Voting Day

Clouds gather over island

What is voting day like for you?  Is it pretty much a typical day?  Maybe there’s an extra stop in there, before or after work or during a lunch break, when you drive down to your local voting location to cast your vote.  If you’re from one of those swing states, you might see signs and picketers at the door, which makes things more exciting, but then the day goes on as usual.  Maybe you watch the television during the evening to see the results.  Maybe you feel the excitement of participating in democracy.  But all in all, it’s probably not that different from a typical day for you.

Here on the islands, voting day is one of those days when we feel very much the foreigner.  First, we cannot vote, so our opinions and feelings mean little.  Secondly, we hardly understand what’s really going on.  Though we have been here almost ten years, island politics is such a mix of family politics, corruption, religion, village and outside influence, that it is hard to get the true story.  Add to this the flurry of speculation and lack of reliable journalism and the quagmire of truth grows murkier still.  Thirdly, there’s the danger that voting days present.  And this is a reality that is true in many African nations.  Voting day is not an easy, carefree, casual day.  People are fearful.  The anxiety grows as the day approaches and everyone holds their breath.  Everyone hopes that they are not standing on a powder keg, or if they are, that no one would light the fuse.  Everyone waits and watches?  Will there be violence?  Will things proceed peacefully?  No one really knows.

Men's Wedding Event

So today is voting day.  And this is no normal vote, but one the will change the Island constitution. It has been hotly contested and tensions have run high.  Yet, as I sit writing this blog at ten o’clock in the morning, everything seems calm and normal.  There does not seem to be any trouble.  Will people go out and vote?  Will shops be open?  Actually, we don’t really know, because as an outsider, our policy is, stay out of the way and stay out of sight on these tense days.  So we are home all day.  Nothing to do but wait and see and listen to hear what might happen. 

The country holds its breath.  But like we said, this is no normal vote.  The repercussions could be vast.  Will the vote be conducted fairly?  Will the populace agree with the decision?  The country holds its breath.  Tomorrow, will they be able to exhale, or will the tensions remain?  Will we all breath a sigh of relief, or is this the calm before the storm?  We await the results and what the coming weeks will hold.

Women's event starts in front of our house!

PRAYERS ANSWERED
We have a new brother!  So happy to have a new family member among us on the islands.  He is from one of our neighboring islands and we are rejoicing for him.  We are thankful that we’ve got to reconnect with many of our friends here (and attend a number of wedding events) after our time away. It is good to be back. Our teammates get a chance to attend a conference to learn about connecting with and encouraging the local arts— we pray that it will be an awarding time and will prove useful here on the islands.

PRAYERS REQUESTED
Pray for peace and justice in the current political crisis.  Clove Island is a stronghold for the opposition and there is extra concern for unrest here, but it is actually on the big island that there was an incident of a polling place being attacked.  Pray that we could be a light and speak truth in the midst of difficult politics and anger.  Tom still feels sick.  His throat continues to bother him.  Megan got a chance to sit with our neighbor who moved away.  There is anger, bitterness and a hard grudge.  Pray for forgiveness to enter the heart of our neighbor.  Like many here, she comes from a family that struggles to forgive.  Continue to pray for our team.  Most of them are in Kenya at the moment, but we have many decisions to make about the future and direction we will take on their return.

The Inundation

Trying to resurrect our dried out plants after vacation

Every year it happens. Some years it is more dramatic than others, but every summer the islands experience a mass migration. But this is not an inundation of wildlife, it is an inundation of foreigners and not just any foreigners, islander-foreigners!

By now you may be confused. Are they islanders or are they foreigners? The answer is that they are both! They are islanders by heritage, some were even born here, but they are also foreigners. They live abroad, most of them in France. They carry themselves differently.  They don’t always follow the cultural norms or rules that other islanders still guard.  Many of the younger ones struggle with the local language and insist on speaking French everywhere they go. 

There are all types of repercussions of this mass migration. First there are the flights. Flights to the islands are suddenly full to bursting, so much that the planes can’t handle all the luggage and people often arrive before their bags. The immigration lines at the airport were really long as most of these islander-foreigners are traveling under French passports. Between the islands was even worse, we were in the small waiting room at the domestic airport (which usually accommodates 1 or 2 flights at a time) and there were 4 flights waiting, all going to the same place!

House across the way, fixed up while we were gone

Once on Clove Island the symptoms of this inundation continues. Islander-foreigners bring money so house improvements and wedding can now commence. The day we arrived there was a wedding in front of our house, while attending that one, I was invited to three more weddings. The stores that sells imported goods are full of customers (islander-foreigners aren’t used to living island-style). Everyone has guests in their homes and we can see the wear on some of our friends and neighbors…islander-foreigners can be very demanding houseguests.

Finally there are the extra stares we get. Many islander-foreigners are used to living in the bigger world where people haven’t even heard of the islands, let alone knowing anything about them.  So the sight of us foreigners, dressing in island-style, eating island foods and speaking the island language— it can be shocking.  Our presence generates a lot more pointing and comments this time of year. Partially because of the juxtaposition of us (who are obviously of foreign-origin but comfortable on the islands) and them (who look like islanders, but aren’t entirely comfortable here). 

