DIY in Zambia

On Saturday John decided it was a good day to cut down the dead avocado tree in the front yard. He got out Steve's chain saw. It started a couple times, but would not start once he brought it to the tree. So John got out the ax which was given to us by Sophie's hometown pastor in Ohio. John put a "pull rope" up in the tree and started chopping away. When he was about ready to quit for lunch, our house worker came out and quickly said, "Let me do that - I know how to do it." She is very strong and got to work swinging that ax. She did take a break and let John have another turn at chopping. Then she finished off the tree while John pulled it over.

We have concluded that DIY is not "Do It Yourself". Here it means "Do It Yvonne". She cannot stand by watching us work. When we first were moving in to the Hafler's house, I was scrubbing the laundry room floor before putting in our machines. Ba Yvonne arrived and was rather flustered that I would be doing something like that. I was quickly replaced. We are thankful for such a dedicated and hardworking helper in the house. Many of you probably are thinking that we are spoiled by having a hired worker (actually we have two). It is just part of African culture. I think it is very interesting that our house help hires her own house help to care for her children and take care of things at her home while she works at our home!

We now have a new playground in our yard! The kids immediately started climbing on the felled tree.

Then they began gathering the medium sized branches to make a fort. As you can see, it progressed quickly. Daddy let them make the roof with some of the fading bird of paradise leaves that he cut. The fort is lacking some semblance of a floorplan, but the kids insist they each have their own bedroom and even a guest room/dog house in there. The imagination is a wonderful thing!