Resilient MKs

How You Know When Your MKs (Missionary Kids) Have Acculturated?


1.  When the power is on, the first question out of their mouths is, "is this zesa (electricity) or generator?"

2.  They have learned NOT to flush the toilet after every use.

3.  They clap when receiving something (the sign of thanks here).

4.  Going somewhere, means walking, not the car!

5.  A trip down to the river is equivalent to a trip to the swimming pool.

6.  You overhear in their play, "let's go to Mr. Maguti's store!" (the local shop outside the compound)
instead of Target or Walmart.

7.  In their drawings, the trucks now bear the letters TM (our grocery store in Harare).

8.  What is McDonalds again?  We love Pizza Inn (the fast-food place we enjoy in Harare)!!

9.  It is a treat to get to ride in the car.

10.  They kick over rocks before picking them up...you know, scorpions!

11.  Goat, chickens, donkeys, and cows are just a part of the normal day.

12.  The drink of choice is Mazowi (local sugary drink) over koolaid.

13.  "Where's the mosquito net?" when seeing a bed without one.

14.  The only time little Christopher knows is 10:00 because that's tea time!

15.  Baboons are old hat.

16.  Sitting through an hour of worship at church in Shona and Awana in Shona is all a part of a normal Sunday.

 

 

17.  Luke says everytime we drive through the bush, "Yeah for Africa!"

 

Grade 0

For a month now, three days a week, the boys and I have been having school with 4 staff kids.  I was asked if I would be able to help out any at the school here on the compound.  I agreed to teach Grade 0 once we got settled into our house.  Grade 0 is what is equivalent to kindergarten in the U.S.  The school here is called Correspondance School.  It has been around over 50 years and several of our missionaries, who grew up here in Zimbabwe, attended Correspondance School as young children.  It is the homeschool program here in Zimbabwe, but on our compound, we have teachers who walk through the program with the children.  This school is open to staff members who are well established here and meet other requirements.  Right now we have 3 classes.  Grades 1 & 2, Grades 4 & 6, and Grade 0!  In all we have about 12 kids. 

All of the school lessons are in English and so the kids who enter Correspondance School must be somewhat fluent in English.  In the past, students enter with a low proficiency in English and that makes it very difficult on them as well as the teacher.  So this is where I come in.  My main job is to expose my class to as much English as possible to help when they enter Grade 1 next year. 

Our boys are thoroughly enjoying school!  They have gained 4 new friends in a safe and structured environment and toys belong to the school so they are fun to share all around!  The boys and I were sick one week and were not able to do school.  When we returned, the boys were blown over by the hugs and squeezes the kids gave them!  It has been a good change in environment and schedule for all of us. 

Our class is made up of 2 boys and 2 girls, all right around the age of 6.  We were fortunate to start off our time with a helper.  Miss Julie is the daughter of one of our missionary staff who came out to visit for 2 months.  She blessed all of us by helping out in the room every day and the kids all got rather attached to her.  We are having to adjust to not having her with us now. 

Our school year here goes from January to December with 3 month-long breaks at April, August, and December.  We have only a few months to get these kiddoes ready for Grade 1, so please pray for wisdom as I prepare lessons and balance being a mommy and wife as well as a teacher now.  Welcome to Grade 0!

Semi Long-term Housing

Here are a few pictures of our home that we have moved into for the rest of our stay here.  We are at the top of the hill on the hospital compound, so we hear it has the best breeze when it gets so very hot here.  This is a duplex that once was the guesthouse a long time ago.  So we've moved from guesthouse to guesthouse!

The front entrance of our house.

Our door and the little flowerbed Dontie has been working on to get some color going.

The living room/dining room area.

The living room.

Our kitchen, very bright and spacious!

The master bedroom.

Bathroom

Hallway leading to all rooms.

The boys' bedroom.

View #2

The laundry room.  There is no water source into this room so all water must be carried in by bucket to the washing machine, and the used water emptied into the big black trash bucket.  I use this water then to water my plants or flush the toilet if we are having a water shortage.  One small load fills that black bucket!  Clothes are hand rinsed.  The drying rack is for anything you can't iron as we have flies that lay eggs on clothes out on the line, and so all things hung outside must be ironed.

The back of the house and clothesline.

Kariba

We decided that after 6 months, our family needed a little down time and a chance to explore another part of Zimbabwe.  So we took off in a borrowed car to the northwest part of the country to Lake Kariba.  We had been told that the best time to go to Kariba is during this colder part of the year as it can get horribly hot during the summer months.  God gave us beautiful weather and we enjoyed ourselves immensely!  It was so nice to be together and see wild animals just outside our front door. 

We enjoyed high tea and lake breezes.

The boys LOVED swimming every day and they both are getting very close to swimming without floaties!  We have two little fish for boys :).  It was a wonderfully relaxing time. 

Here are some pictures of the lake and the animals that were just roaming around the cottages where we stayed! 

We could hear hippos grunting all night long.

This is Big Boy, the resident elephant. 

The lake was full of crocodiles.

Dontie's favorite time of the day was evening, watching the beautiful sunsets over the lake and the daily ritual of white birds covering a tree on an island in the lake.

Our family at the end of our much to short stay.  This is a termite hill just outside our cottage door!

As we drove home, we found this enormous baobab tree. 

