The Kombie

The vehicle you see in the background of this picture is what we call the Kombie. (I know its hard to see past the beautiful children.)



The Kombie can be a blessing, and the Kombie can be a curse.

Before I continue this post, I would like to clarify for those of you who have seen "The Gods Must be Crazy", that the vehicle dilemas in the movie were no exaggeration. If you have not experienced a true African vehicle, you may assume the problems were for mere comic relief, but I assure you, they were created from real life knowledge.

The Kombie was a blessing because Tecla and I depended on it to get us from one place to the next; From one side of town to another, from one village to the next, and if we were feeling lucky, from one town to another (towns in that area can be fewer and farther between than villages). Dear Kombie has honorably taken countless numbers of people to the hospital, delivered countless bags of food, and has served as somewhat of a vehicle of hope.

The Kombie was also a curse because he was unpredictable and moody, and gave no regard to timely manner or dignity. More times than I can count I had to get out of the Kombie and push while Tecla started it. Of course this means that I would run along side the Kombie and (hopefully be able to) jump in the side door of the moving vehicle.

Then, of course, there is black market gasoline. In the Victoria Falls area, there have been no operational fueling stations for many years. This means the only way to buy gasoline is on the black market. We would carefully smell and touch the gasoline before it was poured into the Kombie through the saleman's creative type of funnel of choice. The other method, if no funnel is available, is a long rubber tube. The problem with the rubber tube is that to start the flow, the salesman must suck the gasoline up to a certain point, often times using just a little too much suck resulting in a mouth full of gasoline.

The problem with black market gasoline was that there was no assurance of the fuel's quality. As I mentioned, we would smell and feel the gas before it went into the vehicle, but black market salesmen are sneaky, and we ended up with watered down gas a time or two.

On top of possible serious damage to the vehicle, it can also mean the vehicle stopping, with no warning, without care of where in the world you are at. This was frustrating, and resulted in long walks through the dark of night until we were able to hitch a ride. (Hitch hiking is a completely appropriate and common mode of transportation, as much as that makes my father cringe :)

The most common problem the Kombie faced was over heating. We carried around old coke bottles full of water just for this purpose. Tecla and I spent many hours together "waiting it out".

Thankfully, when the Kombie broke down within a certain amount of miles (or kilometers) from town, we could find our way home by foot or by hitching.

Unfortunately, the Kombie was a rebel. Occassionally we would take trips to Hwange.



I am not sure how many kilometers it is from Hwange to Victoria Falls, but it is plenty. Plenty of kilometers to be left stranded. Kilometers of no man's land. Kilometers of lion and elephant and baboon territory.

On a certain trip to Hwange we set out early in the day to visit patients in the hospital and to deliver some mealie meal (corn flour).

It took several stops on the way there to refill the water and wait it out. Unfortunately at some point we ran out of water. We pulled to the side of the road, and because Tecla is a woman of resources, she pointed in a direction, we grabbed our empty bottles, and walked.

In a short amount of time we reached a small river outlet. Before we filled up our bottles we first chased away a dozen or so warthogs who we rudely interrupted. With the water refill successful, we then had to wait it out. As we waited for the Kombie to cool off we stood outside in the shade (the inside of the stilled vehicle was an unbearable heat). I won't go into the swarm of bugs that attacked us, but by the time we returned to the vehicle we looked as though we were wearing brightly colord burkas, and still had to fight the bugs from our eyes.

We reached Hwange in tact, we made our visits and delivered the food. As we started to head out of town a kind soul pointed out that one of our tires was nearly flat. We checked it out, and he was right. There was no way we'd make it home in that condition. By this time it was nearing sunset, and we stopped at what was once a fueling station, loitered by several men looking for any kind of little job to earn a meal. One man left and returned moments later proudly waving duct- tape and a bicycle pump.

You may have your doubts, but an hour and several thousand pumps later, we were back on the road.

The ride home was one of my most memorable times with Tecla.

We laughed about what the day brought. We prayed earnestly that we would make it home without any more Kombie issues (by this time it was the dead of night). We sang worship songs to our hearts content. She taught me some Shona and Ndebele. We drove with the windows down and the cooled night air blowing in until the screeching sounds of the insects outside became too much to handle (really, its so loud it hurts). And we decided that it was all worth it.

It has been years since the Kombie and I have met, but I am sure more adventures are in our future. Don't tell him this, but I love adventure ;)

Only about 6 weeks late...

The last week of July I went to Colorado to spend time with my family and celebrate my grandparents' 65th wedding anniversary.

My sis and I got to spend some rare quality time together.



