has carried over to the present, I guess. However, it was much easier to have our conversation without the TV blaring next to my ear. I owe a big thank you to Jonathan and Cynthia who spend a lot of time with Issa and for explaining to him the differences in our cultures!
While relaxing at the guesthouse with my in-laws, Roger and Gail, another guest came to the sitting area and introduced herself as Michelle. I took one glance at her and did a double-take. I said, “Oh my goodness, are you Elena’s cousin?” Turns out that she was the cousin of one of my best friends when I was growing up. I had fun catching up with her and her family and watching the World Cup semifinal match together in the evening. It is a small Mennonite world.
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Mom and Dad and I drove up from Lusaka on Thursday morning and were glad to arrive in Kitwe mid-afternoon to big hugs and kisses from the boys. The next few days Mom and Dad recovered from their jetlag and explored the MEF campus. We also unloaded all the suitcases of goodies from them and others in the Smith family! The boys had Grandma and Grandpa playing marbles on the front porch and stone football (played with a stone on the iron sewer cover).
New football uniforms for the boys from Grandma and Grandpa
A stone football match between Jason and Grandpa
To celebrate Nathaniel’s birthday, I made angel food cake from scratch and it actually turned out well. Nathaniel was our first son who was born 11 years ago and only lived for a few days. Every year, on his birthday, we have a tradition of eating angel food cake and reflecting on his short life. Together with Grandma and Grandpa, the boys went through the memory book that I had made about Nathaniel. It was a sweet time together. Then the boys went out to play football with their friends!
In addition to Nathaniel’s birthday, it also happened to be the finals of the World Cup. We decided to have a “Spanish Fiesta” and have orange drink available for the Netherland supporters. Peter was pulling for Netherlands but Brendan and I were cheering for Spain (despite Puyol’s hair). Jason wisely chose to wait until the last minute to decide whom he would support so that he wouldn’t be disappointed. You have to give him credit for learning from experience! The boys stayed up for the duration of the game and saw Spain finally score deep into overtime. It was already quite late but they had to stay up a bit longer to see the trophy being awarded. Brendan had his camera ready to take pictures of the trophy on the television. I don’t know what we will do with ourselves now that the World Cup is over. It has been a fun month for our family, watching the games together and seeing how it all played out.
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
The morning didn’t start off so stellar with attempting to take the boys to school, only to discover that I had a flat tire. Grandpa saved the day by changing it for me. Now our white Corolla looks like every other car in Zambia with a small spare on. The other frustrating thing is that we have a major water leak in the bathroom. We kept hearing funny noises by the bathtub which Peter attributed to the many cockroaches that are scurrying in the pipes. But that didn’t account for the water that we found on the floor all the time. We were blaming our kids for splashing so much water out of the tub when they bathed but then we realized that there was water squishing up from under the tiles. It appears that we have a leak in the hot water pipe that is behind the tile wall by the tub fixtures. There is always air in the hot water pipes which leads to little to no pressure. This is difficult when we have four adults and two kids trying to maintain good hygiene. Roger and Gail have taken to washing their hair in the kitchen sink. Points for flexibility! It is going to be a major pain to fix the problem as the tub, which is cemented in, will have to be removed, the cement walls busted to get into the pipes, and the tile floor ripped up to further address the problem. We decided that we will wait until we return from our holidays to deal with that mess.
Later in the morning, Mom and Dad and I went to Lechwe for their annual end-of-year prize-giving ceremony. Both Brendan and Jason did very well in their exams (on which these awards are based) and so walked away with several certificates and prizes. Jason was awarded the certificate for the highest score in Literacy, as well as a certificate for being the best in Physical Education. Brendan scored the highest in class in Numeracy as well as the overall best performance on all the exams, earning him the Merit Award for his class. We are very proud of both of them!