Our downstairs neighbors have a huge crowd of visitors. We had a nice visit with one one of them. She is actually living and studying in the US (which is pretty rare for islanders). She is here with her mother, brother and sister who all live in France. None of them had been to the islands for many, many years. She studies linguistics and knows multiple languages but when she heard me greet another neighbor she confessed that she doesn’t know the island language! What a shame! We’re thinking of giving her the grammar book we have written for the island language, so she can start learning!

We will continue to see the repercussions of the inundation as the weeks go on. There will be new technology, new music, new trends, new culture that will have swept in with them and left after they leave. Every year it happens.  It is part of life on the islands.  A source of connection to the outer world, strengthened each summer with the annual inundation of islander-foreigners. 

View from our roof didn't change

PRAYERS ANSWERED
We made it back to the islands! Our daughter is feeling better.  So thankful that all our dental work is done and we are pain free.  Our time on the big island with our leadership went well.  All of our bags made it!  It is good to be back in our house.  The children seem happy to be back.  We have already connected with many of our friends again and it is nice to be so warmly welcomed back even after a short break.  We are thankful that Island weather is cool this time of year and very comfortable!  We are excited to hear that the electronic resources continue to be well received.

PRAYERS REQUESTED
We left the islands for vacation with our team coming out of a crisis. As we came back another crisis opened. Continue to pray for wisdom, grace and unity for those of us in leadership and for all the members of our team.  Pray for the islands! A week from today is a nationwide vote on a referendum. Many see this as the current president’s attempts to illegally grasp at power.  Opposition leaders have been put under house arrest and demonstrations/protests have been squashed.  Many islanders cynically believe that everyone will vote one way but that the government will still announce what it wants.  We pray for an honest election, peace, freedom and good leadership for the islands. Megan’s grandmother has been in the hospital.  We ask for recovery and peace for her and those making decisions.  Tom is not feeling well today.  Possibly the same bug that the kids had last week. Pray for healing. We also came back to learn that something happened and no one our close neighbors has moved out— we’re not sure what the issue is (marital troubles?, problems with in-laws?) but pray for us as we try to find them and talk to them about it.  Another friend lost his son while we were gone, pray that we could be voices of truth and comfort to him.

Why Did it Have to Be Like That?

Kids riding a lion!

Sometimes do you ever wonder at the little difficulties that seem to get in the way of your plans? Yesterday it felt a little bit like we were caught in the book about a horrible, no good, very bad day.

As background, we are currently in mainland Africa because in a phrase, healthcare on the islands is terrible.  So for just about everything from checkups to surgery we try to deal with it off-island.  That is the case at the moment.  We are in mainland Africa, on our way back to the islands taking care of some medical needs. Dental checkups, medical checkups and followup from Megan’s surgery were on the to-do list.

The day started out well enough. The apartment where we are staying is absolutely freezing, but we got up and made it outside, got a taxi (via a taxi app) and made it to the mall that has a pediatric clinic. The waiting room had Disney Jr. on the TV which kept our kids very occupied. Megan had to head across town to the hospital for her surgery follow-up while the kids did their initial triage—good height, good weight, no fever, everything good.  Then after a bit more waiting, the kids were next to see the doctor. 

Then things started to go wrong. First Megan was outside getting a taxi, a little chagrined when a run-down car picked her up. But once on their way, the driver turns around, tells her he doesn’t have enough gas to get to her destination and he needs her to pay in cash (not credit card like she had selected with the app) because he doesn’t have any money to buy gas. Megan ultimately ends up on the side of the road in some random part of the city, trying to get another taxi while the app stubbornly keeps selecting the bad car she just got out of.

Meanwhile our youngest turns to Tom in the waiting room and says he doesn’t feel well.  A few minutes go by and he lifts his head up, says, “Daddy, I feel sick.  I think I’m going to throw up,” and proceeds to do so—all over the floor of the waiting room.  (Amazingly, he missed both Tom’s clothes and his own.) 

Megan narrowly makes it to before her appointment time. She’s ushered through the multi-step process of waiting, then checking-in, then waiting, then paying, and then waiting to be seen. 

In the waiting room watching the overhead TV

For Tom, what was supposed to be a simple well-child checkup has turned into a sick-child appointment. Our son throws up again in the room with the doctor (this time into a bucket) and instead of milestones and routine vaccinations, the doctor is talking about blood tests and a course of antibiotics.

Meanwhile Megan is getting her scan and the technician is marveling at the number of ovarian cysts he is finding. Not encouraging.

We are messaging back and forth throughout, sending our prayers and commiseration to each other. Finally Tom makes it back to the freezing apartment with the kids with none of the errands done that he wanted to do and with our formerly “sick” child now smiling and bouncing up and down.

