To identify an amusing event here in Zambia and Malawi is
not hard to do.
Where do I start? The most recent was when the Humpherys
daughter in law who was visiting offered to play the keyboard for sacrament
meeting in the new Matero Ward and after playing some brief prelude to the
opening hymn, Sister Rosemary Mulenga lead the hymn in a completely different
and much lower key and continued that way through the entire meeting. It was
painful at the time. Amusing after the fact.
I get lots of texts and phone calls from elders and sisters
and many of them are amusing. “Hey, can I order 3 name tags one guy one and two
regular?” “forgot I had a ring on my finger last night and slept with it. Now
my finger is swollen, any idea what I should do?” “I know I don’t leave for
another 20 months but how much can my bag weigh?” “Just a question, Are there
any sickness or foods that cause exhaustion and tiredness?” “May I please call
my mum tonight?” “ I got bitten on my finger by a kid. Should I be worried?”
In 14 months I will actually miss these texts.
I find the goats and chickens and unimproved pigs amusing.
But not when they run in front of the vehicle and scare me. Combie drivers are
not amusing to me anymore but I am still amused at how many people and things
can fit in a single combie. In Blantyre I saw a bag of red onions the size of a medium
coffin in a combie. The list goes on and on.
Most of the little frustrations here in Zambia and Malawi
can usually…easily… be turned into amusements after the initial amazement and
impatience at how ridiculous something is wears off. For example, the 6 hours I
spent trying to get Interpol clearance for the Chevrolet to cross the border. I
had to go to 3 different locations which were not close to each other to get
various documents and pay for each. And of course I arrived at the RTSA at
12:04 and was told to come back at 14 after the lunch break. As my frustration
mounted I realized what an opportunity was before me to practice patience and
practice what I preach to missionaries when they face disappointments and
delays. I began to be amused by the whole long process of something so simple.
In the last police post office where I was paying the final clearance I sat in
a very small waiting room, more like a hall that was filled with large burlap
sacks…the kind they sell grass starters in on Katima Mulilo… and onions and
Chinese cabbage. The sacks were filled with files upon files stuffed in the
bags. I investigated the ones on top and found the very forms I had filled out
all day….dated just a few months ago and knew that my paper work would
inevitably end up in one of those bags. And I laughed.
The pictures that follow are pretty random.
Our family home evening gatherings are pretty great and we will miss all these couples that are leaving so much.
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| The Humpherys and Elder Bingham |
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| There is something so cool about watching our elders walk away down the road. They know where they are going and they walk with dignity. |
He laid in a public hospital ward for 4 months waiting for surgery on his back. She took a bus to see him every day without a complaint. He is home now recovering and can stand with crutches. He joined the church first and she joined after she saw that he really did stop drinking beer and attended church in a white shirt for 3 hours.
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| And us! at Precios and Wilson's wedding in Luanshya |
