RAIN

from Katherine
It has rained for days here!

The good news is that the water tanks and buckets are full now and the folks (mostly women and girls) don't have to stand in line at the ministries' well to get water for their homes. The bad news is the creeks and rivers rise quickly and spill over their banks. Unable to get to school by foot, the schools close. It is like a snow day in Georgia - good for the kids and bad for the moms and dads!

The funny news is that when the rain stopped briefly yesterday, the monkeys in our town came out in mass - monkeys in the street, monkeys sitting on the fence at school, monkeys checking out the garbage, monkeys walking along the wall at the grocery and yes, monkeys in the trees.

It rained again today. The schools stayed open though but the monkeys went back into hiding!

"100%"

from Elliott
There is an element of conversation here that a certain ethnic group uses to confer agreement or signal an affirmative. The ministry is building a Community Hall at the ministry site and we have contracted with the builders supply in town to provide the glass panes and the glazing labor. It has been a less than satisfactory experience. With only seven windows it could have been completed in one trip over a half a day. Well, four trips later and three weeks passed and we still had only gotten half of the windows completed.

We logged our concern and the owner of the builders supply saw me at the store last week and he was very apologetic and said the work would be completed that afternoon. Throughout the conversation though, he kept exclaiming, “100%” to affirm his commitment or put a positive light on the conversation. I will have to say I was not that positive about the experience so far – it had not felt like “100%”. In fact, I was thinking more along the lines of 50% so it seemed a bit confusing for him to continuing saying 100%. We were both speaking English but it seemed like he was speaking another language because it simply did not translate.

Fire! Fire!

from Elliott

There clearly is a different perception of fire here. Somehow I was raised with the basic thought that unless in a controlled environment like a fireplace or internal combustion engine, fire is something to be avoided. Here though it is a basic way of life and people don’t seem to concern themselves with it. We woke up last night and could smell smoke – in the US that would be a bad thing but not here. There are times when you are driving down the road and you can’t see for the smoke.

The other day Ryan and Katherine were at a local tuck shop (neighborhood grocery) and there was a fire on the ground next to the building. They foolishly said, “Do you know there is something on fire next to the building?” and the man’s response was, “Yes, I set it!”

The good news is that most buildings are masonry and if the thatched roof catches fire there is plenty of tall grass around to repair. It seems that if a fire gets out of hand there is always a neighbor to help stamp it out. Don’t bother calling the fire department – there isn’t one.

So, why all the fires? Without garbage pick-up, your waste ends up in a burn pile at your home. Many people have vegetable gardens on their property and since they don’t have a tractor or weed eaters, the only way to prep the area and remove waist high grass is to burn it. That even applies to weed growth around your house (i.e. to control snakes like the seriously poisonous black mamba that can climb in windows or openings in the wall) – just set it ablaze.

I wonder how many of us that cut grass as a part time job in school dreamed of just setting it ablaze? I wonder what homeowners insurance rates would be if this were typical in the US.

Molo Titshala!

from Elliott
That is what I heard from inside a rondavel (a traditional round thatched home) while I was walking down the road the other day. She came out waving and I recognized her as one of the students that had just started in our computer class. She was saying, "Hello teacher!" So I responded, "Molo, bafunda!" or "Hello student!"

I learned after speaking with her that she was in the 11th grade at the local school and was hoping to go to University to study medicine. She said that she knew that she would need computer skills to succeed. I told her I was excited to be a part of her future success.

Truth be told I was excited that she greeted me - it made me feel a valued part of the community and that I could make an impact; one bright young mind at a time!

The Tap

from Katherine

I was painting at the preschool today and I could see the community tap just outside the window. We have people gathered at the well all the time. It is the only source of fresh water for quite some distance. Fetching water is generally women’s and children’s work and I am always amazed at the young children who come all by themselves to fetch water for their family.

Today I watched a tiny little fellow come to the tap four times. He could not have been more than five. He was carrying a small bucket and he must have been dumping the water into a larger container and returning to fill it again. He did his job with a smile on his face even though it was freezing cold (yes I am in Africa) and the wind was blowing like a gale.

Once again God has given me a glimpse into another’s simple life. Reminding me that a child can find joy in helping his family with daily chores and showing me how blessed I am to have three taps inside my house!

How Many is Too Many?

from Elliott
It is Cason’s school break and we are taking a long weekend away in the Drakensburg Mountains. It is winter here and while the sky is a beautiful blue and the night sky filled with stars, it can be quite cold. We are staying in a cabin with no heat save these ceramic panels that heat up but the heat does not radiate out into the room. This morning it was -5 C or (about 23 F) outside and not too much warmer inside!

When we got there was an extra blanket on the chair so we quickly threw it on the bed. We were quite warm underneath that extra blanket but I noticed when I woke up in the morning that I had barely moved. In fact, I was having a hard time moving at all. The weight of the many blankets was weighing me down. It made me wonder where all that weight was coming from but I figured it out quickly when I counted six blankets that were already on the bed before we added that one more.

At some point it seems that the weight of the blankets would ‘outweigh’ the benefit of a small amount of extra warmth.

"Approved"

from Elliott

Getting a cell phone in South Africa can be difficult, especially being new to the country. The biggest challenge we faced when we first got here was that in order to get a contract plan you had to have a bank account for three months to prove creditworthiness, although I am not quite sure how that determines your risk level. They do not accept a credit card as payment so we had to start at the beginning. Without a contract you are stuck with prepaid airtime which is more expensive and you have to pay the full cost of the phone. Needless to say we went cheap!

I thought in three months we would be on our way to a full choice of phones and lower usage fees. Wrong! It took us 3 weeks just to set up the account. All sorts of background checks and special situations given our foreign visitor status. It seems that all foreigners are presumed to be money launderers until proven innocent.

Once I had three full months of statements I was free to get a contract plan phone. Or so I thought...I was just able to BEGIN the process of procuring a cell phone account. First to determine the plan. There are no unlimited plans and the cost of the phone relates to which talk plan you choose. Too many choices for me!

Then apply for the account. No social security number and a 10 minute credit check! Instead it required a mountain of paperwork, passports, proof of residence and a three page application. What was supposed to be an in-store activity required 'headquarters approval' due to my lack of a work permit - as a missionary you get a 'visitors visa for charitable workers' not a work permit - and a weeks worth of other undefined background investigations. Again I felt like a criminal - guilty till proven innocent!

I was getting impatient and frustrated but since I had already told them I was a missionary my hands (or mouth ) were tied! I just had to suffer in silence...

Finally came the call- you have been approved! - I was so proud; you would have thought I just got my first mortgage.