life

Tonight, as David and I are sitting at the dining table playing a game together, we can hear village drums beating, not too far away.  Living out here in the bush (fully recognizing that we are definitely not as far out in the bush as we could be!) the nights are full of what I would associate as "summer" noises.  Crickets chirping, frogs croaking, a breeze in the trees.  We are an 8-minute drive away from the nearest paved road, so there are no traffic noises, which is lovely.  At night you can see hundreds of stars and constellations so clearly.  Unfortunately we don't spend any time star-gazing because of the mosquitos!

It has gotten noticeably cooler at night now, almost too cold to be comfortable without a light sweater.  The temperature changed drastically within the course of only one or two nights.  I went digging through our clothing to find a couple of long-sleeved items, and was shocked to discover that I apparently didn't bring any for myself.  Everything seems to have been left in our boxes.  Discoveries like these (we've had a few) are pretty frustrating because we tried to pack so carefully!  But when you're moving you can't keep track of everything no matter how hard you try.  Pajamas are the only long-sleeved things Elijah has here.  Thankfully during the day it still gets quite warm and the sun can be really intense, so he doesn't need anything long-sleeved except for sleeping. 

The rainy season is over and already the grass is turning brown and the vegetation is dying.  Within the next couple of months people will start burning the grass, to prevent raging wildfires which are a real problem later in the year (during the very hot months).  Very soon the harvest will be brought in, as soon as it has time to finish drying.

I haven't been very successful at updating this blog very frequently.  Sometimes I sit down to write a post and just can't find the words.  It is hard to write about daily life because daily life (believe it or not, even in Africa) isn't always very exciting and it is hard to imagine it being post-worthy.  :)  Most of my time is spent doing the same things -- washing laundry, washing dishes, shopping, cooking meals, cleaning the house, and of course occupying Elijah. I am working on writing up a couple of posts about cultural things which have struck me recently, but that takes a lot of brain power, discretion, and prayer because I want to write about these things with sensitivity.  I hope to post them soon, though.

There are many things to be thankful for.  We received David's work permit on the 31st of March, which is good for two years and means that we are now legal residents of Zambia!  This means that we can now arrange to have the rest of our belongings brought into the country.  We were happy to receive notification that our boxes have been released for shipment from Glasgow and they are expected to reach Lusaka on the 19th of this month, so we should have them here at Covenant College at the end of this month!

The Annual General Meeting (AGM) of Covenant College Zambia Trust met from 31st March - 2nd April.  The Trustees arrived at the College from near and far.  We have local Trustees (from Petauke, from Eastern Province, and from Lusaka) as well as Trustees from South Africa, Scotland, England, America, etc representing the various denominations which support the ministries here.  It was a busy weekend full of meetings from early in the morning until late at night, but we were all blessed by the spirit of unity and graciousness that prevailed.  It was a pleasure to host our own Rev. MacDonald from Ness, Isle of Lewis in our home for several days.  We enjoyed much warm, edifying fellowship around our table with him as well as others.  Somehow when you are so far from family and friends, these visitors and times of fellowship become even more precious.

David had the opportunity to post some photos on Facebook the other day, which I hope many of you have enjoyed looking at.  One of these days I do still hope to post a few on this blog, especially for those of you who may not use Facebook!

There are only 3 weeks left in this term, and then we will be saying goodbye to our students for a couple of months.  They will travel to their homes to bring in the harvest and care for their families and congregations, and we will be kept busy here at the College with several conferences, travels, logistics, and preparing for the next term.