Catch Up

 Just catching up a bit - we've been busy, things are happening...and we'll have more to share soon. We're gearing up for guests for most of the next month. We LOVE having guests visit and see Tanzania! It's beautiful here and there is so much to enjoy and learn from.

In the midst of a lot of busy-ness, both kids have learned to ride their bikes sans training wheels. We felt that it would be an important skill to know when we move, to be able to make friends more easily. With the help of a borrowed balance bike, both Ruby and Henry mastered riding in less than a week.

Our goodbyes are beginning. We spent a weekend at this beautiful place with some dear friends. Our kids are playing together in the next room as I type this, and I am so thankful God has brought some really sincere, great friends into our lives here.

The kids have had two tide pool field trips this quarter. Len and I both enjoyed low tide at Chaza Mwamba. We found everything from rainbow crabs to electric blue lobsters (below) and a monkey skull (which was wedged into rocks too solidly to move) and in the past we've found the skelton of a giant sea turtle and other odds and ends there. Not to mention fish, eel and other sea life in every color of the rainbow.

No trip is complete without my shadow self-portrait. Here's to beach days - we'll miss them!

The aforementioned blue lobster, from bottom. We found three of these, completely intact, which we believe were killed by dynamite fishermen nearby. Not to be confused with good fishermen, these guys light a stick of dynamite, drop it into the reef, and when it goes off, concussed fish and lobster float to the surface for easy harvest. Not only does it permanently damage the reef and life therein, it also makes for nasty-tasting fish.

I am sure there is no family photo of us in Africa without Henry making a silly face.

The kids are all about helping these days, and both like to help in the kitchen. Here we are whipping up a batch of french toast batter.

That's kind of a two-minute review of the last few weeks...just want to let you know we're still here, and more to come before the end of the year. :)

What the Swiss are Hiding

It's chocolate.

Did you really think I was going to talk about politics? That, like riding motorcycles without a helmet, and eating bleu cheese in the evening, are strictly prohibited.

By my husband. But he is away.

But I will be good.

Back to the Swiss: a dear friend here (who happens to be Swiss) invited the kids and me for dinner tonight. It was delicious. Those of you who know my dislike of long conversations will be surprised that I can talk with this woman for hours. I don't even know what we talk about. I just know I enjoy her company immensely. Her husband is a missionary pilot who is sleeping in the bush somewhere tonight, so we felt an immediate kinship since my husband is sleeping in a nice hotel somewhere tonight. But I'm not bitter about that.

Anyway, it was a lovely evening. Looking in her refrigerator as we prepared dinner, I noticed a slightly orange glow coming from the top drawer. Where most people keep yogurt, or leftover salami. But don't keep them together, or the salami will make the yogurt taste dodgy.

Much to my delight, the glow was caused by the chocolate pictured above. When I asked to take a photo of it, she covered up some other chocolate that was not Swiss. "Someone sent it to us" she apologized for the lesser cacao delight. I found the whole experience hilarious, and made a note to include eating Swiss chocolate in my "things to do the next time I'm a place where Swiss chocolate is available."

In other news:

The kids and I were in the banda this morning, reading and playing Dolch word bingo (if you've never played Dolch word bingo, you're missing out! It's never too late to start.) and playing a few rounds of Rory's Story Cubes.

After a few minutes, we saw this bee:

Although we just studied insects after finding another dead bee, we took a moment to study this one.

I flipped it over with my finger after a few minutes, to show the kids its wings.

And to our dismay, it started crawling around, and flew away. I kid you not. It's a miracle!

Our friend Esther came to play in the last week; she and Henry had fun feeding our rabbit. His name is Flopsy Hopsy and we inherited him from some friends who left recently.

We call him Flops, or just Flop, most of the time. We are all about syllabic conservation here.

One of my favorite things we brought with us was this hammock. It's made in a village in Mexico, where they grow cotton and make amazing hammocks from long, thin cotton threads. Pay no attention to the grammatical errors on their website. You may not fully understand this until you live in a country where you have the language of a two year-old. The hammock is amazing. And strong. All four of us can fit in it, and the kids enjoy cocooning in it while I swing them to and fro.

Henry picked some fruit from one of our trees. I can't remember the name of it (see language deficiency reference above), but it is safe, and tastes kind of citrus-y. Here he is washing the fruit before we gobble it up.

We've been following the Bible curriculum of The Gospel Project. We recently talked about Adam and Eve, and sin, and repentance (what parent of a five year-old doesn't talk about this weekly?). Here is Ruby's interpretation of the moment Adam and Eve realized their sin in the garden. At the bottom, Adam and Eve are in heaven. It is very important to Ruby that stories have a happy ending. I love that girl.

