Thomas Moore knew well how to express pathos in poetic terms back there in the late 1700-1800s. Disconsolate: cast down in spirit, utterly dejected. Certainly, there are days here in modern Zimbabwe when we’re more closely akin to the 18th than 21st century!
The hymn Come, Ye Disconsolate popped into my mind this week on the fourth day of ZESA (Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority) cuts, 12 hours or more per day. We sleep with a fan above our bed. Monday it eases into a full stop at 6 a.m.; Tuesday and Wednesday at 5:17 a.m.; and Thursday at 5:21 a.m. Twelve to fourteen hours later ZESA switches on again. And we are charged for this disruptive service a monthly fee usually exceeding $80 U.S.
Thursday morning hit me hard. [ZESA off at 9 a.m. and on again at 3 p.m. on Friday. On all day Saturday until 5 to 7 p.m., and now it’s Sunday morning and who knows what’s in store, except over 20 people over after church for a braai (barbeque)]. The monotony of four days in a row with at least 12 hours without ZESA.
So, I am feeling a bit down but we broke our fourth day routine with a morning at church looking at the tasks needed doing to spruce up the church. It is fun and a parade of ideas flow through our conversation. Friday we take it all in stride, and Saturday we are in the kitchen, both of us busy; me with pork chops and chili, and Jim with coleslaw and lickey stickey, the poor man’s cake made without eggs. I am happy with pork chops for supper and two more double servings in the freezer, and at least three and maybe four meals with chili, also in the freezer. ZESA goes off just as Jim finishes his kitchen work for the braai.
After four years of an erratic schedule with ZESA we are quite relaxed with taking it as it comes and goes. In the early months we would get quite worked up and irritable. It’s the not knowing that’s the most problematic. If you’re caught with half-done bread in the breadmaker, for example. We do have a propane stove and Jim has successfully transferred cakes in midstream.
Most of our ZESA cuts are daytime, which I find easier to live with than the evening hours. At first they were mostly at night, and we invested in those portable fluorescent lights that had to be charged up. We didn’t have much success with these after the first month or so. They went downhill from several hours of light to less than a half hour and less. Chinese made, you know.
So, then we graduated to invertors, now part of our lounge décor. A little table with an invertor, battery charger and battery. For a couple of years several of us in church would haul our invertors and batteries back and forth, because when ZESA is off we can’t use all our musical instruments and the sound desk. Now, thanks to some good friends, we do have a small generator.
The lengthy times of no ZESA cuts into communication with folks overseas. No ZESA means no computer. No computer means no email, even writing email notes. So, we don’t keep up with our correspondence like we should.
Why no ZESA? The cuts began as loadshedding; everyone does with less so the wheat farmers can irrigate their fields. But it’s much more than that. Other culprits include maintenance and the necessary expansion to keep up with population growth. During our hyperinflation years money wasn’t available to purchase and replace parts. And planning ahead or anticipating growth is more of a Western concept than Third World. The natural resources are here, including abundant coal and the Zambezi River. One of these days we’ll be on track again, but it may take some years. Meanwhile, Zimbabwe imports up to half its electricity.
Sorry about the melodramatic disconsolate; it was just a brief twinge. Really, it’s something I can live with. Some will ask why we stay and put up with such nonsense. The answer is so simple and brings with it contentment. God is here, and this is where He wants us to be. We all live with irregularities of some kind and an unstable ZESA may be a lot more tolerable than what other people face. But don’t you like the way Thomas Moore ended the first verse of his hymn: Earth has no sorrow that heaven cannot heal.
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
A FUNERAL IN PRETORIA
In early August almost two weeks after I was back in Zimbabwe, Jim took a sad call from South Africa. A dear friend of his had died at age 51 and the family asked Jim to do the funeral. Jim agreed.
We couldn't leave right away. Driving across borders requires car clearance papers, and the call came on a weekend and the first two days following were holidays. We did get away on Wednesday afternoon and took the drive in easy stages. To Francistown, Botswana, the first night and on to Polokwane, South Africa, the second day and night, and finally arriving Friday night in Pretoria, one of South Africa's three capital cities.
In the Africa I know today (Zimbabwe and South Africa) death brings family together at the home of the deceased. And they stay until after the burial. With the Black African the women will sit in the house and the men outside drinking beer. Everyone has to be fed and accommodated until it's all over.
With the Coloureds, it's much the same, although accommodation is spread out among the family. (For example, one of the cousin's took us to his home.)
They were awaiting our arrival. Every room seemed filled with people. Most of the men sitting on the back verandah but a few scattered throughout with the women and children. There's a somberness as we greet one another. Many know Jim from years ago, and some had seen him just about two years ago.
