Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Bits and Pieces as the Rain Pours Down


The pounding of the rain against our windows is a beautiful thing. On Sunday morning I was walking with my friend, Tait, through the dry grass on the hills near her home. As we looked out from her verandah later (with the good smell of biscuits baking in the oven) we spoke our thanks that rain was on its way. The sky was giving it away and we were happy with anticipation.

Rain. Yes! We bless these rains and pray that they come in just the right measure. May they do all the good they need to do, and cause no destruction.

In other happy news, technology was working and on our side the other day. We can't always say that. We often have no electricity as the city rations power, and no electricity means no internet. Even when the power is back, the internet is often fickle. This happens for multiple reasons, most of which we are not privy to. However, spotty coverage at our house was recently traced to the fact that a neighbor burned down his hedge. His hedge is just below the cable that brings internet to us and it kind of melted here and there so it was moody about letting signals pass.

Back to the day that all systems were (mostly) go...

I got a text message from Colin that night as I was lying curled up on our bed under the mosquito net watching The West Wing on computer with Byron and Heather.

"Call me," it read. Colin (in Kenya) had just missed a call from Trevor (in San Francisco) and he didn't have a way to reach his brother and ask him to try again. He wanted me (in Tanzania) to let Trevor know he was now standing by for the call. But power had just gone off here so I wasn't on line either.

We brake for brother time so the DVD was paused as we went outside to pull-start our generator into action. Restoring power temporarily, we were able to get on-line and, lo and behold, Skype was in a good mood that evening as well so we raised Trevor pretty much immediately.

"Call your brother," I said, so pleased to be able to connect them.

We turned off the generator and went back to our laptop TV time while Trevor Skyped out from his computer to Colin's phone 10,000 miles away. They had a great talk and I grinned at the way we worked together to beat the TIA factor.

I'll round this post off with a great quote from home school today. Heather and I were talking about potatoes and how Columbus had no idea what a future they would have in Europe when he hauled the "new" food back from the New World. Basking in the glow of the goodness of potatoes, Heather gushed softly, "I love potatoes... greasy, fried, salty potatoes." I could see the warm appreciation of the humble spud shining in her eyes.

Life is good!

7 comments:

Carolyn said...

Lisa, this note just warmed my heart today! I love how you and your family work together to help each other, too! What an awesome gift that is. I'm so glad that Colin could ask you for help too. What a great example you are to your children; they know they can depend on you for what they need, and they know they can expect a positive, helpful response. They will carry that with them for the rest of their lives! And, they will pass on their generosity to others as well. Think of all the good that will create in the world for generations to come!
Carolynxx

Darrelle Good said...

Thats a really cute story : )

Also, praise the lord for rain!

also, Please tell Tait that I say hello and I hope our paths cross soon. (And that they might if she is still in Tanz in the spring).

Love to you.

Anonymous said...

I love this pic of Heather! Gorgeous!

and I love (and miss) African rain. the rain here is all grey and depressing.

miss you all,
-sky

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

Hello Lisa,
You don't know me and I am using and unusual way to get in contact with you. Through searching the web, looking for classmates from RVA 1978, I have discovered you and your husband, Byron, (saw pictures of him) attended RVA in our class in High School.
We are planning a class reunion for Aug. 2010 in the States and are trying to track down all who ever belonged to our class throughout our time at RVA in Kenya.
I know this has nothing to do with your blog, although I did enjoy reading some if your stories!! Thankyou so much for sharing them! But I would appreciate if there were someway to get in touch? I am in charge of collecting all the email addresses of class members, or trying to find them. We miss you both at the reunion we had in 1998...not having found you by then--Sorry! But it would be so fun to meet you, Lisa, and to see Byron once again, if at all possible.
Oh, this would be so fun, if it would work....looked all over for some kind of address for you....but to no avail.
Thankyou so much!!

Blessings,
Debbie Jealouse Rothstein

Unknown said...

Sorry, didn't give you a way to contact me!
You can respond to geborgen.ptl@gmail.com. This is one of my email accounts. Thankyou.

Debbie Jealouse Rothstien

lisa said...

Hi Debbie,

Nice to meet you :-) I'll respond to your email account.

lisa