This morning the Mwinika idiom flashed through my mind: “Why should a man cut a cane for himself when he is still young?” I couldn’t help but smile at the irony! The Mwinika people do not believe in planning to avoid future disaster, but rather leave things to handle as they come up. We, on the other hand, usually like to be pro-active and do whatever possible to avoid a situation BEFORE it becomes a problem. Isn’t that why we take out insurance, for instance?
For this very reason (our worldview being to rather try to avoid a bad situation than managing a crisis) we are now in the predicament we are in! Our house, built from the local materials of mud (adobe), lath and palm leaves for roof covering, needs maintenance regularly. Once every 5 years or so, for example, we need to replace the palm leave roof tiles with new ones. Our bathroom with a long-drop toilet system was built with unbaked mud bricks 8 years ago and the roof was separate from our house, rather like a lean-to. This roof was not very effective and rain has eroded the bricks to such an extent that one could push a grass reed right through the wall that sounded like a drum behind the thin cement plaster. We needed to replace these walls before the next rainy season! We didn’t want to wait until the walls fall down from the rain before replacing them, see?
In December there was a natural break in the teaching schedule for Francois, even though the guys he trained as teachers are still continuing to teach every week. After leadership meetings in the city, the kids and I stayed behind in friends’ house, while Francois returned to replace the roof, a sagging ceiling and our bathroom walls.
As the house stood roofless and vulnerable, the rain started. Not your average kind of rain, but a drenching, penetrating rain; the kind you only get after a time of drought! And so it rained and rained. Suddenly our pro-activeness back lashed and we had a bigger problem on hands than we would have had without trying to avoid the problem in the first place! How ironic…
Long story short, the cement ceiling over part of the house did not keep the rain out (as expected) and our daughter’s room and our sitting room was also flooded. We are now replacing not only the roof over the main part of the house, the kitchen/dining room ceiling and building a new bathroom, but also replacing the ceiling over Heidi’s room, fixing what was damaged in the rain (like the kitchen counters and our whole electrical system) and in general having a much bigger job on hand than we anticipated!
Just before Christmas, Francois joined us in the city. How joyous it was to be together to celebrate this special time! After Christmas we returned with Francois and are now camping in the remaining two bedrooms in the back of the house, while the building and fixing continue in front. Somehow, living like we do now “camping style” is really tiring. It is true that although none of us in tribal works came for the luxury and material benefits of the “job”, we all need a place we can call “home”; a place where we can thrive and not only survive. We pray for speedy building, and quick (but thorough!) fixing of all the many things that need to be fixed in and around our house.
We see God’s goodness in the support and prayers of our colleagues and friends. After our team mates here on the field heard about our predicament, they took up a collection and blessed us with a substantial financial gift to help repair what we lost. Without planning to, we will have a much nicer and almost new house when all this is done! God’s goodness to us, even in the face of all the challenges of this new year, is awesome!
Our greatest desire and prayer however is for things to get to a place where we once again will be able to give all our energy and time to the reason we are here now: helping the Mwinika believers mature!
Some photos to tell the story: Our house a year ago before the renovations. The bathroom lean-to is on the left. The “tower” structure is for our solar panels! Breaking away the old bathroom and taking off the rotten palm leave tiles. Our roofless house (during the week of Dec. 16th). Then the rain started… The guys are desperately trying to cover what they can under plastic sheets. Heidi’s bedroom was ankle deep in water. Our house by Dec 23rd. The rain had stopped! Our house from the outside with the new section in front, yesterday Dec 31st. Our house on the inside (taken yesterday). The bamboo matt that covers the section of the house that we “camp” in. The Mwinika men helping to fix the house. We daily eat beans and “pap” (maize porridge) together for lunch!