When in Chongwe, we park in front of Gertrude’s shop so she can keep an eye on the vehicle. Lucy went in the store and I walked around the vehicle to check the doors were all locked. As I came around the back I say “shake-shake man”. Shake-Shake is a beer that comes in a cardboard box (like a milk carton), that you have to shake before you drink it. Actually, this guy drinks 7 day mancoyyo, the corn mash that the nationals make. When you drink it after 2 or 3 days, it is fine; but the longer it sits, the more alcoholic it gets, even poisonous. We hear it poisons the person, actually causes their skin to get even blacker.
So anyway, I come around the truck and see this guy. His chin is usually looking down, but I see his eyes look up and me and mumble something, then I see this huge hand coming at me… and smack me right in the face. I was obviously stunned, but just kept walking. I wasn’t sure what to do, but I wasn’t thinking about saying anything to him-no idea what he would do, keep walking or turn and hit me again. Did anyone see it? I am sure someone had to have; we were at the bus stop. I just doubt anyone would have done anything about it, even if I would have made a fuss. Too bad, poor muzungu. Brian said I should have called the cops. Lucy wasn’t there so she felt bad. She wanted to know if anyone saw, if they had he could have been beaten. But I didn’t make a big deal of it or say anything at all so nothing happened. Just a reminder to stay further away from that guy-go around the other way next time!
Then we went into the market on the other side of the road, and I saw a guy who looked very similar. I went to the other side of the road that time! Lucy was wondering if I was scared, but I hadn’t told her about shake- shake man yet.
It was nice to visit on the way in and out with her and Henry (we brought him in that the morning). I got to hear more about the wedding and kitchen party that we all will be going to at the end of September for Henry’s nephew. Lori and I are on the kitchen party committee. That party is Friday and the wedding Saturday, so we will have to plan to camp out at Henry’s house, then Brian and Paul will bring the kids to the wedding on Saturday and we can go home sometime Saturday afternoon. I am SOOO not looking forward to camping, never really liked it. Living in the bush in Africa is enough camping for me in my cement house.
Oh course on the way home Lucy asked me when there was going to be a Kazemba baby…
My brother suggested on Facebook that we should do a reality show and use the funds for our work. HA HA! That would be really scary. Then we look around and just watch the kids and the animals. We currently have 9 baby chicks in bins on our table, a kitten who has free roam and three dogs. Caleb likes to bark at Tiger (The cat) to get him to play, but that doesn’t happen. I have at least three Elmiras (“I will love him, and pet him, and never let him go”). Henry likes to grab the cat and throw him around too. Yes, we’d be an interesting show to watch! I still can’t believe Brian lets a cat in the house. The cats were for outside he always told me. I joked with him about it and he says that is what happens after how many nights of chasing rats around the house!
Also another thanks for prayer-things are going much better with Joe. He seems to be trying a lot harder to listen and help out and just get a long better with us and the whole family. Continue to pray for him and us. We still have some problems when we have a good, fun day doing something. The next day he tries to sabotage everything. It’s like he is punishing us/himself for having a good day the day before. This is tough on us; it feels like whenever we are making progress, there’s a big step backwards. It’s an unfortunate cycle that many adoptive families go through, and it is a side we are often the only ones who get to see. It causes me to put up a protective wall to go up that makes it hard for him to break through when he is behaving well.
Here is a link to the Rodgers prayer blog for 2009: www.eht.blogspot.com. It is a listing of their team members and the areas they are working in. There is a lot of info about the people groups in this area of Zambia. The Rodgers are only 40 km away, so the info about them would be closest to us. It is a good description of how to pray as they (and us!) work in Zambia. We’d encourage you to pray for them and their work in this area of Zambia as you pray for us.
Everyone asks us how Paul and Lori are doing and adjusting. I suddenly realized we haven’t really point blank talked or asked them about it! They seem to be doing okay. You can go to their website, www.zambiathenextstep.com and read Lori’s diary. It looks a lot like our daily life-some good days, then some really lonely days too.
I sometimes read her diary and get maybe just a little jealous that they will probably have a much easier transition than us. They are different personalities; they are in a different stage of life than us so there is that of course, but they still aren’t the only ones here (Americans). The nationals are great, but sometimes you just need to visit with someone who has a little commonality. They don’t have to learn the hard way on many of the things we did-were to do government things, buy a vehicle, get appliances, get this or that… There are a lot of things we would have done differently if we would have had someone else here to help us figure things out. I think we would have still had to send the container, but I am not sure. As such, we just didn’t have any choice. I can’t imagine showing up with the 7 kids with nothing but our suitcases. We would have had to go around and find beds, kitchen stuff, furniture, etc. all that stuff right away to work on the house. At least Brian had already had some stuff gone through when we all got here. Who knows, it could have worked, but it would have been super stressful (even more than it was-is that possible?!)
So, we can’t even begin to compare our experiences and adjustment with Paul and Lori’s-it will just be different. Hopefully though, it will be a lot less stressful for them than ours was for us.
I never knew how helpful my water softener was. I do dishes and not even two loads in you’re just basically washing in dirty water. So you put more soap on the rag and do two more loads if you are lucky, then more soap…
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