Like a Chicken with the Face of a Monkey

Things have been a bit busy lately. Homeschooling kids that are too busy playing to do their work. Computer quotations without electricity. Preparing for classes, church services, and chapels that are postponed at five minutes notice and then a few days later revived with five minutes notice; it helps to be flexible! Low or no water pressure. Scheduling long weekends at the same time as colleagues. A Celebration service that turns into Condolences when a guest passes away unexpectedly. Getting stopped at a police check driving someone else's vehicle whose road tax had expired. Friends that confide marital problems. Hot weather. Teaching someone computer skills a week before their job interview. Sick kids, colleagues, wife, me. Just lots going on.

I need to stop doing things solely with my own strength. Reboot!

Note: The title and the picture of the saw have no significance other than to demonstrate chaos through their disunity! My sense of humour is still intact!

Lunar Eclipse Photos

I set my alarm for 2am this morning so as not to miss the great combined Supermoon Lunar Eclipse that won't happen again for 18 more years. I set up the tripod in the backyard and mounted the camera with a small zoom lens. I tried to stay quiet so I wouldn't attract the dog's attention. By 3am things looked promising; a small shadow appeared on the right side of the moon. I started some laundry while I waited and even did some dishes between shots. At 4:15 when the moon was eclipsed, I changed some settings on the camera, and with the longer exposure time captured the red colour better.

I mashed the photos together in the approximate path the moon took this morning. (click to enlarge)

Projects

Michelle told me the other day that I wasn't happy unless I was doing a project. I suppose that's true to some degree. When there is free time I must fill it with something constructive. Maybe it is some artistic bent? Or do I have no self-worth unless I accomplish something? Or can I just not sit still for too long?

I had a co-worker once who was even more of a project lover than me. He always had something on the go at work that he would try to squeeze in during lunch hour or for a few minutes after work. He told me after I had young children that when his kids were young, if he worked too late on stuff, they would be sitting at their front window waiting for him and asking, "When is Daddy coming home?" So I made a decision to put my family first, or at least do my projects at home if possible.

My neighbour, who shares the backyard with me, asked me to make a wardrobe for him, because he'd seen me working on various Projects outside on my back porch and admired my work. I gave him a quote for materials only and did the labour for free. I ordered the hardwood items from Chodort and assembled the wardrobe during my odd spare hour. Finally it is finished!

Then there was our tree swing which I decided needed improving, so I spent a Sunday afternoon climbing this monstrous tree and giving our swing two ropes instead of one.

As our power is off 8 hours every day, I took some time to make a solar oven. It doesn't work too great yet though so I'll keep at it. This fits in with my concern about deforestation in Zambia (saving trees from being made into charcoal by cooking using the sun). I'm also experimenting with a solar panel and a 12 volt battery to see if we can extend our light and computer time.

Somewhere during this time my computer quit--the screen hinge pinched the video wires. So I want to cut out the pinched wire and solder on some longer ones. I'm not sure it will work. I'm actually typing this blog on it, but the laptop screen is bent down to a 60 degree angle, which makes for a bit of a kink in the neck!

As my projects get more involved, things like the doing the dishes get neglected and pile up. Now Michelle has asked me to take on a new project, which is to find the source of the big dead cockroaches we keep randomly finding on the floor in various rooms. "Here, cockroach, cockroach..."

There is always something to do for those that look for it!

Up North

We are currently on vacation in Canada to attend my brother-in-law's wedding, and also to visit family and friends. Despite a long travel itinerary we had decent flights and the jet lag has not been too bad. The kids are quite happy to play at Grandma and Grandpa's house, and we are happy to go shopping and actually find what we're looking for! I was wary of reverse culture shock, but it's been fine so far...though it might hit us more when we get back to Zambia next month, I suspect.

With less things to do, I have been trying to keep busy by volunteering to do the dishes, weed the garden, and I have also done a fair bit of reading. I've already burned through a new Grisham novel, a Rachel Held Evans book, and have started NT Wright and Lee Strobel also! Throughout this month I am also working through a Henri Nouwen book called Finding My Way Home. There is an online discussion group available this month, so I'm able to give the themes some deeper thought as we reflect on the paths of power, peace, etc.

I'm enjoying this time of r&r and connecting with people that I haven't seen for two years!

First (and probably last) Wedding Shoot

As mentioned in the previous post, I was asked to shoot a wedding. All my co-worker wanted was a CD that he could take to Lusaka to get prints. Today I attended with quite a few others from Chodort. I felt it was both laid-back and high-energy...so a good mix. The front yard garden was a perfect location, though small. While not an official ceremony, it was close enough; according to local sources, it's called a Traditional Wedding or A Getting Together of the Families.

The bride and groom are not supposed to smile during the first part. I think it's okay once the food, dancing, and gifts come out! So a lot of my pictures looked kind of glum. But I ended up with 139 decent shots, and photoshopped three of them for style; otherwise I left them alone. There were quite a few of family and friends, greetings and gifts, so I don't know how many will actually get printed.

This Kindness

I felt a bit like Forrest Gump this afternoon as I finished off the book with the same name (it's a bit different than the movie, from what I remember). But the character is the same: the 'idiot savant' who, despite making lots of bloopers, succeeds big time in his many endeavors. Not that I regard myself as an idiot savant, a big blooper-maker, or a great success...but today I felt on the receiving end of Kindness, much like Forrest seems to be.

I've been batching and single-parenting this week...does that even mix? My better half is in Kenya sharing and learning about Education in Africa. I've never had both kids on my own this long before...and so far it's going fine. Today, particularly, I faced with a little trepidation, because I was leaving the kids at home with our maid while I went to work. Which I've done before, but I worry about their fighting or hunger or other things they're not used to reaching out to others about. But when I checked in on them at tea time, lunch, and after work, they were happily playing together. In fact before supper they went outside on a 'hike' where they packed a backpack and rode their bikes around the yard, making stops to play with toys or dig in the dirt. I made pancakes for supper and slipped them outside and they gobbled them up and kept playing until a few stars had come out. It was just cool to see them independent like that.

Then I was asked to photograph a co-worker's wedding this Sunday (and was able to arrange child care with an MCC friend) and I was also asked by a neighbourhood boy we know to make a cake for him on Saturday, because it's his birthday. I said yes to these things, not because my photography and cake making skills are great (my wife is superior in both areas) but because of the Kindness of being asked, and I know that it means a great deal to both guys.

Where does this Kindness come from? Perhaps it is an evolutionary anomaly inherited from our surival-of-the-fittest, fish-turned-lizard ancestors. But I think it comes from the Lord. Thanks for your prayers this week, you know who you are!

Spiders and Soccer

A spider was spinning her cunning web of deceit when I returned home from work yesterday. The setting sun was highlighting the thin strands, or I would have missed it. She was starting from the outside frame and working her way inwards, with quick, precise geometry. I took this picture, then went inside to get the kids so they could see too. By the time they came out, the web was almost finished.

This morning I went out early to see if I could get a good picture with the sunrise and the dew, but alas, the web was gone...I think our gardener probably cleared it out of the way. Hopefully the spider got a meal first!

Last Saturday I took a soccer ball to the dirt field a block away and counted to ten. No one showed up. But then, within a minute there were four of us passing the ball around. Soon we had a good scrimmage of 3 on 3 going! I'm hoping to make it a weekly event, as I love the exercise. One of the guys was a former Chodort IT student.