End of Holidays

Sunday, August 8, 2010
Jason discovered a new game this afternoon. He has dubbed it “Bouncy Cockroach.” This innovative game involves a small bouncy ball, one cockroach, and a bathtub. Luckily, we have all three so it works well. The second we have in great supply currently. Last Tuesday, the MEF plumbers began working on our bathroom water leak so they knocked out a large hole in the brick wall that encloses our tub. From there they were able to get in and replace the leaking pipes (this took four days with a big mess but I am not complaining because complaining is not in my AAP). Hopefully, next week a wooden frame will be made to cover the hole which will give them access if future leaks occur (doesn’t inspire a lot of confidence, does it?). The cockroaches were having a heyday in the moist darkness under the tub and now they had free access to the rest of the bathroom. Peter had the brilliant idea of leaving the bathroom light on at night so fewer cockroaches would emerge from the darkness, and I matched his brilliance with closing the bathroom door and putting a towel along the bottom to prevent them roaming throughout the house. We are quite a team, I tell you. Peter sprays “Doom” in the hole at night and the cockroaches come out to die, which is disgusting and somewhat satisfying when you find lots of dead cockroaches first thing in the morning.

Back to Jason’s game . . . he discovered that it is quite fun when there is a live roach in the tub who can’t escape and you have a little bouncy ball that you can aim at it. Always the competitor, we could hear him cheering in the bathroom when he hit a leg. It was a free shot when the roach got stuck in the drain. The way he is so animated when he tells about the game, it seems marketable. I’m sure he wouldn’t mind if others played the game wherever they are too.

Tuesday, August 10, 2010
My Attitude Adjustment Plan (AAP) continues. I received encouragement from a friend to spend time in reflection, perhaps by reading over my journal entries from the last three years to see where God has been at work. Nouwen echoed these same thoughts, saying that meaning comes from reflection. Part of my problem has been that the meaning of what we are doing here has been severed from our actual work and so reflection can help bring the two together again.

The pastor from our home church also wrote a well-timed email, encouraging me not to be too hard on myself. He recognizes that it is easy to lose our spiritual footing in challenging assignments overseas. He went on to say this, talking of Richard Rohr who was a mentor to him:
“Rohr speaks of a "spirituality for the two halves of our life." In the first half, our spirituality growth revolves around the multitude of possibilities that lie before us, the open horizons in our life. In the second half, our spiritual growth centers more around the narrowing of those possibilities and the acceptance of where life has taken us. Spiritual growth in each stage is different and, reading your words, makes me wonder whether you are now teetering between the two stages, moving from one into the other and if your spiritual journey and growth might eventually look and be somewhat different that your spiritual growth has been in the first half of your life.”

This has given me more to ponder, especially as I will be turning forty next year and transitioning to what will come after our assignment with MCC. All of it is converging at the same time and must have some affect on me.

These two emails from friends were encouraging but also highlighted the lack of spiritual community that we have here in Kitwe. This is something we really miss, people to worship and serve with, that remind you of what you are doing and why you are doing it. I'm sure God is still at work, but God knew something was good about having people around you to walk with and encourage you. So now I am surrounding myself with the likes of Henri Nouwen and Anne LaMott and that helps a bit. But I am looking forward to being part of a church community again that may nurture my withered soul.

Thursday, August 12, 2010
In the midst of the chaos of the last two months with Mukunto’s daughter dying and then Mukunto and Audrey leaving for Addis Ababa and then on to Costa Rica for education, things have been a bit stressful for Peter. It has not helped that the Director was sacked. Because the management had decided to send the students home, no arrangements were made for field work. But when the Board overturned this decision, Mukunto was already gone, so handling field work was left to Peter. Trying to find month long placements for four students, plus housing, is a daunting task, especially for Peter who doesn’t have the contacts here in Zambia. This is a huge burden for him. Field work has been pushed off since it hasn’t come together, but that means that classes that were scheduled for later in the year have to be shifted forward. So Peter is now teaching next week and the following week unexpectedly.

But at least he doesn’t have to teach the two weeks following that. In the middle of everything, Peter was receiving emails from a woman who was asking to do an internship at the Peace Center. Peter was understandably hesitant to accept an intern when the Peace Center basically consisted of Peter and four students and not much else happening. He tried to discourage her from coming but she was persistent. As it turns out, this may have been God at work. Selina is in a masters program in peacebuilding from
Africa University in Zimbabwe. She is competent and eager to teach the courses that Mukunto would have taught. This will greatly lighten Peter’s teaching load and he will only need to teach his own courses now, as well as supervise the research projects and mark them. It is nice for him to have someone else in the office, someone who has ideas and can collaborate with Peter on the issues that arise. This is God’s provision in an unexpected way and we are thankful.

Tuesday, August 17, 2010
It is official . . . Peter is finally finished with his doctorate and has been awarded his PhD. We received the final invoice to prove it! His dissertation has been bound and necessary copies have been made. We have been celebrating all along the way: when his proposal was accepted, when chapters were finished, when it was submitted, when he defended it, when revisions were sent the first time (and the second time), and now when it is finally all finished. Hooray!