In the Meantime....

Pirates!

I wonder if they realize how many children around the world dress up like them and pretend to be them on a regular basis? What is the draw for children, anyway? We just finished reading through Peter Pan together and the kids couldn't get enough of Hook and his minions. Henry noted the other day that Somalia is a good place for pirates to live because it has so much coastline. Perhaps Neverland is closer than I realized.

I acknowledge that I get too serious sometimes during election years. To be fair, the House and Senate election years are more exciting than the off years. But that every-fourth-year rush of the Presidential race - it intrigues me. I don't like the negative ads, but I am fascinated by the strategy, work and resources that go into this cycle.

So fascinated, in fact, that I sometimes forget to update you, the reader, about what real-life things are going on in the lives of the people I am supposed to be writing about. Lest you fear I've completely abandoned the children to memorize the electoral college map, let me share with you some of my favorite moments with the fam and friends here lately.

Good news! Homeschool continues to be a great fit for both students and teacher. We recently studied insects, including a giant bumblebee we found dead (perfect for showing body and leg segments!) and I gave the kids an assignment to go outside one morning and photograph insects they found. Henry found this cool mass of ants eating a dead worm-ish creature. It took several dozen ants about 20 minutes to make it completely disappear.

The kids have plenty of playdates, usually involving dress-up, theatre, action-adventure, or all of the above.

Please pardon my mixed use of photo treatments in this post. The kids earned enough money to get camera+ on their ipods and we're all having too much fun with the fx settings.

Ruby continues to thrive in all things academic and artistic. Henry is in the early stages of reading short books and has recently begun to care about handwriting, much to my relief. Like their father and me, both enjoy math very much.

There must be a million-dollar market in monkey shirts for little boys. These two were both Ironman with their gold masks on. Well, more like geriatric Ironmen, since the masks are opaque and they couldn't see a thing.

It turns out Henry is quite a tree climber, and Ruby has ventured up in a few, although she prefers to stay on the ground and tell Henry to be careful. We have a lot of 'who's the Mommy?' talks, Ruby and me.

That's Ruby and Len walking along the shore as we waited for our food at a local restaurant. The ocean makes everything better. Perspective + Beauty as far as you can imagine.

An Irish friend has been hanging out with us lately, and she is a natural director, dramaturg and actress, organizing everyone into a full production whenever there's a chance. This is The Birthday Fish; Henry is Marigold/dream pony and Ruby is the little girl; Nicola is narrating and directing with the lake at her feet.

Ruby and Henry enjoy swimming; we try to get them in the water at least once a week. They're each swimming without assistance and today they practiced snorkeling in the pool.

There you have it, proof that GDP does proportionately impact voter turnout...proof that there really is fun to be had in the midst of this busy season, and more importantly, that we're having it. Fact check that.

Chalkboard Today

I think the kids may be a little homesick.

What if.... (Dreaming about ending poverty)

I've been thinking a lot about poverty lately. About socioeconomic classes and welfare.

About people and systems.

About human dignity.

About what works and what doesn't.

And I've been having a few conversations with friends and acquaintances about the political field and who will win our American Presidential race and who should win and should or shouldn't all candidates be held to the same standards?

I really enjoy these conversations. So many of my close friends disagree with me sharply on political issues, yet we love each other. How is this? Why would I choose to be close to and share life with those whose views seem so different?

Simple. We all want the same thing.

One current hot topic is public assistance. I was a little shocked the other day when I told one acquaintance, "I really want to see people coming off the welfare system." It seemed obvious to me that I was implying that I want to see enough good jobs for everyone who wants one to be able to work and feed their family well and have a decent house in a safe neighborhood. I really believe this is possible.

The recipient of that comment, however, was appalled. "That's what I'm talking about! You want to throw my grandma out on the street!"

It took me a minute to realize what had happened. When I said I wanted to get people off welfare, she heard me say, "I'm sick of paying for your grandma's Medicaid" instead of, "I want your grandma (and you, when it's time) to be able to live a dignified, safe, valued life without taking away from your grandchildrens' financial or psychological ability to do the same."

We both want the same thing: for every child to know she's loved. For every adult to know he's created and put here for a purpose. And for God's kingdom to come to earth, a little bit at a time.

What I want to think about is what if...

What if, instead of depending on the government to find answers for problems, we worked together, conservative to liberal and back again, to find answers for our country?

What if, instead of being afraid of those we don't know or understand, I went to them to find out more about them?

