Rationing

A friend asked me about my day recently. One of my details was that I went to Costco for the last time. The fact struck him as odd. I still had two months remaining of our home assignment in America. To a normal person who enjoys wholesale shopping, one month is a long time to not stock up. Would there not be time for another trip in 60 days’ time?

Not really. We’ve entered a phase that is a familiar marker for impending change for missionaries.

The rationing phase.

We’re currently in our third rationing phase of the past year. Our first came when we readied ourselves to leave Africa. In that case, we had four years worth of miscellaneous food supplies to gobble up.

You know how it is. Sauce jars used only once, cans of beans that were on sale, boxed meals that looked better on the supermarket shelf than on ours, mix packs that wouldn’t survive a year in storage. It’s nice to have those “extras” on the shelves in case of an emergency, but when you’re ready to pack up and leave, there’s no good place for them. Some is respectable enough to bequeath, some becomes landfill sod (or baboon trashcan dinner when in Africa).

And then you go. On to the next kitchen that needs stocking. You are more careful this time, having just given away oodles of food, but you still slip up by buying a jar of applesauce when no one in the family really likes applesauce. A few months pass and the rationing process begins again. In attempt to be less wasteful, you eat some awfully random meals towards the end. Like Top Ramen with chopped peaches or pork chops with McDonald’s ketchup packets. Nevertheless, bags of groceries will be left behind for fortunate friends who will feast in your memory when you’ve gone.

And in such a manner our third attempt at rationing this year begins. We’ll make a meal menu and carefully choose our grocery basket fillers. We’ll watch the bottoms of our fridge and freezer and cupboards reappear. But in the end, we will again lose the fight to ration.

(If you’re interested in a Tupperware of frozen refried beans, let me know. First come, first serve.)

Kids say the darndest things, part 3

First off, when he started kindergarten in San Diego, it was now all-day kindergarten. Going from three hours in a structured setting to six is a significant leap. Not only that, but San Diego public schools have become extremely rigorous and stringent in meeting the state standards for education, even at the kindergarten level. And while we loved Micah’s report of his first kindergarten teacher in Pennsylvania (“Mrs. Muller says we’re not here to have fun; we’re here to learn.”), his new kindergarten teacher is even more diligent about assuring academic improvement.

When it was time to introduce himself to his 25 new classmates, Micah told Heather, “Mom, I don’t want to tell them I’m from Africa.” My interpretation of this statement is that the novelty of being “unique’ had worn off on him. It’s fun to get people’s attention when you tell them your background, but there comes a time when you’ve had enough of being different. You just want to be like everyone else around you. I think Micah hit that point in San Diego.

His words a few Sundays ago confirmed that thought. While we were on our road trip to Sacramento, we attended church with our friends Kevin and Kaci. Before we even got to the church, Micah said he didn’t want to go to Sunday School. He’d said that before, but this time he was nearing tears. Heather probed a little further and got a reason out of him.

“I don’t want to tell them my name.” Now it wasn’t just about telling strangers he was from Africa; he was tired of introducing himself again. He wasn’t just tired of being different now; now he was tired of being new. In our nine months in America, Micah has been to about fifteen different churches, and even in the ones we’ve visited multiple times, the youth workers are rarely the same person twice. He’s probably had three dozen different Sunday School teachers and has sat next to a few hundred different kids in the past 36 weeks. Put yourself in those shoes as a six-year-old. It breaks my heart to think about it.

Heather helped him over that particular hurdle with a compromise. We knew he’d hate being in the main church for over an hour, so she agreed to introduce him to everyone in the kid’s room. He agreed. As long as he didn’t have to tell anyone his name.

Kids say the darndest things, part 2

One of the first questions that comes up in conversations right now is about our kids. Micah spent four of his first five years in Africa, and Asher spent all of his first two. So it’s fascinating and worrisome and intriguing to consider how they’re handling being back in the U.S. for home assignment.

The first and initial transition was easy for Micah and hard for Asher. We moved to Pennsylvania first last July. For Micah, his world became doting relatives and exciting trips to the beach and stimulating half-day kindergarten. He loved the food and the extra time with Mom and Dad (which he didn’t get as much of during our African assignment). He handled it great. Asher, on the other hand, had his entire life upended. His house, his nanny, his toys, and his environment were gone. His first month was a bit rough.

Then, we went to San Diego just before Christmas. Asher did amazingly well. Our reserved and hesitant two-year-old morphed into a boisterous, confident, and outgoing nearly-three-year-old. And while I don’t want to exaggerate and say that Micah did poorly with this transition, he definitely didn’t thrive as much. I think the second huge change in less than six months time took its toll on him. I’ll let his own words express his feelings...on Monday.

Exciting week

My seminary has a thing called "reading week" where we get a week off from classes and assignments. I've been doing a little reading, but mainly I've been getting my new book up to the place where my old book is at. Also, Heather updated our web page. Check out the Photo Albums and the "What's new?" page as well. Great job by her!

Amazon Kindle for Winter Spring Summer Fall

Mopipocket Ebook for WSSF

Web page for WSSF

Murphy Ministry Web Page