Mar 11, 2010 | Prayers in Poetry & Prose, South Africa, Stories
Mr. Potato Head grumbled along the route from Pringle Bay back home, taking the climbs and descents in stride, weaving his way around the beautiful coastal road. The mountains on the right stretch up toward the clouds…green slopes…rock…fynbos undulating in turn beyond the driver side window.
She was clearly someone’s maid, just hoping for a ride home from work and it made me smile when she said she was going to Gordon’s Bay. We were too and I don’t believe in coincidence. A friend of hers was also trying to catch a ride just ten feet up the road, a fragile looking man — a skeleton with skin and a baseball cap. I wondered if she often helped him get rides because people are more comfortable picking up women than men. Did they do this every day?
He didn’t speak much English but he was grateful when I shared one of the cookies I was giving the Bear with him. He received it with both hands and ate it very slowly and it made me sad. I wanted him to have another but he didn’t. Since I had trouble understanding him and wasn’t certain he spoke much English my conversation turned towards her again. She was well-spoken.
The Bear chitter-chattered and grumbled about the heat and the wind coming through the windows, unsatisfied with the cookies and toys on offer and our conversation turned to children. She looked my age, maybe a little younger. From Zimbabwe, and she has a son. Four years old. She has twin sisters, too, younger. They are back in Zimbabwe and so is her son.
We usually take the route over the mountains instead of the coastal road when we’re coming back in this direction, so we’ve never gone this way before. It is strange how the change in perspective, taking the same road but going the opposite way, makes things look totally different. I sat still for a moment and faced forward, watching slopes, rock, fynbos pass by on the right, and occasionally getting glimpses on my left down the cliffs to the ocean that was at some points a good 200 feet below. Too far to hear the waves crashing with the windows open. The road was remarkably different traveling this way.
Her son’s name is Shinto, I think. I can’t remember for sure. He is still in Zimbabwe, and she hasn’t seen him for a year. I try hard to picture him in my mind. Every month she sends some of the money she makes back to her family there. I think about how the decision for her to come here came about and the narrative plays over the screen of my imagination and it’s sad.
The gentleman beside her looks like he could tell a million stories. I wish I could understand him well enough to listen to them.
I face forward again and am plunged into deep, heart-sore thoughts. I turn to tell her my sister is in America, and that’s where I am from. In my thoughts I marvel at how different our experiences as foreigners in South Africa must be. My sister is having a baby soon and I don’t know when I will get to meet him or her. We don’t know yet whether it will be a boy or a girl, but I hope it’s a girl. Back in my thoughts I feel certain I will at least meet the baby at Christmas, and see my family, and I remember how much I have to be thankful for, and what little reason for complaint.
Mr Potato Head finally arrives outside the gates of our complex. Mark announces that this is where we stop. Our passengers are grateful and quickly get out to head on their way. I stare at the skinny gentleman walking away. He is so thin and I want to do more for him than a ride and a cookie. I wonder if we might someday give away shoes in Zimbabwe. Perhaps this woman could come along and see her son.
We are driving in one direction but two strings in my heart are being pulled in another.
Feb 3, 2010 | South Africa, Stories, The Good Word
We’re in a season of being very careful with our finances at the moment. I hope even when we are in seasons in the future where things aren’t so tight that we continue to put into practice the things we’re learning now. We’re thinking about the way we spend God’s money (since it’s all His) in light of eternity, and living in a more and more disciplined way, so that we can give more away. We hope to keep living like this for the rest of our lives.
Something all of this has been teaching me is patience. It seems like before I left the States, when I was working a 9 to 5, if I wanted something, I went out and bought it. I didn’t think much about it, unless it was really expensive. I hadn’t really submitted my finances to God’s leading. Now that we’re here, and in such a different situation, I’m careful about my spending. We are living on a budget to cover the bare necessities, and we trust God for what we need beyond that.
One thing I’ve committed to the Lord is the desire to make our flat feel more like home, and to decorate, despite the fact that it’s not really in the budget for me to do so. I just trusted the Lord to provide as He saw fit. I wanted to print out some pictures to help spruce things up a few weeks ago, so I picked some that I thought would be great and went to the Kodak picture maker at the grocery store. I was eager to get way more pictures than I needed, and fell back into the old mindset of spending without really thinking. The machine printed out a receipt, which I handed to Mark. He was going to wait with the Bear for the photos to print while I finished the shopping. A few minutes later Mark came over, because the machine wasn’t working. We began to discuss the photos being printed.  I realised I had just attempted to print out way more pictures than I needed, and we would’ve had to pay more money than we really had for this non-essential. Fortunately, the machine was broken and wasn’t going to print the pictures anyway! I got a second chance, and just chose two or three favourites, and went through the cropping and printing process again. The second time around, the machine was still broken and wouldn’t print. I was really discouraged and kind of wanted to give up.
