Retreat

Island women together to work

We were sitting around reading and discussing a story— a story about a woman who went to fetch water at a well in the heat of the day and the life-changing encounter she had there. It is a familiar story and the fact we were studying it might not sound unusual. But then you looked around the circle to see 9 women from three different nations and with an island woman leading the study in the local island language.

Women gathering together in groups is not that uncommon on the islands— but it is often for a major life ceremony— death, birth, marriage. In these situations the sequence of events is known— there are the expected prayers or dances or chants or songs to be performed to fulfill the ceremony. In between there is a little chatting and greeting of your friends and acquaintances. People don’t tend to linger after the official events are completed— there are children and husbands waiting at home.

The other time that women get together is to work. If one family has a lot of work to do, then other women will come. They sit, they chat, they do the work together, cutting, peeling, pounding, stirring, cooking, and cleaning. Often this is the prep work for one of those major life ceremonies, but the atmosphere is casual and discussions happen in the midst of work and with children running around and occasionally begging for their mothers’ attention.

The unique thing about this gathering of women was that there was no major life ceremony happening and there wasn’t any real work to be done. There weren’t even any kids. We had taken the day and a long bus ride to get away from all distractions, to study, sing, pray and be together. The island woman who organized it led us in the study and we all shared ways that we were learning and being challenged.

Fun dying eggs

I’m not sure what other islanders who saw us thought— it wasn’t an ordinary island gathering of women, but God often does the extraordinary.

PRAYERS ANSWERED
The short women’s retreat went well— the road trip was rough, but the time together was sweet. Our 1 year old teammate with the kidney infection is back home on Clove Island with her family, she is doing much better. She finishes her round of antibiotics this week. The rains came back bringing much needed relief from the unbearable heat— thanks for praying. Tom sends out texts at all major holidays to all our island friends— today’s text led to a unique opportunity to share fully with our landlord. Pray for more opportunities. We’ve heard that old and new brothers and sisters were getting together today, we haven’t heard how it went but we are very excited to see the initiative coming from them. 


PRAYERS REQUESTED
Our team’s final three weeks are going to be full of different gatherings. One gathering of all the English teachers, administrators and students has become a source of conflict between some of our island friends, pray that we have wisdom about how to mediate this conflict so the celebration can happen and be a fun event. One of our team families is having tummy troubles— pray for healing. Some of our teammates are still trying to figure out their next steps— pray for direction, clarity and peace as they weigh different options.

The Funny Thing About Traveling

View coming into the island

Travel on our islands is never simple.  We’ve had some recent experiences of this which we thought you might enjoy.  Of course, they don’t seem so funny in the moment, but looking back on it, it does kind of make us smile if only thinking about how ridiculous it all sort of is.

So Tom and our teammate Abby were going to a conference on Volcano Island.  They bought their tickets and headed to the airport on Friday morning.  This is a very routine flight, but nothing is routine on the islands.  The flight was supposed to leave at 9:00am.  When he arrived at 7:30am, the pilots were out on the street and no one was in the airport.  The airport was closed!

Now it so happens that we’ve been doing some other travel planning.  Our team will end its term in April and we will all go to Tanzania for a debrief.  This requires a lot of logistics in getting 15 people and two babies on flights all the way from Clove Island to Tanzania.  We thought we had it all worked out, except that a couple of our teammates hadn’t gotten their tickets yet.  Since there are no credit cards here, we sent the money by wire transfer and somehow, the money just didn’t arrive???  The banks back home said the money was sent and received, but the airline said they never received anything.  Sound suspicious?  Our poor teammates spent over a week trying to get things straightened out before they were finally able to get their money back to their bank and were told they could buy tickets in cash.  (Not ideal, but doable.)  Well, when they went in to the local office to buy their tickets (in cash), they were informed that the flight had changed.  It was now flying the day before and at an earlier time!

Our little airport on Clove Island

Back to the airport, Abby and Tom were waiting.  Little by little they figured out the situation.  You see there is a political quagmire that has existed as long as the country has existed.  It consists of the fact that two countries claim the same island as part of their country.  Our country being a small island nation and the other country being a major European power, there is little hope of any change to this situation, but it is still a fiercely held position among islanders.  As funny as it sounds, this long standing dispute was actually the cause of our delay.  You see, the airport charges a hefty tax for international flights.  It’s how they make money.  So they want to charge the international tax to those traveling to this disputed territory.  Yet, the airlines argue that this disputed territory is not an international flight but actually part of their country, thus it is a local flight and not subject to the same taxes.  (Are you smiling yet?)  So Abby and Tom wait while political forces battle out the viability of a flight that does not concern us but has closed down the airport.

