Monsiuer Mozzie

bzzz....bz...bzzzzzzz...bzz...bzz...BZZZZZZ...bzz...*...*...*

Unable to take it anymore, Todd swings his feet to the floor and flips on one of the single bulb fixtures. 

“What time is it?” I ask.

“4:45,” came his reply. That’s AM, now. 

He starts shaking the floor length curtain in hopes of finding the source of the buzzing that has kept us both awake for nearly 45 minutes. It’s not the buzzing of a bee or a wasp; it’s this tiny, faint, in and out buzzing, much higher up the scale. Well, it’s tiny and faint one minute and the next it sounds like it’s making its way down your ear canal. But then, it vanishes. Gone. 

We both wait in silence. For such small pests, Mozzies (as we’ve heard them called in South Africa, never once before in our lives) have a way of interrupting even the most vital human functions (like sleep, for instance). I can only imagine what we look like to them; laughing, talking, carrying on with whatever we do and then all of a sudden-- FREEZE! Eyes shift, roaming about the room for the infinitesimal gray blur. We slowly spread our hands, palms facing in...not too fast now; no sudden moves. Wait for it, *CLAP* *CLAP CLAP* *CLAP* *CLAP CLAP CLAP*...nothing. It evades our best efforts to capture (ahem...annihilate) it and succeeds in, once again, making us look like applauding idiots. 

So we wait. Motionless, quiet, irritated. Wherever he’s vanished to, he won’t be gone long. We both know it’s over for us; we have to be up in half an hour at this point. Finally, I throw off the covers (this wasn’t necessary, as you’ll see below, but it was probably too hot for them anyway).

“Here,” I offer, “we can use me as bait.” 

As a child (and teenager, and apparently adult) I used to get the absolute nastiest looking legs in the summer. All it would take was a few minutes playing outside in the evening and I’d return covered in huge, pink welts. And I have never been able to resist scratching itchy mosquito bites. I can still remember the smell and envision the bottle of stinky calamine lotion under our bathroom sink; I would just about have to coat my legs with the thick pink goop. And then it was “don’t scratch!” from my mom, but I always did. I’d end up all gross and scabby, year after year. 

I really did think those days were behind me, but somehow the South African Mozzies (and these guys mean business) have heard of me. All my life I’ve been told by people who would observe my bitten flesh that I must taste sweet. I used to think it was just something said by condescending old people trying to be funny, but I’m starting to think about it a bit more seriously. 

The other night I woke up scratching my legs and the next morning counted either 5 or 6 new bites; not exactly an evening run through knee-high grass, but ridiculous for doing nothing but sleeping under a sheet! And here’s the kicker; Todd checked his legs and could only find one little pink spot, not a welt, a spot. I investigated and determined (by means of professional experience) that it was definitely not a mosquito bite. Unbelievable! The man sleeps like 10 inches away from me and gets nothing! It would appear that I’m considered a delicacy by Mozzies, irrespective of continent. Both US and African mosquitos prefer me to other humans in close proximity.

The old people were right...I must really taste sweet.

I had Todd work me up an original for this post...something depicting the particular villainous characteristics of all mosquitos. 

Catching Up

Ah...finally! Let me start in the present; today, we bought a modem.

It’s good to be out of the Dark Ages :) 

If I were a real writer, I would have kept a detailed log of all the happenings from the time we left Germany (which was almost a month ago) until now, the historic day of our re-entry into the cyber world. But I am not a real writer, so I’m off the hook and excused from not meeting up to my own expectations. 

While this won’t be the play-by-play some people **hi mom** would appreciate, it will hopefully fill in some of the gaps. We’ve now spent 25 days in Africa. Let us begin...

We arrived in the Johannesburg airport on Sunday morning, January 27th, exhausted. I did manage to actually sleep on our flight from Cairo to South Africa, which was a blessing! The plane wasn’t filled to capacity, so I was able to switch seats to an aisle :) It was almost as close to a dream-come-true experience as one can get on an airplane... except for being randomly upgraded to first class. Have you seen the way those people travel? Sign me up. 

Once we arrived in SA, we were collected and carted to our training base, where we were able to enjoy a couple days of rest. The time difference between Frankfurt, Germany and Pretoria, SA is only an hour, so thankfully our bodies didn’t struggle too much making the shift. 

Our accommodations on the base are great! Two rooms and a bathroom to ourselves, and a common area that we share with one other couple. It’s very comfortable, and we appreciate that, considering we will be here for a while. We will have completed just three weeks of training tomorrow and the topics have ranged from theology to love languages, and plenty in between. 

Our training program is a ministry of OM South Africa (Not OM Africa Area, which is our department), and it is called Missions Discipleship Training, or MDT for short. We live, work and study with a community of about 45 other trainees and a large team of leaders. This portion of our training is called “Inside Out,” which focuses on looking at ourselves and our past. This module of training will finish up next Thursday, and then we begin preparation for a two week mission trip to Lesotho **hi Abby**, a tiny country completely surrounded by South Africa, and about a 5 hours drive from Pretoria. 

Our time here has been fast in that we have been on the go, almost every day, almost all day. Our morning devotions with the group start at 6:00am, and three evenings per week (at least) we have activities that go to 8:30 or 9:00. Most nights find us ready to hit the pillow, and 5:40am comes fast. In addition to lectures, we are on rotations for both kitchen team and practical work. Kitchen team is about what it sounds like; every eight days we and the four other people who make up our team are responsible for assembling the meals and doing the clean-up involved. The day after that we clean the public bathrooms and wash the sheets for the selected dorms. Practical work is unrelated to our kitchen team; one afternoon per week we (along with other trainees) do whatever work is needed around the base. Todd has done some mowing and weed-eating. I have shoveled rocky soil (that stuff had chunks of brick in it...ridiculous), raked grass from the lawn, and weeded. 

While the base does have a computer room, it only provides the trainees with access to their OM email accounts (we hear that eventually there will be other internet availability on the weekends). We just had our second trip to a mall since our arrival, and were so thankful to be able to purchase an internet modem! 

Our trip off the base wasn’t primarily for shopping purposes, though; we had the opportunity of spending the morning at the Link, the Om South Africa and OM Africa Area office in the city of Pretoria. The trainees joined OM South Africa for their weekly prayer morning, where we learned about and prayed for many of the different ministries this office oversees. It is such a broad spectrum; AIDS/HIV programs, drug outreach, refugee and college student ministries...so much is going on! 

Todd will begin working at the Link after we complete our weeks of training, so it was exciting for us to visit! In addition to my excitement, though, are the many questions that come with any big move: where will we live (and how will we find it?), how will we furnish it, what kind of car do we need, how will I EVER learn to drive in THIS traffic on THAT side of the road...I could probably think of more, but let’s suffice it so say I have plenty to pray about.

God has been and continues to be faithful. I hope to be able to report in the next few months that Africa is indeed becoming home :)