What ifwe are careful to see people for what they DO have, what they do well, instead of what they are lacking?

What if we realized that each one of us lives in our own personal poverty every day, and what if we were honest and open about that?

What if I thought through the unintended outcomes of giving money away before I gave it? What if I spent more time talking with people I wanted to help instead of talking to or about them?

We are all human. We have to stop dehumanizing those who think differently from us. We need to remember that everyone is good at something and has something to teach, something to contribute to society's good. We need to remember that every human is a beloved child of God.

More on this later...probably. Right now, I know for sure that focusing on our differences is doing nothing good for anyone.

What Is Different?

A great friend moved away recently, and it gave me the opportunity to dissect our friendship a bit.

What makes someone a great friend? What do I value in a relationship?

There are the predictable qualities - honesty, loyalty, confidentiality, authenticity, among others - and a couple more that I am lately able to articulate.

One thing I realized I value greatly is the absence of pressure to have some extraordinary social experience. In this era of Facebook, many have recalibrated friendship expectations to value a great story over a real-life story. People plan the wording of their next status update even in the midst of the activity or moment they are experiencing. When we start thinking of life in terms of status updates, it might be time to take a step back from social media and just live life.

Sometimes it feels like telling others about life has become more important than living it. The pressure to write the script to impress others can be subtle and strong. I have turned many a playdate or school day or down time with my family into a photo shoot, prompting and posing everyone extensively for that artistic shot or to get everyone smiling at the camera at the same time. Since when are we people who are all smiling perfectly at the same time? What will my children remember from these moments? The perfect script I tried to write for them, or that they had fun bobbing in the surf until I made them pose for every wave until I got the right shot?

Sharing joyful moments with others is good, and the internet can be a powerful tool to that end. I feel a little hypocritical, posting this and then eagerly going to my friends' blogs, emails and Facebook pages to see how they're doing.

I'm not trying to be a wet blanket on sharing life with others. Just the opposite. I'm challenging myself and you to share life with others. The real life we live every day with successes and fears and failures and joys. What if, instead of spending so much time and energy trying to convince others what great lives we have, we spent that time and energy actually making our lives what we want them to be?

Here's the other item I realized I love about my friends: simply being together. With the friend who moved away recently, I found myself saving up topics I wanted to chat with her specifically about in between our visits. She is very wise and I value her ideas. But you know what? More often than not, when we were together, I just basked in her company. There was no pressure to fill the silence; it is actually quite enjoyable to sit with someone who fills in your unknowns with positives, and for whom you do the same.

Thanks, friends near and far, for making this life interesting and funny and truly enjoyable.

August Tanka

Once pitiable,
these simple blind eyes, aging,
confess arrogance
and see now not dearth's house
but one upright, in paradise.


(c) 2012 Laura Devaisher

Hard to Get

"When are you going to write again?"

I've heard that several times lately, and the answer is that I've been writing more than I have in a long time. My journal runneth over. The problem is, the road hasn't been feeling so lovely lately.

Let me say before I go any further: we are doing fine. God gives us what we need to get through each day, and through pain comes real growth. We are thankful for that.

There has been a lot of heavy stuff happening this summer. The kind of private, painful stuff you don't post about on blogs. Many subsequent conversations between God and me are similar to this:

"Are you kidding me, God? That's the best you can do?"
"Trust me, Laura..."
"Trust? The job you're doing? I think it's pathetic. PATHETIC."

I thank God he doesn't stoop to my level of argument. He is so patient. I would be terrible at being God. When I am honest through this answer-seeking process, I admit that part of my problem is that I DO want to tell God what to do. How arrogant. How...pathetic.

Please understand. I fear God. I know nothing happens without passing through God's hands. And frankly, sometimes that irritates me. That God knew something horrible was going to happen, could have stopped it at any moment, and chose not to is disgusting to me. And it's been happening to people we love, week after week, all summer long.

I'm not interested in anemic, answerless faith. I don't like blind faith or cheap grace. I need a logical path from point A to point B. I want God to make sense. Right now.

This summer has been a time of reflection and, in many ways, renewal.

I remember 25 years ago it was summer, and my parents were taking me to FCA leadership camp at St. Simon's Island, Georgia. They were to drop me off and continue to Florida for a rare week of vacation, then pick me up on their way back through.

We arrived at the camp, unloaded my bag and went to the registration table. Someone handed my parents a letter. I didn't think much of it. My Dad said something about needing to call home and disappeared for a few minutes. When he came back, he wasn't smiling and talked with my Mom privately for a few minutes, then they talked to me.

