our family is growing :)

We've announced it already on Facebook and in our recent family newsletter, but let me officially announce here on this blog that we are expecting our 3rd child! 

Some of you may have seen a photo posted on Facebook a few weeks ago, of me standing in our kitchen, and David captioning it, '______, barefoot, in the kitchen.'  If you were bewildered, wondering what on earth David was trying to say, or just plain missed the joke because it was too obscure -- that's okay.  I told David he would be likely to lose some folks in translation, but he insisted on announcing it that way.  So, if you were wondering, now you know.  :)  David was playing on a joke we have in America about a 'pregnant, barefoot wife in the kitchen.'

Yes, so our family is growing and the newest addition is expected sometime around the first week of October.  :)  I will admit that the timing is bit awkward, because we have tickets booked to travel to the UK on the 22nd of October, and that is too soon to travel after the expected arrival of a baby... and our tickets are non-refundable and non-changeable.  But we are trusting that the Lord, in His providence, knew all about details like this when He allowed this baby to be given to us at this time, and we are praying for Him to give us wisdom to know what to do and how to plan the end of our year. 

A few of you have asked me what our plans are for this baby.  The answer is -- we don't know yet. (And we appreciate your prayers for us as we wrestle with decisions and plans.)  Our initial plan, which really was quite settled in our own minds, was to stay here in Zambia and have the baby in a hospital in Lusaka.  In one sense this would be the simplest option.  We had already informed our Missions Committee that we would not be able to change our tickets and thus would not be able to come back to the UK as planned this year, and they were very understanding.

However, as we have done more and more research, the decision to give birth in Lusaka has been HEAVILY negated by ex-pats whose advice we have asked.  It has been really discouraging, but also really confusing because you get so many different opinions and stories.  But to sum up, in my search to find if there are any hospitals which are recommended by those who've had babies here, I've instead found mostly horror stories... and most people telling us to please just leave the country to have a baby, and not risk it here.  There have been only a couple of exceptions.  And even the women who had babies in this country, and whose births went smoothly, don't recommend it.  Essentially what I am hearing is, 'Well, if you have a healthy birth with no complications, then you're fine, but if there are any life-threatening situations, you're sunk,' because hospitals in Lusaka are just not equipped (and/or do not have staff trained adequately) to handle big problems.

So we are very unsure what to do. We want to be wise, and we are crying out to the Lord for wisdom in making our decisions.  We want to be confident in whatever we choose. 

Now what we are looking into is the cost of getting tickets at the beginning of September, to fly back to the UK and have the baby there.  We may get to see our dear friends in Scotland this year after all.  :)  This decision would require a lot of logistical arrangements including a place to live in Scotland, and finding out whether or not I am eligible for free NHS care... as well as the approval of our Missions Committee on our plans.

As you can tell, there is a great deal of uncertainty surrounding the details of this baby's forecasted arrival into the world.  We hope to know more in a few weeks when I have my first antenatal appointment in Lusaka in mid-April.  This will give us a chance to visit a few hospitals and see what our options are. 

We as a family greatly value your prayers for us as we wrestle with these difficult decisions.  And I personally beg you to be praying for me, because I am finding the uncertainty very stressful, and the weight of decision very wearing.  Please also pray that the Lord will sustain all of us with good health, but particularly myself and our unborn child, because any complications could seriously affect ANY plans we make, and even my ability to fly out of the country to get better medical care.

In the midst of uncertainties, it is so good to know that we serve a gracious God -- who has first of all chosen to give us this child, but also chosen the time and all the surrounding circumstances.  We know that He does everything right, and what blessings He showers upon us!

'I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; that my soul knoweth right well.  My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being imperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.  How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God!  how great is the sum of them!  If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand: when I awake, I am still with thee.'
Psalm 139:14-18

visit to a student's church (3)

This past Sunday we visited another village congregation, this one pastored by Amos, a graduate of Covenant College.  Although it wasn't a current student's church, I've decided to include it, because this man was indeed one of the first students at the College when it began, so I think it should count.  :) 

This Baptist church is one of the largest congregations in the area, and we've visited it on numerous occasions.  It's good to keep up our relationship with the nearby villages and also with our graduates.  This weekend Marjanne had a group of Dutch young folks visiting her, and decided to take them to this church to give them a real 'village church' experience.  Our family decided to join them because we hadn't gone to this church in several months.  Marjanne's group walked -- it's about a 40 minute walk away.  We decided to drive due to the children's limited patience and my problems with sciatica.  The service started around 10:30 and lasted until 12:30... a very typical African service. 

Unlike the other churches we've visited in previous weeks, this one actually has a proper building, made of bricks, with a proper metal sheet roof.  The bricks are designed so that there are little 'windows' in the brick wall down the length of the church, so that a welcome bit of breeze can come in. here is also a proper cement floor!  The congregation sits in the typical Zambian format - divided into a men's side and a women's side, but then there is extra benches on the left side for the mixed (men and women) choir, and extra benches at the front on the right, next to the pulpit, for the women's choir.  Because there are only a few benches, a lot of the women and children sit on grass mats on the floor along the right-hand wall.  David sat on the men's side with Elijah, and I sat on the women's side with Ketzia.  We traded children a few times during the service, but by and large Elijah did very well and was very happy getting to sit with his daddy for a change!  Ketzia wasn't feeling well (teething) and actually fell asleep part-way through the service, lying on a chitenge on the floor. Shocking.  She's never done that before!

The service started with singing from the 'mixed' choir of men and women.  This church actually has well-trained choirs which sing very, very well.  The ability of Africans to harmonize is showcased nicely here!  The first song was sung sitting down, and then the next song was their 'marching up' song.  Choirs here do not just sing.... they usually have a song for 'marching up', then they stand in front of the congregation and continue their repertoire while they stamp, sway, clap, and otherwise 'dance' according to the type of song they are singing, and then they have a 'marching back' song when they return to their seats. Some of the marching is highly stylized to show off the capability of the choir.

The choir sang for quite a long time.  (If you are interested in what they sang... well, all the songs are in the local language so I don't catch very much, but I do know the translation of one VERY POPULAR chorus which just about every single church in the province loves to sing, which says something like, 'when you call God on the phone, he will answer...'  All the songs are very repetitious which is partly because of the oral culture.)

After the choir sat back down, there were some announcements and a welcome to the visitors. Then one of the women from the women's choir stood up and led a time of congregational praise and worship - more choruses.  I think you get the idea that the African churches love to sing.  :) 

After that it was time for the women's choir to perform.  Again the 'marching up' to the front, then singing for a while, then marching back to their seats.  Lots and lots of singing.

Then they took up the offering.  In this particular church they have bowls at the front by the pulpit and the congregation gets up from their seats to put the money in.  Afterwards they asked two people - a man and a woman - from the congregation to pray.  Then they sang a song to welcome to the preacher to the pulpit.  When we arrived at the church at the beginning of the service Amos immediately asked David to preach, but David said no this time because we wanted to worship as a family for a change. The next time we visit David will be preaching. So Amos took the service himself. 

We were pleasantly surprised at the amount of Scripture which was read before the sermon.  You will find that Scripture reading is very short in most village churches, partially because the Chichewa Bible is difficult to read (even for those few who know how to read) and partially because there is such an emphasis put on singing in the service rather than the Word of God.  But this time they read two chapters -- Matt. 26 and John 16. 

