More Gravel Than Rubies.

Once again, it's been a while since I posted. Although not much has been 'happening' in one way, we've been doing a lot of sifting around our home.

My nephew from Australia came to visit, which was a lot of fun for us all. We enjoyed showing him around and seeing things to which we have grown accustomed through new eyes. We also made a quick trip to South Africa to meet him and do a few things. I managed 40 minutes in a crowded shopping mall - rather stressful to shop for the next six months at that speed, and trying to be gracious while spending my precious time queueing to pay was a challenge.

The kids are enjoying having their friends back for the holidays so we have scaled school back to allow them to spend time together. The weather is not quite cool, but with the copious rain it is cooler than usual. Our lake is back, with added ornamentation - our neighbours have started a bar and the lake is a good receptacle for the empty bottles. Business must be booming because the 'music' plays almost continuously from 3pm Friday to about 10am Monday - except when there is a power cut (and then we get drunken singing for a while before they disperse).

The Big Read

The Big Read reckons that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books they've printed.

The Rules:

1) Look at the list and put one * by those you have read.
2) Put a % by those you intend to read.
3) Put two ** by the books you LOVE.
4) Put # by the books you HATE.
5) Post.

**1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
**2 The Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. Tolkien
*3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Brontë
**4 Harry Potter series - J.K. Rowling
*5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
**6 The Bible
*7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Brontë
*8 1984 - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
**10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
*11 Little Women - Louisa May Alcott
#12 Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
*13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
**14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
*15 Rebecca - Daphne du Maurier
**16 The Hobbit - J.R.R. Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
#18 Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger
19 The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
*20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
**21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
#22 The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
**23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
**24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
*26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
*27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
#28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
**29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
**30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
*31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
*32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
*33 Chronicles of Narnia- C.S. Lewis
*34 Emma - Jane Austen
**35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
*36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - C.S. Lewis
%37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
#38 Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis de Bernières
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
**40 Winnie the Pooh - A.A. Milne
*41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
*42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
%45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
*46 Anne of Green Gables - L.M. Montgomery
*47 Far From The Madding Crowd
48 The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
*49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
*51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
*52 Dune - Frank Herbert
*53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
**54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
**57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
*58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
#61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
*65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
*67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones's Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
#70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
*71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
**73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
#75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
**77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Émile Zola
**79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - A.S. Byatt
*81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
#83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
*84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
*85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
*87 Charlotte's Web - E.B. White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
*89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
**90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
#91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
*92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
*94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
*96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
*97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
**98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
#99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
*100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

Travel Updates

Time flies when you travel - and computers are hard to get at!

Germany was ... magnificent. Spectacularly beautiful, very German, and a stark contrast with Mozambique and the US. The scenery and the castles were spectacular, the ordinary streets were gorgeous, and the bakeries were many and full of delicious breads and pastries. We decided to rent a GPS with our van which made life much easier, and got us to the airport in time.

Brian and the children were upgraded to Business Class courtesy of Brian's crutches and Lee's charm. I suffered in Economy, but the promise of Circe kept me cheerful. Circe was laughter-filled and thought-provoking - despite suffering from malaria, which I diagnosed on the Thursday. I wasn't up to eating much at our Classed dinner, but I was able to enjoy the fellowship anyway. the rest of Circe deserves a post of its own.

It took me 8 hours longer than anticipated to catch up with the rest of the family due to flight diversions and delays, so I was really glad to get to bed at 3am, and since then we have been mostly at the beach or the pool or in the car.

We are just finishing up a lovely family reunion in North Carolina and getting ready for 'driving days'. I have 5 suitcases packed, which I only need to load in and out of the car for the next 10 days or so as we travel around, 1 we decided to send on to Minneapolis to wait for our departure. With all the luggage, the van is a tight fit, but we are now living out of 2 duffles and backpacks, so I don't need to touch them much.

Criminal Roundup

I was surprised to see how long it has been since I last posted.  Life has been busy!

