Termites, makoswe and gekkos, oh my

The rains have started and with them an abundance of termites. The winged creatures were scattered on the kitchen floor this morning. Piles of wings were at the door step and scattered over the courtyard waving in the wind. On the roads and in the mud gutters children armed with plastic bottles and sticks were busy collecting them as were the ants, lizards, mice, rats and geckos. Upon my return from language class our guard and I tossed termites to a lovely green chameleon with pronged toes and an extremely long quick tongue. He moved slowly with a wobbly gait and eyes that individually darted backwards and forwards. As he moved from the grass to the dark brown earth his coloration darkened. I noticed the gardener and guard also enjoyed a plate of fried termites for lunch as will many families in Lusaka today. We have decided on baked potatoes and fish however. I suspect Jim would be willing to eat some if I fried them up as he is the only one of us who has a history of swallowing live goldfish at a youth group meeting in high school. Jason should try that one at the next gross food event.

After we cleaned up the termites, I plucked a small red spider dangling off of Jim’s hair and headed for the shower where I encountered two miniature geckos. At first with my glasses off I wondered if they were spiders, large ants or cockroaches but once I figured out what they were I transported them outside. They are awfully cute. Rascal thinks so too and we have found some dismembered ones about the house. The geckos come in and out of the air conditioning units and click loudly at each other and at the large fat spiders that come out at night to eat insects. The geckos in turn eat the spiders if they can catch them. We think we also have makoswe (house rats as opposed to field rats) though we have not seen them. We hear them running at night in the roof. They are so loud they sound like an infestation of raccoons. Some friends have rats that are so nonchalant they run past her in the kitchen when she is cooking. Her rats eat around the poison and have also dug through concrete which they used to patch up the holes in their wall.

Out-swimming the Crocodiles!

I have recently returned from two back-to-back trips to the villages (Eastern and Northwestern Regions) as part of my assessment of maternal mortality. Those who are following our blog will know that one of my current tasks is to help guide the US government project - "Saving Mothers, Giving Life", an ambitious attempt to reduce maternal mortality in four demonstration disctricts by 50% in one year. I have now visited all four disctricts and about 15% of the 96 health facilities and villages. The official maternal mortality rate is 591/100,000, about 500 times higher than in the US. I have so many thoughts and ideas it is hard to know where to start. The most simple summary is that access to a quality facility based delivery is the biggest issue. Of course there is a lot involved in this - roads, vehicles, communication systems, traditional beliefs, trained staff, equipment, safe blood products, etc.
If I could have one wish fullfilled it would be for a comprehensive system of paved roads - this would not only improve health but it would also foster broad economic development, as farmers and small business persons could get products to market. This would also further open up one of Zambia's most valuable resources - national parks. Tourism could help the economy immensely. I would employee Zambians to build the roads, which would also stimulate the local economy (too much aid actually goes right to the donor nations companies and nationals). Given that Zambia is only about the size of the state of Texas and has a stable government, this really is not too tall of an order.

When visiting Lundazi, which includes the Luangwa River Valley (where North and South Luangwa National Parks are located) we were told that during the rainy season about 15% of the population is cut-off from the rest of the district. If a woman needs to get to a health facility she may be placed on a raft and a few strong swimmers will push her across the flooded river beds, always mindful of the crocodiles! Yet these National Parks are considered some of the most beautiful in Africa and have many tour groups operating within their boundaries, tour groups with numerous all terrain vehicles. This seems an obvious opportunity for a public-private partnership. Wouldn't the average European or North American tourist be delighted to know that the company they are using is helping to save the lives of pregnant women?

I also noted so many broken vehicles and equipment - wouldn't it be wonderful if retired (but not tired) people from Europe and North America with skills (mechanics, electricians, medical equipment repair technicians, etc.) considered taking a year or two and volunteering in some of these places - teaching Zambian's some of the skills needed to sustain the equipment - think of the stories one would have for the golf buddies! I remember one of my seminary friends once asking, "where in scripture does it say we should retire from serving?"

Chichewa, a Beautiful language

Chichewa is a tonal language. What this means is that you have a good chance of being misunderstood at least in the beginning. For example the word mpeni can be pronounced with an upward lilt and means knife and with a downward lilt and means price. The accent is on the second syllable for both. There are no masculine of feminine words instead there are six different classes of nouns. Based on the class and whether the noun is singular or plural, the prefix to the verb stem changes. The prefixes and suffixes are the “spices” which make Chichewa such a “beautiful” and complicatedlanguage according to Bambo Tembo (Mr. Tembo) our teacher. We have learned 35 different forms of the word “this,” 17 of which indicate something very near, so close that I am in it or on it for example “this dance=gule uno”, “or “this hospital=cipatala cino” (which supposes I am taking part in it or in the building right at the moment. We have learned 18 forms of “that” and 17 forms of “which?” as well as 14 forms of “with that.”

