Scatterlings of Africa: How do you deal with hiccups?

I (Molly) am not literally talking about the hiccups—though I do get those too, and mine tend to be intense and even a bit painful, and only sometimes cured by Ryan's attempts to scare the bejezzes out of me. I’m talking about the small problems and issues that inevitably arise in daily life in Zambia, especially when we are on the road, conducting trainings with TEEZ.

Often on the first day of training, lunch can be delayed until 2pm, 3pm, even later! This is often due to fact that most participants bring their registration fees and contribution for meals on the first day when they arrive—only then can the women go to the market to buy the vegetables, cooking oil, salt, and chicken…which they then must slaughter, pluck and cook the chicken and everything else. So it is not unusual for us on the first day to continue with all the lessons for the afternoon while waiting on the lunch, then finish the day with lunch at 3:30pm or so. We make sure to eat a good breakfast with some sort of peanut butter or eggs or other protein. And usually we are given something as a “tea break” in the morning, though sometimes it is simply tea and bread.

Other hiccups we experience often are schedule changes. Once, when we arrived in the morning, ready to start a double training (2 running concurrently), we found hardly any students at the place. Instead, the organizing committee asked to talk with us. They explained they had had significant set-backs in preparation for the trainings, especially that some participants were waiting for their church treasurer to release their registration funds. They requested to postpone the program for sometime in the near future, and suggested we could just go back home to Kitwe! Well, we sat down and discussed between ourselves (Molly, Ryan & the Training Officer). We knew if we went home, it would mean no training for this group this year, because we couldn’t really postpone as the program for 2011 is already VERY packed. It also seemed to us that if there were already people selected and planning to attend the trainings, it would be a shame to let the financial hold-up cause the whole thing to be canceled. In the end, we suggested the organizing committee take the rest of the day to gather all the people, and work out the financials during the week. We started the following day, went through till Saturday, but had a VERY good week. The participants were enthusiastic, hard-working, and it was a thoroughly diverse and ecumenical group with 13 congregations represented from 5 denominations. So despite the initial hiccup, it was quite a successful week, and we were very glad we found a solution.

In another case, we prepared to conduct one training, but there was a mistake in the confirmation letter TEEZ sent that confirmed a different training! So we had to figure out what to do. Eventually we decided we needed to honor what was communicated in the letter and what the church had advertised and planned for. So we delayed one day, had the materials for the other course sent by bus, and then started the training the following day.

We also face difficulties with space—when we are doing 2 concurrent trainings, we have to have 2 different meeting rooms. Sometimes there is another group also meeting at the church (which is bigger than us), so we may end up crammed in small office, or in an unfinished building with a dusty, muddy dirt floor.

Ryan teaching in a small room--there are 11 people in there!

And the most common scheduling hiccup of all—just running over time. Lessons end up going long because of great discussion, or because they get started late—after a break people sometimes come slowly back to the classroom. There is also always the possibility of a power cut, which if we are doing the African Indigenous Christian Counseling (AICC) training, which includes 10 sessions with Dr. Gladys Mwiti, a clinical psychologist from Kenya, via DVD…when power cuts, we have to re-set-up using a laptop, which causes further interruption and delay. We try to make up the time in during the breaks, but everyone needs that break time. I find myself using much mental energy to track the time & time adjustments on days like this, which makes me weary and in more need of a break!

Before we left for Zambia, Fred, pastor at MAPC, gave us some advice: he said that we will do well to try to have patience, flexibility, and a sense of humor. I think this is relevant advice for anyone really—and definitely to us here (almost every single day)—though it can be difficult to live out sometimes. But as we exercise our flexibility and problem solving in the face of a variety of hiccups, I find time and again that the situation usually turns out fine and often very successful and fruitful when all is said and done. This encourages me to continue to exercise patience and a sense of humor, rather than frustration, resentment and bad-temper. Although I do still experience the latter emotions, I am learning to relax into the former more and more. There will be a time and place to try to rectify & prevent problems for the future, but in the moment I will…

Now lest you get a poor impression of our training experiences, let me share with you some of the brilliant moments and aspects of late:

