Family Business

Tonight the fam and I did some significant bonding. First I had some one-on-one time with Charity while Princely and Mama Josephine went to pick up Pastor Glorious from the airport. I taught her how to make the little water-droppy noise with her mouth as we watched Cosby together (the tv only works to watch videos. The family conveniently has The Cosby Show season 1 on tape…Charity loves it).

When the rest of the family got home, we put Charity to bed and had a late dinner. Pastor Glorious tested me tonight by speaking chiefly in Swahili. I embraced the opportunity and wrote down the phrases he said to me before asking what the appropriate response would be. I think I passed the test because he was far more jovial and comfortable around me after that then he has been so far.

After dinner, Mama Josephine and I had a brief and positive exchange about work. For the past couple days we had been beating around the bush, both frustrated because our desires were not being met. My desire was to be given more work to do, as I have been struggling to find work for Uzima in these past few days. Josephine wanted me to continue blogging, but I had already blogged all the significant steps Uzima had taken since my arrival. Her point was that there was more to blog because there were occurrences that took place before I got here. The obstacle however is that she has not yet had time for me to interview her about these events. Tonight, I confronted the reality of the issue and expressed how I have coped thus far: I had filled my time making lesson plans for our October and November trainings, but in reality I need more work to do. This forwardness brought us to an open discussion where we agreed the next two days will be slow for me because she is busy (no time for interview) New Life students are graduating, and there is only manual labor to be done for Uzima (cleaning the clinic). Therefore I will continue to work on the lesson plans. Done. Clear. On Saturday we will interview.

We said a prayer before splitting off for bed. Pastor Glorious led it. It was a long one – about 8 minutes. In the end, he thanked God for his kids, and then also for me. It may be silly but I was really touched.

Last but not least, we all split a Cadbury bar, my favorite kind of chocolate, for dessert. They’re pricy in America but apparently rather cheap here since they have semi-local factories. Such sweet news!