Time & Pressure

It’s another ‘Saturday’ night and I ain’t got no webbies. I could sing that the real way too but, it’s too depressing. Sometime around 5:36AM the internet decided that it was too good for us. I am hopeful that they can get me back to you all tomorrow but I am not holding my breath. It may be that I have to hop back up in that spider sub ridden tomb that is the attic of flat 1. Why they put the router up there will remain a mystery. So the hole to get up in the attic is about 2’x2’ which means that my being built like a gymnast works against my opting out of the mission not really an option. I hope that I tell you all about it tomorrow.

This week really was a doozy. There was a lot going on and I really don’t know that I understand everything that happen yet but, I am hopeful. I find myself increasingly anxiousness for the director difficulty at work to end and also for the holidays! Jennah has kept me updated on what flights are available, what layovers, what timeline and that keeps my spirits up no matter what happens here. I know that there are wonderful, beautiful people back home that I will get to see again very soon.

As far as work goes… well, it’s the weekend and it might be better if we will just leave that out for now save to say that I feel a little like the guy from Shawshank Redemption. I am thinking about that rock hammer and what I need to start tunneling through. I am ready to work. How can I when the majority of the time is spent putting out fires caused by a system that is infective for one of two reasons. One, the staff does not follow the instructions or two, the design was flawed from the onset. Toss in the fact that management like myself has to sign every piece of paper in the lab or clinic. I don’t want to cheapen what my initials mean on a document so a great deal of time is expended reading documents that may or may not ever be seen again. Time and Pressure, right…

Today was a fairly typical Sunday, which is by no means a negative thing. I wake up at a quarter to seven just about every morning. This is magical. I get to see the clean morning light creeping through my open windows and hear the chorus of little birds. So I actually decided to climb out of my bed, now I don’t know if I have explained that this really takes some doing. I have a thick foam mattress (like the ones at camp, that were totally great when you are eight years old). I slide under my sheets to go to sleep and everything is fine and then sometime during the night teams of evil pixies (I mean I think they are pixies, I think I saw one once but, I can’t be sure exactly the race of the mythical creatures) steal in and take 98% of the support that this inherently sub-standard block might have to offer and so I wake up in a little cocoon of foam. I got up this morning and looked back down at my bed and observed the four-inch or so discrepancy between where my back was and the area immediately either side. I guess the alternative could be a thin foam mattress… yikes, don’t even want to imagine, I am done complaining.

 Church was good. Pastor Isaac is still talking about what the Godly family and Godly relationships look like. I could help but feel little picked on when he was explaining that love is difficult/impossible to define and is more accurately described as it is in I Corinthians 13. He said that it should not be confused with mere infatuation as in falling for the sweet accent of one who has just come from Texas a week ago. Welp, I guess I will just have to be careful with my honey sweet Southern tongue, haha. Oh, and remember how I said that they do that neat thing when they leave so that everyone shakes hands. At least a dozen people asked where we were last week (Kafue Queen). This question was not rhetorical; they wanted an answer! I told them that we had gone to Kafue with some missionary friends and I think that mostly appeased them.

While Kahler and I were standing outside the church waiting for Katy to make her rounds as she has developed some really great relationships with some of the women in this little church a fella came and introduced himself to us. He said his name was Mr. Duck (or something like that) and that he was a civil engineer. We explained that we were working in the lab with a program called ZEHRP. But, when we told him that we were from Texas he called us cowboys and waved his hand like he was spinning a lasso. It was hysterical, all we could do is agree.

Some ladies stopped Katy to talk as we were leaving the church. Kahler and I wandered over to talk to these four munchkins playing in the back of Mr. Duck’s truck. They were Allysa, Moses, Joseph, and Mwamba. We talked to them a bit about what sports they like and they told us that we had good names. I needed to write their names down so that I can try and remember them next week.

Oh ya! And remember that girl that asked if I knew her name a couple weeks ago? Well this morning she shook my hand and said ‘hello, Jake’ and stared at me, you know that stare that pause that she thinks of as her courtesy to give me time to look under every rock in my mind for her name, well I remembered it and she smiled and that was that. So I guess the answer is just to remember everyone’s name? This will definitely take some focus.

I took a nice snooze between church and the cab picking us up for Bible study. I got back around 6:30 hoping that the connection would be restored. My luck there is evident as today will be yesterday when I am able to post this. I scrabbled up some eggs for dinner and just finished off a pack of gushers. I miss talking to you all very much though. I hope and pray that all is well with you and thank you for your comments and emails and prayers. I am going to get back into this GRE prep manual. The premonitory practice tests dictate my renewed allegiance to the elementary, scholarly pursuit… I like the words more than the numbers… I Miss you all very much.

Feeling a little like the little lion man but, All is much better than I thought