Megan has three more rounds of waiting, checking-in, waiting, paying, waiting, being seen— first with the doctor to talk about the scan, then at the pharmacy and then at radiology to get the scan results. On the way home she gets stuck in afternoon traffic and gets back to the apartment feeling tired and a little carsick.

We decide to do an easy dinner. A local restaurant will deliver. We make the order at 6pm so we can get the kids to bed early. Things didn’t progress smoothly. At 7:30, there is still no food. It finally arrives, rather cool, just before 8pm. 

What a day! Why couldn’t the kids have been healthy and happy? Why couldn’t Megan’s scan been all good news? Why couldn’t the food arrive hot when it was supposed to? It is enough to make you want to move to Australia, right? Well, maybe not.

And really if you learn anything from that kids’ book it’s that some days don’t go the way you want, but you also have a choice in how you process it all. Do we only see the negative? Or are we happy that our youngest threw up at the doctors (a place more than equipped to handle it) and not somewhere else? Do we remember that most of the cysts seen in Megan’s scan aren’t a concern? Are we thankful that we have a place to go to get the medical care that we need? We’re not really sure why our day turned out that way but we understand that trials of many kinds produce in us patience and perseverance. 


PRAYERS ANSWERED
Our son who was sick on vacation recovered without anyone else being sick and we were all healthy for our travels back to Africa. Our travels went smoothly and we arrived with all our bags. Our other son (who threw up in the above story) also seems to be doing all better. We are thankful that we had an opportunity to follow up with all these medical/dental concerns while we were here. A new electronic resource was released to islanders on the internet and has already gathered a following! We got to meet with two of our teammates and their parents who were visiting. It was fun to meet them!

PRAYERS REQUESTED
We have been on a little it of whirlwind. Pray for a smooth transition back to the islands tomorrow. Our daughter hasn’t been feeling well today, so pray that she gets better. We will have one full day on the big island before we go back to Clove. Pray for us as we meet with our country leader and debrief several difficult things. Pray for wisdom for us as leaders. Pray for our team— the past few months have been an emotional rollercoaster for many of us. Pray for the Spirit to bring peace, joy and unity in all trials. Pray for Megan, she had a large ovarian cyst surgically removed in January but the ultrasound this week shows that the same type of cyst has regrown on the same ovary. It is still small and not causing pain, so we will try some months of medication to see if its growth can be stopped. Pray for the cyst to go away and for her to tolerate the medication well.

What is a Playground?

Torn down house by our home

Our kids love playgrounds.  When we travel, its often one of their first questions.  Will there be playgrounds?  They’ve been to many a good playground and will probably find more good playgrounds in their future.

Unfortunately, there are virtually no playgrounds on the islands.  There is one on the big island, but as far as we know, there aren’t  any playgrounds here on Clove island.  This has made our kids really appreciative of even simple playgrounds and there’s something wonderful about that.  Many kids can easily take playgrounds for granted.  In some places there one is at every school, maybe even one on every block.  On the islands, schools may have open spaces (if they’re lucky), but no play structures.  It simply isn’t something valued by the culture.

But this doesn’t mean our kids never play outside. In fact recently we’ve been watching our kids creating their own play areas, and these days they have a favorite spot.

Gutted car by our home

Out our back door and up a flight of steps is our kids’ playground.  It consists of a half demolished house, an open area, a couple of busted old cars, some stairs, some railings, a pile of sand, a pile of rocks, and a few trees with low hanging branches.  As I watched my kids climbing over cars, hanging from branches, picking through rubble, it occurred to me — you know, this playground isn’t half bad.

We’ve been on vacation visiting with family (that is why there was no blog last week, sorry!).

Mini golf fun far from home

So the kids have gotten a taste again of not only playgrounds but many things we don’t have on the islands (real ice cream, pools, mini golf, theme parks with roller coasters and all kinds of edible goodies). And as much as we and our kids are enjoying our time, we hope they don’t lose the ability to take pleasure in the simple things of the islands. I wonder how many weeks of longing there will be for things like rollercoasters and ice cream once we’re home on Clove Island, but then I see our 5 year old pick up yet another  thrown-away scrap of plastic from the ground and entertain himself for most of the day with it and I think that perhaps we don’t beed to worry. These things are nice and we savor them, but we can live happily without them.

PRAYERS ANSWERED
Our teammate made it safely back home to the States.  Our teammates on Clove Island seem to be doing fine (even without us there!)  One of them just turned 30!  It sounds like she had a good birthday especially with her parents who are visiting.  We are thankful for a wonderful vacation time filled with seeing family and doing fun things as well as some quieter more restful moments. 

Rocket ride far from home

PRAYERS REQUESTED
Our 8 year old son came down sick today. It has been pretty rough and it is hard to see him suffering when we are supposed to be vacationing. Pray for a quick recovery and that no one else will get sick. On Thursday we travel back to Africa.  Pray for our return travels. We will have a week in mainland Africa filled with doctor and dentist check-ups.  Remember our friends on the islands, for the light to shine in their lives and hearts. At the end of the month there is supposed to be a controversial referendum on the islands, continue to pray for the island’s stability and leadership leading up to that.