Wallflowers

Have you ever gone for a period of time without making something? Am I the only one who starts to get twitchy when I can't be creative? One very hot week with no baking or sewing + one bare corner of my room + one old magazine + some buttons and glue + one Friday movie night = Wallflowers.

Got the idea from here. 

And some real flowers from my beautiful orchid. Four blooms in all, and they've been showing me their faces for well more than two weeks now. How long do orchid flowers last anyway? I must research this some more.

The long awaited piano, finally playable. Much time is spent here, and I'm thinking about downloading a piano course to work through in the coming months.

Amazing orange and gray clouds one evening. The evening sky in Africa is rarely boring. 

All Together Night

If I was home in Pennsylvania, this is exactly the sort of night that I would revel in. I would take my dog out into the evening and simply soak up the deliciousness.

It’s a cool sort of evening, light breeze being the center show. It sweeps through my window in gusts, pulling back the curtains as if some living thing is there. It ripples over my bare arms and teases the wisps of my hair. I would say it is sweet with promise, but this breeze has no scent at all. If I close my eyes and imagine, I can smell the scent of childhood.

Just me in the night, tree limbs silhouetted against a periwinkle sky, the first stars peeking out, and no one to hear me as I murmur my prayers unhindered to the heavens. Fireflies winking from the creek bed, croaking toads in the pond, bats chirping as they dance overhead. The scent of fresh-mown grass, moist earth, honeysuckle growing wild.

It’s a beauty I remember when the breeze turns like this, and it leaves an odd pang in my heart.

Africa is a beautiful place, but it isn’t the same sort of beauty. The other is an easy beauty – the night was safety. Nights were for happy times – long walks in the twilight, a book by flashlight under the blanket, sleepovers and sweet dreams.

Nights in Africa mean danger. They are beautiful, certainly. Breath-taking sunsets, chirping cicadas in thorn bushes, the heavy scent of cycad after it rains, so many stars as if someone broke open a jar. But night means darkness, and darkness brings evil. We try to be smart and stay where it is safe once darkness falls.

This is why this breeze tonight – so welcome, so soothing – is also so bittersweet, bringing up memories and hopes and limitations and dreams all together. 

The Art of Living Without Power

We've been having power outages. And not just the occasional sort of power outage that we get every few weeks... no, we've had our power out at least once every day for the last eight or nine days, for about two hours each time although sometimes up to six hours, and on some days more than once in the day. There's no predictability about it either... sometimes it is first thing in the morning, sometimes late morning, or afternoon, evening, middle of the night. Three times, I've been about to make Chicken Teriyaki when the power suddenly flickered out. Dinner then became some sort of chicken on the grill, and I think I'll take Chicken Teriyaki off the menu for a while in case I'm the problem. Although, four times I started uploading a video for my dad and the power went off partway through the upload, so maybe that's the real culprit. :)

This is a country-wide problem, and from what I understand, a new power plant they specifically built to help carry the extra load during this summer is having technical difficulties and malfunctioning equipment. South Africa is having its own power issues, so they have no 'spare' electricity to send our way.

I've done some thinking about when I prefer the power to be out, and I'm really torn. Power off during the day doesn't really affect too much... you can still read, work, clean, cook on the grill, make coffee, run errands, and even use a laptop if it is charged. The downside is that it is SO HOT right now and it is pretty disgusting when you can't even have a fan on. That makes all the 'normal' functioning you wish to do pretty non-existent, because all you feel like doing is sitting in a chair, sipping ice water and fanning yourself while sweat drips down your back. I know that 'ladies' aren't supposed to admit to *ahem* perspiring, but let me tell you, in the middle of summer here I get pretty sweaty on a good day, much less when there is no moving air and the temperature is quickly rising about 110F. Power off at night is a little easier to handle as far as temperatures go, especially if there is a nice breeze. The problem is the bugs, because you don't want to completely lock yourself in with no open windows or doors, but the bugs are attracted to my scent especially when coupled with the glowing screen of whatever device I happen to be curled up with. The screen in my window helps with this a little bit in my bedroom, but we don't have screens in our living room, so the bugs really become a problem in the evening, when it is still a little early to go to bed. A couple greedy mosquitoes had quite a feast on me the other evening, and I've been itching ever since. :)

It is pretty amazing how soft we Americans can be. I mentioned something to one of my friends about the problem of the power outages across the country, and then I remembered that she doesn't even have power in her house at all, so it wasn't really affecting her all that much, other than at her job.

Here's a 'You Know You're in Africa'... when you're in the grocery store and the power suddenly goes out, in other countries, everybody gasps and a few may even scream. In Africa, when the power suddenly goes out in the grocery store, everybody just lets out a big sigh of resignation, and then continues shuffling around in the half-light, waiting for the generators to kick in.

Between these power outages and a recent string of water outages, I'm perfecting the art of how to do without those things. It's amazing how far you can make 2 liters of water stretch when it has to be your 'personal supply' for the next day. And it's amazing how much just the stirring of a fan can make such a difference in your comfort. All in all, life just goes on, even when these things happen. It doesn't take long to learn to adjust, to prioritize of what to charge and heat and power when the electricty does come back on (priorities, you know... you never know when it will go back off!). You soon learn to have all available empty jugs filled with water and clearly marked 'tap' and 'filter'.

The good news is that we got our piano power supply, and I've been having a lovely time getting my stiff fingers back in shape. That is, when the power is on. :)

Things that make me happy

In today's edition filed under the category of "Things that Make Me Happy", I have several items up for review. I snapped pictures of a few of them with my phone and thought it would make a happy blog post.

