We have finished our second home-stay and are preparing to move into our new home at the beginning of the month, but we thought you might enjoy three short anecdotes from our latest home-stay experience.
The Unexpected Visit: We decided to go for an ‘utembeya’ which is the island w
ay of saying, we were going out for a walk. We walked all through town. We stopped in some shops and slowly wandered down to the waterfront. A couple of days ago Tom had gone with our home-stay host for a walk along the ocean. They had walked along the rocks and enjoyed the sea breeze. So we thought we could repeat that walk since Megan had not been around for it. Unfortunately we didn’t consider the time of day. Whereas Tom’s original walk had been in the late afternoon, we were making our way to the ocean during the heat of the day. It ultimately got so hot we ended up sitting under a tree that happened to stand in front of someone’s driveway. We were happy enough to be sitting in the shade, but after a short time a car turned into the driveway. We awkwardly waved and made excuses as best we could with our limited language, but before we knew it we were being invited into the home of perfect strangers. They very kindly invited us onto their breezy porch and offered us fresh limejuice. As we left we were told to come by again, and that any time we were in the area we were welcome to come right in. We felt a little strange but that is the way of things here. You don’t need an invitation to go and visit someone. In fact, the expectation is that people just show up.Fidjo: Another day there was a bit of excitement or fidjo in town. There is an old dispute
about some land that two towns argue about. This old argument has a history of getting out of hand, and this past week that happened again. Men from one town came to make trouble with men from the other town. They brought rocks and clubs and other weapons to help make their argument more convincing. Although we are in no way involved in the argument, we knew it was best to keep a low profile and spent some quiet days at home with the grandmother and her grandchildren. Things are still settling down even now. One day some youths who were, to our eyes “looking for trouble” came walking by our home. They all had weapons and one even had a bandana covering his face. But when they saw Grace, they stopped to smile at her and say “Baby, Baby!” It was a strange juxtaposition. Too bad we didn’t get a picture.Grace’s Breakthrough: The neighbors at our home-stay were preparing for a wedding which meant there were many women sitting around, talking and cooking. It was with these happy and kind women that Grace had a bit of a breakthrough. Grace has been for the most part, pretty timid and clingy to her Mom and Dad these past weeks, but this week she got past that a little bit. Part of it was due to island custom. When islanders see a baby, their reflex is to gr
ab the child out of their parents’ arms and carry them off down the street. It’s actually kind of a fun, friendly thing, but Grace was not used to it and did not care for it at all. Thankfully there is another custom in which children are supposed to address adults with the word, “kwezi” while placing their right hand on top of their left had with both palms up. We started teaching Grace to do this and she really likes it. She liked it so much she was willing to it with perfect strangers (who are in turn delighted to see a little white baby performing their custom). Thanks to kwezi, Grace has become a lot more comfortable around islanders and even started letting those women pick her up and play with her.PRAYERS ANSWERED
We are thankful for lots of things this week. Our teammates Abby and Amy are very happy with their new home. Chris had a good trip to South Africa and is back safe and sound. We finished our home-stay on good terms with our hosts and really enjoyed our time. We continue to learn language and, for the most part, even our stomachs are doing pretty well. Grace’s heat rash is slowly healing, but she doesn’t seem too bothered by it. The “excitement” that we talked about seems to have settled, although people are still a bit cautious.
PRAYERS REQUESTED
A political situation involving a vote will be announced on Monday. The outcome of the vote could result in anger and an excuse for more “excitement.” Pray that regardless of how the vote turns out, things will remain peaceful and no one will get hurt. We should be moving into our own home this week! Pray for a good transition, for our continued language learning, and for all the things we will have to figure out as we take on a new
