When It Rains...It Pours

...and I don't mean that in a negative sense but I do mean it more than just the obvious (i.e. it has rained the last couple of days and it has poured...and it seems like the first two months weren't really that busy and this past week I've been extremely busy).

Ok, so the last two posts were not really about what I’m doing here but I’m allowed to speak my mind sometimes!! You can only talk to bugs for so long before you need to talk to real people!

This week has been actually relatively productive. Monday started off ok (not horrible but not great) but ended really well. In the morning I harvested some rape from the garden. Nothing too exciting but it was kind of nice to have something to show for the work we’ve put in the garden. I had to go into town to talk to Mrs. Banda so I left about 9:30 from the project. Now I’ve learned by now that even if people say it won’t be long, it will be long. Knowing that I had to return to Northmead after I was done work, I thought I better bring along the things I need for there in the morning, just in case it takes a while (it turns out I was right, I just stayed in town).

After talking with Mrs. Banda, I was dropped off at the Pannar Seeds head office to find prices for more seed for the garden. I arrived there just as everyone was leaving for lunch. I though “great, now I have to wait. Oh well, at least I brought a book.” So I sat and read for about 10 minutes when the general manager came back from visiting a client. He saw me sitting there and I told him I was here to buy seed but I had to wait until they came back from lunch. So he invited me upstairs to his office and we had a nice chat for about an hour. It turns out he’s from South Africa and has been in Zambia for about four or five months. We talked about everything from maize to the snow I’m missing in Canada. Anyway, I got the prices for seed when the other workers came back and made a contact at Pannar that I think will be very useful for the project. God is great!

On Tuesday, I started the day helping Oscar find a way to hook the disc up to the tractor. The bolts for the hitch won’t stay on and we didn’t want to wreck it anymore before we can get it fixed permanently. So we attached a bar to where the plow usually is and put a hole in the middle for the disc to attach to. We actually managed to get it to work without damaging things. Again, God is great! The rest of the day I spent planting things in the garden. I planted rape and made holes for green pepper. Tuesday evening, we had visitors come to look at the project. Some very important people from the Pentacostal Assemblies of God in Zambia and in Canada came to see what life is like at the Lazarus Project. I had heard there were visitors but I guess I didn’t clue in that they hadn’t come yet. After work I usually take a shower and get cleaned up but today I was slow getting to my room and I ended up playing with the boys for a while (we were playing duck, duck, goose, or their version of it). Anyway, when I was playing with them, the visitors showed up, complete with Bishop Banda and two other pastors from Northmead. I was still in my clothes from work, all nice and smelly and dirty. I don’t think they minded though. After all, I am a farmer!

Wednesday was perhaps the 'quietest' day. Nothing too exciting happened during the day but David Shelley (my supervisor in Canada) called in the evening. It was great to talk to him and share how things are going, but at the same time it definately made the next couple of days busy (but I'm not complaining - I have always maintained that I would rather be very busy than very bored, so this is good).

Thursday I had to come into town and answer some of the questions from Dave (find prices and information for greenhouses, etc.) It included a stop at the Massy Fergusson dealership to inquire about fixing the hitch permanently. This will be done on Monday this next week, which means it will be another busy week. On Thursday I also went to the choir practice (relax, I'm not singing, I'm doing the sound for them!) I took the bus from where I was to the church and it looked like it was going to rain (and by rain I mean it looked like God was going to pour the Atlantic Ocean on Lusaka). And what would you know...as soon as I stepped off the bus, the heavens opened up and God said "I hate you Alfalfa." By the time I got ran to the church, I was completely wet (well except for the back of my legs because I ran fast enough that the water didn't get there). Just to make matters more interesting, there was a nativity play going on at the church so no choir practice. Oh well, a little water never hur...well...ummm...oh never mind.

Friday was a little less crazy but still no less interesting. I didn't mention but on Thursday the company installing the fence to separate the garden from the school (and thereby prevent the boys from walking all over the plants) came and started construction of the fence. They returned on Friday and put in the gate. So now we have a bunch of posts and a gate, all we need are the electric wires that run between the posts. This should be done next week by Tuesday (making next week even more busy).

Amoung all the business here, I managed to plant more rape, green pepper, okra and eggplant. The okra and rape have germinated well (the pepper and eggplant are coming but they take longer). I have also managed to plant more in my garden and it is starting to grow too. I planted Zucchini, which are doing great. The maize is also growing (although I haven't really done anything this week to make it grow, I let God take care of that).

This next week promises to be another exciting week with all sorts of adventures. To top it all off, Claudia will be here next Friday morning for a few days before we go to South Africa. To say that I'm excited is probably an understatement but needless to say, I hope this week goes by fast!!

Anyway, I think that's all for now. Thanks for all the comments and e-mails about my last couple of posts. I'm glad I have inspired people to think more about Christmas.

Oh well, have a wonderful weekend.