love like tea

today when i got up i grabbed a cup of coffee, my computer, journal, Bible, and guitar excited to have a morning of quiet to pray, think, write, and listen to some stellar-soul-filling music.  ahhh.


and then the boys came.


they do this often and i'll be honest, i don't always handle it very well.  they know to come in the afternoon and instead show up at the window in the morning when i'm trying to work and want to have these great and meaningful conversations that usually include questions like:


"can i play mario cart?"
"can you borrow me some cards?"
"can i teach you bemba?"
"what are you doing?"
"can i see what's on your computer?"
"ipad?"
"angry birds?"
"cartoons?"


to which i reply:


"boys, i love you, but go away.  i need to be left alone right now."


to which they reply:


"no."


to which i reply (in sheer frustration):


"fine," pick up my computer and march into my room as voices of, "okay!  sorry! bye!" are called after me.


5 minutes later i peak out of my room and at the sign of no boys i happily sit back at the table to continue with my morning.


pretty soon they show up again.  ezron hands me a note but before i can read it they continue to talk, this time asking for bandaids.


sigh.  "fine.  come to the front."


bandaids on.  lecture on respect and obedience.  boys gone.  leslie irritated.


and then i read the note.


an ode of love and thankfulness ending with:


"i love [you] like a cup of tea"


oh man.  i guess i kind of like these kids after all.

it's true. laziness can be totally justified

so i did it.  i took the easy way out.  i slacked.  i allowed laziness to rule.  i looked work ethic in the face and declared in victory, "not i!"

yep.  i found an easter play online (or rather a friend found it and emailed me the link.  thanks rachel!) and no longer have to stare at my computer wondering how on earth i'm going to write one.  yes.  i said write.  am i crazy, you ask?  not anymore cause i'm buying a play online!  (did i mention that?)

look out lifesong students. this semester we're learning how to rap!  (one of the great things about this play)  it makes me giggle a little just picturing little norman beatboxing (sadly i don't have a picture of him, but trust me.  it would be adorable)

ah.  life is good.  now i just have to figure out what to teach in music and art before monday and we'll be good to go.

score.


(now, let's just hope it's actually good.  oh well.  $20 is worth the possibility of not losing my sanity)

not a christmas post... at all

i was going to post something christmassy last week but the lack of internet (oh africa) kind of stole my thunder.  so instead you get just a very non-christmassy, pictureless (because a friend is borrowing my camera, which i was wasn't smart enough to download the pictures off of before she took it) post filled with nothing super great except some random thoughts.  which aren't really great either, i'm super honest.

are you excited?

random thought number 1:

while africa has definitely been good, it has also provided it's share of non-awesomenesses.  for example:

1. water that sometimes decides to spit out of the faucet instead of flowing happily into the sink.  i often feel like i'm getting attacked by our sink and sometimes (more times than not) almost counter attack with a swift punch in the nozzle.  thankfully my common sense kicks in and i realize this would inevitably hurt me way worse than the sink which probably couldn't care less about how mean my jab cross is.

2. the not-completely-but-consistent-enough-to-be-annoying-lack-ofs, such as... water, internet, and power

3. heat.  i mean seriously, who likes it anyway and why on earth would a girl who hates summer move her sorry self to africa?  these are the thoughts that plague me.

4. the inability to complete a task... any task... without being interrupted with (many) someone(s) asking you for something they "need" (which really just means "want" but you get suckered into thinking they "need" it simply because you are more privileged than they are and that in itself is enough to guilt you into doing way more than you would ever consider doing in the states)

random thought number 2:

i wonder what francine is doing right now.  (oh look!  a picture!  i didn't mean to lie.  really i didn't)

this is the elephant i tried to touch and failed and then named when we went to a game park resort where the food was amazingly good... enough to cause all my clothes to feel super uncomfortable and tight.

random thought number 3:

how in the world am i going to pick out a design and fabric for my chitange suit... and where is this so called kitchen party anyway (i'm thinking it's at the farm and they just forgot to mention that we're hosting)?

