"It isn't always like this!"
The whole time Mom was here, I found myself saying, "It
really isn't always like this!" And it isn't. Our last ant invasion was
in 1999! The last time we ran out of cooking gas in Tete was in, like,
2005! We usually have water and electricity and internet... but while
she was here, we spent most of the time without one or the other. My kitchen was spread into the dining room to avoid having ants in my appliances. I had to cook on a little wimpy stove... that didn't exactly evade the ant infestation. We have to take people to the hospital only a few times a year. Our car usually works just fine!
I vaguely remembered making the same statement while Mikael's parents were here in 2010. Then we had no water for about 2 whole days and I put a ban on washing dishes in favor of keeping other things clean! We had people passing through town who needed a bed for the night. We had visitors that needed meals and groups that needed greeting and meetings that needed organizing.
I also seem to have made that statement to our visitor from Sweden in December. We were rushing around like crazy trying to get our visas renewed and having more visitors and providing transportation for someone moving house. We set extra places at the table then, too. The kids slept on mattresses on the floor. We had to plan our days around school activities and church events.
So, maybe it IS always like this. There are just different things that throw off the plans that were made in the first place. Between natural phenomena like ant migrations through the kitchen and failures of infrastructure in a developing country, we run into lots of challenges that you just don't get in America. Then there are the opportunities for hospitality, meaning that you set the table for 3 more that day. The opportunities for generosity that mean you offer your car to move a household. And the once in a lifetime things like ending up in the labor ward at the hospital encouraging a new mother to hang in there (when absolutely NO visitors are allowed in the labor ward, ever!)
You know, I've actually said, "Wow, I've never done that before!" just about as many times as, "It isn't always like this!" Maybe my life is kind of exciting after all! Even though there are parts of it that are just plain boring, I don't actually get to be bored by life every day! I've got a lot to be thankful for, don't I?
I vaguely remembered making the same statement while Mikael's parents were here in 2010. Then we had no water for about 2 whole days and I put a ban on washing dishes in favor of keeping other things clean! We had people passing through town who needed a bed for the night. We had visitors that needed meals and groups that needed greeting and meetings that needed organizing.
I also seem to have made that statement to our visitor from Sweden in December. We were rushing around like crazy trying to get our visas renewed and having more visitors and providing transportation for someone moving house. We set extra places at the table then, too. The kids slept on mattresses on the floor. We had to plan our days around school activities and church events.
So, maybe it IS always like this. There are just different things that throw off the plans that were made in the first place. Between natural phenomena like ant migrations through the kitchen and failures of infrastructure in a developing country, we run into lots of challenges that you just don't get in America. Then there are the opportunities for hospitality, meaning that you set the table for 3 more that day. The opportunities for generosity that mean you offer your car to move a household. And the once in a lifetime things like ending up in the labor ward at the hospital encouraging a new mother to hang in there (when absolutely NO visitors are allowed in the labor ward, ever!)
You know, I've actually said, "Wow, I've never done that before!" just about as many times as, "It isn't always like this!" Maybe my life is kind of exciting after all! Even though there are parts of it that are just plain boring, I don't actually get to be bored by life every day! I've got a lot to be thankful for, don't I?
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