Brendan with his Numeracy Certificate and book award for Merit
Jason with his teacher Ms. Lavador
I was asked to be a guest of honor and help hand out the special prizes for art and music. Then Ms. Lubamba recognized the contribution I had made to the school with the curriculum I had developed in Anger Management, Conflict Resolution, and Grief and Loss and that I taught throughout the year. She had very nice words to say about my work and it was an encouragement to me. I also received a lovely bouquet of red roses and a picture frame gift.
Thursday, July 15, 2010
At football this afternoon, Jason scored a hat trick (three goals in a match). He was very excited about his performance and made sure to tell everyone about it and exactly how each goal was scored. One was a header that went into the corner of the goal. The rest of the evening he walked around the house in a daze saying, “I can’t believe I scored a hat trick!”
It is good to have Mom and Dad Smith here visiting. Mom is fascinated with everything and eager to experience it all. She can find the good in things even when things are less than stellar. Dad, on the other hand, doesn’t mince words and says it like it is. For example, at the market, Mom was curious about everything, taking pictures and talking with vendors. Mom exclaimed, “I could just keep going back!” Dad quipped, “Once was more than enough.” Both have traveled much of the world including China, India, Philippines, Costa Rica and more. Dad said that this market was by far the poorest, dirtiest market he has been in. After church last Sunday, Mom may have had to work hard to find something positive to say but she succeeded. When I commented that it is difficult for me to be nurtured spiritually there, Dad simply said, “I can see that.” We have been processing our experience here at MEF with them and Mom notices the beauty around the campus and the potential of the institution. A summary from Dad: “It’s a mess.” It is good to witness Mom’s positive attitude and cultural fascination and maybe it will spur me on to do the same. But since I am currently in a funk that makes it hard to love Zambia, it is Dad’s words that I find validating. It has become a running joke that Dad’s realistic comments will always bring a smile to my face.
Sunday, July 18, 2010
My househelp, Peggy, cooked us a traditional Zambian meal on Friday for lunch. She had to bring her own big wooden spoon for stirring the nshima since I don’t have one. She fixed us chicken, beef, rape (an awful name for a green leafy vegetable), cabbage, and nshima. It was tasty, and filling, in fact so filling that we felt full even past dinner time. It was good going down but half of us had tummy trouble later. I was well aware of my own bathroom issues but Mom and Dad kept theirs a secret until a few days later. I am speculating that it may have had something to do with the fact that nearly 3/4 of my container of oil was used in cooking the meal.
So I elected to stay home today and let the others take a day trip to Nsobe Game Camp, about an hour away. I didn’t feel the need to torture my already rebellious stomach on the bumpy road for an hour and a half. But the rest of the family had a great day together. We have borrowed Georgi’s new truck for the next week and a half so that we can all fit along with our luggage when we go to Lusaka and South Luangwa. So they had a nice drive, enjoyed fishing at the lake and canoeing, and a picnic lunch. A special moment was when a baby bushbuck came down to the lake and was drinking quite close to them. They went on a safari drive and saw various animals (but no predators in this game camp). I’m glad they had a good day and after sleeping much of the day, I feel mostly recovered.
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
We spent yesterday packing up and preparing for a week or more on the road. Because the back of the truck could get dusty, I had packed in bins instead of suitcases. I had gathered our food for the self-catering part of our vacation and it seemed we were all set to leave in the morning for Lusaka. And then late in the day, I received a call for Georgi saying that her other car, the Land Cruiser that she was driving around, was having mechanical problems. So she needed to have her truck back so she could get the Land Cruiser fixed before their family left for Mozambique the following week. There was nothing we could do but watch her drive off in her nice big blue truck. We had to figure out what our Plan B would look like. Our car still had a small spare on it from our flat last week. We hadn’t received permission to buy new tires yet and we hadn’t felt a need to hurry given that we had the truck. But new tires were now going to be needed, especially since we would be driving long distances and we didn’t trust a repair job on the kind of roads we travel here. So the new plan entailed getting new tires the next morning and I would just take the bus down to Lusaka with some of the luggage so that the others would fit in the car together for the five hour drive. But then later in the evening, Georgi called to say that we might still have a chance at getting the truck if we could take her Land Cruiser to the mechanic the next day. She had bought an alternator, which is not always easy to find here, so the vehicle just had to be dropped off way on the other side of town and it would possibly be fixed by the end of the day, in which case we could drive the truck to on our vacation.
