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.