Amos preached a sermon about Jesus preparing himself to go to the Cross, and we found his application quite helpful - he was urging his congregation to make sure that they are right with God so that they will be ready to die when their time comes.  It was the longest sermon we've ever heard Amos preach (he typically won't preach for more than 10 minutes, and this was closer to 20) and the one with the best application. So that was very encouraging.  But it does say something that in spite of that, the total length of the sermon was less than 1/3 of the time spent singing!

After the sermon there were some closing announcements, a last song, and a closing prayer.  Then the women's choir sang as we all filed out and shook hands in greeting.  It was a lengthy but pleasant service and nice to visit there again after some time.  On the way home, we had a truck PACKED full with children (relatives of Nelson) wanting a lift down the road.  There was no space left in the bed of the truck, so the College cook Nelson and one of our students, Kawaleka were sitting on the open tailgate hanging on.  :)  The front seat was occupied by Nelson's very elderly aunt who can practically not walk at all.  She was extremely grateful to be given a lift down the road.  It was later than usual by the time we got home - after 1pm - so a quick bite to eat for lunch and then we put the children (whom we had barely managed to keep awake on the short ride home) straight to bed for their afternoon naps!

the end of another week.

I don't want to go a week without posting, so I'll just give a brief update of our week.

Ketzia had a fever for two days, so she was massively uncomfortable and unhappy.  It seems to be teething related -- we think her two lower molars are coming in.  Then she was healthy and happy for a whole day, and the next day she woke up with a congested nose and a bad cough. That was yesterday... today she's definitely been in all-out teething mode!  Miserable, crying (she cried almost the whole night last night), drooling, sniffling, chewing on her fingers.  Poor baby.  Even my trusty teething remedies aren't doing much for her at the moment.  Thankfully this too shall pass.  But it has been a week of cuddling a very sad little girl, and not much else!  I hope she feels better soon.

Our weekends are usually pretty much the same sort of thing -- a collective sigh of relief breathed on Friday about lunchtime, which is the end of the study week with the students. (Most of our students travel back to their homes for each weekend, in order to care for their families, fields, and the churches where they minister.  Only a few students live too far away to travel back every week, so they are known as the 'weekend' students - they stay in the dormitory over the weekend, fend for themselves, and find local places to worship.)  Usually David's afternoon on Fridays is a bit more low-key because he doesn't have to prepare a class for the next day.  However, sometimes it is used for sermon prep - but most often for catching up on College administration.  On Fridays at 3pm we have a language lesson each week with Sangwani, our student from Malawi.  This has been extremely helpful to us and we are so thankful for Sangwani's willingness to tutor us weekly.  In the evenings on Friday usually we just want to kick back and relax after a very long week packed to the brim! Sometimes we will watch a movie (one of the digital copies we have on our computer given by friends).  Sometimes we will play a game, or have homemade popcorn or some other special treat. It's always a nice feeling to get to the end of another week.  :)

Saturday is a busy day for us.  But it starts early - we often have weekend students looking for 'piecework' to earn money during the day knocking on our gate by 7am!  If I can manage to pull David away from the ever-present call of College business at all during the week, Saturday is my best chance.  :)  So sometimes that's when we do household projects together, or he spends a bit more time with the kids than he has a chance to during the week.  But usually Saturday mornings are when we do our weekly shopping in town.  We only go to town once a week for a couple of reasons -- first of all, I can't drive and David doesn't have the time to drop everything and take me into town to shop more than once a week, and secondly, it saves fuel if we cut our trips down to the bare minimum.  So Saturday is our shopping morning. We shop not only for ourselves but also for the College's needs for the upcoming week.  The rest of the day is spent with David in his study and me probably not getting as much done as I should to prepare for the Lord's Day.  Sigh.  I always seem to run out of steam on Saturday afternoons, when I have a pile of laundry, a pile of dishes, and a house to tidy staring me in the face!  But tonight, I don't have a choice, because we have some visitors coming over for a cup of coffee tomorrow evening so I need my house to be a bit presentable.  :)

a grand day out

Yesterday we had a grand day out!  :)  We drove to Chipata which is two hours' east of here, close to the Malawi border, to do some shopping.  Originally we had thought that we would be making a trip to Lusaka this month, but it turns out we won't be going to Lusaka until next month.  There's always a list of special things that we want to buy during our trips to 'civilization' which we can't get locally, so when it was decided not to travel to Lusaka we thought we would arrange to go to Chipata instead, which is much closer and also has two large supermarkets where we would be able to find most of the things we needed.  The last time we did a big shop in civilization was about 2 months ago!  This was only my second time ever going to Chipata since we moved here in February 2011.  So it really was a big deal to have a day out like this!

So we loaded up the kids and left around 8:15 am for the drive east.  The kids slept in the car, which is always nice, and David and I enjoyed the opportunity to just talk for a bit and have a quiet ride as a family!  These are rarer than you would expect as there are always people wanting to get a lift from us!  The scenery as you drive east is quite pretty in the rainy season, with lots of lush green vegetation and some nice views of the plains and hills.  As you get close to Chipata the road surface improves drastically.  :)  Chipata is the provincial capital of Eastern Province. It is much larger than Petauke.

Our first stop was Shoprite, which is the main chain of supermarkets here.  Would you like to know what sorts of things are on my 'when we're in civilization' shopping list?  :)  Things like jam, spices and seasonings (oregano, basil, paprika, etc.), tinned tuna, salad dressing (YES, I admit that I use store-bought dressings on the RARE occasions when I have lettuce), condiments like mustard and soy sauce, dill pickles!  Paper goods like paper plates (just one pack, for rare occasions or emergencies), paper towels (again, one pack, for emergencies - there's nothing like paper towels for cleaning up unmentionables!), foil, toilet paper (we can buy toilet paper locally and sometimes do, but getting nice soft quality toilet paper is really nice!).  Shampoo.  Baby wipes.  Disposable nappies.  Dog kibble (our dogs eat nshima mixed with kapenta -tiny dried fish - during the week, but our hired help who makes the food for us doesn't work on weekends, so on weekends we give the dogs a bowlful of kibble). 

But I think the most important thing for me is the fresh produce.  Broccoli!  Lettuce!  Courgettes! (Okay, that's zucchini... it is so hard to write this blog sometimes going back and forth between British-speak and American-speak. I am so afraid of confusing one or the other of my readers.)  Mushrooms!  Fruit 'treats' like grapes and plums!  Carrots!  We can't get much produce other than tomatoes, onions, green beans, green peppers, and cabbage in the local market... so being able to pick up a few special things is SUCH a blessing!

Also the frozen vegetables... of which I can only get a couple of bags, because of the size of my freezer, but they are really nice to supplement our diet with for a few weeks - making them last as long as possible!

Finishing up my list are the essential 'treats': a couple of packs of beef cuts (we rarely ever find beef other than mince in Petauke), a bottle or two of fresh cream,  and some mozzarella cheese.  I always like to get a couple of blocks of mozzarella cheese so that I can make homemade pizza. Otherwise, no pizza for us for months on end! 