This week in Lusaka, we’ve experienced wonderful organization and hospitality. St. Margaret’s UCZ, the host church, is really on top of their hosting of us, the trainers. They booked us a guest house on the campus of Justo Mwale Theological University College, with three bedrooms, sitting room, kitchen, bath. They provided us food to “self-cater” our breakfasts, serve lunch at the church, and deliver dinner to us in the evening! The food is prepared by a woman, Barbara, the Church Treasurer’s daughter, who is also a professional caterer. She is quite talented, setting before us delicious feasts that are also very elegantly presented. The first night, Rev. Banda almost mistook the carved tomato garnish as a real flower! Also, as a sample of the fare, yesterday’s lunch consisted of fried chicken, beef in gravy, rice with vegetables, spaghetti marinara, potato salad, apple coleslaw, and fresh fruit. It was so good and bountiful, we wished we could just keep eating all day! We didn’t, but we did eat enough that we later opted for a simple dinner of tea and the leftover fruit, rather than another feast!

We have thoroughly enjoyed staying at the Justo Mwale campus. First of all, it is beautiful and peaceful (a little less bustling and busy because the students are on a break). It has also afforded us the chance to visit our friends, the Ellington family who are PC(USA) mission co-workers at the College. And as we live more “family style” in the guest house with Rev. Banda, we are able to hang-out with him in a new way. Taking turns in the bathroom, serving one another through food-prep and clean-up, and relaxing in the sitting room together deepens our friendship from that of mere colleagues to something more like family—which is good for us as brothers and sisters in Christ, and as colleagues!

Justo Mwale Theological University College, Lusaka

The participants this week at St. Margaret’s have asked some very good questions and sparked discussions about in-depth theological topics. At one point someone posed a question about the Trinity, and Ryan got to talk about one of his favorite subjects, perichoresis, which is the dance of love and co-existence in the life of the Trinity as each of the three Persons makes room for one another. He ended up doing some “chor-eography” of his own to illustrate the concept. He demonstrated: God the Father says, “after you” (stepping aside and gesturing with his hands), and God the Son says, “after you,” and God the Spirit says, “after you”… and on and on it goes…

I also was given my first gift of clothing. A beautiful purple Zambian-style dress—skirt, blouse and head wrapper. I love the ladies dresses so much, and am constantly complimenting them:“Mwamoneka bwino!” “You look very nice!” And sometimes, this can lead to being given that very dress (if it looks like your size). Or another similar gift. I certainly don’t intend my compliments to be requests, but I can’t help complimenting! The generosity of the people we are meeting can be overwhelming & humbling. I aspire to be able to give with such warmth and joy.

Molly in her new dress, with Rev. Banda at the Guest House where we stayed on Justo Mwale's Campus

Speaking of gifts, last month, in Ndola (fortunately we lost our photos from that week :)), at the end of the training, we were given a live chicken as a parting gift! So in the back of the truck, along with our luggage, flipchart, and boxes of training materials, went our chicken and Rev. Banda’s chicken. Our chicken ended up living on our porch for a couple days, most of the time not even in any cage or box. We originally feared it might run away. But it wasn’t the free-roaming “village chicken” type, but rather raised by the church women as part of an income-generating project—kept in a chicken coop and fed daily. So it didn’t ever think to run away to freedom—not even when dogs and cats and our neighbor’s chickens came to bother it. We had to keep it from coming into the house, since it was used to being inside. After a couple days of this, I wimped out on killing and cleaning it to cook and eat, and tired of cleaning up poop and feathers from the porch, so finally gave it to a very excited and grateful friend.

Last week in Kabwe, I enjoyed in particular our communal lunches during the training. Quite often, we are served separately during tea breaks and lunches. But in this case, there was one central place and the same food for everyone (and the food was really tasty with good variety then too). I treasured eating with the other participants and the opportunity it provided to talk with them less formally. I really believe in the power of table fellowship to build up the body of Christ. There is something sacramental happening every time we break bread together. Also, I think it helps people to feel free with Ryan and me when they see us eating nshima with them. (Nshima is the staple food made of maize meal). And for this purpose, when eating with other Zambians, I always choose nshima if there is a choice between that and rice, for example. I actually quite enjoy eating it. And when others see us breaking off pieces of the white starchy lump, rolling it into a ball, dipping it in vegetable relish and popping it into our mouths, I think it communicates simple yet profound messages: We can eat with our hands. We are glad to join you. We are willing and able and happy to embrace and participate in Zambian culture. We are fully with you.

Molly eating nshima with Elizabeth Chilukuta of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, Brookins Chapel Mine Congregation, during Kabwe TEEZ training.