MozamWeek

I've been enjoying a trip down memory lane with Lingamish. David and Hilary Ker started out with us in the Nyungwe program back in 1999. Back then we weren't officially translating; we were doing linguistics and stuff. David was in charge of translation. David has been writing his memoirs of life as a missionary in Tete. I've enjoyed the trip down memory lane. For a peek into Nyungwe-land and life as a Tete missionary through David's eyes, check out Hippo-hunting at Lingamish . I can't say that I disagree with David's recollection of events... his perspective on them is just unique. I always enjoy reading his stuff. His irreverence is refreshing, and he is honest... even if he's sometimes a bit deluded. Hopefully, he'd say the same about me... except for the irreverent part.

Last week was one of those tough ones... 100F/40C every day. Power cuts day and night. Water off and dirt blowing in the hot wind. My fridge was a balmy 65F/22C on the inside and the repairman uttered these words: "Madam, the problem is not with your fridge, your house is just too hot." We were hot and dirty and grumpy and tired... Rosa was down with something, so I had to actually think about ironing (and worry about if she needed something and I couldn't get it to her). And THEN it happened - the power went off at 3am one morning and didn't come back. Power off: water off, that is just the way it is. Samantha came and picked up my kids for school at 6:30am... it was unusually cloudy and much cooler. The breeze smelled of rain, but there were no drops. Mikael headed off for some business in town and was taking the noon carpool run for me. Rosa wasn't showing up. It slowly dawned on me that I was home alone, and I couldn't do any of the 100 things on that list...

Back in Tete for about 12 hours and it was already time to go to school! So Kathy and I made the rounds: 3 kids to school, hello to everyone; up to The Hill to see the guard house and the water tank that were finished while we were gone; in to town to find out about our building license at the city council; coffee at the cafe; check for mail and packages at the post office; buy the necessities and hunt for cheese. All that brought us up to noon when we drove back to school to pick up John and the 2 amigos who live on this side of the river. Here at home, I tried to do laundry, but the water turned off before the final rinse. Luckily, I can count on the clothes drying even if I don't get the load finished until 4pm... it is that warm and dry! Tomorrow I lead the meeting for the Forum for the Education Partners for Tete Province. Back just in time to step into that role... I'd better get caught up on those reports they sent me! That's all for now... my computer is getting HOT...