Speaking of mozzarella cheese... leads me to a funny story.  I looked at Shoprite but they were essentially out of cheese, which was VERY disappointing. No mozzarella to be found!  Oh, well, I thought, I'll look at Spar (the other supermarket).  We finished our shopping, got all the cold food loaded into our cooler in the back of the truck, and went along to Spar.  I went straight to the cheese.  There is ONE block of mozzarella cheese left.  Yes!  I pick it up... NO!!  It is covered with mold!  :(  I looked around to see if by ANY chance I had missed another block sitting somewhere... and there, reposing splendidly next to it, is a MASSIVE huge block of mozzarella.  I wish I had picked it up to see how much it weighed.  It must have been a foot long slab of mozzarella.  What I did see was the PRICE... 179 Kwacha...  That is more than £20!  More than $35!!  Obviously I had to walk away and leave the beautiful slab of mozzarella sitting there... sniff sniff. It was so sad. David said, 'It would have been easier if there was absolutely no mozzarella there at all!'

Our shopping was finished, and it was time for lunch.  Being in 'civilization' meant a real treat - going out for pizza!  There is a new fast food pizza place in Chipata and I, who have been craving pizza for weeks, was delighted. Yum, yum.  I got a '4 seasons' pizza with pepperoni and olives (!!!) on it, and David got a sweet and sour chicken pizza.  We shared with the kids.  Just as we got to the pizza place it started pouring rain (perfect time) as a storm came rolling in, so we sat and watched the bucketing rain.  After finishing our food, the kids were antsy and wanting to play around. They ended up going out onto the porch and holding their hands out to feel the raindrops.  :)  This led VERY quickly to them abandoning all restraint and going straight out into the rain!  There was a little patio with outside seating where they were running around in the rain having an absolute BLAST.  It was so cute!!  We have way too much mud at our house when it rains, so I don't let them out in it.  This was a great opportunity for them to play in the rain because there was no lightning, either.    They must have splashed and run and screamed with laughter for at least 15 minutes.  There were a lot of Zambians standing under the porch overhang sheltering from the rain, and they were SO amused by the children.  Cell phones and cameras came out and our kids were celebrities being filmed!  Talk about a grand day out.  When does Mommy ever let you play in the rain until you are soaked to the skin?!

Then it was time to head home!  The children slept part of the way home.  We were tired but happy after an enjoyable day.  Even with no mozzarella...  :)  It was about 3pm when we got back home.  Glad for the opportunity to get out of the house for a few hours and buy some helpful, special things.  The Lord is good to us!

visit to a student's church (2)

Yesterday we visited a small village congregation.  One of our students, Peter, planted this church in a village very close to the College which didn't have any place of worship.  He has been laboring faithfully in outreach and evangelism in this village, preaching the Gospel and looking after his flock.  This was our 3rd time visiting his congregation.  The first time we went, they were meeting in the shade of a gigantic tree!  The second time we went (last year with the Woods who were visiting from Scotland) they were meeting in a grass shelter which also serves as the school building for the village.  This year they had a slight upgrade - the grass shelter now has a sheet of plastic over the roof to provide protection during the rainy season.  We were very glad to receive another invitation from Peter who is anxious for his congregation to benefit from Biblical preaching.

Peter's church

You may be wondering, what is a typical village like?  Well, we have found that some villages have  mostly brick houses with tin roofs, and other villages are mud huts with grass roofs.  This particular village is made up of mud buildings with grass roofs.  Some of the huts are circular and some are rectangular.  The huts are mainly used for sleeping and there are separate shelters (without walls) for cooking, again with grass roofs.  Cooking is done over open fires or braziers.   The areas around the huts are kept hoed and completely clear of grass, so each village is a large expanse of good red Zambian soil.  The villagers do this partly to guard against snakes, because you can see them coming a lot further away when there is no grass to hide behind!  Through the villages, pigs, chickens, goats, dogs, and cows wander freely.

Although the village is within walking distance (it takes about 30-40 minutes to walk there) we chose to drive because storms can blow in so quickly at this time of year.  We were joined by Jairos, another student who assists Peter in the congregation, who helped us load a few benches into the back of the truck to provide extra seating in the church.  We were also joined by Kawaleka, currently our oldest student and pastor of a church in Sinda (half an hour drive away).  He had been invited to teach the Bible study before the service. We left a few minutes before 9 and arrived just about 9:15, having driven the 'long way around' to avoid the shortcut which is generally impassable during the rainy season.  When we arrived the congregation was finishing a time of prayer, and they began the Bible study.  Because Kawaleka read and taught in the local language, I'm not 100% sure of what he was saying, but I think I gathered that he was reading from the book of Joshua and teaching about the Israelites' attack on Ai, possibly.  I was wishing I could understand what he was saying because it sounded interesting!

David sat at the front with the church leaders next to the pulpit and Marjanne and I sat on a bench at the back of the shelter with the children, on the women's side.  The women and children sat on grass mats on the floor and the men sat on a collection of tree trunks and benches.  The shelter was made of grass for the roof and walls, held up with various size sticks and logs, and there was a dirt floor.  The grasses are getting a bit 'tired' after more than a year's worth of use, so there are cracks in the walls through which Elijah was fascinated to watch the village cowboys driving the herds of cows along and other scenes of village life!  (When we met under the tree the first time we visited, the cows walked through during the service!)

the choir performing

After the Bible study, which didn't last too long, the service began, first with a time of praise and worship.  First the choir marched in, and sang a few choruses at the front.  Again, this is very typical - most churches have at least one choir.  This one was mixed, men and women.  Afterwards the Sunday school children marched in and sang two songs very nicely, with a lot of clapping and excited ululating from their proud parents.  Then the congregation sang some choruses, led by two women at the front.  They ended with a time of mass prayer again as mentioned last week. Although the Pentecostal churches claim this as a mark of being Pentecostal, you will find it is quite common across the spectrum of Zambian churches including the Reformed Church of Zambia and other denominations.

students sitting at the front - L to R, Kawaleka, Peter, Jairos

Then there was a short time of announcements, and welcoming visitors.  After that, more singing of choruses, during which Elijah escaped from me and wet his pants outside!  Then it was time for the sermon. David was preaching from Ephesians 2:1-7, about the state of man in sin - that all are dead in sin, but we can be made alive in Christ.  Unfortunately, Elijah who had managed to do fairly well, though not excellently, up to that point in the service, welcomed the first words of the Bible reading with a wail and I had to usher him out for some discipline.  More unfortunately still, said discipline failed to have any effect upon my stubborn little boy's behavior which continued to decline rapidly.  He just simply didn't want to be in church, and was determined to fuss and misbehave incessantly.  Pretty soon it became obvious that I would have to take him out because he was being so disruptive.  Ketzia was doing quite well considering that she normally sleeps around the time we were leaving for church, and didn't get any morning nap.