"Your sister has fallen down some stairs and we need to get home right away." There was also something about a possible seizure and surgery. And cancer. It was a lot to process in that busy, loud room with so much commotion.

They had already decided that I should stay at camp and spoke with the organizers about our situation and to see if anyone would be driving north after camp. Most of the leaders that week were college students at Carson-Newman College in Tennessee. They somehow, instantaneously, got the hundred or so people in that chaos into a circle, briefly explained the situation, and dropped down to the floor in prayer. Loud, crying out to God prayer I had never experienced before. I still get teary-eyed thinking about that moment so many strangers loved us.

My sister died about five years after that, after having a baby and fighting cancer. God and I tangled through the aftermath. It got messy.

I tell you all this because it has taken me much of 25 years to find a Point B in that situation. Not only to move past the point of feeling that God was somehow sick and sadistic, but to see how God was working through the midst of the pain and chaos to bring good for those who love him. I'm sure there are still lessons to be realized from that process.

Back to the present set of questions and doubts...where are the good answers? I'm going to keep talking to God, and keep waiting for answers and sense and peace for hurting hearts. I'm going to keep interceding in prayer between my friends and my God, because I saw the power of it 25 years ago and have seen it many times since.

And I'm going to be thankful that God understands me better than I understand him.

An Act of God

This weekend's events were plenty exciting, and some of those moments are posted here, but I wanted to make a separate post about the found shoe.

I'm not a fan of songs about shoes or even a big fan of shoes lately, but this is a story about God and a shoe. A story that I need to tell.

After we caught our breath from the dangerous current incident on Saturday, we all went for a swim in the lagoon part of the sea. Sitting between the beach and a large table of coral rock, it becomes a very nice pool except at the highest tide.

All the shoes and personal items were piled on the beach, safely away from the water. However, when we got out to go to dinner, one shoe was missing. It was a child's Croc with crocodile eyes and he was visibly saddened that it was missing. After a search around the beach area, everyone went in, and the shoe was considered lost.

Wanting to milk each minute of daylight, I stayed out and said, "God, it would really show your greatness if you let us find that shoe."

Now, know that I did mean what I prayed. I knew that it would take an act of God to find the shoe in that terrain. It wasn't brightly colored, it blended in with the rocks, and there were literally a million places, covering several acres, that it could have been. I had time to cover less than 100 square meters.

As I picked my way over the razor-sharp rocks and mussels, in wonder at the tide pools, I repeated my prayer that the shoe be revealed. I wanted the young man who lost it to know that God cares about big and small stuff.

It was slow going over the rocks, and at one point I paused, turned around and looked down...and there was that crocodile-green shoe stuck down inside a rock formation. Only from that very spot, looking in that direction, could it have been seen. I admit that I paused a few seconds before carefully moving down to work it out of the crevice. Really, God? Really??!!

Yes, really. We serve the God who created the oceans, who knows every crevice of every seabed and shore, and every crevice of our hearts. He reveals what we need, when we need it. And we can trust him to be working for the good of those who love him, in big things and small things. All the time.

From Intensity to Heavenly Intensity

 There has been some intensity in our lives lately. Work intensity. School intensity. Autism intensity. Volunteer job intensity. Hurt people hurting people intensity.

To celebrate the end of school, we hoped to take the kids to the beach. Some friends who are leaving for the summer suggested an overnight with our families, and it turned into this trip. Forty-eight hours at a remote beach, in the bush. The house we stayed in is kind of like camping, with beautiful simplicity. No electricity (but generator 3 hours a day), gravity-fed water, the house has giant folding doors/grates that open up to the ocean.

This is wild ocean. All of history, from the beginning of earth, is in here. That's part of what I love about it. It puts me in perspective. My life could come and go a million times in the life of this ocean.

And it's mine to explore, to see what it will show me this weekend.

Hiking along am outer rock wall as the tide comes in is breathtaking.

Massive coral rock tables edge in from the north and form tide pools at low tide, and the incoming tide crashes magnificently against them.

 I was happy to get this shot of a grey heron fishing as I came back from peeking into dozens of tidal pools.

It was a full moon weekend, and it felt like that. Just...different. My autism mamas know what I'm talking about. Like you've regressed two years overnight.

Treasures of the tide pools included lots of coral reef nurseries like this one. All kinds of wrasses, other fishes large and small...

...brittlestar. These are like starfish but they wave their thinner arms around more freely.

