A teeny piece of no consequence.

I think that one of the things that I continually struggle with, and I do believe I have mentioned this before, is remembering that what we think is normal here, is probably not normal back in Canada, or lots of other places for that matter. This is my excuse for not having updated our blog since whenever we last updated it. Thank you all for your patience and understanding and not rolling your eyes too far into the backs of your heads.

A couple years ago we bought three new gas stoves in Canada to send here to replace the three old ones that were in the houses here on the compound. We thought, lets get quality, lets be patient and wait to get what we want and they will last a really really really long time. I mean when you pay for quality you get quality, right!? Am I right? Who goes out and knowingly pays for junk and expects quality? Soooo we bought good Canadian stoves from a good Canadian store and guess what happened for two whole years? Nothing, they worked fine, well sort of, they worked fine when we had power to run the glow plugs to light the oven, but that's a whole other story, maybe even two stories. That's right! They worked fine...until last Friday...when all three of them packed it in at the same time. Literally, within minutes of each other, makes cooking seven pizzas a little problematic. Oh well, we are in africa, where necessity is the mother of invention. The next day we hauled out one of the old ones, because we sold the other two, because why in heavens name would we ever need them again right!? It's not like we bought junk or anything to replace them. Well it turns out that the one we kept is missing a part, not a big part, it's just a little part, a little teeny part, a part that normally minds its own business and does its work without calling attention to itself or asking for any glory. It was however, missing, and guess which part in a city of over a million people you can't find?? You got it! Our teeny weeny little part, our part of no consequence, except for the fact that our stove absolutely will not function with out it! So maybe I underestimated the importance of this part, what can I say? I'm just a pilot! It's not like I know how to fix stuff, like gas stoves or toasters or vacuums or clocks or computers or solve complex algebraic problems! Cut me some slack I'm just an old-ish pilot...of sorts. At this point our gardener comes over and says, "hey, I think I know where we can get one of those teeny little inconsequential parts." Or something to that affect. We hop in to our truck, the gardener and I, and head off down the hill to drop off the toilet at his house. Don't worry about not understanding that, it's a whole other story, it just puts us further along in the stove story. After dropping off the toilet he starts to give me directions to where we are going to find our part. We head down from his house and cross the road into one of the bairros. A bairro is where people live and where there has been no city planning in regards to house and street location, as well as absolutely no development of any supporting infrastructure. We were passing a relatively nice place and I asked Ze if this was the place? He said no, it was around the corner, so we continued around the corner. Around the corner was a track leading across a "stream", a stream that replaces the lack of infrastructure. I seriously contemplated lifting my feet as we crossed it and thought about how to sterilize the truck later. I actually thought, "My poor truck!" After we crossed to the other side Ze tells me to stop, which I did, because I am trained to follow the instructions of the person who regularly occupies that seat. Ze gets out and heads over through the tall grass back to the "stream". I was thinking, "What, now? You couldn't wait till we got back to the house to use the bathroom?" In the end I figured if you gotta go, you gotta go. At that point he jumped the "stream" thankfully, and picked something up off the ground, in the bushes and weeds beside the "stream" Really? Seriously? are you kidding me? It was a controller from an old broken gas stove that the local kids had been recycling into its various elements and guess what was on the end of it? Our little teeny piece of no consequence. At that point what else can you do, but nod your head and go, "Of course that's where we would find the part to fix our stove, beside a "stream" in a bairro."

*please note that this story has not been edited and therefore any grammar or spelling errors are the sole responsibility of the author and do not reflect in anyway on the intelligence and beauty his wife.

Heading home

Well, it looks like we will be heading back to Canada next week for a bit. Tammy`s dad, who has been deteriorating health wise for the last few years, passed away yesterday (April 22). The emotions are mixed, we are sad to see the ol`curmudgeon leave us, but happy to know that his suffering is over and that he is in the presence of his Lord. I am thankful for the part he has played in my life and all the time we were able to spend together. Whether it was teaching me the finer aspects of NASCAR or patiently explaining to me once again how some sort of mechanical system worked, even when he saw that my eyes were glazing over and I had no idea what he was talking about. Thanks dad, we love you.
Ironically, we had sent Tammy`s passport to Canada to get her next visa for Angola on Monday, so we are waiting to get it back from the courier so that we can head back to Canada. It is hard to be so far away from our kids and family when there is such sadness in our hearts. Always that Angolan visa process is affecting something in someway! Most likely Tammy will stay for a month or so and I will stay for a couple weeks and then return to Angola.
We look forward to visiting with those that we can, but ask that you will forgive us if we can't spend time with all of you.

"But his visa is expired."

Is it that time already? It seems like just yesterday that I lost my passport and suffered a prolonged bout of insanity...wait a sec that was yesterday! No not really, I was just fishing for a more dramatic start to this posting.
Actually when I look back on what has happened in the last few months things have continued on their normal abnormal course. After we got back to Angola we were thrilled to learn that my (Gary's) residency visa was ready in Luanda. This will hopefully make our visa adventures a little less frequent. Whilst in Luanda to get the visa my kidneys decided that they were tired of packing around some extra weight and therefore ejected a couple stones they didn't want anymore! I guess the bright side of the whole experience was getting to observe first hand the level of medical care available in Angola. The doctor was actually pretty good, she got me IV'd up and on pain killers right away, but whilst I lay writhing on the examining table she merrily continued to see other patients in the same room, I re-assured them that I wasn't dying...yet. All in all it went pretty well.
After getting back from Luanda we discovered that Matt had done a number on his knee that would require surgery. The choice was get it done right away in Angola and be laid up for six months recuperating with a cast or wait a month and a half and have it done in Windhoek where he would be walking on it the same day. It also worked out that Tammy and Matt's visas would expire at that time so why not kill two birds with one stone. ( Just so you all know, no birds were harmed in the writing of this blog.) The surgery went well and the visas arrived on time and we headed back to Angola eager to be in our own house again.
The crossing of the border went reasonably well considering that there were seven of us. We were traveling back with some good friends and a new couple has come with MAF to work at one of the mission hospitals. My passport was the only one that caused any real problems. The conversation with the immigration officer went something like this.

Immigration Officer,"I see that your visa has expired"
Gary, "Yes that particular one has expired, but I am in the country on this other visa"
Immigration Officer,"Yes, but I see that your visa has expired"
Gary, "Yes that particular one has expired, but I am in the country on this other visa"
Immigration Officer,"Yes, but what worries me is that your visa has expired"
Gary," Yes that one has expired, but this is the new visa they have given me to use and it hasn't expired."
Immigration Officer, "Hmmmmm, but it is only a piece of paper?"
Gary,"Yes, that is what they give until the actual plastic card arrives, it takes a long time for the card to come."
Other Immigration Officers,"That is true, it takes a very long time."
Immigration Officer,"But his visa is expired."
Other Immigration Officers, "Yes, but that is not his visa, the piece of paper is."
Immigration Officer,"But his visa is expired."
Other Immigration Officers,"Look, it is fine, he can come and go as he pleases with the piece of paper!"

At that point I am not sure who stamped my passport to let me in, I am just glad that they did.