There are new photos in these frames now!
We decided to go the pharmacy across the parking lot that also had a picture printer, and I printed out the two photos I really wanted, and that was it. I planned on just finding old photos to fill the other frames, and I used creative means to fill in the gaps for one photo that was too small for the frame. Â I felt good about ‘making due’ and not going overboard, but part of me still would’ve liked some good pictures of the Bear (instead of the old ones of Hero Hubby and me) to go in the frames.
I promise I’m getting somewhere! So, yesterday the Bear and I went across the street to the grocery store to get a few essentials. I ran back to switch one item for another while we were at the checkout, and some of the ladies who bag the groceries were smiling and playing with the Bear. After I finished paying and got things packed into the pram (stroller) to head back home, one of the ‘bag ladies’ came up to me and started saying something in Afrikaans. I apologised that I couldn’t speak Afrikaans, and she repeated herself in English: There are photos of the baby over there.
I went to the cigarette/lottery ticket/customer service counter, and another lady produced these absolutely beautiful photos of the Bear. (The photos I wanted had printed out when they fixed the machine.) They showed me each of them and another lady literally grinned as she held each one up that she liked! I think they’d looked through them a few times. 🙂 Â My heart was sore because I knew I didn’t need to spend money to buy them all. We don’t really have it to spend. I asked if they were going to throw them away if I couldn’t buy them, and explained that I had already printed out two of them at another store and I didn’t really have the money to buy them all. The lady behind the register said I would have to buy them or they’d throw them away, but the other two ladies also looking at the pictures said they couldn’t throw them away because they were just too beautiful. They started speaking to the lady behind the till in Afrikaans, and then one of them said:
“Do you have 15 Rand?”
15 Rand is less than $2 or about £1.20, and is less than a third of the original price. I definitely could spare that much for those gorgeous photos!! I was overjoyed when they rang me up and almost in tears on the way home.
Just a few days ago, I was thinking about a story a friend of mine shared at a Bible study I attended years ago. She was talking about how her family’s finances were very tight and she couldn’t really afford to buy makeup. She’d given this concern to the Lord, because she always wore makeup and it was really difficult for her. Shortly afterwards, someone showed up on her doorstep with makeup. We all rejoiced at God’s goodness.
When I remembered that story, I asked the Lord, “Lord do you really care about that kind of stuff? I know you do. Sometimes it’s hard to believe I guess.” And yesterday, He showed up with my “makeup” and it blessed my socks off. We serve such an amazing God. And He does sweat the small stuff — He is intimately acquainted with our ways. In His timing (this is where the patience comes in) He supplies in His exceeding abundance.
The Sermon in a Nutshell: Bring your cares to the Lord, the big ones and the small ones, and trust that with patience, in His perfect timing, He will supply your every need, with exceeding abundance!
Jan 19, 2010 | Baby Photos, South Africa, Travel..ling Tuesdays
Happy Tuesday! I hope your week is going great, dear ones! We went for a walk on the beach Saturday morning. The sun was high and shiny, the water cool and inviting, and the Bear more than willing to be a superstar photo subject. The pictures were too cute not to share. My apologies if you feel like you’ve seen too much Bear so far this week. We’ll move on tomorrow! 🙂
Enter said beach, stage left. And the Bear, desperately hoping a beach walk is on the agenda. Somebody preez open dis gate!! he seemed to say.
Here’s a good shot of a bit of the area where we live. A lot of the houses nearby are amazing, huge beach houses that people only live in one month out of the year. It’s kinda sad!
See the rounded windows with balconies in the background? Our apartment is in the complex through the entrance underneath. We would love to take care of one of those houses while the people are away, though! 🙂
The Bear decided that even if it’s chilly, walking in the water ain’t so bad! Yes, I can see his hair is scruffy and a cut is in order! Leave me alone about it, I’m not ready!
