a picnic.

Today Marjanne and I went for a picnic by the dam which is about 20 minutes’ drive from the College.  It is an earthen dam with a pretty blue lake next to it, and grasses blowing in the wind.  There is a narrow road which runs over the top of the dam, and we took this road a couple of months ago when David preached in one of the village churches beyond the dam.  At that time, since it was still the rainy season, the lake had overflowed across the road and we had to ford the waters in our truck. Thankfully it was not too deep and we were able to cross quickly without becoming stuck.

So today we decided to take the children and have a nice relaxing outing to the dam with some lunch. So we packed our baskets and brought our camp chairs and Marjanne drove us (in our vehicle – since I cannot drive, not having a Zambian license and not knowing how to drive a manual).  I brought a sun-umbrella hoping that we could sit under its shade, but sadly we couldn’t get it far enough into the ground and the wind was toppling it every time.  So, we gave up and just sat in the sun on a sandy spot next to the water’s edge, grateful that there were some clouds in the sky so that it was not blazing hot.

There can be parasites and other nasty things in the water, so even though the lake looked refreshing we did not go in.  Marjanne brought her sewing and enjoyed having something to do.  I spent the entire time alternating between chasing Elijah (who wanted to wander off) and consoling Ketzia, who hasn’t been feeling well because she is cutting teeth.  In between we ate our picnic lunch.  Marjanne brought leftover pizza from our outing yesterday as her treat, and I packed a bottle of Sprite and a bag of potato chips as a special treat to go with my sandwich!  

The thing about picnicking as a ‘mzungu’ (white person) is that you have to be prepared to be stared at and observed at length by every passer-by.  The first one to stop was a teenaged boy who recognized us from the time we went to the village church, and from Marjanne’s school visits.  He greeted us, and we had some chitchat.  Then he remained, observing us, for the next hour!  Eventually two other small girls, one with a very young baby on her back, timidly approached us as well.  We learned that the baby was less than 4 weeks old.  The small girl was babysitting this tiny infant while the mother worked in the fields.  The baby woke and cried from hunger, and the little girl shushed it back to sleep because the mother wasn’t back from the fields yet. By this time the boy who was observing us had collected a large rock to use as a seat, and arranged himself comfortably next to Elijah’s camp chair, playing with the two trucks I brought for Elijah’s amusement.  Meanwhile we were also getting attention from passers-by…

We stayed for about an hour and a half, and when we had eaten our lunch and the children were getting tired we packed up.  It must have seemed so funny to these staring villagers, these silly mzungu women who bring baskets of food and sit and look at the water!  As Marjanne was backing the truck up we got stuck in the sandy road and the tires were spinning. So I got out and with the help of the boy who was still observing us, we managed to push while Marjanne accelerated and with some significant effort we got the vehicle to move and were on our way. I gave him a biscuit package in thanks for his help.  It was nice to enjoy the fresh air and sunshine for a little while even though I didn’t get to “relax.”  :)

Today is the beginning of our second Women’s Conference for this year.  This time we are hosting the wives of Covenant College alumni.  CC now has about 60 graduates (not sure of the exact number) so we could get anywhere from 20-50 women or so.  We hope many will join us for this conference, which begins this afternoon and ends on Saturday afternoon.   So far, at the time I'm posting this, 6 ladies have shown up and we are waiting for more to arrive!

Today has been frantically busy – printing schedules, menu, and Bible study materials, arranging details with Nelson (the cook and all-around assistant for these events), preparing the dormitory, etc.  On the home front, I've been running back and forth to the potty with Elijah, then next on the list was sorting out the next size of cloth nappies for Ketzia who has outgrown the ones she’s currently in.  Then sorting out the next size of clothing, and packing the ones she’s outgrown into storage.  

Ketzia has picked today to cut her first tooth, so she has been very unhappy the whole day long.  My plan is to get her settled in bed for the night (she's usually asleep by 6:30pm) and then welcome the ladies for the first evening session where I will be leading a Bible study.  My original plan was to do a study on Prayer, but I have not been able to get it to come together in time, because of my own mental fatigue combined with needy children and very limited time, so instead I will be reusing one of the Bible studies I taught in March (it's a different group of ladies this time).  That is the essence of having children and a household to care for -- it makes you flexible.

I have discovered that chocolate apparently gives me headaches now, which is totally depressing...