Now, returning to our tickets to Tanzania and that flight change.  It may not sound like a big deal but it actually is.  Changing the flight to a day earlier and to an earlier time meant we could no longer travel the same day.  We would be required to spend the night on Volcano Island in order to make our connecting flight the next morning to Tanzania.  This means figuring out places to stay, changing local airline tickets and changing the dates for an English Certificate Ceremony that had been scheduled for the last day.  Why did they change the flight, by the way?  They just decided that they would do the flight 3 days a week instead of 5.  Sorry if you had other plans.

Back at the airport, Tom and Abby are still waiting.  In fact, they’ve gone to lunch and come back and waited some more.  They’ve had some great conversation, but still haven’t gotten into the airport.  A friend who works at the airport came by and explained yet another wrinkle in the program.  It seems it was two government ministers who had come up with this idea to make the airlines pay the international tax.  So in a sense, they were to blame, but now the problem was, they do not want to shame them, so they must find a way to resolve the situation which allows the ministers to save face.  (This is much more important than ruining the travel plans for a hundred or so people right?)  By the afternoon, they must have figured something out because Abby and Tom got on the flight and made it to Volcano Island after only 8 hours of waiting.  Did I mention the flight from Clove Island to Volcano Island takes 20 minutes???

PRAYERS ANSWERED
Tom’s trip home to Clove Island was uneventful. Our team has secured new flights to our debrief— though half of us are now traveling with a different airline. One of our team babies (1 year old girl) was very sick starting last weekend and had to medically evacuated to the French island. We are very thankful to say that she is getting the treatment she needs there for a kidney infection. We are thankful there was a last minute spot on a plane so she could get off the island quickly. Megan’s sister had an emergency appendectomy while visiting the US— we’re thankful that it went well and that she was in a place with good medical care readily available. Megan and 8 other women went on a one day retreat organized by an island sister— it was a nice time of fellowship.


PRAYERS REQUESTED
Please continue to pray for the small teammate with the kidney infection. Hopefully she will be returning with her parents to Clove Island in the next day or two. Pray for continued and complete recovery and for protection for her health in the coming weeks. Our team has less than a month to go and their schedules are filling up fast— pray for them as they work to finish well. The heat right now is awful— pray for the rains to return (like they are supposed to)! Pray for this coming holiday week that we could have good conversations with our island friends and neighbors.

Childhood Experiences

Stretching Time

Living anywhere is a give and take. We give up certain things by living on Clove Island, we gain others. Right now the heat and humidity, coupled with bad power cuts makes us long for the land of 24/7 electricity. “Imagine running our fans whenever we wanted?” It is something we’ve given up.

But sometimes the harder, less tangible things we’ve given up are experiences— in this case we think mainly of our kids. Island kids don’t really DO much— they go to school (which is usually very boring and taught with the motivators of shame and fear), they come home, maybe help around the home, go to religious lessons, play in the streets… that’s about it. There are no extra curricular activities or clubs, no performing or creative arts groups. There are no playgrounds, no slides, no swingsets. Kids might be able to organize a pick-up game of soccer but the real fields will be taken by teens or adults. There’s nothing like the adult-organized sports or activities for kids like we have in our home country.

This past Saturday morning, our teammate got the team kids together on our porch. Just 45 minutes with none of the “proper” equipment, but our teammate (a former gymnastics instructor) was going to lead the kids in a introductory gymnastics class. Our two oldest couldn’t stop talking about it the week beforehand. On Saturday morning, I was awoken in the wee hours near dawn by our son’s voice in the other room, “This is it! It’s gymnastics day!” He still had to wait several hours for 9am to come around, but then there was stretches and warm-ups, tumbling and handstands, balancing and jumping. They had a great time and eagerly awaited the next “gymnastics class”.

Gymnastics Circuit time!

Sometimes we miss for our kids the experiences from our own childhoods— good schools with dynamic teachers, youth sports teams, music lessons, even just some good playgrounds. But sometimes we use what we’ve got and try to give them a taste— a makeshift swing, some amateur keyboard lessons, or a gymnastics class on the porch.

And sometimes we look at the different experiences our kids are getting— learning other languages, knowing about different cultures, traveling the world, learning adaptability. And we realize that our kids’ childhood is never going to be like ours was, but it doesn’t mean they are completely missing out. Some experiences are given up, others are gained.