David and Peter reading from the Bible before the sermon

Elijah ended up howling so much about being disciplined that I eventually gave up on staying in for the service.  I got my chitenges (chitenges are useful multi-purpose pieces of cloth which are used here as wrap skirts for the women, or for carrying children or anything else on the back, or for sitting on, or for tablecloths, etc.) and escorted both children out to a nearby tree, where we sat on the ground in the shade for the remainder of the service.  But Elijah still didn't get to play as he had hoped - I made him sit next to me on the chitenge until the service was over.  Sadly, I didn't get to hear the sermon because I was so distracted by disciplining children!  But I am having to accept that this is the stage of life I'm in just now, and I don't get to hear much of the service when David's preaching.  (I don't know what I'll do when I have 3 children... I hope that Elijah has greatly improved by then!)

sitting outside the church for misbehavior

At the end of the service we rejoined the others in time for the closing announcements and closing prayer.  Then everyone filed out and we all shook hands in a line, the normal Zambian greeting.  The men helped load the benches back into the back of the truck.  Peter asked us to come back inside the shelter where he provided each of us with a cold bottle of soda as refreshment.  He doesn't have a family, and so is not able to invite us for a meal, so this was a very kind way of welcoming us and thanking us for our visit.  We are so honored by the generosity of these people!

waiting hopefully for soda

After enjoying our soda, we greeted everyone a last time and headed home.  It was a very enjoyable day despite Elijah's misbehavior and we look forward to our next visit to Peter's congregation in the future.  This village is our near neighbor so we try to keep our relationship with them strong.  Praise the Lord for the work he is doing in these villages and all the people who will be reached by this faithful Gospel witness!  And please pray for Peter as he continues to study and learn and grow in grace himself, so that he is better enabled to shepherd his flock!

Peter in front of his church

visit to a student's church (1)

During this year I've decided to write blog posts about our visits to different churches in the area to try to share this glimpse of our lives with you.  So this post will be about our 1st visit to a student's church this year, which occurred last week.

Visiting the churches which our students are involved in is a very important aspect of David's role here at the College.  It is one of the ways in which we mentor a student (because of the personal aspect of a visit to their church and home and spending time with them outside of the College campus) but it also is vital for maintaining the College's relationships with these varied churches which are sending and supporting our students.  It is also a valuable experience for our family because each visit is a chance to learn - we learn something new, we see new aspects of the culture, and we develop our relationship with our student even further.

So last Lord's Day we visited the church of Wilson, a student from the local area who lives in the 'boma' (the colloquial term for the town - Petauke).  He is the pastor of a Pentecostal congregation which meets in one of the classrooms in a large school complex in Petauke.  Our family, joined by Marjanne who often likes to join us for visits to students' churches, left home a few minutes after 9am and arrived in time for the beginning of the Bible study period which began at 9:30am.  This is quite a common thing you will find in churches here - they generally have 30 minutes to an hour of Bible study immediately preceding the service.

I didn't notice how long the Bible study lasted because I was rather distracted by the form of the Bible study itself.  Unfortunately it was led by a man who was acting as assistant to the pastor and who had no Bible training himself.  All he knows about preaching and teaching is what he sees on the television - televangelists and all sorts of nonsense.  That is such a harmful influence on the churches here!  He was posturing and prancing (David described him later 'like a peacock') and literally SCREAMING at the top of his lungs.  The Bible study was supposed to be about the beginning verses of John 14, but really he was screaming things about the gifts of the Spirit, and other things that didn't have anything to do with the text.  Every phrase - not just every sentence- was punctuated with shouts of 'Amen!'  'Hallelujah!'  Sometimes it was rather amusing, like when he started a story... 'I was trying to get a lift from a lorry driver, AMEN!'  But overall it was just saddening.  He was using the words 'Amen' and 'Hallelujah' the way a lot of unbelievers use swear words - to punctuate and add emphasis to his sentences.  The screaming was so intense that I fairly quickly had to 'tune him out' - I just couldn't focus because of the raucousness of his speech.  Elijah was really disturbed by all the shouting, so I was busy trying to keep him from getting upset.

kids sitting on the floor during the service

Eventually the screaming ended and the service began. It was a typical service, with singing, prayer, and preaching.  They had an AMPLIFIER, but thankfully it wasn't cranked up as loud as it could have been!  The only element of anything 'Pentecostal' in the service was simply the 'chaos prayer' as we have nicknamed it - the whole congregation praying out loud simultaneously, in a cacophony of noise (again, some people screaming and repeating names of Christ over and over again at the end of every phrase).  I noticed with amusement that Ketzia, when she heard 'Let us pray' obediently folded her hands and bowed her head as we do in family worship.... and then stared around her in shock as this great hubbub arose.  Strange that a 1-year-old knows about reverence in prayer than those around her...

Then David preached on the first verse of Jude.  It seemed to be well received.  I was a bit distracted during the service because Elijah manged to sneak away from my restraining grasp while I was helping Ketzia with something, and was wandering on the other side of the congregation. Most churches have a 'women's side' and a 'men's side' and that was the case here, so he was wandering around on the men's side.  As usual, when faced with a dilemma like this (which is fairly often when David's preaching) I always have to weigh whether Elijah is causing enough disruption to warrant the disruption of me getting out of my seat and crossing the church to collect him.  At one point he strolled to the front of the church where there was a flower arrangement bedecked with fake apples and oranges, and before I could move a muscle he had yanked one of the oranges right off!  I grabbed him and smacked his hand while making him sit down next to me, but one of the ladies grabbed my hand to stop me from smacking him and smiled 'It's all right!'  Sigh.  So much for parental authority.  It's good to know that they're not bothered by misbehaving children, but...  :)  Part of David's sermon, Elijah was sitting with Wilson, our student, at the front of the church next to the pulpit.  He got a bit bored and Wilson didn't restrain him in any way, so the next thing I knew Elijah was walking back and forth next to the wall behind the pulpit where they had hung up decorative cloths to form a nice backing.  He was between the cloth and the wall walking up and down shrouded in lacy sheets.  Thankfully he was behind David's back so David couldn't see what was happening and get distracted!!  Now you know what my Lord's Days are like when David is preaching...

Elijah sitting with Wilson

After the service we drove a short way into the nearby neighborhood to Wilson's house to join his family for lunch.  This is very traditional for them to invite their special guest to share a meal with them afterwards.  Wilson and his family live in a very simple tiny 2-room house in a triplex of 3 houses stuck together.  They have a front room which is a living room, and a back room which is a bedroom.  There is no bathroom or running water.  There is electricity, which allows them to use the crowning feature of their living room - the massive flat screen TV complete with DVD player, etc.  It is so funny to see how Zambians prioritize their money!  The ladies were cooking outside over charcoal braziers on the front step. (The meal was delayed a bit because when we arrived it was pouring rain and they couldn't start cooking until the storm had passed!) Elijah was fascinated with the TV (of course) so they obligingly turned on a DVD for him which unfortunately was left playing throughout our meal, making it very difficult to concentrate on conversation!

Wilson and his wife Miriam have 7 children and when we arrived at their house we immediately realized that Miriam was heavily pregnant with #8.  Zambians do not talk about pregnancy or expecting babies, and Miriam had not been at church (Wilson said 'she was sick' - again another very Zambian way of describing the situation - when a Zambian woman goes into labor 'she is very, very sick, a matter of life and death!').  It was obvious that she was imminently due!  We found out on Wednesday that she gave birth that night!  :)  What a fun story.

Wilson is not originally from this area -he was born in the Copperbelt province of Zambia and raised in Lusaka, so in our conversation over dinner he was sharing that living in Eastern Province has been a learning experience for him, too.  Just like us, he has faced cultural differences and even challenges with the language (a different language is spoken in Copperbelt and Lusaka than in Eastern Province).

