Well, this blog has become incredibly boring very quickly lately… I still don’t have Internet sorted out, since I don’t know whether I’ll be moving yet or not. A temporary or more than temporary solution might be Internet through a bluetooth cellphone, once I can get a cellphone contract in October, so I am trying to remain calm until at least then… Please be patient with me!
A snake in the grass September 8, 2008
Yesterday, after 3 or 4 times that she either overslept or cancelled on me over the last months, Claudia finally went to church with me. She and Rosalina are both Catholic (it remains a bit of a mystery with me how they ended up in a Pentecostal cell group) and even though I know one visit to an evangelical church will probably not have a miraculous effect, I really do want to try and subtly expose her to better theology… Shortly after Dr Woodrow started preaching, I noticed a small, thin snake enter the back of the church behind him (which is, after all, just a pole-and-bamboo structure) and seemed to crawl either into a hollow block, or between the cement blocks that form the preaching platform. I was curious to see what would happen (I didn’t think it could be very dangerous, being so small), and after about 5 minutes Claudia next to me, and Kent in the row in front of us, became slightly agitated. I couldn’t see, but the snake was crawling up onto the platform. It then went outside, though, and by the time Dr Woodrow noticed the excitement and asked what was going on, he was just like, “A snake? Outside? Okay,” and went right on preaching! The message was a review of a series of messages Dr Woodrow did last year on Christian love, and a painful reminder of how little effort one makes most of the time to intentionally show love to others. The service was otherwise remarkable for having a “record” number of Mozambican women present – Claudia, our regular widow, and 2 married ladies who have recently started attending with their husbands. Could our composition finally be becoming more balanced?
After the service we had lunch at my house and a bit of a visit, it’s so cool that gradually small and not-so-small talk in Portugues is becoming easier. I was glad for a few hours of peace and quiet before going to the missionary fellowship at SIL though. Angie and Allison will be there all week, since SIL is having its bi-annual (I think) conference. I went over there to hang out a bit on Saturday afternoon, and will probably miss them a bit, but I never complain too much about having the place to myself! The service was really nice – the youth group did the music and an SIL member from Botswana (they’re the only SIL people in the whole of Botswana) delivered the message. The kids have become really good at the music and it’s such a blessing, it’s strange how starved one can become for good, meaningful worship in song! The evening was only upset a bit by coming home and having no guard… After making Allison phone around unsuccessfully for an SIL guard to come, the guard finally pitched up at 19h30 – he had had to take his sick son to the hospital. I was glad he could come in the end! Today is a national holiday, as yesterday was the anniversary of the signing of the Lusaka agreements, and although I have a lot of work I can do, it’s as always a treat to be at home and be able to catch up on some other things as well.
Internet trouble and other matters September 4, 2008
The problem with falling behind on one’s blog is that it’s so hard to get back into it in a meaningful way, not simply cramming more than a week’s happenings into as small a space as possible. Here goes…
The major excitement in our lives the past two weeks has been the visit of Angie’s parents, Ipper and Toni Collens. After a mix-up with their flight they finally arrived in Nampula at 11h00 on the 26th, and are leaving again this coming Sunday, the 7th. The two of them and Angie have been staying in one of the houses on the SIL centre (not exactly any place to put them where we are) but we have been able to lunch with them a few times – and I was particularly delighted to get the goodies that they brought for me, a few necessities someone in SA organized for me, as well as some books I ordered online and had had shipped to them. This past Saturday we decided to combine a visit with them with an early celebration of Allison’s birthday (it’s actually the 7th), and I suggested we go to Nairucu, since neither Allison nor Angie had been there. I guess for some people lunching at Nairucu is so mundane by now, but when you usually don’t have a car and then have the thrill of having organized transport, as well as that of simply doing something new, it can still be exciting! In the end, Toni wasn’t feeling well and the two other friends we had asked along couldn’t make it, so it was just the four of us. Having Ipper there was lots of fun though – he takes great photos, and asked me to stop a few times on the drive over there so that he could photograph the distinctive iselbergs along that road. He is also a keen birdwatcher, and was armed with binoculars and a book on birds of Africa. The fairly familiar surroundings were given a new dimension by really noticing the birds for the first time. Unfortunately we have been in the dry season for a while now and the lake was somewhat empty and the surroundings a bit dusty, but it was still beautiful and we all enjoyed ourselves.
Workwise things are slower than I thought they would be a few weeks ago, but someone should really shoot me the next time I complain. The application for the renewal of the building permit is apparently slowly making its way to the top of the pile the officials are working through, so we can do nothing but wait. Two containers full of building material have left Johannesburg, we don’t know whether they have left Durban, and at any rate no real building can be done while we have no permit. Workers are making cement building blocks, though, breaking rocks etc, and Mike is finding different projects to keep him occupied. As for me, in the next weeks I will be helping to draw up contracts for all the guys who have only been working part-time until now, since the labour department has been breathing down our necks and making all sorts of trouble. So at the moment I am trying to become acquainted with the labour law… Today I finally mailed the latest Projecto books, so that feels like a tiny accomplishment.
My life here would apparently not be normal without some sort of crisis occurring intermittently. On Saturday evening, quite early, before 20h00 anyway, my Internet cable (which ran down from the roof along the outside of the building) was cut and the antenna stolen! Aside from the immediate annoyance of having no ready Internet access, this could potentially be very expensive, since with the company I am with, you hire the antenna as part of your contract, but are then responsible for it. I am praying that the people who stole it will be foolish enough to try and use it, in which case Teledata will be able to trace it. Otherwise I’m not sure what exactly I am going to do… Uncertainty seems to be the name of the game at the moment, as we are also thinking and praying about the possibility of moving. Friends of ours may be moving out of their lovely 3-bedroom apartment at the end of the year – but, depending on their other arrangements, they may not. I and Allison really want to move if we can, but Angie is not keen on it at all. Instead of a boring report of all the deliberation up to now, suffice it to say that we can do nothing but relax and trust the Lord to show us whether it is His will for us to move, and whether it will be this apartment or not, and to work everything out financially for us. Our living situation and financial expenditure also keep being factors that will determine whether it is practical and affordable for me to eventually get a car. The final cherry on the cake is that my friends Henri and Melanie van der Walt are moving to Muapula, probably in October, which means that at the end of September Henri should be coming to fetch the stuff that various people had stored with them. I am very happy that we can buy some electrical appliances from them, but a bit put out as I think about all the silly little kitchen things that I now will have to get.
Becoming upset about this isn’t going to help anything though, and as for the apartment matter, I think I tend to become a bit fixated on what I perceive to be an ideal resolution of a situation. I often cope with this kind of stress and uncertainty by becoming irritable and worried. I am resolved to work on my attitude, by the Lord’s grace…
