Go Figure

During our recent trip to Lusaka we made some purchases to help us during our frequent power outages. We bought a rechargeable light, some citronella oil for our lanterns, and some special marshmallows to roast over the candles during evening darkness. Our "normal schedule" for losing power is Mondays and Saturdays for 10+ hours during the day and Tuesdays and Thursdays for 5+ hours in the evenings. It is not as bad as it sounds except when you expect the power to go off at 5pm and it goes off at 3:30pm. I am especially thankful for my gas stove on those days.

Since our return from our trip, the power went off as "usual" on Monday during the day and hasn't gone off again since! We have enjoyed 10 straight days with electricity!! We haven't used our new light, though it is charged and ready. We haven't used any of our citronella oil in our lanterns. We didn't have any reason to roast our special marshmallows. Our kids complain when the power doesn't go off on Tuesday and Thursday nights because they normally get marshmallows for dessert when the power is off at suppertime. The first Tuesday that the power stayed on, the kids turned off all the lights and played hide-and-go-seek with flashlights!

Tonight, our second Thursday with power, we gave in and let the kids roast marshmallows anyway. I have never seen such a variety of marshmallows as is available in Zambia. In Kitwe, we can get white and pink, twisted, kiwi and litchi, and chocolate. In Lusaka, we found marshmallow mice, flowers, grape and strawberry flavor with smiles. We also saw cappuccino, and some other coffee flavors that did not appeal to us at all. We did however get some of the other kinds.

Caleb roasting his mouse.

Joshua roasting his grape and strawberry smile.

Becky roasting her flower.

Pizza with CABC men

One of the joys of working with Central Africa Baptist College is providing fellowship opportunities for the students. There are about a dozen men who live in the dorms. Recently, we invited them over for a time of cooling off, playing games and eating pizza. We co-hosted the evening with the Beamans, so Sophie didn't have to make all 12 pizzas. Actually, Kathy did most of the pizza work while Sophie and Janelle S. helped add toppings, make popcorn, etc.

After eating as much pizza as they could and then some more, the guys played a game. Fun was had by all and everyone left with a full stomach.

In Memory

In August, the president of Zambia died. He was buried in the capital city on Sept 3rd, which would have been his birthday. The burial site is in a park close to the government buildings. We were able to watch some of the funeral proceedings on TV. They were very lengthy, so we didn't watch the whole thing. We thought the park was no longer open to the public, but we drove past it last week and caught a glimpse of the tombstone and saw people walking around. We were trying to find some other place, so we didn't take time to find a place to park and get a closer look. The banner above was put up at a roundabout in our city. We are grateful that the country has remained calm and at peace. We are now in the midst of campaigns for presidential elections which are to be held the end of October. There were many signs up in Lusaka, but not much is going on here except for articles in the papers. I'm sure there is stuff on TV and the local radio station, but we don't tune in to these regularly.

Sept trip to Lusaka

We went to the Lusaka, the capital city, last week. John was able to get some paperwork done for Central Africa Baptist Radio, we did some shopping and went to a zoo.


I love the flowering trees this time of year. As the trees in the US are changing colors, our trees are changing colors too. We are getting closer to the rainy season, but before the rains come, many of the trees burst forth with blossoms! The purple jacaranda trees lining this street are gorgeous. A little farther down the road the trees were fuller with blossoms, but I had to put the camera away. Police were everywhere and we were soon stopped to allow a VIP motorcade to pass. We got to sit there and look at the pretty flowers longer!


Who thought we would have to go to a zoo in Africa in order to see animals?! The zoo was small, but had a variety of animals. There was an enclosure with 6 adult lions that was impressive. I have to admit that I got the biggest kick out of the area that housed tortoises and rabbits together.

Mozart?

I was working on some simple flute arrangements of hymns that I want to play at church for a special service. While I was sitting at the piano picking out the notes and drawing them them on score paper, Becky was watching me. Then she got some paper and started composing her own song. In the picture, I think she is trying to draw a treble cleff, but it ended up looking like a capital B. She also loves to sit at the piano and "practice for her piano lesson". She is not taking lessons, but some of her MK friends are, so she hears them talk about it.

Then Caleb was inspired and was not to be outdone by his little sister. His song is quite lengthy and is called "Boy ABC". He even plays it on the piano - he thinks. Some of the notes appear to be lower than the range of the piano keyboard however.

The kids are young, Caleb at 6 and Becky at 4, but I think there are musicians in there somewhere.

Garden

There is not a great deal of room in our backyard for a garden, but we have managed to grow a few edible things. The strawberries are the Hafler's and I was instructed to take care of them. I'm doing my best and they do taste really good! We were given a dozen or so tomato plants from another family who was thinning out seedlings. We are still waiting for our tomato crop to ripen. We were also given lettuce seedlings from a third family. The lettuce is very good and we are enjoying salad frequently. Thankfully, the kids all like salad too. Farthest away in the plot is some chinese lettuce which is cooked by our workers for part of their lunch. There are some raspberries in the middle along the wall which we are looking forward to.

From our backyard

The kids made a rather alarming discovery in our backyard. They found this water scorpion. It actually is an insect, but takes its name from its similar appearance to a scorpion.

From what I read, they are not harmful, but may pinch if provoked. We released it in a lake about 30 minutes away when we were there for a picnic last week.