The dreaded sea urchin. They are a sign of imbalance in the reef. I have stepped on one of these barefoot before, but no more...they are no match for my water boots. (It is my goal, however, to kill nothing, not even plants, on my little excursions. Jainists, Buddhists and my newly-turned-pacifist son Henry, who recently began protesting the killing of ants and mosquitoes, are quite relieved at this.)

Acres and acres of pools like these, many connected under the rock, many others perfect aquariums full of surprises.

My water boots (protective booties with tough, treaded soles) paid for themselves this weekend on three good hikes over this razor-sharp rock, stalking herons and kingfishers. It was on one of these hikes that I spotted a snake-eel over a meter long.

During the calm of low tide, you can hear the clicking of a thousand tiny legs as dozens of crab varieties make their way to food, and often become food themselves.

Henry's always ready to go to the beach. He's my beachcombing buddy and is great at finding sea treasure.

Ruby and Len resting a moment before heading back out.

The lot of us walking at an exceptionally low tide Sunday morning. They have just walked across the channel from the camera to the rocks, and that channel will become a dangerously deep trench as the tide comes later.

This is a local fishing hut, where fishermen live and store materials while they're working.

We had some intensity Saturday when a friends' son playing in the surf was suddenly pulled way out by a strong current. Len and his friend Simon went after him with an inflatable surfboard, being pulled in different directions as the wind picked up and the tide came in.

After swimming full-on for several minutes, they were able to get the boy and each other holding on to the board. But they were not able to get in - they were exhausted, fighting wind and current and waves crashing over them every few seconds, and doing their best to hold on as they swam and got nowhere. Simon's wife ran for help and some local workers were able to bring everyone in safely. Very thankful for my husband today.

This ornate spiny lobster was laying neatly inside a tall tide pool as I hiked around afterwards. It's only the shell of the head and upper body - something (I'm guessing a heron or fish eagle) had just picked it clean underneath.

God must have been feeling creative when he designed ornate spiny lobsters.

Near where I found the turtle bones pictured below:

One especially cool find in the rocky pools was this sea turtle skeleton. There were several other pieces too large to carry back, but you get the idea. The irregular pieces are the breastplate bones, the others are upper shell plates/bones. Each of these is at least a foot long. I love finding stuff like this and sharing with the kids.

Can you imagine how huge this thing was? each bone was about two pounds, and I estimate this is about 20 percent of the total skeleton.

As the tide moves in and out, dozens of waterfalls like this one form in the rocks. The sound and sights are surreal, and this weekend was as well. Perspective-giving. Sometimes we need to get away from the world and just listen to God, while immersed in his art.

Henry is Five

He may be six by the time I post this. Poor kid.

Ruby and Henry each wanted smaller, age-specific parties this year. For Henry's, we had several of his best mates over for an afternoon of food, games and general revelry.

The kids loved fighting with water balloons. The little guy whose feet are visible in the upper left of this photo, Josiah, is super quick and never got touched, despite drenching most of the others with his great aim.

 I love this photo...Henry doesn't realize he's about to be soaked!

 Activities for the kids included a scavenger hunt, for which Myrtle, our tortoise, was supposed to be the big-ticket item. Myrtle, usually extremely reclusive, thwarted my plans by appearing in the middle of the yard in full view, before they were even looking for him.

Please pardon Myrtle's bare bottom. We're not sure what's going on there.

Fortunately, the boys were thrilled to feed Myrt a tomato.

 For about thirty seconds. Then they wanted more games.

One unplanned activity I went with, because it was happening anyway and because the boys loved it, was building a huge fort out of all our furniture, cushions and blankets. Boys are so non-complicated.

 Henry has started having tea most afternoons. Ruby often makes it for him. No joke. He prefers masala tea, black with sugar. He is very particular about the sugar spoon and the stirring spoons being separated. He is very much his father's child.

 Ruby had a sleepover with her best pal Happy on Henry's birthday, and Henry had his pal James over as well. Not one to spend excess time or money on a cake, I drew a Superman H on his cake with colored frosting we brought from the states, and he was thrilled. Boys are SO low maintenance!

 Collaborative Lego game, where each kid got a bag of legos and passed around a creation they took turns building. I love that five countries are represented by children in this photo.

 It was one of those steamy-hot days we get used to during rainy season, and it did rain on and off all day. When it wasn't, we played another water game with sponges and buckets outdoors. Must. Get. Loud. Children. Outdoors.

Ruby and Happy having a quieter moment before the wildness set in.

Our son. He's five.

Five years and some days ago, I drove myself to the hospital (after Ruby was born, we decided there really wasn't much reason to have the whole family there all day), and thirteen hours later, our sweet, strong, smart son was born. I love this little person!