Troubles . . . and praises

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen . . .

The last few weeks have had their share of troubles:

1. I got a bee sting on my forearm and for a week, I had a reaction the size of a half-dollar.
2. Brendan got his first (known) bout of worms. It started out looking like a rug burn just below his shoulder on his arm. The next day it had turned into a small crater. It was itchy and painful so I took him to the MEF nurse who said it looked like worms and so she gave us all de-worming pills. She couldn’t tell me exactly what kind of worm it was so I did internet research on worms which was totally horrible and made me more anxious. I kept waiting for a giant worm to pop his head out and I would have to slowly by slowly wrap it around a pencil, the length of it possibly reaching three feet. But no head came out and it seemed to go away. But there remains a half-moon of scab that is not going away. Makes me wonder if the worm truly died or not.
3. The dentist elected not to give me a root canal, though he thought it was a borderline case. My tooth now has a permanent filling, but every once in awhile, there is a tingle which suggests that there still may be a root canal in my future. Oh goody.
4. Shoprite (the only major supermarket in town) went on strike for a week, leaving me to shop at the market and this high-end little store that had the potential to blow my food and household budget very quickly.
5. The first two weeks of API, we had electricity issues, with the power being cut for one reason or another quite a bit. The second week, the water issues began. MEF water works is in dire straits and is having trouble pumping water into the tower with their one remaining pump. Usually, MEF’s water troubles don’t affect us because we have a ground tank that can store the water when it is turned on. But for some reason, no water was getting into the ground tank either. So we were dependent on MEF water, the few hours that it is turned on each day. It also meant no hot water since we have to have a full ground tank to pump into our tower, which is the only way to get water into our hot water geyser. So it was back to boiling water for baths and dishes, storing water in big buckets, and praying for the water to come back on when I have used our whole supply and am trying to cook dinner. It feels like we have returned to where we started four years ago.
6. Last Friday, the busiest day of API for Peter as it is graduation and the participants are preparing to leave, our fridge bit the dust, with a bit of help from our househelp who was attempting to defrost the fridge but ran into a few problems. We were leaving in two days for a week and a half on the road for work, so there wasn’t too much in there but I still had to figure out what to do with my freezer things. Thankfully, Ann across the road let me store a few things in her freezer. The guest wing next door didn’t have an occupant and since we had the key from the last guest lecturer to stay there, we used the little fridge in there for the time being. Upon leaving, Adrian let us keep a few things in his fridge while we were gone. We checked but MEF doesn’t have a spare fridge that we can use for the next two months. Peter found a guy who thinks he can repair it and Adrian is kind enough to help us with that while we are away. Things are continually breaking and since we have only two months, we have to discern which things are worth fixing. I don’t think I can live without a fridge for two months. Peter had to replace the mixer on the tub/shower (the third one in four years!) because it was completely stripped and the hot water wouldn’t turn off. Our electric kettle is having problems as well, so that you have to hold down the button the whole time to make it work, but I can live with that even if it is inconvenient. Things fall apart . . . as one famous African author wrote.

. . . GLORY, HALLELUJAH!

But there have been some good things to balance out the troubles:

1. Busy Weekend: After months and perhaps even years, of an empty social calendar, sometimes we get these spurts where it all comes at once. Peter took the API participants to the Dag Hammerskjold crash site while I stayed home with the kids. Tsunami, the 8 year old Aussie girl that recently moved here, came over to play with Jason for most of the day. They spent the day painting and using their imagination playing pirates. I didn’t know Jason remembered doing anything besides playing football. So this got him off his football obsession, although his paintings were still soccer related. Tsunami says that she and Jason are really the same: they both think about only one thing. She loves Julie Andrews and can talk for hours about her and Jason only has soccer on the brain. Pretty perceptive of her.

Christine and Diana (Ugandan participants) came over in the afternoon to mix gingersnap cookies, that then had to chill. Maria, Heather and Michael joined our group and we played Dutch Blitz and other card games until dinner. Maria joined us for dinner but then was off to a birthday party on campus that apparently was pretty racy.

The next morning, Peter was awoken by an early phone call from the API facilitator who was to fly that morning from Kenya and teach that week. He wasn’t allowed on the plane because the ticket hadn’t been paid for. MEF had ten days to deliver the check to the travel agent but somehow couldn’t make that happen. So Peter spent the rest of the morning running around and trying to figure out that mess. Joan Alty and her son Michael (both here for API) joined us for a lunch of salads and zweibach, a welcome change from the chicken and nshima they were eating every day. As they were walking out the door, Diana, Christine and Heather arrived to bake the cookies. Our final visitors of the day were Ryan and Molly, who stopped by to visit a little and collect the apples I had purchased for them at the market. Whew!

2. Birthday sleepover: Unfortunately for Jason, here in Zambia his birthday always falls on the school term break. He turns 8 on April 15 but we decided to celebrate a bit early. He had his heart set on a sleepover with two of his best schoolmates. One schoolmate was leaving for South Africa but we found another friend who could take his place. So on the last day of the term, Gregory and Thabo came home from school with us and the three had a great time playing legos and football. Jason wanted a football birthday cake so I did my best and he seemed appreciative.

Gregory had malaria so he only stayed for the afternoon and went home before dinner. But Thabo spent the night with Jason in the guest bed. After watching a late movie together, they were so tired they went straight to bed instead of running around, giggling, annoying Brendan, and slamming doors (something we had begun to associate with sleepovers). We will do a family birthday celebration on his birthday but he was happy to have this special party with his friends now.

Gregory, Jason, and Thabo

3. Mindolo Dam: On the third weekend of API, Peter arranged an outing for the group to go to Mindolo Dam for a braai (BBQ). This year, the boys and I decided to tag along. The boys found a few guys to play football with them, while the rest of us spun on the merry-go-round until we felt sick, and visited with each other. It was a good day and helped the boys to get to know the API participants this year a bit better.

4. API graduation

In the midst of our fridge issues, Peter managed to pull off a stellar API graduation. The participants were very engaged and creative this year. Some of them put together a slide show which Peter ran during the graduation. Brendan and Jason even attended the graduation this year, as they felt closer to some of the participants this year. It was a fun group and a good way to end our experience of leading and teaching Africa Peacebuilding Institute these past four years.

We are on our way now to Choma in Southern Province for a Leadership Conference for the Brethren in Christ Churches where Peter will give two talks and I will do likewise. I will give you an update on these events next time.