mitzi and i have been invited to a kitchen party, which is like a kitchen shower for a bride we've never met only it's a way bigger deal and we're supposed to wear chitange suits which are basically traditional  dresses made out of traditional zambian fabric.  so tomorrow we will go to the market and meet with the tailor and figure out which design for a suit we want and then go to the chitange booth where we always buy our chitange (though we may be daring and go somewhere else) and pick out a fabric and then go back to the tailor and get measured and order our very first traditional zambian attire.  the whole thing sounds terribly overwhelming and super fun all at the same time.  how is that possible?

random thought number 4:

in exactly 6 days this non-teacher will officially be teaching music, art, and drama.  crazy.  i was asked the other day by my new friends at the immigration office what my plans for the new year are.  i said, "teach?" and then realized i was serious and suddenly felt a little frightful of the year to come.  hmm.  maybe i should start planning now...  eh, i can do that sunday night.

my new (well, actually old, but newly put into words) motto (which i'm convinced the rest of this country shares with me): 

    "why plan for today what you can stress out about tomorrow." 

and on that note i will leave you to contemplate the many words of wisdom that were not shared in the previous paragraphs.

happy new year!

christmas in zambia part 1

This year Christmas looked a little different for me, but it was equally sweet in its own way. Since I haven't posted in a time resembling forever, I will do my best to recap the past month of holiday festivities in 3 posts over the next few days.  Welcome to part 1.


PART ONE (Thanksgiving and the All School Christmas Play) 


1. Thanksgiving was spent with all the Americans (plus a few other nationalities) gathering together for probably the biggest thanksgiving feast I've ever been a part of, complete with turkey, (I have no idea where they found one of those in Zambia) stuffing, mashed potatoes, crocodile tail, (yes I tried it) many other yummy foods I can't recall right now, and pies galore. The night ended with a Skype call home to my family in the states... Something I was afraid would make me feel homesick but instead it just made me feel blessed. 


2. On the day after our last day of school we put on a whole school Christmas play.  

can you stand the anticipation?

With only six weeks of preparation (with some frustration, late nights, crankiness, a nasty cold and a few melt downs thrown in for good messure) we successfully put together a crazy amount of costumes (Mitzi informed me I should host my own show called "making costumes on a budget") created a stage area out of an old pool and pool house, and memorized lines and songs galore. We had over 120 parents and caretakers come and ended the whole show with everyone singing and dancing in true Zambian fashion. Here is part 1: (I finally figured out how to load it online, but it takes a super long time so you'll have to wait for parts 2 and 3. 

stay tuned.  there's more to come...

day 19: something orange

okay, so the whole thing is not orange, but it's got orange parts so i'm counting it.  now you might think this folder is all fun and silliness on the outside but on the inside it's all business.  in fact, without the contents of this funny little folder i would very likely get kicked out of the country.  yep.  that's what we call serious.

day 18: your shoes

the rainy season is a-coming!

5 in 1

well, life has been slightly busy here in zambia, but have no fear.  today we're playing make-up... again. 

day 13:  yourself with 13 things... i absolutely love the smell of colored pencils and these babies are some of the best.  love my prisma colors!

day 14: eyes... ah, my boys.  hehe.  so you can't necessarily tell here, but ngosa (r) is seriously one of the best lookin' kids around.  no lie.  oh if i were 15 years younger (eek!  that statement made me sound old... and creepy)

day 15: silhouette... ok so not super creative or grandiose but if gets the job done.  me in front of my window

day 16: long exposure... ok so these aren't great either but i kind of like them cause i look like a ghost... not sure why that makes me like them... but it does. 

ok, and this one just makes me laugh.  i call it the "floating excessively happy head"

day 17: technology... this one i call "living sacrificially for the sake of orphans"  well, either that or "good grief, are we seriously that american"

and there you have it.  happy tuesday, everyone!  
now i got to get back to my video games... ahem... i mean work.