Manzi

For those of you who have been waiting for more updates – I apologize – we now have a satellite for Internet service here, but our solar power supply is not yet configured correctly so we run out after sunset every night and lose our connection. Our efforts so far have primarily been spent on correcting issues with our water supply, power and other maintenance related issues. We have also been doing our best to help our children acclimate and to spend time with people from the village here.

The children here are absolutely beautiful and a joy to be with. They seem to be quite enthralled with all of the new muzungus who have moved into their village, however, and spend much of their time staring in wonder at our strange ways and faces! We have befriended a large group of children who live around the school and we have been sharing quite a bit of time with them playing, laughing, and attempting to learn each other’s languages. I have to admit that most of them speak much better English than we do Nyanja or Sori, but we are learning quickly and only occasionally seem to embarrass ourselves.

If you’ve heard here or elsewhere, we have had some issues with our well and pump. For the most part we have been running out of water every day and have had to limit our use, supplement from the local borehole, and repurpose whatever we do get. We’ve had the pleasure of several new experiences like bathing in a Rubbermaid tub with cold water, watering the garden with used laundry water, and spilling gallons of water in the back of our vehicle while bouncing back up the path back from the village well. The kids think its quite a treat. Lauren was even overheard saying: “mom, I like having not having water. We get to play on the merry-go-round and we don’t have to take showers.” Our boys are practicing their Ninja Warrior training. “Ninjas feel no cold!”.

Then for the miracle. I have to share this – and there may be as valid of a physical explanation as a theological one – but after troubleshooting the problem and running out of water daily for the first two weeks we finally pulled our pump out to take it in for testing. The following 48 hours – while the pump was out of the well and an hour away – was the only time that we never ran out of water. We since replaced the pump (with a new sensor) and know for a fact that it has not been pumping as it should, but somehow we still have water. It appears that the well simply does not recover quickly enough to provide as much as we need, but God has truly been providing and this experience has softened our hearts to the plight of millions worldwide who spend most of their existence seeking and obtaining safe, clean water.

Again, we thank you all for the prayers and for your words of encouragement. They have sustained us through our many adventures so far including skinned knees, dirty feet, tired bodies, rats galloping across the ceiling during devotion time, unidentified bugs in bedrooms, and the ever-present smell of an inefficient sewer system!