Immediately after returning from our vacation, we moved up to our house from the guesthouse, and are in the process of settling and making it feel like home.  We thank God for the time away to rejuvinate as we head into a very busy season at Karanda.

Rolling with the Punches

The cell phone rings and we answer.  “Hello, Christopher, your car has been impounded!”  WHAT?  We had come into town to buy things for our house (which we are currently moving into). While in town, we had our car taken to the police headquarters to get a permit to cross the border, so we could go to South Africa on a little vacation/supply trip.  In the process of clearing our car, it was noted that something was amiss about the car and they said it looked like it had been a stolen car!  So we may have bought a stolen car!  We were able to get all our personal things out and are borrowing a monster of a car to get around town and continue our errands, but we have no idea what is to happen now.  Obviously, we aren’t going on any vacation!  We were just informed as well, that IF we ever get the car back, it could take months to several YEARS! 

Here’s a new prayer then for all you prayer warriors: that we can either get our car back in a short amount of time, or that we can find another means of transportation.  We certainly can’t afford to buy another car, but we do have to get around.  God is in control  and we trust His goodness.  So as long as you stick with us in this adventure, you’re in for a ride (no pun intended)! 

We will keep you updated.

So you can see what you are praying for :)

When Paths Cross

Being a part of a mission hospital compound brings a number of short term guests across our path.  These people give up vacation time, sacrifice money they could spend on themselves, and they come and work with us.  Having lived at the guesthouse here at Karanda, we've been in close contact with several shorttermers.  We are thankful that we've had this opportunity to gain new friends and rub shoulders with some incredible people.  I recently received a book, One Thousand Gifts, from such a friend.  I have only started reading it, but it has already powerfully affected me.  Maybe its the recent loss of a friend and her child in a fatal car accident, or maybe the humdrum of life on a mission station that has begun to get to me.  Whatever the reason, I haven't been able to tear myself away from the words of challenge and encouragement to live a daily life of gratitude.  So I will not share a list of one thousand blessings (that might lose some readers), but I want to offer some gifts I've received from living here at Karanda.

1.  Going to sleep at night to the sounds of a cooing bird.
2.  Seeing much more of Christopher than we have in a long time!
3.  Friday Family Night of movies and popcorn.
4.  Missionary family who make a birthday memorable and special.

Sharing the same birthday with fellow missionary Kathy Christiansen!



5.  The temperature has cooled WAY down and I actually wear my fleece jacket in the morning!
6.  Green grass because we won't have it much longer as the rains have stopped.
7.  My African violets blooming like crazy on my windowsill.
8.  A husband who comes home after a long day's work and yet plays ball with his sons because they ask.

Daddy reading books at bedtime.

9.  Beautiful walks through farmland and riverbeds.
10.  Friendships from long ago and newly found ones who make this journey meaningful.
11. A heart that feels such great emotions.
12. Supporters who send us letters, packages, cards, and e-mails of tangible encouragement.
13.  No T.V. (can you believe it!) and the gift of many more hours to read, talk, play games.
14.  Prayer meeting nights and hearing the faith-filled prayers of our local staff.
15.  Bright, happy curtains for our new home just waiting to be hung!
16. Electricity and water has been on for long periods of time.
17. Skype dates with family...we can't wait all week for those!
18. Two heartily growing boys who have learned to play together and are each other's best friends.

19. Being able to settle knowing our TEP was granted.

20. Being given gifts of food by those who have nothing.

These just graze off the top of the iceberg.  We are so blessed!  Thank you God for paths that cross, for however long, and friendships and memories that come from them.

Answers to Prayer

Every Thursday night, the missionary staff, as well as the heads of the various ministries of the hospital, meet together for a time of praise and prayer.  It is a blessing to come together and hear what God is doing and what is on people's hearts for prayer.  We spend time thanking God for the ways He has answered our previous prayers, and then we break into groups to pray for ongoing and new requests. 

One ongoing request has been the need for rain as this season just has not been good for crops.  Many peoples' crops are struggling from not enough rain or too long of a time between rains.  We live among a people depending on what comes from their fields to make it from year to year. 

The number of patients filling the hospital wards is also an ongoing request along with a very overworked staff.  For the past several months, our family has been held up in prayer as our TEP (work visa) had been denied and then, as we put in an appeal, we were going month to month on extensions. 

Well this week we have some HUGE praises!  We've had some wonderfully soaking rains (actually every day since our last prayer meeting) and our TEP was granted just yesterday!  After 5 months, we are so grateful that we now can move into our house and settle a bit more knowing this is where God has us for now.  We know many of you were praying along with us and we thank you for lifting us up faithfully.  We don't know why this took so long, but there was reason, and we trust His ways in all of this.  We're looking forward to our next prayer meeting!

Two weekends ago, Christopher and a couple of the nurses went for a rock climb up a famous rock in this part of Zimbabwe called Pulpit Rock.  It was a great time to get to know these two guys better and enjoy the beauty around us.  We are thankful for the friendships that have begun and look forward to new memories ahead!   Here are a few of the pictures from the day:

The guys before the hike!

Pulpit Rock

Yes, they climbed straight up!  Not for the faint of heart!

At the top and what a view!

What a musha (village home) looks like from above.  Often extended families live close to each other.  So one family is in one circled area, and maybe the grandparents or a sibling and his/her family live in the nearby circle of homes.