Although most of the time we were busy planning for the big party, we were able to take part of a day to explore downtown Denver. We went to 16th Street and enjoyed "Your Keys to the City," which is basically pianos painted by local artists displayed throughout several blocks of downtown. The cool part is that they are on display for passerbys to stop and play. We stopped and played a little, but this guy was better than us.



This is grasshopper. He likes to hang out on this cherry blossoms piano. He wanted to be my friend.



Then we stopped for lunch at the hotdog place.



My sister had the wild boar. I was a bit safer and had the all beef, but decided to spice it up with the curry sauce. I love a good hotdog, and love some good curry sauce, but together....not so much.

(If it makes that picture any less gross, please know neither my sister or I were able to eat the whole thing). In retrospect I should've tried the Elk Jalapeno Cheddar. Oh well, maybe next time, or maybe not.

Of course, I also got to spend lots of time with my mom and grandparents.

This is the face my grandma gives me when I say something funny but inappropriate enough for her to want to smack me with her menu.



Saturday was the big day. Here is the happy couple celebrating 65 years.




And here they are with their offspring (minus a few) and their offspring's significant others.



The week ended when I had to rush away from the party to catch my flight home. The following day my friends Shawn and Lauren got married, and I was on the only flight from Denver to Fresno which would allow me to be at both the anniversary party and the wedding.

I have known Shawn since I was 8 years old, and have lived with his family for the last several years. We have shared enough water fights, your mama jokes, and bed head to legally be determined siblings, so there was no way I was missing his wedding.

Unfortunately, I had a layover in Phoenix.

And apparently July/August is monsoon season in Phoenix. Seriously, who knew?

With several hours of weather delay in Denver I knew the chances of me catching my connecting flight were slim, but I kept hope. As soon as our plane landed in Phoenix they let me get off first, and as I ran off the plane all the passengers were cheering for me and yelling out things like "good luck", "you can make it!", and "run girl!". (Seriously. We all got very close being stuck together in a tiny terminal for hours). It was like a movie.

Unfortunately though, it was not a movie, and I did not make my connecting flight.

After checking with several different airlines, I found that there were abolutely no more flights to anywhere closer to Fresno until the next day.

So I headed to the rental car place, and spent the next 10+ hours driving home in this peanut.



I left Phoenix at 10pm and arrived in Fresno at about 8:30 the next morning. I had enough time to shower, get dressed, and drive another 1 1/2 hours to the wedding. I made it with 20 minutes to spare.

It was definitely an adventure and I learned many techniques to staying awake (which include but are not limited to: driving 80mph with the windows down, blasting mariachi music, and slapping myself in the face). I will say that if you are driving through the Mojave Desert at 2am and you find an open gas station, keep going. I would rather take my chances on the side of the road with coyotes and cactus.

So that is how I ended the month of July and began the month August, and this is the first time I have had time to sit down since, or at least thats how it feels.

Reflections.

At the end of each day I sit down and reflect on all the things I am thankful for. Here is today's list:

-Crisp fall mornings

-Experiencing the crazy love of Jesus through people he places in my path.

-Short but meaningful visits with long time friends.

-Cuddling with my dog :)

-Hugs from my students.

-God providing above and beyond.

And last, but not least:

-Reading the intimate thoughts of people I have never met, and knowing we were meant to be friends.

For you, I am thankful.

Feverish

The other day I was driving down a country road, and out of the corner of my eye I saw two baboons sitting on the corner. I didn't think much of it.

Then I realized that I am in the United States.

So I looked again, and I saw that my baboons were nothing more than two large stones on the side of the road.

I think I have Zimbabwe fever.

Delightful

If you are anything like me, you are hard on yourself.

Because you deeply love God, you desire to be obedient. You find joy in obedience. You know that through obedience you find God's best. You desire to be like Him. You strive for perfection.

And when you fall short of these things, you accept God's grace, but take none of your own.

You remind yourself that growth is a process. A process that will continue until the day you die. And until then you will never reach perfection.

You see God as your Father. The Father that disciplines in love. The Father that provides what He knows is best for you. But sometimes you forget that He is also The Father who delights in His children.

You forget that in all those places you've messed up, some big and some small, He sees his beautiful child. He sees his beloved.

You forget that He wants you to let Him into every intimate part of your life. And He continues to love you just the same.

He wants you to twirl and laugh and celebrate. He wants you to stand on His feet and dance with Him. He wants you to crawl into His lap and hold you close.

Because He is your Father, and He finds you delightful.

There are things about you that make him smile and laugh and scratch his head in amusement.

And there are things about you that bring him pure delight.

Take the time to think about what these things are. What areas of your life, your character, your personality, bring God delight?

Because, if you are anything like me, you need to be reminded of these things from time to time.