David playing with Avril, his baby chimp friend who lives at Pinnacle 19.
It has been a full week since our return from our meetings
in Kigali. The transition back to
normalcy was a bit bumpier than expected.
Settling back into regular rhythms again took some time. While the kids returned directly to school
Rebecca and I took a comp. day last Thursday for personal retreat. We spent the morning in silent reflection by
the beach, in listening prayer, then shared our understanding of what Jesus was
telling us about the time past and time ahead this year. One thing that was clear was that if we were
not going to leave this place burned out next year, we needed to be intentional
about what things we would be able to do and what we would not, and be thinking
as early as January about ‘exit strategies’ from certain responsibilities outside
of work.
Swimming is the heartbeat of our weekly routine and it was
great to be able to do that last week and this week as the start of our
day. We usually swim about an hour and
then read the One Year Bible together and pray.
If I could contribute our endurance to anything these six years, it
would be that life-giving daily routine (when routine is possible.)
Friday we did return to the office for the first time in two
weeks before picking the kids up from school.
Ballet was great, and I have many students in both levels. I was also honored to have several of the
mothers join in the second class last week.
I don’t know if their kids were happy or mortified by their
participation, hopefully the former, as they seemed to take it more seriously
at least. In the evening we had Tim,
Jeanette and Isabel over for family movie night and watched a movie about
African Cats.
The weekend had its own highlights as well. Oren had been asking for his ‘perfect’ day
for over a month. This was very clearly
defined in his mind as a Saturday that started with waffles in the morning,
followed by a trip to the zoo after yoga, where we have a picnic lunch, then a
Fanta and fishing at Cercle Nautique (where we often see hippos.). In the evening we were to go to Ubuntu for
pizza. We did just such a day although Rebecca was doing a teaching to women at
the church during our zoo trip, but was with us the rest of the day.
The zoo is becoming more and more like the kids’ backyard
and they run around to see their favorite animals. Kita the chimp is delighted to see them and
immediately tries to get them to play the bottle game with her. My new friend is the leopard, still not full
grown from DRC. She is quite tame and I
when I stand by the cage she comes over to me and waits for me to reach through
and scratch her ears and neck. It seems
hard to believe she is a leopard when she acts so much like a cat around me.
The ending was a bit of a detour as we stopped by a Birthday
party for our friend Nicola (of GIZ). They
have kids so Oren and David had a late night hanging out with friends at an
adult party.
Sunday we had a real treat after being gone for 2 previous
Sundays to find Drs. Joel and Janette Miller giving testimony about their work
as American physicians in Burundi. I
appreciated their willingness to talk about the call to be here as a examples
to Burundian doctors as those doctors choose how and where they will
serve. Jeanette shared testimony of how
her work in the Free Methodist clinic gave her the chance to encourage
Christian doctors to show Christ’s love to everyone, regardless of their
faith. (I do notice that there is a kind
of ‘team’ mentality here between denominations and especially Christians and
Muslims.—If they aren’t on ‘your’ team then you don’t owe them much of
anything.)
The testimony was particularly relevant as the scripture
passage that was shared was on the Good Samaritan, a striking example of Jesus
pointing out that ‘love of neighbor’ must extend beyond religious and ethnic
lines.
We went to the beach with the kids in the afternoon, where I
snapped this picture of David and his friend Grace petting the ‘nice’ parrot at
Club du Lac T. (There are 2 parrots and
you better not pet the wrong one or it will bite your finger off.) We saw the Millers again at the beach and
played with them for a while. Afterwards I took the kids to our small group
while Rebecca caught up on some much needed sleep.
Rebecca brought all of the necessary equipment for a
spiritual retreat, including a Bible and an Ipod with a playlist of songs that
inspire her. I left her there on Monday
and picked her back up on Wednesday afternoon.
In the meantime, I had a fairly normal work week, dropping
kids at school, working in the morning, then taking them to activities. On Monday we have added something after
tennis in preparation for their return to the US.
Thanks to Debbie, one of the American Ecole Belge school moms (her husband is with the embassy), we have
a new English reading and writing club!
I took Oren and David over her house Monday afternoon where we were joined by at least a dozen other Anglophone kids. Debbie had activities organized for about 4
age groups, and with the help of other parents ran a great English reading and
writing club. Oren and David both really
loved it and I think it will be a very fun and essential part of our routine
this year, especially if we want to get Oren up to grade level for next year
when he returns to an English school.
On Tuesday evening I took the kids to the Ubuntu restaurant
again to say a final goodbye to Travis and his daughter Divine. For those of you who have followed this saga,
you know that he has been fighting for several years to win legal custody as an
adoptive parent of Divine and get her a resident visa for the US. Many of us have been praying them through
this and the rest of their family left town about a month ago and are back in
the US. Travis and Divine have one more
stop in Nairobi for processing then they will be back in the US, hopefully by
Thanksgiving. There were other close
friends there who have been with them through this tribulation, and are happy
to see it coming to an end.
On Wednesday after school, I took the kids with me out to
Pinnacle 19 to get Rebecca and bring her home.
It was a great way for her to end the retreat. We had lunch on the beach. The kids were delighted to find that the
management allows the 2 pet chimpanzees run around the grounds free. There is an older one who was in the cage
when we got there and a baby, 5 month old chimp named Avril. Avril was thrilled to see the kids and
climbed all over our table, tried to open their school bags, and danced around
with David quite a bit. Oren was a bit
scared of her and kept his distance, but David and Avril went off to play alone
for about an hour. I got several photos
of them dancing together. I think we
will have to return to Pinnacle 19 frequently in the next year.
I have mentioned the Swiss Family Robinson before as one of
my favorite childhood movies. I loved
the way the young boy Francis had so many pets from ostriches and zebras, to
baby elephants and tigers. There is
something, albeit politically incorrect, but interesting about being in a place
that does not prevent human animal interaction.
I have swum with dolphins, petted leopards, crocs, and rhinos, fished
beside hippos, and played with chimpanzees, all with my sons, and seen the
delight and wonder in their eyes at the animal kingdom up close. Hopefully they will treasure these memories
when we return to a place where we maintain a more respectable distance from
wild beasts.
It was great to have Rebecca back home on Wednesday evening
and we enjoyed our morning routine together today, swimming, and reading the
One Year Bible. One thing I noticed during this week where we were a bit weakened--there is a community around us watching, aware, concerned, we may not notice them watching, but if you stumble, there are hands at the ready to catch you under the arm and get you back up on your feet. We do a lot of that care for others ourselves, but it is good to know that we don't always have to be strong, we can be the ones who need a hand from time to time.
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| Bonus Photo: Ubuntu Sunset over DRC mountains |
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