Mossies and Cossies

It’s Monday Morning. I’m in love with the sounds of the insects and birds outside our windows as they seem to grow louder in the cool of the night when the hot and humid are not sapping all of their energy to rejoice. Back home in Alameda I get giddy over the lull of the cricket symphony we can hear from our unit when the windows are open at night. Here, there is a cacophony of sounds from so many animals that I have not yet even discovered. It’s as if my ears have been enjoying a string solo from the crickets in Alameda, but now I hear an entire orchestra of different sounds. The bird songs here are the most vibrant and jubilant. Their songs are all new to me. All hopeful. Full of life. Their voices and harmonies are fresh joys to this place. Let’s rewind.

Barcelona

The Harolds (our wonderful hosts) taught us a new tradition. They call it “Highs, Lows, and Buffalos.” Which is really just a fun way to share at the table a favorite something of the day, a low point, and something random. It’s been adopted, so here goes a round from Barcelona.

Highs:

• Julie and I have the same size feet! So this means that my generous friend let me rollerblade from their apartment to church on Sunday! I mean honestly it’s something that I’ve always secretly hoped for, but never thought could happen- the opportunity to rollerblade through a European city. Bucket list check!

• At Hillsong Barcelona a man named Ed heard that we were traveling to South Africa. He asked about why were going there and told us about how his parents dragged him around the world for missionary stints and so he too was an MK (Missionary Kid). He encouraged our parent hearts by saying that it was the best thing that ever happened to him. He prayed over each of us by name and filled our spirits with affirmation that God has good plans for us and our children despite homesickness and whining. His prayer was the best blessing of the new year so far.

• We got to share fancy hot chocolate and check out Brent and Ellie’s digs in La Vila de Gràcia. Brent and Ellie are church planters that have started the only Catalan speaking protestant church in Barcelona. Their church is small, but absolutely beautiful. Their backstory inspiring, their kids are adorable, and the two of them are such a welcoming, brilliant couple, that they just make you want to praise God more, learn more languages, and love your neighbors better. Check them out. They’re just authentically cool on all the levels. Did I mention they like to mushroom hunt for fun? The best kind of nerds I’m telling you.

• We got to do a few minutes of rock climbing on this amazingly cool tunnel in the middle of the city.

Lows:

• We got sick. There was vomit and other grossness. I’ll spare you the details, but we were desperately praying and asking for prayers as we ended our time in Barcelona trying our best to stay hydrated. We did also spend time reflecting on the blessings of running water, flushing toilets, on site laundry machines and patient friends - lows are not as low when you have all of these things to help carry you through.

• The tired, whining, and crying kids. They mustered through miles of walking around, but I think the weight they carried was more than just their bodies’. When fatigue pressed in, or distractions were silenced, they cried. They cried for their friends, their beds in Alameda, their home. Their hearts are heavy.

Buffalos:

• Eric and his confidence in Spanish. While his accent makes my eyebrows furl sometimes, his comprehension and his ability to communicate with everyone while we were in Spain was really a blessing to all of us as he lead us through our time. I was very very proud of him and enjoyed speaking and learning more with him throughout our time. It’s definitely a skill he did not have when I met him and something that he has learned to value and invest in over the last few years. I love this about him.

Moving on

We got to the airport with plenty of time, paid for our extra bag fees (double what we were expecting!! $200 per bag after the first five) and at the last minute I gate checked a backpack full of jackets because I thought, well, we would be arriving in South African summer next, so we should be fine.

Welp, our flight was delayed, so we missed our connection to Johannesburg in Zurich. Swiss air rebooked us for the same flight on the following evening, put us up in the Hilton with meal vouchers and there we were with almost 24 hours to spend in Switzerland (in the middle of winter)!!

Let me not overlook the amount of stress that was unnecessarily (by my thinking) added to our trip as we missed our longest and most pivotal flight. This was a test/trial and God for sure delivered us through it with extravagant generosity.  We fought the anxiety with one of my favorite go-to scriptures from Philippians 4:6-7 and we reaped the benefits of God delivering on his promise to guard our hearts and minds in him. Gah! God is just so good!

After what my children described as the best breakfast ever (I think it was their first breakfast buffet), we contemplated how to spend the winter day in Zurich sans jackets for everyone. Now, I must pause and point out that the jacket situation was completely my fault. Eric went to some other counter in some other part of the airport to pay the extra baggage fee while I stayed with our bags and the kids. When the attendant asked me if I wanted to check any of our carry ons, I jumped at the opportunity to carry one less thing. However, I really should have just kept the backpack of jackets.  Oh well. hindsight is 20/20.