PRAYERS ANSWERED
The gymnastics class went well and it looks to No news on whether Mwandzani’s immediate living situation has improved, but the visit from others has led to some good talks about the future of having people live in and reach out to that part of the island. We were able to get our visas renewed before Tom had to travel to the big island! It was a much smoother process this time. We had another surprise— what we thought was a man spending one night at our house, ended up being a couple for 4 nights. While we were caught a little unprepared, it was nice to get to spend time with this African couple who work on the smallest island. There have been problems at the local airport, but thankfully both Tom and our houseguests were able to fly to their destinations (though they did have to wait most of the day). Ma Imani is seeming much stronger and healthier lately— plus she’s learned that she’s having a girl!

PRAYERS REQUESTED
Tom comes home tomorrow from the big island. Pray for smooth travels and for Megan & kids’ last night alone. We’ve recently been looking into the possibility that our youngest might have a hearing problem. While nothing is sure, we’re hoping to get him evaluated when we’re off island— pray that the logistics of getting a hearing test for him while we’re in mainland Africa next month would come together. Illnesses are going around the islands— pray for good health, especially in our team’s final weeks here.

Company

Fun in a rain shower

Sometimes we start to think like we know how to do this; like we can get around in this culture now without to much issue or stress.  Then something comes along that stretches you in a new way.

I was in the middle of English class and my phone was ringing.  (Vibrating actually, on silent mode-I was in the middle of class).  Most people know not to call me around then, so it was the first sign that something was up.  Finally after class I checked my phone and there was an unknown number.  We get lots of wrong number calls here (not sure why) so I was contemplating whether or not to call the number back when the same person called again.  This time I picked up.  After a few greetings I felt it was safe to ask the question, “Who is this?”  It turned out to be an old island friend from Volcano Island where we used to live.  He was a good friend who came by our house a lot, our brother, who we have had many good conversations with, so I was happy to receive his call.  (If you go way back to some of our old blogs you might find a story or two about Mwandzani.)

“I’m on Clove Island!”  He says, “I just arrived on the boat.”  Well that was really thoughtful of him to call us and I’m guessing he wants to get together.  It will be great to see him.
“I’m trying to get to the other side of the island but there aren’t any taxis at this time of night.  Can I stay with you?”

Of course, there is really only one answer we can give, unless we really have some very good excuse.  “Yes,” I replied, and quickly called Megan to let her know that we had to prepare for an overnight visitor that could be arriving at any moment.

So Mwandzani came to dinner and spent the night.  It turns out he’s come to live on our island even though he doesn’t really know anybody here except us.  In fact, he’s being sent by a group of folks over on Volcano Island to reach out to a town on Clove Island.  This is actually really exciting news.  It’s a great leap of faith for Mwandzani, and to my knowledge, no islander has ever really done anything like this before.  So we are really excited that Mwandzani is here.  But it’s also been a learning experience.  It’s kind of like our Father is saying to us,  “You’re excited about this, are you willing to sacrifice for it too?”

Neighbor girls on the porch to play

You see, it hasn’t been easy for Mwandzani.  Things have not been arranged as nicely as one might have hoped. His backpack was stolen on his way to the town.  Then the people that were supposed to arrange housing for him didn’t.  He ended up (providentially) running into a friend from Volcano Island who happened to be living in the same little town. (Amazing!)  He’s been staying with this friend, but this guy only has a small one room shack.  It’s not easy to get by in a situation like that, and he’s doing a favor for Mwandzani—it’s not meant to be permanent.

So in the less than three weeks he’s been on the island, Mwandzani has had things that have brought him back to our town and so on three occasions he’s asked to stay with us, for longer stretches each time.  He is not a hard guest and he doesn’t eat a lot, but we also are given less than an hour’s warning and never know how many days he will be staying. This is very typical of island culture, and so we cannot really ask him to act differently without being rude.  And the fact is, if we really want to live here and be part of this culture, we need to learn how to do this as well.  So it’s been stretching, but in a good way.  We’re glad we’ve had five years here so we know better how to handle this particular challenge.  We live. We learn. We grow.

PRAYERS ANSWERED
No real new news on the election front. Demonstrations are not being allowed and while people are objecting to how things stand, there hasn’t been wide-spread unrest nor any violence. We pray for continued peace but also for justice and good governance. One sister is looking to organize women together for an overnight time of study, retreat and encouragement. We’re excited by her initiative.


PRAYERS REQUESTED
Pray for improvement for Mwandzani’s living situation.  The people that made the initial arrangements are visiting from Volcano Island and we’re hopeful they will be able to straighten some of these things out, so he can have a more liveable situation there. Pray that he would be encouraged in the this new island/dialect/village/culture and that he would make some deep contacts. Continue to pray for Ma Imani’s pregnancy. We're working to renew our annual visas this week-- pray it goes smoothly. Tom is going to the annual English teachers’ conference on Volcano island— pray for a good conference, safe travels, good interactions with everyone on Volcano Island and for Megan & kids left at home.