Additionally verbs are never lonely. Things get added on to the beginning and the end of verbs until words need to be carefully dissected to be understood. Let me demonstrate. The sentence “In the future I will be a teacher also and I will not teach you” is: Kutsogolo ine ndidzakhalanso mphunzitsi ndipo sindidzakuphunzitsani. The course is called intense because we cover a chapter a day which means about 100 words a week. We have finished the present, present continuous, imperative, subjunctive, future, perfect and all negative tenses of these tenses. My translation is pretty good, my speaking is slow and my understanding of the spoken word is sparse. When I look at a word I can slowly dissect the parts but hearing it is tricky. Si (not) ndi(I) dza(signals future tense) ku + ni at the end (is the plural you) and then the vowel root phunzitsa (all vowels end with a) and you have it sindidzakuphunzitsani. There are some wonderful phrases such as to be angry, “psa intima,” which is literally to burn or be cooked in your heart. Another interesting phrase is “khuta nsima” which means to be full. Nsima is the food made from boiled fine corn meal. It is eaten at every meal and if you have not eaten nsima you have not eaten no matter what else you may have eaten that day. The term to be drunk is a combination of to be satisfied –khuta and beer –mowa. I have just returned from Tumekutana 2011 the PCUSA sponsored International African Woman’s conference on “Women as Agents of Peace, healing and reconciliation” in Kigali Rwanda followed by a three day trip to Houston for the Medical Benevolence Foundation board meeting so i am studying extra hard to catch up.

Moving In

We finally moved into our permanent housing – yea! The house is not too far from where we were living, so this past weekend I made several trips back and forth moving our items. The good news is that we have yet to receive our household goods shipment so there wasn’t too much to move. The bad news is we are back to living out of suite cases, at least for the time being.  For some reason the car I was using (a loaner from the US Embassy) wouldn’t start Saturday. It turned out to be a dead battery so we were back in business after a jump. I discovered that they use car batteries which require water and ours seemed a bit dry, so I topped it up (distilled water of course) and so far so good. This brought back memories of Auto shop at Lane Tech, 1977. I remember my teacher was excited as he explained these new things called maintenance free batteries which were just coming out!  Not sure why the fad has missed Zambia. At least something I learned from shop class is still relevant, I certainly won’t be rebuilding any circa 1977 carburetors anytime soon (an inside joke, you had to be in Mr. Chaufness’ class to get this one)! I am trying to think of some sermon illustration – one needs to fill your battery (water – Spirit?) if you are going have the energy to get moving for God…mmm, maybe.

Amy is attending Tumekutana (http://www.tumekutana.com/) in Rwanda this week and will travel from there to Houston for the Board meeting of the Medical Benevolence Foundation (www.mbfoundation.org). Keep her in prayer as it is an exhausting 10 days.  Her first flight was scheduled to leave Lusaka at 12:20 am but departed closer to 3 am, in part due to a drunken brawl on board! So it was not a great start to a difficult stretch of traveling. Also, please prayer for the MBF Board as they continue a search for a new director. We are struggling at home to make it without her, but Ruth especially has pitched in with cooking, and I have discovered Zambian ‘fast’ food.

Tomorrow the boys will celebrate UN day and they need to bring some food item representing their home country. I have thought of things like hotdogs, potato chips, peanut butter (George Washington Carver – Chris suggested this one, he loves peanut butter and was rightfully impressed when he studied Carver’s life). I thought the peanut butter one was brilliant – I could make a bunch of small PBJ sandwiches…then I noticed the letter to parents forbidding peanuts! So I have settled on apple pie – I will bake two tonight. What’s more American than apple pie?

The next big event is that the used cars that we ordered from Japan are scheduled to arrive in port by Friday. Then begins the overland journey and various clearances of borders – apparently some new rules in Zimbabwe have added significant delays to car transportation. Ever the scientist I am running an experiment – we ordered from two different companies a few weeks apart. I planned to see who would be faster. Turns out the cars are on the same ship. It will off load our Land Cruiser in Maputo Mozambique on October 20^th and our Gaia (a Toyota minivan with 4 wheel drive) in Durban on October 21^st. then its an overland race to Lusaka! I’ll keep you posted on the winner.

Friday morning I will be preaching at the Chapel service for Justo Mwale Seminary (www.justomwale.net). I am hopeful that God will use this time, both to encourage the students and faculty, as well as to help me get a better sense of my role there.

Finally, in the interest of full disclosure, and so we don’t give anyone the impression that life is too difficult, the new house has a swimming pool (small but nice) and its own tennis court…not too bad! We are hoping to open our home to the many missionaries we are getting to know as well as the Peace Corps volunteers who often visit Lusaka from the rural areas, where they don’t get to relax in such nice surroundings. It also has a lovely guest room – so plan a visit!

John and Chris Settling In

The boys are really settling in well. John has jumped right in at school, the American International School of Lusaka, and now plays volleyball. He is the team setter. They recently came in second in the country and will travel next month to South Africa for an international tournament.

He also has a leading role in The Wiz - he plays the Tin Man! It makes me wonder - can a person made of tin move quickly enought to set a volleyball? Apparently so.

Amy and Ruth are busy sewing costumes. This includes many trips to the "compounds" (very poor shanty town areas) looking for clothes. It is amazing what they can find for 2 pin (2,000 kwacha, or about 40 cents). Probably all Salvation Army discards that tend to get shipped to Africa.