Today, while we were going about our usual Saturday morning activities (and Brian was at the office) Melanie trotted off to do a few errands.  While walking blamelessly along minding her own business she was stopped by the police and asked for her documents - which she does not carry because of pickpockets, because they are too fragile for regular usage, and because, as a minor, she is not required to.  She explained (or tried to) that she was a minor and that her documents were at home, but was being escorted (tearfully) to the police station when seen by some friends who called Brian to get her documents, explained further, and tried to comfort her.  By the time Brian arrived with documents (it's a small town, so that didn't take long, fortunately) there was quite a crowd of spectators, and the policeman was rather happy to be able to disappear into oblivion without further ado.  

Be thankful for your liberties and don't give them up lightly.  This whole issue of being stopped in a time of peace while minding my own business bothers me greatly - if they focused on the pickpockets (not usually young conspicuous - white - girls), there might be fewer of them.

Audacious Claims of the Unstoppable Gospel

I listened to a tremendously encouraging sermon this morning (thanks for the recommendation Lynne) and was reminded that we need to Go forward, uncertain; Prepare for difficulty; and Value the Gospel above all.

I like to be in control, and to see my life set out in front of me like a carefully planned garden, but the truth is that uncertainty drives me to God, and takings risks helps me to focus on Him.  God does not specialize in 10 year plans.  The only thing that Paul knew for sure about his future was that it would include prison and affliction - not the sort of thing my comfort-loving nature wants to seek.  However, the most important thing for Paul was the Gospel - he rightly saw his life as expendable in its service, and, as God's bond-servant, His to dispose of as he saw fit. 

We don't get to choose either the sacrifices we make, or the results of our labours - that is for God to determine.

In Praise of Electric Razors

Brian has reached his weight goal - he tells me that he has lost 22lbs in the past 3 weeks.  Melanie has said that when he returns she'll relax her vigilance on tremocos and popcorn, but he is NOT to touch the peanut butter.

Apparently there was so much blood the first time the nurses shaved him that he has decided on the bearded look until he is able to do it himself (I hope he takes a picture first), although the nurses keep offering.  Now, if he had succumbed to the family pressure to 'go electric' last year, this would not be a problem - surely even the nurses could handle that?

The physiotherapist says that he is making good progress - yesterday he tackled stairs with her for the first time.

Reflections on Mystery

"There are some things that it is better for a Minister NOT to know."  

I often think how good it would be to know what lies ahead, so that I can plan accordingly.  I am realizing that sometimes ignorance protects us from worrying about things that may never happen - and things that may.  Before the days of instant messaging, email and telephones when loved ones were far away we waited months for news and could only hold them before God, and entrust them into his hands.  Now, we have an illusion of control, and informedness, but in reality we still can't do much, or know everything.  We can really only pray diligently, and faithfully perform our daily tasks, even when tempted to abandon them because of an emergency.

I was thinking of how God figures our spiritual life in the seasons of the year - the Winter before our salvation, the Spring of regeneration and renewal, the Summer of service and growth, the Autumn of maturity and mellow fruitfulness - followed by death, and the realization of life eternal.  God gives so many signs and testimonies of his love in the 'little things' of life.

Catching Up

I can't decide whether this month has flown or crawled by.  It seems like months ago, that Philip and Brian went to Maputo for Philip's exams, and then Philip seems to have been back for aeons - yes I know that is not internally consistent, but really time is behaving in an oddly telescopic fashion.

We are delighted with Philip's SAT results - satisfactory enough that there is no need for him to consider trying to do better.

I am working on not trading off my satisfaction with exam results against my concern for Brian's back, since they are quite different issues.  Brian is in Pretoria recovering from his third procedure to try and deal with his back problem, this time it was surgical, and he is currently recovering in Intensive Care on one of those beds where they swing you from side to side to turn you over.  I am grateful that the Neurosurgeon in Nelspruit was able to diagnose the problem and refer him on, and hopeful that this surgery will deal with it.  Somehow, I didn't quite understand that the surgery was so major - probably my lack of hospital experience (for which I am grateful).

God is teaching us many things in the midst of all this, not least that He is truly Sovereign, and that suffering is a common tool in the process of our purification.  So many friends are going through terrible suffering, and I realise that God, very graciously, draws his people together through such experiences - the fellowship of suffering is a bond, even though the individual sufferings are of different kinds and in different degrees.

