Adventures in babysitting….

Tonight me and Stephanie babysat for the Connard’s who are in town for a few days. We only kept their youngest, Benjamin. He is such a good baby; he is always so content and rarely fusses. The poor thing is sick right now and when he breathes he wheezes. Well we were in the living room watching him play with a broom and sweep shoes around the coffee table. All of a sudden we look at him just in time to see him whack his face on the corner of the coffee table….we should have seen it coming. I go to pick him up hoping he is not going to start screaming. When I pick him up I see a little bit of blood starting to trickle out from under his eyebrow. In a matter of seconds a little blood turns into more blood. In a passing moment of panic I head out the door with Benjamin in my arms to Dorothy’s house next door (Dorothy and her husband have lived here for 30 years and raised two kids here, surely they will know what to do). As soon as I stepped off the porch I thought, “No, We don’t need help. We can do this (it is ONLY blood, after all). I mean I am a family and child studies major. I even took a class on stuff like this for crying out loud!” So I followed Stephanie into the bathroom where she was getting tissue to clean him up. The whole time Benjamin is struggling to cry and breath at the same time. It was so sad. In the middle of playing nurse to Benjamin, the power goes out. Doesn’t that just figure! Finally we got the little guy all cleaned up and he stopped crying. When we told Mark and Stacy (his parents) what happened they just laughed, he is a tough African bush baby, after all.

Carrie (journeyman in Kasama), Stephanie, and Benjamin in the office.

Culture Crisis…

On Monday, Esnot, our house worker came to clean our house. Esnot’s friend, Loveness, also comes and cleans Chris’s and Mallory’s flat next door. Well, lunchtime rolls around and Esnot asks me if me or Stephanie will be “taking nshima”. I tell her Steph has already left and I decline her offer (I knew what they were cooking and wanted no part of it). Esnot comes back and informs me it is too late because Loveness already prepared some for me. So I graciously smile and nod my head. Kapenta was for lunch…I very much dislike kapenta. Kapenta are small sardine-like fish (that stink to high heaven when being cooked). And the ones that Loveness was preparing were dried, so that meant they would be nice and bendy…almost crunchy. Yippee! So I confess to Esnot that I do not like kapenta and she tells Loveness. So as to not totally insult Loveness and to be rude I offered to take a few bites instead of having a whole plateful. As I sat rolling my nshima in my hand and chewing my kapenta and hoping to keep it down, Philippians 4:13 kept running through my mind, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” When I was finished Loveness was very pleased that I tried her kapenta and told me that one day I will become Zambian and will like it. I’m not so sure about that.


Kapenta!!! Loveness (left) and Esnot (right) enjoying their meal.