But, I will end with an encouraging note from our potty training saga with Elijah: Elijah woke up from his nap with a full nappy, as usual.  He was playing around with his cars and suddenly said, “Mama!  Pee-pee!”  So I said, “Quick, let’s go to the potty!”  We went running to the potty and I had every expectation that he would have just peed in his nappy by the time we got there, especially since it was already wet from his nap.  But nope… he took his nappy off, sat down on his potty and peed!  He was so proud of himself, “Yay!” he said, giving me a fabulous smile.  He’s caught onto the idea so fast….  Twice after that he felt the urge and immediately told me and took off for the bathroom, but unfortunately didn’t quite make it in time, however we reassured him that the recognition and the effort are what counts!

Scourby-sleep, email, and James 1:5

We have now begun putting Elijah to bed listening to Alexander Scourby's reading of the Bible on CD.  During my childhood years I fell asleep every night listening to Scourby on cassette tape, so it is really special to me that my child(ren) will be doing the same as they grow up.  It is heartwarming to hear Elijah say, "Bah-bul! Bah-bul!" excitedly as we tuck him into bed.  It is so true that children go through phases in their sleep patterns.  Elijah has always been a "bad" sleeper, since he was born.  We have wrestled and cried and soothed and rocked and nursed and comforted and sat through screaming for hours, and even as he has gotten older he has struggled, but gradually improved.  For the last few months he has done really, really well and got to the point where naptimes and bedtimes were a joy.  We were beginning to breathe a sigh of relief and really relax... and then within the past couple days he's had another regression.  This usually calls for a switch of something in the bedtime routine to get him settled again, thus, the introduction of Scourby to encourage him to fall asleep calmly listening to God's Word!

It's tough being a parent.  (It's even tougher when you feel so far away and so disconnected from everyone you would love to ask advice of and learn from.)  The Lord has been laying some things on my heart and I have been prompted to really start making personal correspondence much more of a priority than it has been up to this point.  It is so easy to think "I really don't have time to send that person an email" or to forsake writing personal letters of any kind except the most urgent and business-like.  The longer I live here in Eastern Province, the more I wish I could benefit from the wealth of knowledge and examples of Scriptural family life and marriages that are represented by couples in my acquaintance. So, I am determined to seek out fellowship to the extent that it can be found through the medium of email.  I am also going to make every effort to keep this blog updated on a regular basis!

I don't usually post anything on my blog on the Lord's Day, so I want to be sure to keep this focused where it should be.  I am trying to prepare a Bible study on the topic of Prayer for the upcoming Women's Conference here at the College this week.  One of the verses I am considering is James 1:5, "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given to him."  As I am pondering this verse the biggest question that comes to me is, How do you know when the Lord has answered your prayer?  How do you recognize the wisdom when it is given to you?  How do you really know when you are making a wise decision?  I guess as a young mom, it's easy to feel like I'm floundering along in the responsibilities and challenges and not quite knowing how to make my way without a clear guide... and, conversely, struggling with guilt or the feeling of inadequacy when I know I've made a mess of it.  So, speak up!  How has this verse been proved to be true for you?

Language

Last night at dinner Elijah leaned forward excitedly.  “Boh! Boh!”  That’s his word for Pooh, aka Winnie the Pooh, which he has recently been introduced to by way of a fun pillowcase and the Pooh character on his nappies and his new dummy (pacifier).  Elijah was pointing at the mug I was using, which has Pooh on it.  Clever boy!  Then he said, “Owies, Boh, owies!”  He saw that there were honeybees depicted next to Pooh.  Honeybees = “owies” in Elijah’s vocabulary (even more so here, where our standard honeybees are African Killer bees).

This very cute incident illustrates what communicating with Elijah is like.  His vocabulary is growing by leaps and bounds, but we have been amused to see that his “words” come in different ways.  More and more he is learning to repeat words as he hears us saying them, or use the point-and-identify tactic.  However, he also mixes in sign language and sometimes simply makes an onomatopoeic sound which serves as the word. 

For instance, “airplane” is NEVER repeated as a word.  Rather, he “says” airplane by going “Wooo, woh, woh, woooo” and flying his hand through the air.  

The same with “snake,” which he says by making a gutteral growling/biting noise and hitting his chest (explanation: we have told him that snakes will bite him, and so his brain interprets the word by signing “bite” with sound effects).  And yes, we are working VERY hard to teach him about snakes – and YES, he has actually identified snakes without any prompting or assistance using this method. 

Some things he simply signs, like “wash hands.”

He is also becoming bilingual, gradually picking up Nyanja words and phrases as he is picking up English ones.  When he says “thank you”, a full 50% of the time he says “koko” which is the Elijah-ization of “zekomo.”  The other half of the time he says “dank oo.”  :-)  He has also been heard saying “iwe!” which his friends are often shouting at each other (“you! You!”).  And he has made several attempts to say “bwanji” in greeting.

And at least although he does say "NO!" very emphatically, he says it so adorably!