Waking up to streaming sunshine and cool breezes bursting through my window. (Short-lived breezes, but appreciated while they lasted!)

A bowl of fresh mango and a cup of joe in my new favorite mug. (It might help you to know about a popular South African coffee chain called Mugg & Bean.)

An orchid flower, the very first bloom on my 'rescued' orchid plant. I'm just happy the thing is still alive, and here it goes and gives me a flower too. :)

Basil which is producing and overproducing. I see a good pesto in my future, although I have yet to see any pine nuts here. Hhmmm, I'll have to research that. I've seen walnuts sometimes substituted, but all we have are black walnuts which have a pretty strong flavor. It might be interesting though...

New fringe style... thicker and heavier than I've had them in a while. I go between feeling like I'm back in fourth grade and loving them. I think what I love most about them are the highlights now combed forward rather than back... natural highlights compliments of the strong African sun.

My boy. He's such a sweet dog. Now really, all my dogs make me happy, and I just enjoy seeing their 'personalities' coming out. But Firestorm is very intuitive to my moods and knows just when to rest his long nose on my leg and when to play.

Happy Monday!

In a Particular Room

I've been thinking again today about how big God is. The Creator of the universe, the Ruler of everything we see - He can hold the world in His hand and He changes the very seasons. This is the God of eternity, the same as He has been for Adam, for Abraham, for Paul, and for John. When we think of Him in earthly terms, we might think He was busy and distracted. There is so much going on in our world, after all. So many countries in turmoil, wars and famines, diseases and natural disasters. Yet though He concerns Himself with all of this, He makes it very clear that He is interested in me.

Yes, in little old me. It's easy to feel so small when you think of the millions of stars and galaxies, yet He concerns Himself with this one small planet. And on that planet there is a particular continent, and on that continent a particular country, and in that country a particular town, and in that town a particular street, and on that street a particular house, and in that house a particular room... and He knows right where that is, and He knows that is where I am now. And with everything else that is going on, He concerns Himself with me... with my cares and my fears, with my joys and troubles, with my problems and my triumphs.

It's hard to be too worried about the future when you really stop and think about that.

Happy New Year!

Today feels just like a Monday, which is what happens after spending all of the real Monday riding in the car. Road trips are such interesting things. Regardless of how you really feel about them, they are hard to get around when you live here, considering anywhere you want to go outside of Francistown starts with a 5-hour road trip, at the very least. But I have always enjoyed road trips, and now embrace them with an iPod full of interesting and diverting podcasts. Once upon a time, I used to be able to read in the car, but that doesn't happen any more.

We're rather pathetic as we drive the last hour or two over the mountain to my brother's house. The road that was so straight and surrounded by scrub and normal African scenery suddenly begins to wind and turn and then go straight up the mountain. Thorn trees give way to evergreen and tropical flowers and if you watch closely, you see glimpses of monkeys, waterfalls, and beautiful farms tucked away on the mountainside. It's a rather treacherous, yet breathtaking trip over the mountains and through George's Valley. What makes us so pathetic is that we act like we haven't seen trees in years (and it usually feels like we haven't). It's a holiday for our eyes, so to speak. We roll down the windows and breathe deeply of the lovely scent of TREE. It smells so much like home that it always brings tears to my eyes when we first get there.

We spent a lovely week in South Africa, visiting with my brother, his family, and some other families that we know in the area. Sam and I took a day to visit Pretoria and pick up our new piano, so that was another 10 hour round trip road trip. A great portion of our week was spent sipping Turkish coffee, as that was the gift of choice this holiday season - Turkish coffee pots, cardamom, and Turkish ground coffee being assembled from various shops and the art of making it being perfected through internet searches. When we weren't sipping coffee, we were slurping smoothies, thanks to a smoothie bar that just opened up in Tzaneen. (Of all things, right?)

One of the highlights of the week in South Africa was a bit of cold snap they experienced in Limpopo, bringing the temperatures down in the balmy mid-70s most days. We all greatly enjoyed the treat, and celebrated by making things like apple cider. Baby, it's cold outside! I will confess that I actually wore a light sweater one day (and a scarf too!), but in my defense, we were out on a boat in the Blyde River Canyon and it was a little overcast at the time.

Back in Francistown with minimal trouble at the border, and we set up the piano only to realize the power supply was not supplied. Obviously a bit of a problem, so there the piano sits, looking beautiful in its new home, the music that was packed so long ago now gracing it, and yet no way to get a peep of sound from it. I'm desperately hoping that we find the needed power supply here in town, as it could take weeks for it to arrive if it must be shipped. Ah, well... I've waited this long. :)

And so we settle back into life in Botswana. I'm still dealing with immigration about my paperwork. A lot of people are still on holiday, but they will slowly trickle back into town throughout this week and next. I've been thinking about New Year's Resolutions, obviously, since it is that time of year, and I'm trying to set some personal goals for myself. Nothing too stupendous, just stretching myself a little spiritually and mentally this year... trying not to let myself stagnate in the routine of everyday life.

To celebrate our homecoming, I made some Coconut Banana Cashew ice cream, and I do believe it is calling my name. I really wanted to make some Salted Caramel Ice Cream, but the recipe I had in mind must be cooked and then chilled overnight... far too long to wait in my opinion. I opted to just make something else up so that I can consume it promptly. :)