Our Other Life

It's nearly time for us to leave Swaziland and head for our responsibilities in the USA. Just for three months.

To our other life.

Life is so totally different here as compared with there.

Here we have the beautiful rolling mountains--green and lush with grass and scattered treees, along with huge boulders popping up everywhere. There are signs all over these mountains of an active volcano having existed in another era. Bubbles of humongous lava rocks creating the freakiest looking hills. (Imagine a 4000 foot bubble of rock rising from the hillside--calling some of the more athletic of our 'Cup Team to climb it...but then that's another blog.) Down in the valley the trees are full of monkeys..."rather cheeky fellows."

Louisiana has its own special beauty. The Manchac Bayou behind our house lollygags its way to the Amite river. The trees hiding that bayou conceal birds and critters that we can hear day and night--bird songs/frog songs, take your pick. Even an occasional coyote (I think). And mosquitoes.

Louisiana food takes the blue ribbon. Oh, how we miss the spicy cuisine. We faithfully sprinkle Capt. Jim's cajun seasoning on our Swaziland meals, but it's not enough. We can cook red beans and rice. But it's not the same. And there is nothing like Popeye's...

However, the food here is fresh. The freshest and tastiest fruit and veggies... And the custom is to eat that fruit chopped up with thick fresh cream poured all over it. ahhhhh. Then sometimes daughter Susan feels sorry for all of us ('Cup missionaries), sacrificing as we do without our cajun cuisine, and has us all over for a big pot of jambalaya. Her housegirl bakes fresh break daily. Not just bread, but bagels and even pretzels.

But then that takes me to our CarePoints where we feed the needy kids. The meals are simple, but nourshing. And full of laughter and chatter of our kids who have come to know Jesus and experience real Hope for the first time in their lives...

Driving here is on the left side of the road, sitting on the right side of the car. The hardest thing to get used to is the turning signal. In one life that little lever is the turning signal, the other life it is the windshield wipers. And the corners...at the corners you aren't sure how to expect that guy across the way to make his turn. Hopefully you don't get into the wrong lane when you finally get the nerve to make your own turn.

Air conditioning? In Swaziland you open your doors and windows. No screen doors, no screens on the windows. The critters fly in and the critters fly out. Lizards are welcome inside because they eat the flying critters. Heating? We are fortunate enough to have an electric room heater and a fireplace. The room heater is used at night in our bedroom to keep us from freezing to death during the cold winter nights. We are seriously thinking of investing in an electric blanket.

Electricity. Here it is 220v. And the outlets are weird. Strange even. For the few electronic gadgets we have that are 120-220v both, we still must deal with the outlet/plug thing. So we have a bunch of those changer things. Plug it in the wall, and then plug your little gadget into it. Computers, curling irons, camera chargers, etc. have this capacity. One must always remember to check the little small print on the item to be perfectly sure it is okay to plug it in. Many guests have blown hairdryers to an early death by not checking carefully. The first 15 seconds they got a great gust of hot air...

Here in Swaziland we have family and friends. We will miss each one.
There in the USA we have family and friends. We will delight in seeing and being with everyone.

The biggest change we face in our transforming lives is our church. There is NO PLACE LIKE HPC. We are so looking forward to being back in our home church. The internet is a weak substitute for the real thing. (especially when you are paying by the minute--and downloading could take all day and all night). Ah, to be standing in the middle of all those wonderful people praising the Lord in total abandonment...singing with hands raised to the Lord in loving worship...to breathe in the atmosphere of the fellowship of the saints...to delight ourselves in the Word, coming forth from our pastor, presenting the message under the holy anointing of the Spirit of God...

On the other hand, praise and worship takes on a different feeling here in Swaziland. I love the freedom the born-again Swazis have to dance and sing--the harmonies and exhuberance with which they offer their own scarifice of praise. I'll miss that while we are in our other life.

So next week we will leave our Swazi house and then 33 hours later walk into our Louisiana house. Longest leg of the trip is about 18 hours. Ooof. Not looking forward to that part.

It will hurt to hug our grandkids (and their parents!) here good-bye... But we are getting anxious to hug our other grandkids (and their parents!) that we haven't seen since January.

Maybe we'll see YOU too. Please pray for us to be safe and sane (that many hours scrunched up on a plane can drive you crazy) on the way home...to our other life.