We went out to pizza as a family to celebrate the end of that era, toasting Peter’s diligence, persistence and brilliance, and reaching the finish line. Well done, Peter!

Now we will see what use he will make of this PhD. He is qualified now to teach Systematic Theology/Ethics and will see if there are any colleges or universities that will recognize the good things he has to offer an educational institution. And if teaching in that venue doesn’t pan out, God will make use of his gifts and talents elsewhere.

Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Ricotta cheese and cottage cheese are difficult to find here in Kitwe. I have bought it in Lusaka on occasion, but it isn’t cheap. I did see ricotta cheese the other day at Bippos, a small store in Kitwe that caters to ex-pats, but it was $6 for a small container. Kelly, an MCC friend who attended API this year, had told me how to make ricotta cheese and I had written down the recipe but had never given it a try. Until now. And I must say, it is embarrassingly easy to make ricotta cheese. Heat whole milk until frothy. Add a glug of vinegar. Stir while it curdles. Strain. It cost me $2 to make the same amount. Guess who isn’t buying ricotta cheese anymore. I’ve heard this is basically “paneer,” the cheese used in Indian food so it looks like I have even more things to make with it. This time, I made a delicious vegetarian lasagna that was to die for.

Wednesday, August 25, 2010
At lunchtime on Monday, Peter gave me a piece of paper with the number “2” on it. It was a clue but no more information was forthcoming. The dinner number was 10,519,200. Yesterday, I continued to receive a number with each meal. Breakfast was a more manageable number: 7,305. Lunch brought the largest number yet with 631,152,000. I was left to guess what the numbers meant because no explanation was forthcoming. 240 was the dinner number and I was still clueless as to the meaning of these numbers. This morning at breakfast, I received the number 20 and a thought popped into my head. I asked Peter if the numbers were related to how long we have known each other and I was correct. He brought out the last number, which was to come at lunch but since I made my brilliant guess, I got it early: 175,320.

It was . . .
2 decades
20 years
240 months
7,305 days
175,320 hours
10, 519,200 minutes
631,152,000 seconds
. . . ago that Peter and I met for the first time. Peter handed me a golf ball as a reminder of the place where our paths first crossed, at Blackbeards Mini-Golf in Fresno, the night before the new semester started at Fresno Pacific College. A lovely letter came with lunch, highlighting the details of that first encounter, written with Peter’s usual literary humor. Twenty good years together. Here’s hoping to at least another twenty more.

Peppernuts in August? At least the date was right, the 25th, but we were four months early. Jason has been asking for peppernuts and since Patric and Jemma were over for a playdate and I had extra hands to roll out the dough and cut it (and eat it), we had the taste of Christmas in August. It was a hit.

When it rains it pours . . . today was the day for lots of visitors. Georgi came to fetch her kiddies right at lunch so she joined us. She has heard for two years from her kids about “pizza buns” that they eat at our house for lunch and today she finally got to see them and eat them for herself. Masitsa, a Kenyan participant in the peace program came by for a two hour visit in afternoon. Then Selina, the new Peace Center intern, dropped by to say she was back from her trip to Zimbabwe, where she had to register for her internship in person. You can’t register on-line and fees must be paid in cash. They used to allow for bank transfers and such, but Mugabe “borrowed” whatever money the university had in the bank and they learned their lesson. It is cash only now.

Masitsa left me with a verse today: 1 Peter 5:10. It reads, “And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.” A promise to cling to.

Thursday, August 26, 2010
We have been going round and round with Brendan regarding piano this coming year. He has been adamant that he doesn’t want to play. We think it is important for him to be well-rounded and to continue with something and to be able to excel at it. He is very sensitive to being forced into an activity he doesn’t love and thus we have come to loggerheads many times. After one of our soured discussions on the topic, Peter suggested that he and I pray about it. So we have been. We also asked Brendan to be praying about it, that God would give us all wisdom on the subject. Then we didn’t talk about it again for a week or two. One morning I had the idea that maybe Brendan would like to learn guitar, and since MCC has a guitar that is not in use this year, we could borrow it for him to be able to practice at home. This would meet our need for him to be involved in learning music and his need to try something new. He was open to this idea. He asked me to talk to Mr. Kaara, the new music teacher at Lechwe, a Kenyan with dreadlocks who really inspires confidence. I knew that Brendan was intrigued by him and was glad he was open to lessons from him (though when I had suggested earlier he take piano from Mr. Kaara, he flatly refused). When I talked with Mr. Kaara, he suggested that he do both piano and guitar with Brendan, building on the hard work in piano he did last year, while still introducing the guitar. I told him Brendan’s stance on piano but Mr. Kaara said he would talk to Brendan alone that week and see if they could work something out. When I relayed this info to Brendan, he reiterated that he would NOT be doing piano. I asked him to keep an open mind and listen to what Mr. Kaara would say but also insert his own ideas and opinions. I prayed so hard in the intervening days that there would be a positive outcome. This morning, before the conversation between Mr. Kaara and Brendan was to take place, Brendan made an off-hand comment, saying, “Maybe I could do piano and guitar.” Praise be to God! They had a good conversation and I think things are off on the right foot!