Now that we've arrived, they begin a time of singing. A sister from Ireland has asked two young ladies to lead, and their voices are sweet and melodious. After close to an hour of singing, Jim is asked to say a few words. And then food is served. It's just the beginning of two days of what seems like a continual feast. A little box is set on a coffee table where people are invited to contribute Rand dollars to help pay for costs.
The next day we're back at the house and the deceased is on display in one of the front rooms. Many, many come to pay their last respects. It's a solemn, quiet time but occasionally someone collapses, weeping loudly, and is escorted from the room. I'll say it, even though it sounds cynical, but the person most visible and verbal with a show of grief is often the one on the worst terms with the deceased. Those in loving accord keep their grief inside and not to be shared with all and sundry.
The drive to the church for the service was a bit wild, trying to keep up with the car ahead that screeched through too many red lights! We were last in the small church parking lot. It was a nice-looking church with a sign advertising at least four services on a Sunday - in English, Afrikaans, Portuguese, and an African language.
The local pastor was not happy to share the service with Jim and did so reluctantly. He also objected to some of the items on the beautifully printed program but the family spokesperson was adamant about anything perceived to be a favorite of the deceased. And it was a lovely, warm farewell to a dear man - husband, father, grandfather and friend. Very personal with many people taking part.
A tea followed in the church hall, and any remaining somberness was broken as people caught up on one another's lives. Lots of laughter and a buz of chatter while both sweets and savories were devoured.
And that wasn't the end of eating. When we returned to the house a big lunch was served under a canopy at the back. Time to sit and talk and remember. Also to see what a cross section of people had been touched by the life of this one man.
The body was cremated on Tuesday and the ashes collected on Wednesday. In a little over a month a few will drive to Bulawayo in Zimbabwe to bury the ashes as requested by the deceased. Zimbabwe was his home, he had said to his son. Not South Africa.
Thank goodness for funerals and weddings. Time and circumstances separate us from people we were once close to, and if it weren't for these two events we might never see one another again. We say we'll keep in touch, see one another more often, and our intent is true, but it might take another funeral or wedding to make it happen!
We couldn't leave right away. Driving across borders requires car clearance papers, and the call came on a weekend and the first two days following were holidays. We did get away on Wednesday afternoon and took the drive in easy stages. To Francistown, Botswana, the first night and on to Polokwane, South Africa, the second day and night, and finally arriving Friday night in Pretoria, one of South Africa's three capital cities.
In the Africa I know today (Zimbabwe and South Africa) death brings family together at the home of the deceased. And they stay until after the burial. With the Black African the women will sit in the house and the men outside drinking beer. Everyone has to be fed and accommodated until it's all over.
With the Coloureds, it's much the same, although accommodation is spread out among the family. (For example, one of the cousin's took us to his home.)
They were awaiting our arrival. Every room seemed filled with people. Most of the men sitting on the back verandah but a few scattered throughout with the women and children. There's a somberness as we greet one another. Many know Jim from years ago, and some had seen him just about two years ago.
Now that we've arrived, they begin a time of singing. A sister from Ireland has asked two young ladies to lead, and their voices are sweet and melodious. After close to an hour of singing, Jim is asked to say a few words. And then food is served. It's just the beginning of two days of what seems like a continual feast. A little box is set on a coffee table where people are invited to contribute Rand dollars to help pay for costs.
The next day we're back at the house and the deceased is on display in one of the front rooms. Many, many come to pay their last respects. It's a solemn, quiet time but occasionally someone collapses, weeping loudly, and is escorted from the room. I'll say it, even though it sounds cynical, but the person most visible and verbal with a show of grief is often the one on the worst terms with the deceased. Those in loving accord keep their grief inside and not to be shared with all and sundry.
The drive to the church for the service was a bit wild, trying to keep up with the car ahead that screeched through too many red lights! We were last in the small church parking lot. It was a nice-looking church with a sign advertising at least four services on a Sunday - in English, Afrikaans, Portuguese, and an African language.
The local pastor was not happy to share the service with Jim and did so reluctantly. He also objected to some of the items on the beautifully printed program but the family spokesperson was adamant about anything perceived to be a favorite of the deceased. And it was a lovely, warm farewell to a dear man - husband, father, grandfather and friend. Very personal with many people taking part.
A tea followed in the church hall, and any remaining somberness was broken as people caught up on one another's lives. Lots of laughter and a buz of chatter while both sweets and savories were devoured.