Three of Wilson and Miriam's children are living in Lusaka, and the rest are still at home where we were introduced to them one by one during the meal.  The ladies brought in bowls of nshima, chicken, and vegetables which we shared together.  It was a very tasty meal.  One of the interesting things that Wilson shared with us during the meal was that during the afternoon service at his church they often have 'deliverance' services to cast out ancestral spirits and heal diseases.  This is a poignant reminder to us of why the College is here and why it is SO important to train these men in the Scriptures, so that they will have the discernment to turn away from these unbiblical practices.

It was all in all a lovely visit with a student and his wife, and enjoyable fellowship with their congregation. Apart from the Bible study, the service was quite normal and we pray that it was edifying to all.  And it is always a privilege to get to see a little bit of how Zambians live their daily lives in their tiny little homes without many of the comforts that we take for granted.  And of course, sharing a meal of tasty nshima and chicken is always a nice thing to fellowship over!  :)

with a portion of the congregation after the service

blessings

Finally I have a chance to blog about our adventures at the beginning of the month.  March 'blew in' with a bang for us... literally! 

On Saturday 2nd March we had a massive thunderstorm and lightning struck the College transformer.  I was sitting in the living room reading my Kindle and cringing at the lightning strikes which were VERY close. David was cuddling with Elijah in the bedroom, who was having trouble sleeping because of the storm. The rain was bucketing down -- until you've heard an African rainstorm on an African metal roof, you truly cannot understand how LOUD the rain is -- so loud you can't hold a conversation and you can't hear yourself think.  Honestly I've listened to the rain at times and wondered if it was physically possible for it to rain ANY harder.  Unbelievable.

But suddenly as I was sitting on the sofa I heard a very strange noise which was loud enough that I could actually hear it over the bucketing rain -- it was a pulsating, humming, buzzing noise.  It filled the whole house. I immediately jumped up, not knowing what to think but I think part of me wondered if maybe something on the roof was on fire.  I ran into the kitchen and saw out the window the entire sky was lit up with a glowing blue light.  So I quickly went into the bedroom to alert David, 'You need to come quickly, something's really wrong!'  I ran out the front door (which faces the direction the transformer is in) and saw one of the scariest things I've ever seen. The entire horizon was exploding!  It was a bright blue, glowing, pulsating light and you could hear the electricity just pulsating through the air.  It really was freaky.  I had never seen a transformer explode before, but David had, so he knew immediately what was happening.  Within 30 seconds the light faded and we were left in darkness.

The next morning the damage was accessed.  There are 3 lines from the transformer -- one is our line to our house and then to the Zulus; one is Phil & Marjanne's line which also serves the College buildings, and one is the Farm line.  Our internet uses all 3 lines to function, and so does the grinding mill at the Farm.  Of the 3 lines, 2 were badly damaged -- the Farm line and ours.  Phil and Marjanne's line was slightly damaged but still functioning after the lightning strike and quickly back to 100%.  Our line was the worst damaged - the fuse box at the transformer was actually charred black.  The power company was very quick to respond, since it was major damage on the main line through Eastern Province, and everyone except ourselves had their electricity back on well within 24 hours!  But our line had suffered other faults as a result of the lightning strike, and so the electrician spent the whole day on Monday fixing all the burnt-out fuses and everything else.  In the end, we were without power for 2 days.

MEANWHILE... on Saturday morning, the same day of the lightning strike, the water pump had mysteriously stopped working and we were suddenly without any water!  Phil was scrambling to troubleshoot the problem.  Thankfully the powerful storm that evening meant that we were able put put out all our buckets and basins to catch the rain water, which was then used to wash dishes (after being boiled) and flush the toilet, and wash our faces before bedtime.  But drinking water was severely rationed.  When the water ran out we had only THREE 2-liter bottles in our house for the four of us.  We managed to make it last until Monday afternoon.  All the staff were sharing with each other to get through -- the Zulus were sharing with the weekend students, and we were sharing with the Zulus, and so on.  On Monday David was able to go into town and buy a case of bottles of drinking water for each family on staff, and for the students.  This got us through until the problem was finally repaired on Tuesday afternoon! 

It turned out that the underground pipes which bring the water up from the borehole (powered by the pump) were starting to disintegrate.  There was no water pressure anymore because of some large holes in the pipes.  With the help of a man from the water department in town (not the water COMPANY -- they don't supply water, they just oversee dams and lakes and well/borehole projects and things), Phil was able to get the pipes pulled up and replaced with new ones.  It was a very tricky job and we were so thankful that it went without any complications.  On Tuesday afternoon, we at last had clean running water once again, after 3 1/2 days without!

This was a good reminder to us of how blessed we are to have a regular supply of electricity and clean drinking water.  True, it would be impossible to run an educational institution without these things... just having a water shortage of 3 days duration, with 7 staff families and 22 students dependent on the failing water supply, was ample proof of that... but they are nonetheless blessings.  And in this part of the world, these blessings set us apart from many of those around us who are not so fortunate.  It was a healthy and gentle reminder from the Lord not to take these things for granted.  We are serving Him and we are thankful for these good gifts that He gives us, and for caring for our every need!

chickens

I now have 5 hens! They arrived here on Saturday afternoon.  Unfortunately, my dogs immediately manifested a propensity to view them as fast food.  Why is it that some dogs seem genetically predetermined to eat chickens, and other dogs would never dream of even chasing them?  Anyway, we're working on getting the dogs to recognize for good that these tempting, clucking creatures are NOT a succulent mouthful to supplement their diet.  The chickens are living in the extra room in the shed.  I've been letting them out into the garden each morning with the dogs tied up, so that the dogs will learn their lesson.  Today was a bit of an adventure, because this morning one of the hens managed to fly over the top of our fence!  She disappeared into the bush area at the back of our house, and I wasn't about to chase her through the bush, so thought maybe I'd lost her.  But then again, I knew she might just come back because they already know where their food is. Sure enough, just after we finished dinner I heard the squawking of a chicken and she'd come back... It took a few minutes to chase her into the shed, avoiding the jaws of the dogs on the way, but now all 5 are back safe and sound.  Tomorrow we're going to clip their wings so that they can't fly over the fence anymore.  So far they seem to REALLY enjoy the tasty treats found in my garden!  I am hoping that our tick and flea problems are solved now. Do hens eat ants too?

baking class

Recently I was asked by Violet, the wife of the pastor of the local Reformed Baptist church if I would be willing to teach a baking class for some of the ladies in the church.  They wanted to learn how to bake some 'goodies' so that they can have a bake sale and earn money for the church, which is trying to build its own building.

I was more than happy too, but it meant I had to do some homework.  I had to find recipes that would work with ingredients that could be found locally -- i.e., no special ingredients that I had to bring from Lusaka.  This meant that I couldn't use recipes calling for baking soda or vanilla extract, or special spices like cinnamon!  In the end I decided on 8 recipes.

Our baking classes were scheduled for the first two Saturday mornings in March, starting at 8am.  The first week the ladies were on time -- 6 came along, which wasn't quite as many as the 10 I had been expecting, but a few of them had been too late to catch a ride that morning.  Violet had asked me to lead a short Bible study, so we began the morning by reading and talking about the story of Hannah at the beginning of 1st Samuel, and the importance of prayer.  Then we moved on to baking class!