I am reading "The Godly Man's Picture" with a friend, and "The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment" as part of the Puritan Challenge - the Puritans don't restrain themselves from applying Truth uncomfortably, but nor do they fail to remind us of God's mercy and work in our lives.

May Day

May 1st is a big holiday here - shops and businesses are closed and only restaurants and the like are open.  The schools participate in a big parade from 7am until about 9am and many organizations have a party.

We took advantage of the day off to head to the pool as soon as it opened at 9am.  Imagine our surprise, when we became the 'next attraction' after the parade with a growing crowd of children watching us swimming our laps and playing 'shark in the meadow'.  Fifty became one hundred and more - standing around the edges of the pool barrier, and then sitting on the benches watching, watching (with the odd giggle).  Most were still there when we finished, and only began to drift off when we climbed out of the pool - we were not inclined to linger, although I did joke about a diving exhibition and autographs.  I'm still not sure if they were that short of occupation (probable), or eyeing the peculiar people who were silly enough to swim in cold weather.

Update on Life in General

Mmm - I just realized that nearly a month has gone past with no entries.  What have I been doing?  Nothing really exciting, actually, although I did move from a 13" laptop to a 17" iMac, and am enjoying the extra screen-space immensely.

We have been busy trying to sort out our summer vacation which poses enormous (and so-far-unresolved) difficulties - the least of which is our indecision.  Apart from that the kids have been studying hard, and I have been helping them keep on track, Brian's back continues to improve by tiny steps and he is hoping to get some Physio while down in Maputo with Philip who is taking the SAT and two AP exams over the next 2 weeks.

Our 'lake' is now a mud-bath (rich black and green stripes) and we can finally see the great step the cars have to roll up to get into our driveway.  Unsuspecting cars can now make it along the street without having to be towed or pushed out of the holes, and once again the City Council assures us that it will be fixed 'tomorrow'.  Of course, once it is fixed our street will just be anonymous and we will no longer be able to identify it as 'the street with the REALLY deep hole'.

Strange Sightings by the Lake

Reports have been made that our shrinking pond harbours a mysterious and hungry being.  The spear-waving-cannibal-sightings are clearly hallucinatory, but the sense that 'something' lurks in the unfathomable depths waiting to capture adventurous or unsuspecting passers-by is growing. The disembowelled teddy bear found on the edge as the water receded is indicative that this monster has a peculiar diet, plastic bags, and other wrappers floating amongst the petals on the water suggest that, while voracious, the monster is not without discrimination. 

Who knows what will be discovered when the lake is finally drained - or if the monster will spew out vapours and make drainage impossible.

Utilities that are not Utile.

We managed to make 5kw hours of electricity last the 5 hours it took for our 'credilec' number to get into the system.  It was fortunate that we were able to top it up before our guests arrived for the night, and before I needed to cook dinner.   It is rather fascinating to see what makes the meter spin (water pump and heater, stove, airconditioners) - but the fascination will probably wear off the day it runs down fast overnight and we end up with no electricity to make coffee in the morning.

Today it was the water people's turn to attend to us.  Our new connection to city water has been sitting waiting to be connected for several months and today was the day - much to my surprise.  They came, they disconnected the old, connected the new and - no water came out!  Oddly enough, this has nothing to do with the changeover (according to the workmen) because the tap immediately after the 'contador' is working.  Things like this never happen when Brian is home, but Dona Maria at the office is good at getting workmen over when I call, so the plumber came fairly quickly.  He agrees with them that it is our problem, and suspects that dirt or something must have entered the pipes when they opened them - I don't quite see how it is our problem, when it resulted from their work, but no doubt that is very narrow minded of me.  The irony is that the new system won't help us all that much because our house is 'plumbed' on the basis that there WON'T be water 24 hours per day with 2 large cisterns to catch water when it does come in (from the days when you were lucky if water ran 2 hours per day at low pressure) and so we haven't run out of water since about 1999.  The upside is that we can manage on the water we have until tomorrow, or even Sunday, without too much economy, the downside is that I bet the water will be filthy when it does come in, due to all the stuff that has ben accumulating in the pipes while waiting to be connected.

