2013

Well, what do you know!  I'm actually posting on this blog.  After months of either having no computer, or no internet access (capable of blogging), OR no time... I finally have all 3!

Let me try to catch up.  We are back home at the College, since the 22nd of January, after 3 months away in Scotland.  A lovely 3 months... seeing so many dear friends and making so many new friends.  It was truly encouraging and refreshing.  But it is good to be home!  Elijah is so, so, so, happy to be back home in Zambia again. He is glad to be back in a familiar place surrounded by familiar people, food, and environment.

Elijah is growing up so fast - he is now 2 years 8 months old... he'll be 3 at the beginning of July.  I can't believe it!  Suddenly my baby boy is walking around the house serenading his sister, building train tracks and having make-believe play with his toy animals.  And Ketzia seems bound and determined to catch up to her brother in everything.  She is 14 months old but so well-developed -- already running at top speeds, totally stable on her feet, and very clever.  She can understand everything I say to her even though she isn't talking yet. 

I had the students ROARING with laughter while I told them stories about Elijah in Scotland...  Like our first week there, when Elijah told me, "Mama, I'm going to buy eggs now." (In Zambia we always walk to the farm and buy fresh eggs there - Elijah gets to help by carrying the money.)  So he walked out of the living room and shut the door, and down the hall and shut the door. He came back about 20 seconds later and said, "Mama, it's too cold to buy eggs!"  Another day I overheard Elijah pretending to talk on the mobile phone (which had notoriously bad reception) -- "Ullo!" he said, "Ullo!  Can you hear me?"  Then with a sigh of disgust he said, "The signal's gone!"  The students absolutely loved hearing of his exploits.

We have about 24 students this year, and the term started smoothly (we're halfway through week 2 at present).  The first month or so David is lecturing every morning, so he's very busy just now but enjoying teaching.  We are glad that our colleague Phil returned from his furlough last week, and look forward to seeing our colleague Marjanne return from her furlough at the end of this week!

We have a new internet set-up here which is (so far) working MUCH better than last year.  It is faster, which means we've even been able to talk to family using ooVoo (like Skype except we've found it works much better than Skype...) a few times which never worked last year!  The internet is still having a few issues, it's not 100% sorted out yet, but we are very encouraged.  Hence, my ability to post on the blog.  Last year I could barely ever get this page to load!  What a blessing!

At the moment I am struggling with a huge flea problem... we came home to find both our dogs happy and healthy and well-fed, but crawling with fleas!  We've given them a couple of flea treatments but nothing has worked yet.  Then we found that the new hut which was built in our garden at the end of last year was SWARMING with fleas - so they were flooded out with loads of boiling water (hopefully they are still gone). But there are still fleas in the grass outside the hut, and now there are fleas in the children's sandbox because I can't keep the dogs from lying in there in the heat of the day!  So poor Elijah and Ketzia have been told that they can't play in the sandbox for the time being (they keep ending up covered in fleas).  I don't really know what to do to get rid of these pests!  And I'm so worried that they will end up in the house and then what am I going to do?!

three weeks

These past 3 weeks have really whizzed by.  I knew in my mind that the time would pass quickly, but now I can't believe that tomorrow I'm heading to the States already!  As I look back on the days since we arrived in Glasgow on the 17th of October, I'm convinced that we really could NOT have scheduled anything more into our days.  They were full up to the brim, and we managed to see SO MANY of our friends in such a short space of time.  It has truly been such a blessing!

During the last couple of weeks we've managed to visit the congregations of Partick, Edinburgh, Shettleston, Arran, Ayr, Duthil Dores, Portmahomack, and Inverness. We've traveled by bus, train, ferry, and car. And during the few days (or portions of a day) when we've been settled back into the manse in Partick in between our travels, we've managed to have 10 individuals and 4 different family units over either for a cup of tea or a meal in our home!  And while traveling we've enjoyed the warm hospitality and generosity of many dear folks.  We've loved the fellowship and the opportunity to spend time with the people we miss when we're in the remoteness of Eastern Province, Zambia.

It may sound like our life is really hectic right now, but truthfully there has been a necessary element of "pace and pause" throughout.  We have managed to have a quiet day or two with nothing scheduled in between the busy times, which has helped us get through.  Elijah especially has coped with all the travel spectacularly well!  He has managed with incredibly late nights, lots of sleepovers in strange beds, long church services and meetings, and all these unfamiliar faces calling his name!  It's all an adventure to him.  He longs to go outside constantly (living on a busy street in the city has been a trial for this Africanized toddler used to running barefoot and free all day!) and loves going for rides in the car.  Yesterday when I pulled out the suitcases to start packing, he spent quite a while happily sitting cross-legged inside his open Trunki on the floor!

It's hard to believe that Elijah and I fly out tomorrow morning (brutally early) for a long day of travel to my parents' house in North Carolina.  It will be so exciting for Elijah to go spend a few weeks with Grandma and Grandpa and all his uncles and his auntie.  We will miss David.  :-(  He will be headed north again at the end of this week to visit Beauly, Evanton, Ardelve and Aultbea congregations!  After he comes back south at the end of next week he will be visiting Ayr and Knightswood before flying out on the 21st to meet us in the States.

If you are one of those whom we've NOT managed to see yet.... well, we will be back!  :-)  Lord willing, we plan to arrive back in Scotland on the 26th of January, complete with the "brand-new model" in tow.  It's still uncertain how long we will stay (hopefully a week or two) before we head back to Zambia, but we are hoping to connect with many more of you during the end of January and the beginning of February.

Stay posted, I do hope to post photos very soon, but they are still on David's computer at present and he's in Inverness meeting with the Home & Foreign Missions Committee today!