The first Saturday morning we started by making 2 loaves of banana bread.  While it was baking we made a batch of flour tortillas (which are more commonly known in Africa as 'chipatis' - chipatis are very similar to tortillas but they are thicker and usually cooked in oil).  While waiting for things to finish baking we enjoyed a cup of tea together in the living room and chatted.  We ended the morning by making a 13x9 pan of brownies.  Everyone got to taste what we made and then each woman got to take home a sampling of 'goodies' to share with her family.

The following Saturday morning we met again. This time only 2 women were the same from the group that came the week before -- and there were only 5 women total.  But everyone got a copy of all the recipes we learned whether they were there both weeks or not.  This time we got straight to baking because our time had gone too quickly the week before.  We started by making 2 loaves of lemon tea bread.  Then we made the dough for sugar cookies and put it in the fridge to chill.  Meanwhile we made a batch of buttermilk pancakes.  The ladies also worked together to cleverly construct their own set of 'measuring cups' cut from the bottom of different size plastic bottles!  It is amazing how resourceful they are!  When the bread finished baking then we made a double batch of buttermilk scones (more commonly known in the States as buttermilk biscuits).  Again everyone got to taste what we made, and then each woman took some 'samples' home. I was hoping to have a chance to make some oatmeal cookies but we ran out of time.  However, I gave them the recipe (which is really easy) and some of the ladies had tasted them the week before because we had some with our tea. 

So, in all, the ladies were sent home with 8 new recipes to try and a whole bunch of new ideas for ways to raise money for their church!  It was an enjoyable chance to visit with these women and be able to teach them something that I felt marginally qualified to teach.  I genuinely hope that these baking classes will be of great use to them and that they will be able to use these skills to benefit others.  Also, the conversations we had were really interesting - ranging from how long do Zambian women typically breastfeed their babies, to when do babies first eat 'nshima' (the staple Zambian food), to one older woman asking me how can she help her children learn if she herself does not know how to read or write?  Can you imagine?  I encouraged her that it is never too late to learn, and that she should try to find someone in her village who can teach her how to read!  It was a really lovely opportunity to visit with these women!

We had a productive weekend.  The vet was supposed to come between 8 and 9am on Saturday morning, to 'spay' our dog Tuppence. But early in the morning a torrential downpour started, and he didn't get here until just before 12 noon as a result.  Our local vet makes house calls using a motorbike!  Poor man came in dripping wet - he was well-equipped with rain gear and wellies, but still soaked to the skin. 

(This is what my laundry looked like during that torrential downpour!  The rain started so quickly, and was so heavy, that I thought, "I'll just leave it - otherwise I'll get soaked, too!  A little rain won't hurt it, right?"  Well, after close to 7 hours of steady bucketing rain, as you can see, my sheets were dragging in the mud AND the mud was splashing up onto the sheets from the force of the raindrops!  They ended up COATED in splattered mud and I had to bring everything straight in and put it right back in the wash!!)

This vet is the same one who performed the neutering procedure on our other dog Merry last year.  On both occasions he has used our dining room table as an operating table!  Here is a photo of Elijah and Ketzia eating their lunch at one end of the table while the vet 'preps' Tuppence for surgery at the other end...

While we were waiting for the vet to arrive, David did a wonderful bit of jerry-rigging.  I bought a Winnie-the-Pooh pop-up play house in Glasgow for £3, which was missing one of the PVC pipes which prop it up, but I figured we could easily find another piece of PVC pipe to substitute.  Well, that particular size of PVC pipe has been impossible to find so far, but David figured out that he could dismantle an old child-size camp chair of Elijah's which was broken, and use the detached chair legs -- which were the exact diameter of the PVC pipe needed, and just long enough, too! So David spent the morning knocking the chair apart and figuring out how to rig up the play house with the substitute pieces.  I'm so glad to have a 'handy' husband!  Not a great photo, but this gives you an idea of the kids playing in it...

In the afternoon we had a Chichewa lesson, which merely assisting in showing us that we need to review a few things...  At least we've now gotten started filling out the flash cards to aid in memorizing vocabulary. 

Today we waged war against the fleas in the garden.  The vet had already applied a flea treatment to the dogs themselves (which seems to have been successful) so today's agenda was to treat the grass and the sandbox where we knew fleas were living in abundance.  I bought a bottle of poison from the vet which they use to treat cows against fleas, etc. which was diluted in water and our gardener, Besek, spent the morning spraying the mixture all over the garden. Meanwhile Nelson obligingly boiled a large amount of water which we poured into the sandbox to kill the fleas there (not wanting to use poison where the children play every day...).  Our hope is that this has wiped out the flea population... and to keep them from coming back, I'm planning to get a few chickens!  They should be fabulous at roaming around the garden and eating lots of undesirable bugs.  The first step will be to buy a few village chickens - the second step will be to train the dogs not to eat them!  Hopefully we won't have too many casualties.  At least chickens are cheap here -- about $2 each!

Now to deal with the swarm of bees that has taken up residence in the roof at the end of our house....

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?!

train travel through Europe, part 1

On Monday evening 22 October 2012, our weekend with friends in the Netherlands was nearly over.  We had dinner with Bart & Alida and Herman, and then loaded up in the car.  Bart & Alida drove us to Utrecht train station to catch the CityNightLine train.  This is an overnight train to Munich, Germany.  We got to Utrecht with plenty of time so Bart & Alida insisted on treating us to Starbucks.  :)  They really went out of their way to make sure that we were able to relax and enjoy ourselves!  We are so grateful for their generosity towards us.

It was pretty easy to find the right platform to wait for our train, with Bart and Alida assisting us. The train was about 5 minutes delayed.  Throughout our train journeys we found that when things got a bit ‘sticky’ was when we had to board a train which would be pulling out again within just a couple of minutes.  Boarding with all of us and our luggage took a lot of pre-organizing, and teamwork, but by the time we’d traveled across Europe we were getting the hang of it!  Besides the two children, we had a stroller, which was foldable but not entirely collapsible (bigger than we had wanted for our trip, but it was the only collapsible stroller for sale in Lusaka when we left… so we made do!), two very large rolling duffel bags, David’s backpack, my carry-on size bag, usually a plastic bag of food and oddments for the journey, and sometimes Elijah’s Pillow Pal or our winter coats if they didn’t fit in the duffel bags.  So it was too much for both of us to carry on board the train in one trip, thus we had to figure out ways to transfer everything in stages without leaving the children OR the bags unattended. Utrecht was our first attempt, and thankfully Bart was there to help shove our things on board. The train seemed to leave in a great hurry but thankfully there we were, everything intact, on our way!  Waving to Bart and Alida out the window.  It was an abrupt end to our delightful stay in the Netherlands, but now we were on our way to Munich! 