Game Viewing

This was the first time that I have seen a leopard in the wild.  He was having a peaceful rest on a rock, but obligingly opened his eyes and stretched for us after we had been sitting there for a while.  I don't think I'd like to meet him in the dark!

Kruger was quiet (as far as tourists go), but we saw lots of game.  In addition to this leopard, nigala, rhinoceros, and buffalo were the 'rare' animals we sighted.  We saw so many elephant, hippo, impala, zebra, kudu ... that we even drove past a few without stopping.  We also saw some gorgeous birds, and baboon, monkeys, vervet, crocodile, a few giraffe, and some other antelope varieties.  All in all, plenty of evidence of our Creator's creativity.

Electricity

Just as we were closing the house last week and rushing to the aiport, the EDM chappies came to install our 'credilec' (a PAYG system for electricity).  This is not really convenient for us, and we have avoided it as long as possible, but it is now mandatory.  We said it was really not possible to do it then, so they said they'd come back the day we returned.  Lo and behold, they actually showed up just before 8am this morning, installed the little machine, and handed over the card to recharge it.  The machine has 5kw on it, and if we don't get it recharged before that is used up we will be in the dark - but you have to wait until the new card is in the system.  At present we are on minimum usage, and hoping that we can stretch that 5kw until the recharge is available.

It is possible that paying in meticais rather than USD will be cheaper, but it might just mean that we keep running out of credit at inconvenient times like most of our friends seem to.

LAM Adventures

We are just back from a refreshing break in South Africa, and I have quite a bit to say so I will 'theme' my posts.

The interesting thing about flying with LAM is that you never quite know where you will fly to, or when you will fly.  We checked in last week for a 2pm flight to Maputo via Beira, landing at 4.10pm.  We actually departed at 1pm via Tete, landing at 5pm - no real problem except for Lee who missed his Latin class.  It was interesting to note that Tete airport now has bathrooms in the transit lounge, and that they are equipped with running water and electric hand-dryers, but no toilet paper.   Yesterday we checked in (at 4pm) for a 6pm flight to Quelimane via Beira (scheduled arrival 8pm), and ended up leaving at 7.30pm and flying via Nampula, arriving at 10.45pm - the announcement when we first left Maputo had us flying Beira-Nampula-Beira-Quelimane so we did better than expected, and much better than our friends who also left yesterday but are driving up and won't be home until tonight after 2 long days in a car without airconditioning.

Weather Patterns

Madagascar has taken most of the cyclone damage this year, as usual.  Jokwe is the first one to clear the top and come down the channel.   Fortunately, although there has been heavy rain along the coast the land has not taken a direct hit.  It has been a good reminder that we need to do some careful 'waterproofing' before we go away later in the week, as we have a few puddles around the house from the heavy rain over the past few days.  We hope that the system will have dispersed before we fly on Wednesday.

The bright side is that the rice was looking very dry, and this was the perfect rain to revive it, without flooding it out.  Our workers are extremely happy!  The other down side is that there were no vegetable vendors yesterday because it was too wet - oh, and our doorbell shorted out last night, so after 10 minutes of trying to stop it ringing furiously we finally cut the wire.  It is not fun to be woken by the clanging of the bell at 3.30am.

You Do Not Know What the Day May Bring Forth.

In the midst of our daily pre-occupations the news came that our National Director died last night - not from an accident, nor from violence, but from acute respiratory failure.  He was young (36), with three children under 5.  A man of God, and a man of vision and energy.  We needed his leadership - and today he is with the Lord!

"Man plans his ways, but the Lord directs his steps."  We do not know which day will be our last, so we must keep our eyes always on eternity, and be grateful that we do know the God who holds our lives in His hands.

Why I Don't Plan Menus in Advance

Brian went grocery shopping yesterday morning - part of his Saturday routine to enable me to finish my school preparation in the morning.  It wasn't one of his more satisfactory trips.  The list included tinned corn, rice, chicken (fillet preferably), dried beans, cocoa, cooking oil and toilet paper.  After 6 stores (no need to count the potholes and beggars) he managed cocoa, oil, corn and rice (but not the sort we usually buy) - so no chicken again this week, unless we get a road-runner.  I, on the other hand, managed to buy green beans, green peppers and onions at the gate so we won't starve.