See the “GB” with an anchor spelled out of white rocks in the background of this next shot? (It’s rather faint). It’s in honour of General Louis Botha, a steady fighter of the Brits in the Second Boer War. (You might remember me telling you before that the Boer Wars were similar to the American War for Independence aka the American Revolution, except the British won. There’s a little more SA history for you in some other posts here and here if you’re interested.) Anyway, years later, Botha visited London seeking assistance for the rebuilding of South Africa after the wars and Winston Churchill remembered him as the man who captured him in a Boer ambush of a British armoured train! He eventually became the first Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa, the forerunner to the modern state we know as the Republic of South Africa. He was seen as the leader of the Boers for many years after the wars, so it was a good thing he had a mind to make peace. The Naval Station in Gordon’s Bay was originally named for General Botha, thus the letters on the hillside. How’s that for a history lesson from a blurry mountainside in the back of a photo?
And this is the excitement of seeing an airplane go by!!
Hope you’re having a great Travelling Tuesday, and the road rises to meet you wherever your journey takes you next!
Jan 12, 2010 | Baby Photos, South Africa, Travel..ling Tuesdays
Although it’s strange to feel totally “home” in this place so far away from the place I was born, it is good to be back “home” in Gordon’s Bay. When you get back to your own pillow, your own kitchen (+ a dishwasher!) and your own familiar sights and smells, it feels good. I thought I’d share a few more slices of life at the moment with you this Travelling Tuesday. This post may be closely followed by a post where I’ll get a little more ‘real’ about life here at the moment, in ways that can’t be captured in pictures exactly. We’ll see!
These are what our travels looked like on the way home:
Mountains continually in the distance, fields stretching out as far as you can see, and skies that look too big to capture. (The topography changes a little when you get closer to the Cape and it is really beautiful). Are you perhaps taking a closer look at this picture and wondering why the heck are you halfway off the highway? Well, in South Africa, (don’t forget we drive on the left) there is a very polite manner of driving along the roads, in some instances. Mainly along highways, and from what I hear, not in Joburg.
Since there are very wide shoulders on most highways, a car will graciously pull aside (still moving forward at its usual speed), driving over the yellow line along the shoulder to make it easier for the next car to come past. The car comes past and (you might guess this is my favourite part) they wave, or put on their hazards as a “thank you!” And you can do the same. When we pass people I often put the hazards on even though I’m not driving. It feels so sweet and friendly!
We also passed an occasional fire or two. I always wonder what’s happening and if it’s just out in the fields and hope no one’s going to get hurt. In some places, it’s just dry, and the fires are a natural part of the system, clearing the bush and popping open seeds that will get their chance to take a turn in the great circle of life as a result. It’s very poetic and Lion King-esque if you think about it. 🙂
This is what the Bear’s travels look like at the moment. He LOVES this little car. I’m sad to say he is quickly outgrowing it. I love this shot because there are three generations there. Beautiful, good, thought-provoking stuff.
And this the funny ridin’ my car face he is often making if he’s not toting along a pet rock. Great story I’ll have to tell you soon.
In the meantime, I hope your Tuesday is going great, and that the road rises to meet you wherever your adventures take you next!
Jan 7, 2010 | Hometastic Goodness, South Africa, Stories
If you’re a regular on the show, you might be aware that I’ve been hoping for a dishwasher. Very much hoping. For the sake of better time management. For the sake of our marriage. For the sake of the poor baby who makes lots of dishes dirty and tugs at my skirt tails waiting for me to get my hands out of the dishwater and do something for him. And because a big part of our ministry is welcoming people into our home, feeding them, enjoying opportunities to pray together, and just sharing life. And it kind of stinks to waver between deciding to chill out in the living room with the guests or run to the kitchen to start on the big labour of love looming ahead of you.
Our finances are rather tight at the moment, and a dishwasher seemed like a dream…far off in the distant future…waving back at me, as if someday we would see each other on a beach, and come running slowly toward each other…me with my arms extended, dishwasher with her door open, drawers bouncing and clanging, and cords and pipes trailing behind her. Yes, I think she’s probably female. We would run slowly and purposefully like the lifeguards on Baywatch and the theme song of Chariots of Fire would play somewhere in the distance, we’d embrace, and I would walk her home, for Mark to install her, and she would be my new BFF. Anyway, it was just a hope and a dream!