So that is what we did. In the morning, we went to Georgi’s out by the Kafue River to get the Land Cruiser and drove half an hour to get to the mechanic. Peter dropped me at Shoprite to buy food for the day since we had eaten all our vittles thinking we were leaving. Peter went to get new tires installed. I took a taxi home from the store, not wanting to deal with the mini-buses. The taxi driver wanted to tell me how much Jesus loved me and was ready to give me the whole spiel until I cut him off. He probably didn’t believe me that I already knew Jesus loved me. But maybe he was right and I needed reminding. When we got to the MEF road that is littered with potholes, the driver remarked, “This road is very bad. Why don’t they fix it?” “No money,” I replied. He shook his head and said, “It’s very bad.” I think the same thing every day I am driving on it but when a Zambian comments on it, then it confirms the reality of its deplorable state. There is a joke that goes, “How do you know a Zambian driver is drunk?” The answer? “He drives straight.” It’s a funny joke.
We felt a bit stalled, waiting to see if we could use the truck instead of our car, so we took a walk around the MEF compound, outside the wall. We wanted to show Mom and Dad the train tracks where the screeching train goes by. Yes, it is exciting here. In the afternoon, we sat down together and watched the movie, “Around the World in 80 Days,” which was actually highly amusing.
We finally heard back from Georgi right before dinner and the news wasn’t good. The alternator that she bought from the Toyota dealer was the wrong one (you’d think the dealer would know the right alternator but, alas, they did not) so she had to take it to someone else for further fixing. She thought maybe it would be fixed by Wednesday night but no guarantees. We made the decision to forget about the truck and proceed on our vacation with our car instead of waiting around for the truck. (Turns out it was finally in good working condition on Thursday night, making us glad that we hadn’t waited around longer.) So no truck after planning since March to use it plus all the back and forth fetching the truck and trying to get it fixed. Georgi felt bad about it, I’m sure, but what could she do? I spent the evening repacking our things in suitcases instead of bins so that we could fit in the car rather than the truck.
I felt emotional about it all. Somewhere along the way, I have lost a bit of my flexibility (what I refer to now as the F-word). I realized as I was laying in bed last night, waiting for sleep to come, that the whole sequence of events was reminiscent of last year at this time when our car was stolen. Everything was working out beautifully, we were packed and prepared, eaten the last things in our house, and ready to hit the road for an exciting holiday, when suddenly plans changed. Granted, the magnitude of not having a truck to drive is lesser than having your vehicle stolen with all your belongings, making you cancel a trip to Prague because your passports were also stolen, but my emotions recognized the parallel. Especially since we had hurried around the morning after, getting passport pictures and a change of clothes and getting to the embassy and there was a glimmer of hope that we would actually still make our flight to Prague but then they realized that Europe won’t let us enter with a temporary passport and all that effort seemed wasted. Something felt all too familiar about it. I remember feeling the same way when Brendan was born. Our first son Nathaniel lived for only a few hours, so when we were in hospital giving birth to Brendan and he developed an infection and was whisked away to the NICU, I panicked. The nurses insisted that he would be fine, seeing as how he was a strapping 9 lbs. 9 oz., otherwise healthy, baby boy. But my emotions felt like they had been down this road once before and the outcome had been none too pleasant. Once I made the connection between our car theft and our current situation, and was able to sort through those feelings and recognize the differences, my emotional state stabilized. Thank heavens for that. It’s no fun starting off on vacation feeling weepy.
I’m still trying to sort pictures and blog about our safari holiday so you will have time to recover from reading this long blog entry before you are assailed with another! Expect to receive “Safari with the Smiths” in a short while!
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