'Carnivale' is always a bit late up this end of town, as they wait for the classy bands to finish in Maputo and then bring them up here to perform at our end of town.  This weekend we have been 'entertained' by non-stop loud 'noisic' since 5pm on Friday.  Every so often the band/band takes a break and we are treated to the same CD - I think the gala is over at dawn tomorrow, so that everyone can stagger off to work.

Spring Reading Challenge

Thanks to Kathleen for encouraging this.  although I will probably get some other reading done on the side, my intentional reading list for March, April and May (Autumn here) is:

The Godly Man's Picture (Puritan Challenge)

Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices (Puritan Challenge)

Come and Welcome to Jesus Christ (Puritan Challenge)

Ancient History - Rollins Vol. I & II

History of the English-Speaking People Vol II

Modern Times - Johnson

Basic Economics - Sowell

Freedom at Midnight - Collins and Lapierre

Fathers and Sons - Turgenev

The House of the Seven Gables - Hawthorn

The Unlearned Lessons of the Twentieth Century - Delsol

History of Australia - Manning Clark

I hope that I will manage all of them, but we'll see what 'unexpected opportunities' pop up.

Health Issues

A trip to the local clinic to confirm (by blood test) that what I thought I saw in his ear was indeed worthy of antibiotics informed us that not only does our youngest have a bacterial infection, but also malaria - continuing our run of ill-health.  I can't tell you how grateful I am to our gracious technician for her concern and attention to his slide! 

The Great Fountain Pen Adventure

The kids are very much enjoying their fountain pens, and changing colours is a great motivation to practice writing - you have to use the ink in the pen first.  I am seeing progress in what they can do when they take care, and their enthusiasm is a joy to behold - plus they are keen to add to their ink and pen collections so that takes care of birthdays.

"In praise of Prejudice" by Theodore Dalrymple

The book is nicely bound.  After you have said that, you don't have much left to say in praise of it.  Not only could this book have done with an editor (not something I'm usually in favour of, being a firm believer in authorial proprietorship), but it could have used a proof-reader!  It is a compendium of short essays on the consequences of letting every man do what is right in his own eyes, with some nuggets, but not enough substance to justify a book.  Almost every essay had typographical and grammatical errors (not just misspellings, but missing or added words, sometimes making the meaning extremely difficult to decipher).

Finally Making Progress

It seems that we are finally getting over all the diseases that have plagued us the past few weeks.  Our family no longer sounds like a 6-part chorus (mostly in the lower registers) in coughing harmony!  Brian's back is finally making visible progress, although he still spends most of his non-work hours in home-therapy sessions or lying down.  Fortunately, this has come at a quiet time for him at work - reports are as easy to do lying down as sitting at a desk.

Our pond at the front is slowly drying up again - it is a popular garbage disposal location and I am wondering what will come to light next.  The latest 'find' was the remains of a large teddy bear! 

We were invited (on Friday afternoon) to our neighbour's graduation ceremony yesterday, but were unable to attend due to prior commitments.  The ceremony started at 7.30am, but people were still arriving at 9 and beyond.  The 'stadium' is just around the corner from our house, so there were zillions of traffic police who were not very sympathetic about us reversing into the street rather than navigating the puddle.  Since the ceremony didn't finish until after 1pm, we were glad that we hadn't been able to go - this summer has been cooler than others, but it was still over 40 C in the shade yesterday, and sitting (or standing) in a crowded stadium for hours would not have been pleasant.

Puritan Reading Challenge 2008

I was thinking about joining this in January, but don't have "The Bruised Reed", but, inspired by Richard Baxter and Tim Challies, I've decided to commit myself for the remainder of the course.  Now to catch up!

Hard at work - Study Conditions

Yesterday, we had a power cut from 2.30 to 7.45.  Fortunately, this summer has been the coolest I remember, so although it was unpleasantly warm and steamy it wasn't meltdown weather.  The bigger problem was lack of light, as always.  I thought that Philip's solution to the problem was rather rugged, but here he is busy with his Greek Homer.