After shuffling around awkwardly (after putting our stroller and our gigantic bags on board there wasn’t much room for maneuvering in the corridor area at the end of the train car) we found our way to our compartment.  We traveled ‘economically,’ that is to say, in a couchette compartment.  These are kind of the equivalent of dorm rooms on a train, except that being train compartments – they are a lot more cramped!  There are two choices for couchettes: either you can book a 6-bed compartment, which is the cheapest option, or you can pay a bit extra for a 4-bed compartment if you want a bit more space.  The 4-bed compartment still has 6 beds in it, but the middle 2 bunks are left folded up so as to provide the 4 occupants with more space.  Since we were traveling with the children (who would be sharing our bunks - if you want a bed for a toddler you have to pay the same fare as an adult) we decided the extra space would be VERY welcome, otherwise we could end up sharing a compartment designed for 6 with 8 instead – two being very squirmy children.  This was a very, very good decision.  :)  The compartments are incredibly, almost unbelievably small.  There is enough room between the bunks on either side to stand up, but not more than that. 

There was a luggage rack above the compartment door, where we put the stroller.  Our two duffel bags managed to fit under the lower bunk (on this train – I don’t remember if they did on the next sleeper train) as well as our shoes and carry-on bags.  There was a ladder against the far wall (not that it was far away!) which reached to the upper bunks.  Each bunk was provided with a complimentary bottle of drinking water and also a reading light.  There were 2 types of locks on the compartment door for security.  The attendant came in to collect our passports and check our tickets.  The passports were kept by the attendant overnight, ostensibly so that we wouldn’t have to be awakened during border crossings (although sometimes they will still wake you – it is completely inconsistent) and returned to us in the morning as we approached our final destination.  After that, we never saw the attendant again – so hope that you never have an emergency or a situation where you require some assistance, because we couldn’t find the attendant afterwards.

It was past the children’s bedtime, so we focused on getting them settled and getting some sleep.  Elijah slept on David’s bunk, and Ketzia slept on mine.  Each bunk was equipped with a sheet, a blanket, and a pillow.  It was helpful to have the 2 extra blankets from the unused middle bunks since there were 4 of us. The bunks were nothing fancy – just flat, padded bunks which doubled as seats during the daytime. 

We were informed by the attendant that there would be a couple joining us around midnight for part of the journey - the occupants of the 2 upper bunks.  So it was an interrupted night!  Don’t choose a train journey if you want a peaceful, blissful night’s sleep (unless you pay for a first-class compartment and travel alone – and even then nothing is guaranteed). But it was definitely worth it for the experience.  Poor Elijah’s dinner didn’t settle and he woke up and vomited on his pajamas and the compartment floor.  That was when we couldn’t find the attendant to get something to clean the floor up with.  So we ended up using baby wipes and then covering the floor with one of the extra blankets.  After that Elijah was fine and went back to sleep peacefully. But that was one of those moments when you think, ‘Wow, our first family train ride, and my child just vomited! Is this a sign of things to come?’  Ketzia was teething, feverish and restless during the night.  She must have nursed almost the entire night.  Our companions, an older couple, came in a bit after midnight, took a few minutes to get themselves and their luggage (which had to be left standing up in the crevice between the bottom of the ladder and the compartment wall) arranged, and then climbed up to their bunks.  They came climbing back down about 4 hours later, to disembark at their destination. Since it was the middle of the night it wasn't exactly a good time to strike up an acquaintance!

During the night there were also police on the train at one point – dealing with some drunk people, at very least, who we could hear further down the corridor.  I think someone might have gotten taken off the train.  During the border crossing into Germany the police/guards tried to open the compartment door (which was on the chain) and when I quickly cautioned, ‘shhh, the children are sleeping’ (just so they’d be aware!) they closed the door and left, and didn’t come back!  So I guess they weren’t too worried about us.  They had our passports anyway.

So yeah… it wasn’t a terribly restful night, but at least we did get a bit of sleep. We had been forewarned anyway.  If I remember correctly, we arrived the next morning in Munich around 7am or so.  We made our way through the train station to the upper balcony area overlooking the platforms, where there was a café.  We ordered coffees and ate breakfast from the travel food we brought along with us.  Had a chance to change the kids’ nappies and clothing for the day of travel ahead.  And got a real good idea of the hustle and bustle of Munich Centraal during early morning rush hour on a work day!

It was now Tuesday, 23 October – my mom’s 50^th birthday.  My family was already in Italy, where they had arrived a few days before, and were settled in the villa we would be sharing, awaiting our arrival late that night.  But first we had a full day of travel ahead… from Munich across Austria to Bologna, and then down through Italy to Naples.  Our train left Munich around 9am for the long ride south.  This time we were in a normal traveling car with comfortable seats and small tables.  It wasn’t a full train so we could use the empty seats next to us for the children.  What did we do on a long train ride with the kids?  Well, like riding on an airplane – we got them to sit still when we could, with a variety of things to keep them occupied – toy cars, puzzles, coloring, reading books, DVDs, snack food, etc.  But sometimes you just have to move around, and thankfully they could easily walk up and down the aisles.  Meanwhile, the scenery outside was FABULOUS!  We were passing through the Austrian Alps during the middle of the day – a sunny, clear day with gorgeous views of the mountains.  The train went through the Brenner Pass which is just stunning.  David spent a lot of time trying to get photos from a moving train – which wasn’t entirely successful, but at least we got a few shots to show that we were there.  :)  We ate our packed lunch as the train sped along (sausage bites and cheese bites from the Netherlands!) and just enjoyed the experience of traveling through somewhere we might never be again! 

It was a long train ride – we didn’t reach Bologna in the north of Italy until about 4pm.  We had a bit of time before our next train left for Naples, so we went looking for food.   We found the Bologna station a bit of a challenge because it was not exactly clear where we should go – and there were lots of steps up to each platform, so what to do about the stroller? And the rolling bags?  In the end, I think we found a lift.  Then we were looking for food, so that we could get an early dinner, but there were no cafes or shops in the station as far as we could tell.  Eventually we found that there were vending machines scattered throughout the train platforms, selling not only snacks but also sandwiches and paninis, so we got a few things to count towards ‘dinner’, though it wasn’t a proper meal.

Now it was time to catch our next train, one of the brand-new high speed Freccarossa line!  These sleek ‘designer’ trains are carving up the time it takes to travel the length of Italy.  We were very interested to see how these high-speed trains compared with the normal trains we had been travelling on.  It would be about a 4-hour journey from Bologna south to Naples.  These trains travel at speeds reaching higher than 300 kilometres per hour! 

Interestingly, we found that these trains (at least in the economy section) were the least comfortable of all the trains we traveled on in Europe.  The seats were high-backed and the tables were very, very tall, so tall that if you dropped something you couldn’t reach it off the floor because the table was in the way.  It all felt very tight, cramped, and claustrophobic.  The children had to sit on our laps the whole way because the train was booked full, and because the tables were so tall, that meant the tables were practically in the kids’ chests.  So it just wasn’t comfortable.  We did have to deal with a bit of unhappiness during this leg of the journey.  Thankfully, even children get tired of fussing after a while and just ‘zone out’ (helped by the DVD player) or go to sleep.  It wasn’t exactly a fun or relaxing ride, but it was an experience whizzing across the Italian countryside at 300kph! 