However! The Lord is good. And very big. And able to make things happen that don’t seem possible. You may have noticed that we mentioned our friend Lorna giving us a Christmas present a few weeks ago. She sent us an encouraging word, that when she has felt like she should trust the Lord for something, for example to own her own home, she felt directed to purchase something, like a visitor’s book, as an act of faith that the Lord would come through. So she sent a gift toward our dishwasher fund (which made up the entirety of the fund at the time) and a package of dishwashing rinse aid. It majorly stirred up my heart and reminded me that with God, all things are possible! (Thanks again, Lorna!)
When we returned to Gordon’s Bay after Christmas, we spent some time going over our budget, looking at places where we can hopefully trim some edges, and thinking about how to keep balanced moving forward in the New Year. Signing up for a phone contract, instead of doing pay-as-you-go was a potential money-saver we’d been considering for a while, and it finally seemed like the right move. This all ties in, I promise!
So Tuesday, we signed up for a phone contact for Mark. It’s a small one which gave us a cheapo handset we probably won’t use and a small number of minutes per month… at least it has a flashlight! But signing up for the contract gave us 3,400 Rand (about $470 or £290) of in-store credit at Dion Wired (the electronics store where we signed up for the contract) or their partner store Game, which is kind of like Walmart-esque everything store. But not as huge and over the top with the eons of choices that now seem to make me dizzy whenever I’m home. And you may have guessed where we’re headed with this…
YES! Dion and Game sell dishwashers! 3,200 Rand dishwashers even! So without spending a cent (other than signing up for the phone contract which we needed to do anyway) we brought home with us a lovely new dishwasher with a beautiful large and functional inside and a two year guarantee and I am over the moon and full of run-on sentences with excitement! And thanks to Lorna’s contribution to the dishwasher fund, we can extend the warranty for another two years, if we decide that’s a good plan. 🙂 YES!
So, you’re now being introduced to my new BFF. She is as beautiful as she is functional, and a glorious sight for scaly hands. And since we didn’t meet on the beach after all, she isn’t one bit sandy. With God, all things are possible, even the provision of a dishwasher when it didn’t seem possible. YAY! Here she is…
Any name ideas from the crowd? Please comment with them! She needs something glorious. I titled her picture Sally in the meantime, but we’ll keep thinking. Thanks for rejoicing with me!
Thank You, Lord, for the character and relationship-building time Mark and I have shared whilst taking turns washing the dishes. Thank You that we already have everything we need in the glorious riches of life with Jesus. Thank You that, although a dishwasher is nothing when compared to the amazing goodness of new life in Christ, You still bless us with these special gifts of undeserved exceeding abundance anyway. We have so much to be thankful for. Thank You!
Jan 5, 2010 | South Africa, Travel..ling Tuesdays
Hooray for another Tuesday! I am sorry I’ve been off the blogging circuit for a few days, but my guess is unless the Bear is your grandchild, you probably weren’t too terribly disappointed! This TT I thought you might enjoy a few everyday sights around town…namely the sassy African taxis that we are enjoying spotting whilst Mr. Potato Head is toting us hither and thither. I apologise in advance that these shots aren’t as crisp and artistic as others you may have been enjoying around here, but they were mostly taken through car windows with my little digital camera, since that lives in the nappy (diaper) bag so as to be readily available for such sightings.
It seems like we always see this one on the road. The name choice…I cannot explain.
This next one has pretty colours, but I can’t remember what the name is on the front. It might not be English.
“Good Luck to Those Who Hate Me” — I wonder if he is being generous and serious or sarcastic. It is a nice thought if he’s sincere!
This one is one of our favourites. It looks a lot like Unknown, but the name is much more creative. You might overhear me saying, “Look, Mark! There’s …
We wonder if the driver is vantastic, too?
There’s another one we always laugh and point at called Facebook. And the logos all over it actually look like the Facebook logo. I really wish I could’ve gotten a picture the last time we saw it. If I snap it later I will upload it for you!
And, just in case you’re missing a bit of pretty scenery from around here, here’s a shot (still sticking with the little digital camera) from our neighbourhood when we were out walking with the Bear one evening.
From Gordon’s Bay, you’re looking toward Cape Point, across False Bay. Not a bad view to come home to!
Although all has been a bit quiet on the blogging front for the last few days, I have some really lovely thoughts that I hope will encourage (and perhaps even challenge!?!) you in the days ahead. We’ve been settling in after our time away in Bloemfontein so I haven’t had a chance to type it all out! Until then, many blessings and happy trails!!
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