We ended up enjoying the cold day anyways. We made it over to the botanic gardens where we saw plants from the other side of the world (our backyard) in warm climate controlled domes. The gardens were free, beautiful, and the indoors kept much complaining at bay while we were sheltered from the cold.

We took the tram to the main train station, window shopped at some chocolate stores, grabbed some pastries and a sandwich for lunch and then ducked into the National Museum (which was also climate controlled and free for kids).

Eric looks dashing in my coat

All in all, Switzerland was a delightful unexpected surprise.

Arriving Safely

Unlike our flight across the Atlantic where we had to play musical chairs with our neighbors in order to get any seats together, our flight to South Africa had us all connected in a row across the center of the plane. Access to two aisles! This seemed like a good idea except that the father daughter duo next to me (while very polite) were obviously ill. I hemmed them in on the “C” seat aisle and the little girl had to use the bathroom at least 5 times on our 10.5 hour redeye flight.  After the 3rd time, I encouraged her to climb over me, which she was able to do with youthful agility from one arm rest to the next.  I figured if this is something I could do, surely this 10 year old could too. A couple days later, I’m hoping I dodged the bullet of whatever illness they had… they coughed a lot. I definitely also asked God for their healing and my own protection from whatever it was that they were carrying.

My neighbors were not the only ones to bring malaise to our flight. Zac woke up and puked all over himself… and Eric. Fortunately Zac was able to get back to sleep after this. Unfortunately, Eric was not.

Before the kids woke up, I tucked into my hooded sweater and cried. Big fat tears. I cried the cry I had been holding back for weeks so that I wouldn’t burden my children with the weight of my sadness too. Not that I don’t want them to know that I cry and get sad too, but because the weight of their own sadness is enough for them right now. I cried and cried, felt sick to my stomach with all of the turbulence and Zac aroma, and closed my eyes and prayed. He heard me. He held me. It’s ok. It’s not pretty, but it is glorious to know that He’s with us everywhere and to shepherd us through everything. He’s a good God, even when life gets really uncomfortable.

ALL of us and our luggage arrived (sans a couple of wheels on some of the suitcases) safely on the ground in South Africa 24 hours after we anticipated. While our tummies had yet to fully settle, our spirits were relieved to finally be in in Africa.

Tali and I took a selfie with the Mandela Statue out in front of the airport and we boarded our CitiBug (bus) to Nelspruit. Our modern Ebineezer. Our proclamation of arrival.

On the bus ride we saw fields and fields of green farms, towns of corrugated steel box house/shacks, some modern neighborhoods, zebras, cows, sheep, and dik diks*. The plants on the farms were not perfectly straight as the ones in America are. The rows of red earth and green food wiggle with the land and bubble with inconsistent lines where some weeds pop up along the fringes. Somehow this farming looks more alive, more authentic, more personal than the plumb line perfect produce the machines push into the earth back home.

We have been moving at what feels like the speed of light over the last few weeks, and I am delighted to come to a sudden halt today. We finally arrived at the Hub here in South Africa on Saturday evening, a day late. We have unpacked our suitcases, shared meals with new friends, visited a church, made a grocery run, have enjoyed a braai (South African BBQ), and today, we fast.

Because of my warped relationship with food in the past, I do not often intentionally fast from food (I usually choose something else to fast from). However, the entire Hands community (adults) is encouraged to fast today, tomorrow, and half of Wednesday. It is very structured with the who, what, and why we are all praying together. We pray for the different Hands regions, care workers by name, pray through suggested scriptures, and prepare for this year’s “Watch Word” to be revealed on Wednesday. The Watch Word is like the theme verse of the year for the entire Hands Organization.  I am crazy hungry, but I am also very excited about following this discipline together as a community and waiting to see what the Lord will do.

Besides preparing for school and car shopping, we have been learning South African English. By that, I mean words that are new to us, or have completely different meanings here than they do at home. Here is my list from yesterday and today:

Cozzies/costumes/swim costumes: all mean swimsuit

plasters: bandaids

koki: marker

Mossies: Mosquitos

Tekkies: Tennis Shoes

Runners: Running Shoes

Sleepers: little hoop earrings you can wear to sleep

Braai: BBQ

There are no gold fish crackers, Kix cereal, and I have not seen any bagels. The carrots taste crazy sweet and fresh and all of the produce we have seen and bought so far is grown in South Africa.

There are critters everywhere for the kids to enjoy. Monkeys, lizards, frogs, and even a praying mantis.

Currently listening to all the African praise songs we sing together at almost every gathering.