We finally reached Naples around 8:30pm… after a full 24 hours of travel by train across Europe!  But our journey wasn’t over yet.  We disembarked the train and were met on the platform by my dad and my brothers Ezra and John, as well as my dad’s friend Tom who lives in Naples.  So there were plenty of hands to help with bags and tired children.  My family had been in Italy for several days already and had been visiting with their old friends Tom and family (who work with a Christian outreach to servicemen), and when Tom heard that we were arriving in Naples late at night and would need to travel by train a FURTHER hour to the Sorrento area where we were staying, he offered to give my dad a ride to the train station to pick us up, and then drive us all to the villa where we were staying!  This was SO kind and generous of him and we were very grateful.  We all piled into his minivan and took off through the congested, crazy streets of Naples.  This was the only glimpse we got of Naples, really – it was after dark and Tom was driving with great experience, so we didn’t have to worry about anything.  But overall, Naples is not a great city.  It is very dirty, and not exactly nice.  There were hookers on the street corners looking for business (mostly from sailors as there is a large Navy base nearby).  I was glad that we were spending our holiday further away from the filth of Naples.

It was about an hour’s drive to the villa where we were staying, which was in San’t Angello, a small, quiet village very close to the bustling, busy tourist town of Sorrento.  It was close to 10pm when we arrived.  Tom dropped us off and we got our bags and baggage sorted, and there we stayed for the next 9 days….  :)

our weekend in the Netherlands

So on Thursday, 18 October, our family was in Lusaka.  We had said affectionate farewells to our amazing super-nanny, Sarah Moriah, the night before, after she and I returned from our crazy whirlwind girls’ outing to Vic Falls.  (She was staying on in Lusaka for another week or so with another friend.)  We had repacked our luggage in what we hoped was a semi-sensible fashion for our upcoming crazy days of travel.  In the afternoon we drove to our friends the MacDs who had invited us to come for dinner before our flight.  We would be leaving our truck parked at their house during our 3-month absence from Zambia, and our colleague Phil who was also at their house would be giving us a lift to the airport that night.  We had an enjoyable, relaxing dinner with everyone.  Afterwards there was time to put the children in their pajamas before heading to the airport - it must have been sometime around 8:30 or so that we left for the airport.  Our flight was scheduled to leave at 11:45pm, an overnight flight direct to Amsterdam.  (Direct flights are so nice!)

The flight arrived as scheduled in Amsterdam the following morning around 9am.  By the time we got through immigration, collected our bags, and found our way around the airport to the meeting point, it was past 10am. We had arranged to spend the weekend with old friends of my family’s, a Dutch family whom we’d known since meeting in California in 1997.  Way back then, the father, Bart, was in CA on a business trip and brought his wife and 3 young children along.  We met them when they visited our church one Sunday, and really hit it off.  During the remainder of their stay we got together several times – going swimming together, going on picnics to the redwood forests, and going to the beach are some of my fond memories. The amazing thing was that all of us kids got along really well even though they didn’t speak a word of English and we didn’t speak a word of Dutch… we had great fun.  After they returned to the Netherlands, I kept in touch with their daughter Hanneke by email. As she grew our correspondence became easier, because she learned English in school. Originally our letter-writing consisted of a process whereby I dictated an email to my dad, who typed it up for me and sent it to her dad, who translated it into Dutch and gave it to her!  As we grew older we could write letters directly to each other, and her English improved year by year!  We have not been in close correspondence in recent years, but remained friends on Facebook, and Hanneke’s parents have remained in close contact with my family.  When my parents traveled through Europe on their way to visit us in Scotland in 2010, they passed through the Netherlands and spent a couple of days with their family.  At the time I was very sad not to be with them visiting my old friends!

So when it turned out that we would be traveling through the Netherlands ourselves I contacted Bart and Alida and asked if we could visit them for a weekend. They welcomed us with open arms!  When we arrived at the airport on Friday morning the 18^th of October, we were met by their eldest son Henk – who was a lot taller than I remembered him as a child of something like 5 years old!  He brought us from the airport to their home in a small town about 30 minutes from Utrecht.  As soon as I walked into their garden I felt peaceful.  :)  It was so beautiful and quiet, with lovely flowers and shrubs.  They had a pet duck (whose name I’ve forgotten).  We were warmly welcomed by Bart and Alida with a cup of coffee sitting in the sunshine in their garden.  We managed to visit during some lovely weather for the Netherlands – beautiful, spring-like, sunny weather.

They truly made us feel at home for that weekend!  We stayed in the 3^rd floor of their house, in a large room. They had beds for the children, which had belonged to Alida when she was a child.  They had gotten high chairs for the children and car seats for us to use that we could take outings in the car.  They even installed a child safety gate at the top of the stairs specially for our visit!  (That was nice because it meant the kids could play on the landing with a big box of lego and other toys and we didn’t have to worry about them.)  They did everything to make us feel absolutely comfortable, and it was a lovely way to begin our holiday.  We had such an enjoyable visit with them.  On Friday we rested a bit and didn’t do much other than visit.  Bart took us for a short walk into town, to see the nearby canal and the shops.  We stopped and got gelato – the first gelato of our Europe trip, but certainly not the last!  :)  Henk was home briefly and then went back to his own apartment. Their 3^rd child, Herman, was around and we probably saw the most of him.

On Saturday they took us on an outing to Utrecht so that we could see a Dutch city.  We strolled around for a while, and then Bart and Alida took us on a boat tour of the canals, which was really interesting.  It was fun to get the feel of our first European city – the different architecture, the canals, the bicycles everywhere, the open-air cafes.  On our way home we picked up Hanneke who is a student in another city.  She came home for 1 night, so at least we got to see her briefly – I hadn’t seen her since she was 7 or 8 years old!

It was so fun to stay with Bart and Alida and get a taste of Dutch culture.  Enjoying Dutch treats, yummy coffee, Dutch cheese, Dutch sausage… mmmmm.  Listening to their family playing music together in the family room.  Chatting.  Resting.

On Sunday we went to church with Bart and Alida and family.  We were impressed by the warmth and friendliness of their congregation.  It was a restful day.  In the late afternoon Bart and Alida took us for a short drive to a park with nice walking trails and woods, and we had a peaceful walk with the children. Alida brought a plastic bag so that Elijah could help her pick up horse chestnuts under the trees.  It was a beautiful evening and felt like autumn.  We walked across a large grassy meadow covered in beautiful autumn leaves – the only true glimpse of autumn we got that year!  They were huge, crisp leaves.  Elijah and Ketzia had a fabulous time crunching through them.

David and I absolutely loved the idea of going for a family bicycle ride along the canals, so this morning (Monday the 22nd) Bart and Alida made arrangements for us to borrow bicycles and bicycle seats for the children, and off we went!  We had a seat clipped behind David for Elijah, and a seat clipped in front of me for Ketzia.  Alida went with us to lead the way and show us around.  It was SO MUCH FUN.  I think it was the most fun day I’ve had since I got married!  The weather was stunningly gorgeous – sunny, cool, and refreshing, and the countryside was beautiful.  It was so enjoyable to bike along somewhere that didn’t have lots of ups and downs!  The kids had a great time, and Ketzia even fell asleep in her seat.  :)

After lunch the children went down for their naps and David stayed with them while I went to the shops with Alida (on our bicycles).  I needed to buy nappies and food for our train journey, and also wanted to get a Dutch memento to give to my mom for her birthday which we would be celebrating in Italy that week.  Then it was time to re-pack our bags for our train journey tonight…