Kingdom Hall

Mom thinks this title is in bad taste, just so you know.
I started this post and didn't finish it so it is a bit out of order.

At Sakeji the most we ever had in our class was 8. As it happened there were 4 boys and 4 girls. After about the 7th grade we were only 4, 2 boys and 2 girls. Elizabeth I have no idea what happened to. Desiree was, last I know, in Kampala but I was unable to reach her. She seems to not be on facebook much and may be out of the city or on furlough. I you read this Desiree...hi. Robert Kingdom is living in Zambia and farming (his father came to Zambia as a volunteer and stayed on farming). Coming from Tanzania I was not sure whether I would be welcome. Andrew, who farms near him and was in Jason's grade, is on facebook (Rob would rather 5 real friends than 200 facebook friends and I'm afraid he may have a point) had said he would check but had not gotten back to me.

I stayed at the Mkushi city council guest house when I got into town since it was midnight. I had been to see both Andrew and Rob on my '05 visit. They both live some ways out of town. During colonial times foreign farmers were limited by law in where they could farm-the Mkushi area was one area. I knew that Andrew was involved in a church that reached out to white farmers. The challenge Sunday was finding that church. I asked at an Anglican church and they thought that the church was at Chengelo School which is on Andrew's dad's farm. The farm is 20km back north and 7km off the main road. I got a bus from town to the main road. I had been waiting for sometime with no one going that way when a pickup pulled into the gas station, with a young white lady in the back. Hey, if they gave her a ride there is hope for me. Turns out she was peace corp and meeting someone there. They were with the power company and going right by the school. Hop in. Thank you Lord. It was the wrong church but Andrew's parents were there. We had actually stayed at their house in '87 but they know our whole family in any case. One phone call later I had a warm welcome to stay with Robert. Thank you Lord.

Last time I visited the Kingdoms were building their house and Amy was pregnant. The house is a pay as you go affair and Sean will be 6 in December. The house was built without the benefit of an architect. Amy would be the first to admit that the kitchen is too big and the living space is too. The house was built basically as two houses connected in the kitchen area. Each wing is the same with 3 bedrooms and a bathroom. There are still things to be done to the house but apart form there being perhaps too much space it's comfortable. The roof is metal and especially at night quite noisy as seed pods from trees pop open and fall onto it. The Saturday they went out and left me at home alone is when I really noticed it most.

Besides Sean they also have twin boys Hugh and James who are 4. The boys were not as interested in books as my small relatives-something I attribute to Asha leading the interest in. The Kingdom boys', after a day of shyness, main interest seemed to be piling on me and using me as a trampoline. A favorite trick was to go sliding over the arm of a chair whilst kicking me about the ears and insisting that I pull them back up. I'm not complaining-just saying. My favorite trick on the other hand was, if I was carrying them, to toss them headlong over my shoulder and down my back. I never could seem to get them past my neck.

Robert grows wheat in the dry season and soy during the wet season. The wheat is grown under center pivot sprinklers that came from Nebraska. Most of the day is filled up with worry and not much else for most of the growing season. Mkushi has the coldest weather of anywhere I have been on this trip (I slept under 4 blankets). Some mornings there was frost on the ground when we went out. Rob has a very specific dollar amount for what it might cost if the frost is too hard when the wheat is pollinating. He also knows how much birds in the wheat cost him as well as how much is damaged by the tractor spraying various things on the crop. If a field is doing well and the price is up there comes a price point where it makes sense to get a crop duster rather than doing it with the tractor. So far they have made a good living farming but it does not keep Rob from various worries. It also allows Rob to be a stay at home dad while Amy works as a vet.

One morning there was a crop duster at sunrise. Anyone who know me at all knows that I have a slightly more than passing interest in flying. Rob is out ahead of me on this count. He has 5 hours of flight instruction and was spending the days studying for the written test. Needless to say we got on like a house on fire. At first I thought the crop duster was one of his flying friends taunting him but he roused me from bed (remember it was cold) and we watched till he was done with the field. So the moral of this story is if you want to be a great host when I visit-arrange for a crop duster.