Variety is the Spice of Life

Who said that? If anyone knows, I would love to have that info for future reference. Our life lately has seemed to be full of variety....so I guess it has been spicy!!!!

The Hollenbeck's are leaving at the end of this week. For those of you who don't know, Dale and Kathy (and their three boys) have served here for the past 10 years with Africa Inland Mission. They have been our unit leaders, partners in ministry and most importantly, our friends. We have grown close in a short amount of time - trial by fire does that sometimes. It is hard to imagine life without them, as many in Mbarara will attest to as the tears continue to be shed.

Part of my life lately has been consumed with wrapping up loose ends with Dale. I will be stepping into the role of Team Leader as Dale departs. Our unit is being split into two teams - one for Rwanda and one for Southwest Uganda. This has meant lots of meetings, lots of planning, lots of strategizing and lots of emails. Besides meeting with our university students once a week, I'm not sure I have been able to devote much time to anything else, but transition.

Many of you ask what typical days look like.....wish there was an easy answer....let's use today as an example:

5:30 Alarm went off - hit snooze and slept a little longer
6:00 Got up and spent some time in the Word - the missionary men here are trying to read through the Bible in 90 days - only on day 7, but so far, so good
6:50 Fed the dogs and unlocked the front gate - electrician is on his way
7:00 Coffee ready to share with the electrician - much here takes a nice conversation and snack before starting.
7:10 Sent some emails while still waiting for the electrician
7:30 Started helping Jill get breakfast ready since the electrician still has not shown up
7:45 Electrician finally shows up just as my toast pops up - so much for warm toast today.
8:00 Finally starting on the actual work since we needed to prepare a cup of coffee first - even though it won't be sipped on until after the work is done.
8:10 Done with work! I offered a suggestion on what I thought was wrong. He took my suggestion as an expert diagnosis and left it at that. We'll see if I was correct during the planned power outage tonight.
8:50 Electrician is finally leaving the house after sipping on pre-prepared coffee and eating banana bread that was promised as a "bribe" to ensure he came first thing in the morning.
9:00 Finished my cold toast and was wishing I was home, heading to Shipley's Do Nuts for a WARM jalapeno kolache!!!!!
9:05 Trying to get dressed when a teammate comes for a meeting that I knew about, but had forgotten about (look out, 40 here I come!).
10:15 I excuse myself to get ready for a meeting with the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine - nice pants and a nice shirt are required - I'm not good at dressing up.
10:40 Wrap up the meeting and call Dale (who is at another goodbye party) to see if he is going to make the meeting or if I am flying solo on this one to meet someone I have never met.
10:47 Get a call from Dale that he is on his way.
10:51 Out the gate to get to the hospital for a meeting that we think we only have a 20 minute window on
10:59 Arrive just in time only to be told to wait
11:15 So much for needing to be on time - although that is close to on time for Uganda.
11:50 Leaving the meeting with a positive outlook for the future in the medical department.
12:00 Arrive back home - immediately get called in to action to help Kathy fill the washing machine with water (the pressure is terrible here) so she can finish laundry - did I mention that they have been without power at their house for over a week now. I digress, but there is a rumor that the transformer in the neighborhood where they live got "borrowed" to use for the local trade fair that came to town. Silly rumor right? Funny thing is that they lost power about the time the fair was starting and there was a promise yesterday that it would be installed today - the day after the fair has ended. Welcome to life here!
2:00 After hauling water from the bathroom, which gets it water from a tank (Did I mention our water goes off and on throughout the day, every day?) I think we finally have her laundry going well. We finally sit down to munch on some ribs we cooked last night - from the pig that was killed two weeks ago.
2:30 Viki showed up at the house, just to say hello. She is a doctor at the hospital (she is doing her first year internship or residency). She doesn't get much time off, but when she does, she spends it with us. She is almost as much a part of our family as Ruth is. Her "30 minute" break was obviously on African time because an hour later she was finally leaving to head back to the hospital with the promise that she would be back tomorrow evening to spend the night.
2:35 Received a call from a dear friend, and our Associate Pastor at our church. Did I mention that there is no such thing as a short conversation?
3:15 Finally off that call and seeing Jill and the kids off to the pool.
3:45 Spent some time catching up on emails and writing letters to possible recruits and possible ministry partners.
4:15 Spent the last 30 minutes trying to find the bottom of my desk. I had forgotten what it looked like piled under all that paper. Guess I'll put most it in the trash pit to be burned.

Now....I'm sitting here writing this.....the above schedule is not so unusual....this is my norm now. Each day is different. Everything takes longer. Relationships are the key, not simply knowing someone. I'm trying to keep a journal of my time over the next few weeks to give myself a better idea of where all my time goes. The rest of this day? Probably will have someone knocking on the door very soon, then running over to a friend's to try and fix a generator, then back here to visit with another friend who asked to come by later, probably will see him off by 8pm, tuck the kids into bed, answer a few more emails, then off to bed myself by 10pm. What does tomorrow hold? So far....another visit from the electrician, a goodbye party for Dale and Kathy, a visit with a pastor friend, a new teammate arriving, and who knows what else.

This is variety at it's finest. One day a coat, tie and a formal meeting, the next walking fences and making repairs, the next meeting with university students and studying Ephesians, the next....... each day is different and I'm okay with that. Everyone knows I love spicy things - so bring on the spice of life!!!!!!