And that wasn't the end of eating. When we returned to the house a big lunch was served under a canopy at the back. Time to sit and talk and remember. Also to see what a cross section of people had been touched by the life of this one man.
The body was cremated on Tuesday and the ashes collected on Wednesday. In a little over a month a few will drive to Bulawayo in Zimbabwe to bury the ashes as requested by the deceased. Zimbabwe was his home, he had said to his son. Not South Africa.
Thank goodness for funerals and weddings. Time and circumstances separate us from people we were once close to, and if it weren't for these two events we might never see one another again. We say we'll keep in touch, see one another more often, and our intent is true, but it might take another funeral or wedding to make it happen!
Monday, August 9, 2010
DISASTER INTO DELIGHT
While in the States I purchased some round cake pans to add to our collection here of squares and oblongs. Jim tried one of them with a homemade mix that utilized some strawberries we had forgotten too long in the frig. Turned out perfect and delicious.
On Saturday we tried them again with Jim’s chocolate cake recipe—a nice moist dark brown chocolate. So many chocolate cakes here are dryer, and Jim says it’s because they’re skimpy on the eggs. All went well until we turned the pans upside down to release the cake. Too much of it stuck to the bottom of the pan! Yuck! What do we do? The cake was for Sunday dinner to celebrate Cathy’s birthday. [Cathy is our daughter Ruth’s mother-in-law.]
Well, no chance of the cake going into the dustbin. So we borrowed on the trifle idea. [Trifle: a dessert made of a sponge cake, according to the dictionary] Jim made a boiled white frosting, and we put everything all together in his famous orange bowl. First clumps of cake topped with spoonfuls of frosting and repeated again and again. Jim put an empty plastic flour bin over the top and we set it high out of the reach of ants. The cake the next day was a big hit along with ice cream and some homemade chocolate sauce.
Cathy’s birthday had been on Friday, and we left her a gift bag at the butchery where she works. Midland’s Butchery—the best in Zimbabwe! On the card we wrote a scripture taken from The Message Bible, the introduction to Mary’s Magnificat although I didn’t think of that at the time. I’m bursting with God-news; I’m dancing the song of my Savior God. God took one good look at me, and look what happened—I’m the most fortunate woman on earth! Cathy later told us this scripture set the tone for a day that just got better and better.
The time spent finding the right scripture is suddenly so worthwhile. At first I tried in the Psalms and Proverbs, using the month and the day for a guide. Then I saw on the gift bag a scripture in the NIV, and looked it up in the Message, and it was so perfect!
Birthdays can be fun because they are individualized. Custom-made gifts or thoughts. Not for everyone every time but sometimes I hit the jackpot and it makes the little things so perfect. Like a bar of creamy perfumed soap when the norm has been harsh soaps in the shops. Or anything from my gift drawer made up of miscellaneous items and books to give away. The fun comes in unknowingly picking the right gift for someone who was wanting just that but didn’t have the time or money or source to find it for themselves.
It comes, doesn’t it, from listening and putting ideas on the shelves of your mind for future use. And it doesn’t always have to be birthdays, but people are more comfortable with receiving for a birthday rather than just any day of the year.
Giving brings pleasure to the giver as well as the receiver.
On Saturday we tried them again with Jim’s chocolate cake recipe—a nice moist dark brown chocolate. So many chocolate cakes here are dryer, and Jim says it’s because they’re skimpy on the eggs. All went well until we turned the pans upside down to release the cake. Too much of it stuck to the bottom of the pan! Yuck! What do we do? The cake was for Sunday dinner to celebrate Cathy’s birthday. [Cathy is our daughter Ruth’s mother-in-law.]
Well, no chance of the cake going into the dustbin. So we borrowed on the trifle idea. [Trifle: a dessert made of a sponge cake, according to the dictionary] Jim made a boiled white frosting, and we put everything all together in his famous orange bowl. First clumps of cake topped with spoonfuls of frosting and repeated again and again. Jim put an empty plastic flour bin over the top and we set it high out of the reach of ants. The cake the next day was a big hit along with ice cream and some homemade chocolate sauce.
Cathy’s birthday had been on Friday, and we left her a gift bag at the butchery where she works. Midland’s Butchery—the best in Zimbabwe! On the card we wrote a scripture taken from The Message Bible, the introduction to Mary’s Magnificat although I didn’t think of that at the time. I’m bursting with God-news; I’m dancing the song of my Savior God. God took one good look at me, and look what happened—I’m the most fortunate woman on earth! Cathy later told us this scripture set the tone for a day that just got better and better.