Chris recently visited a chimpanzee rescue program called Chimfunshi Chimpanzee Orphanage. They spent a week observing the animal behavior, hanging out as it were. It seems to have been a good trip with a chance to get to know classmates as well as the chimps.

As a family we continue to explore churches and have found quite a variety. We pray God will continue to guide us as we engage in fellowship and outreach.

Thankful for glimpses of the Kingdom

"Peter said to him, 'We have left all we had to follow you!' 'I tell you the truth,' Jesus said to them, 'no one who has left home or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God will fail to receive many times as much in this age and, in the age to come, eternal life.'" Luke 18:28-30.

David Brooks of the New York Times wrote an Op-Ed piece on August 22, 2011 (see the blog side-bar for a link) titled "The Rugged Altruist". It is a really interesting piece but begins with the disturbing statement, "Many American go to the developing world to serve others. A smaller percentage actually end up being useful." He then goes on to explain that the successful ones develop three virtues as they serve - courage, deference (willingness to listen and learn), and thankfulness. Without these he suggests, one tends to become cynical and perhaps even part of the problem. He also concludes that if one reaches the stage of thankfulness the service becomes a spiritual experience.

I don't know Mr. Brooks' spiritual background or perspective, but I think he is on to something. As a follower of Christ I would add to the list the ability to see God's kingdom as it unfolds here on earth (my interpretation of receiving many times as much in this age - an answer to the oft prayed, "Thy kingdom come..."), but perhaps that is simply another way of saying thankfulness.

For me this is one of the most encouraging parts about being here in Zambia - seeing God's hand in all we are doing, sensing His kingdom is come, being thankful. Let me share some of the amazing ways I have seen God's hand so far:

There were several problems in my hiring and paperwork in Atlanta and I am still sorting them out. Basically they have been unwilling to consider Miriam a dependent due to her age. I have been patiently working through the system but it does not seem that we have an advocate in Atlanta. Having said that, I just learned that the new manager of my activities will be a woman I helped early in her career in Chicago, a person I count as a friend. She had already sent me an email welcoming me to Africa in August. So I feel as if God has decided to move her to Atlanta in December, possibly to be our advocate!

Upon my arrival in Zambia I was tasked with working across agencies (CDC and USAID) on a project to address maternal mortality. It seems that in general CDC and USAID have not always worked well together. Possibly because we all tend to spend far too much energy worrying about who gets credit. In any event, the lead person at USAID who I am working with is also new to Zambia. As we chatted during our recent trip to Kalomo (picture is of unfinished district hospital operating room) we realized we had crossed paths some 20 years ago in Bolivia, it had been a very positive experience, and we share many mutual friends. Our working relationship immediately began on a positive note!

There are almost too many such "coincidences" to even name - many of my co-workers are believers and have expressed interest in an office Bible study, the CDC country directors in Ethiopia and Zimbabwe are friends of ours from the past, during the recent visit of Lois Quam (Executive Director of the Global Health Initiative) we got to talking about the role of faith communities and she shared that she was a preachers kid, which moved our conversation to another level, I was asked to host a visit by Bread for the World and found many mutual friends among the group - from Lawndale, from the PCUSA, etc.

I feel that we had the courage as a family to step out, Amy and I tend to be deferential by nature (okay maybe just a little), and now I am so thankful for the many ways God has prepared a path for us.

Please pray specifically for: our search for a church home, the possibility of a Bible study at work, seminary teaching (I preach there on October 28th), Ruth's application to work at the US Embassy part time in communications, Amy's language class and her upcoming travel to Rwanda and Houston, Miriam's volunteer activities, John's college applications (tricky coordinating two schools across continents) and upcoming trip to South Africa for volleyball, and Chris' developing of good friendships. Oh, we still need our cars to arrive, our household goods, and our permanent house to be ready, but I am thankful that God has already taken care of these things in His good time.

Reflections on Worship

One of the things I love about being a Christian is the community that one feels when you visit a congregation, no matter where you are in the world.

Last Sunday we visited St. Columba Presbyterian Church in Lusaka and heard a wonderful sermon on worship. I was especially excited to listen because our church back home, First Presbyterian Church of Evanston, is in the midst of changing worship service and exploring new ways of thinking about worship. I have been following the conversation in Evanston via the internet.

The sermon was really great. Basically the pastor challenged us to think of our whole lives as worship – glorifying God all the time. He encouraged us to really not think about Sunday morning as our main time of worship. Worship is a lifestyle. For what are we living? Are we living for our jobs, or our hobbies, or our family, or our possessions? Are we living to glorify God? He charged us to leave the church on Sunday and go out and worship God in all we do.

I was especially encouraged as I will be spending the next three days visiting small villages in the rural south of Zambia to try and see what needs to be done to improve maternal mortality. Many women in Zambia die giving birth and I have been charged with the task of helping improve this situation. I will be away from home and not in communication. It will be my 50th birthday on Tuesday and part of me was sad to be away from family and friends, and probably staying in a relatively uncomfortable living unit. But then I thought, how better to worship God than to be doing what He has called me to do.

What a privilege – to spend my 50th birthday worshiping God and serving others!