Saturday, August 28, 2010
Eeeesh. What a horrid night. Vivian, the secretary to the MEF director, and our neighbor across the road, has a daughter who is getting married next week. Last night, the Chimbusa was held at their house. (The Chimbusa is the all night woman’s gathering that includes a lot of drumming, singing, dancing, and “preparation for the marriage bed.”) The festivities began around 10 p.m. and didn’t stop until 7 this morning. Usually there are three drummers and I would guess at least fifty ladies were there, maybe more. All of us had trouble sleeping, even the boys, which is unusual. My AAP only gave a meager showing: a handful of times in the nine hours of disrupted sleep I remembered that this was an important and festive occasion for Vivian, a widow, whose daughter is getting married. She was surrounded by her friends, teaching her daughter how to be a good wife the traditional way. But the majority of the time I had alternating visions of machine guns mowing down the dancing ladies and machetes slitting the tops of each drum.

Monday, August 30, 2010
The new school year starts tomorrow. The holidays are over. How did we spend the last month? Here is a snapshot:

1. I have been using every spare minute to write mental health curriculum for schools. The new one is “Respect Yourself” and incorporates self-esteem, peer pressure, safe touch (sexual abuse), as well as drugs and alcohol. I was also attempting to put my trauma material into lessons that could be used by the secondary school Peace Clubs in Lusaka. Both projects were finished by the deadline so that feels good. I was to train the teachers last Friday but found out the night before that it was postponed until today. Typical but somehow I had forgotten about that possibility and was caught off guard.
2. Brendan and Jason have been playing football at Lechwe two mornings a week. They have a good coach who has taught them lots of skills. Jason has been keeping track of the goals he has scored this month, and he is in the high twenties. He is always very excited when he scores a hattrick (3 goals) and once he even scored a double hattrick. It hasn’t always been as fun for Brendan, as the coach has seemed to favor the young boys, always playing the young against the old and the coach plays on the young boys team. But overall, it has been a good part of the holidays.
3. Brendan will soon pass me by in terms of what he knows how to do on the computer. He makes photo books on iphoto, makes music on “Garage Band,” and can make pictures using Excel. Jason mostly uses the computer to watch the “Waka Waka” music video with Shakira, because it shows football clips and all his favorite players. That song will certainly epitomize this season of our lives!
4. We’ve been reading a lot as a family, including historical church fiction by Louise Vernon, Artemis Fowl, and other shorter books.
5. The boys spend most of the day outside, playing with the hordes of kids that seem to gravitate to our front yard. We banned the “big kids,” those older than 11, from playing football in our yard because there just isn’t room. So now they play a game called “Bonga,” which is something like kickball but involves calling out numbers and running around the yard. There is always lots of yelling and kids screaming “awe” which means “no” in Bemba. Sometimes they get chased from that game too, and told to go to the pitch (the football field) where there is more room. To escape the kids in our yard, sometimes the boys go over to the neighbor’s place, which has a gate and only a select few are allowed inside. It is Ramadan for our Muslim neighbors and even Yahya (9) and Naila (12) are not allowed to leave the yard to play. So Brendan and Jason go there to hang out, climb trees, and listen to the visiting cousins from Congo speak French to each other.
6. Jason thinks I am cruel because I won’t allow him to go out and play before 8:30 a.m. I think this is reasonable since he will be out until 6 p.m. with a break for lunch and a short video. I have been using that time in the morning for several projects. We went through a Social Studies book that my sister-in-law sent from the States, to help them learn a bit about American civil society. For two weeks we did timed multiplication table tests. If they beat their own score from the previous day, they got to choose an extra treat from the “sugar bowl” after lunch. The last few days, we have been reading a book on sex education from a biblical perspective. That has made them squirm a bit but it also gave us the opportunity to talk about some important issues and for them to ask questions they hadn’t brought up previously.
7. I have also been trying to research and buy airline tickets for our trip to South Africa in December. MCC is having their regional retreat in Johannesburg this year and we are adding on a week in Cape Town. My parents will also be at the retreat, with my dad as the resource speaker, and then we will all vacation together in Cape Town. We were very thankful to find a self-catering house in Fish Hoek for the week, given that only two out of the fifteen places I inquired at had any availability!
8. We have been enduring more power outages than usual this month. It seems that Zesco is doing maintenance on Sundays because we have been without electricity most Sundays this month. Usually, the power is cut from mid-morning until about 16:00. But one time it was off until nearly 20:00. The benefit of this happening on Sundays is that we are forced to take a Sabbath from our computers and spend time reading, playing games, and eating simple meals.

The cold season is over, and the hot season is upon us. The Jacaranda trees are in bloom, their purple blossoms bringing color to the dusty brown of Zambia after five months with no rain. Next will come the fiery red flowers on the flamboyant trees in October, followed by the yellow blooms on the tree which I still don’t know the name of in November. The exquisite Frangipani trees are also starting to flower. I have to keep thinking how I love these trees in bloom and that will get me through the dreaded hot season, until the rains come in November, bringing moisture and cooler temperatures.