The time spent finding the right scripture is suddenly so worthwhile. At first I tried in the Psalms and Proverbs, using the month and the day for a guide. Then I saw on the gift bag a scripture in the NIV, and looked it up in the Message, and it was so perfect!
Birthdays can be fun because they are individualized. Custom-made gifts or thoughts. Not for everyone every time but sometimes I hit the jackpot and it makes the little things so perfect. Like a bar of creamy perfumed soap when the norm has been harsh soaps in the shops. Or anything from my gift drawer made up of miscellaneous items and books to give away. The fun comes in unknowingly picking the right gift for someone who was wanting just that but didn’t have the time or money or source to find it for themselves.
It comes, doesn’t it, from listening and putting ideas on the shelves of your mind for future use. And it doesn’t always have to be birthdays, but people are more comfortable with receiving for a birthday rather than just any day of the year.
Giving brings pleasure to the giver as well as the receiver.
Thursday, August 5, 2010
COMING HOME
Little Megan with her own version of the two-step or maybe three- is a welcome sight when I emerge from the baggage and customs area at the airport in Harare. So good to see them all -- Jim, Bowen, Ruth and Megan.
En route to the parking lot, minus luggage (somewhere between Minneapolis, Chicago, Washington Dulles, and Addis Ababa my two checked in bags were left behind), Jim tells me much has happened since we last talked on Saturday. Today is Tuesday. He hit the high points quickly.
Saturday evening a kombi carrying students and teachers from our local Christian school collides with a mining dump truck. Four die, and a teacher named Edith is in ICU at Avenues Hospital in Harare. She sometimes came to our church and is good friends with one of our musicians.
Sunday morning Charmian is found in the old folks cottages within a few hours of suffering a stroke. She is in Claybank, a Gweru hospital. Her daughter Mel is a longtime member of our church.
Somehow a bit of lost luggage diminishes in importance. I had filled out a "lost luggage" form and was told to check in the next day. With a three-and-a-half hour drive involved each way, I said we'd call.
Back home on Wednesday we're making arrangements to visit Charmian when via a phone call we learn she has died. The service will be Saturday at the Dutch Reformed Church, and Jim is asked to play the organ.
Among many calls welcoming me home is one from the airport, saying my luggage has arrived. We make the trip up on Friday, and take the opportunity to stop at Avenues to check on Edith. No visitors allowed, but Jim shows his clergy credentials and he is allowed to step into her room and pray for her. She is very sedated but a flicker of her eyes seems to show appreciation for Jim's presence.
Just a few fleeting thoughts during my first week home:
Good Presbyterian hymns, says the presiding pastor at Charmian's service. The King of Love, Dear Lord and Father of Mankind, and What a Friend We Have in Jesus. Jim confesses to frustration with the church organ because there's no way to regulate the volume. Not that the people care. They absolutely love to hear that organ being played. They sang well for the first and third song, but petered out for the second. Somehow the less known tune had been chosen! Jim gallantly labored through all the verses.
The tributes to Charmian's faith and love for the Lord touched every heart. And more than one of us could help but enviously wonder if such good things would be said of us when we passed on. Charmian's husband had died before the family was forced off their farm some years ago. She would now be buried in a lovely private spot on another farm not too far away.
But first a tea for everyone at the service. It's traditional to bring a plate of eats to share, and so there is no shortage of cakes and sandwiches. Jim and I sit with a family from our church. The Dad sees a Sudoku book I'm holding for someone and he has to take a look. He's an avid fan, I'm told. With a sweet, personal glimpse into the family's life, I learn that he works the puzzles at night in bed while waiting for his wife who checks the doors and windows, etc. And then they pray together.
Out at the farm we wait for the hearse, and then walk across pastures to the burial spot. And then another tea for those who had come so far. And we leave for home with such a good feeling. It had been a good day. People coming together from other parts of Zimbabwe and also from South Africa to honor the homegoing of a good Christian woman. So much love and hugs and laughter and sadness, too, as people met again and remember other times and places. And we remember, too, with soberness, the four from the school whose lives had had a much shorter run.
And on Sunday someone visiting just that one day who found herself so tired of being far from God and asked for prayer to begin anew with Christ. And then our church family enjoys the food and fellowship of a braai with the added pleasure of cotton candy, popcorn balls and candied apples.
My visits in the States were the greatest, and I found in myself an even deeper love and appreciation for my family and friends, but it's good to be home again with Jim and Ruth and Megan and Bowen and all the folks at Emmanuel Fellowship in Gweru, Zimbabwe!
Kombi is a small bus
Braai is the African name for a barbeque
En route to the parking lot, minus luggage (somewhere between Minneapolis, Chicago, Washington Dulles, and Addis Ababa my two checked in bags were left behind), Jim tells me much has happened since we last talked on Saturday. Today is Tuesday. He hit the high points quickly.
Saturday evening a kombi carrying students and teachers from our local Christian school collides with a mining dump truck. Four die, and a teacher named Edith is in ICU at Avenues Hospital in Harare. She sometimes came to our church and is good friends with one of our musicians.
Sunday morning Charmian is found in the old folks cottages within a few hours of suffering a stroke. She is in Claybank, a Gweru hospital. Her daughter Mel is a longtime member of our church.
Somehow a bit of lost luggage diminishes in importance. I had filled out a "lost luggage" form and was told to check in the next day. With a three-and-a-half hour drive involved each way, I said we'd call.
Back home on Wednesday we're making arrangements to visit Charmian when via a phone call we learn she has died. The service will be Saturday at the Dutch Reformed Church, and Jim is asked to play the organ.
Among many calls welcoming me home is one from the airport, saying my luggage has arrived. We make the trip up on Friday, and take the opportunity to stop at Avenues to check on Edith. No visitors allowed, but Jim shows his clergy credentials and he is allowed to step into her room and pray for her. She is very sedated but a flicker of her eyes seems to show appreciation for Jim's presence.
Just a few fleeting thoughts during my first week home:
Good Presbyterian hymns, says the presiding pastor at Charmian's service. The King of Love, Dear Lord and Father of Mankind, and What a Friend We Have in Jesus. Jim confesses to frustration with the church organ because there's no way to regulate the volume. Not that the people care. They absolutely love to hear that organ being played. They sang well for the first and third song, but petered out for the second. Somehow the less known tune had been chosen! Jim gallantly labored through all the verses.
The tributes to Charmian's faith and love for the Lord touched every heart. And more than one of us could help but enviously wonder if such good things would be said of us when we passed on. Charmian's husband had died before the family was forced off their farm some years ago. She would now be buried in a lovely private spot on another farm not too far away.
But first a tea for everyone at the service. It's traditional to bring a plate of eats to share, and so there is no shortage of cakes and sandwiches. Jim and I sit with a family from our church. The Dad sees a Sudoku book I'm holding for someone and he has to take a look. He's an avid fan, I'm told. With a sweet, personal glimpse into the family's life, I learn that he works the puzzles at night in bed while waiting for his wife who checks the doors and windows, etc. And then they pray together.
Out at the farm we wait for the hearse, and then walk across pastures to the burial spot. And then another tea for those who had come so far. And we leave for home with such a good feeling. It had been a good day. People coming together from other parts of Zimbabwe and also from South Africa to honor the homegoing of a good Christian woman. So much love and hugs and laughter and sadness, too, as people met again and remember other times and places. And we remember, too, with soberness, the four from the school whose lives had had a much shorter run.
And on Sunday someone visiting just that one day who found herself so tired of being far from God and asked for prayer to begin anew with Christ. And then our church family enjoys the food and fellowship of a braai with the added pleasure of cotton candy, popcorn balls and candied apples.
My visits in the States were the greatest, and I found in myself an even deeper love and appreciation for my family and friends, but it's good to be home again with Jim and Ruth and Megan and Bowen and all the folks at Emmanuel Fellowship in Gweru, Zimbabwe!
Kombi is a small bus
Braai is the African name for a barbeque
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Returning to Zimbabwe
Saturday evening, July 24, after the wedding of Uncle Bud in Cambridge. A special delightful time with 350 others. Saw old neighbors and family not seen for many years.
Now leaving tomorrow afternoon for Zimbabwe. Will take 25 hours of flight time to be back home again. Two such different worlds that are my life. It's been a wonderful time in the U.S. with family and friends, and I've loved every minute. But I am homesick for Zim and husband Jim. So strange to be the bridge between Zim and U.S. The people here find it so difficult to get a picture of life there. Some have pictured me living in a mud hut. Not so. And folk over there can't fathom the life here. For example, snow or blizzards. I'll talk more of this another time. When I'm back home again.
Now leaving tomorrow afternoon for Zimbabwe. Will take 25 hours of flight time to be back home again. Two such different worlds that are my life. It's been a wonderful time in the U.S. with family and friends, and I've loved every minute. But I am homesick for Zim and husband Jim. So strange to be the bridge between Zim and U.S. The people here find it so difficult to get a picture of life there. Some have pictured me living in a mud hut. Not so. And folk over there can't fathom the life here. For example, snow or blizzards. I'll talk more of this another time. When I'm back home again.
Monday, July 19, 2010
Test Run
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