Yesterday, we didn’t have specific plans, but we ended up having a busy day. In Africa, visiting people is a way of life. It’s usually not planned ahead of time. If someone is sick, people like to come over to visit them. That is how they show they care. (For me that can be especially challenging. When I am sick, I just want to be left alone!) Other times, when someone drops by to say hi, it’s considered an honor, again, showing they care. It’s quite different than the US where our lives are so scheduled. I told George it takes adjusting to for me because generally, I am used to people calling ahead to plan visits. Just dropping by someone’s house without permission, makes me uncomfortable. What if they are busy? I don’t want to inconvenience anyone. But that’s not how they think here. People are valued so much as opposed to schedules and getting things done. Whenever someone comes over, you drop what you are doing and welcome them with gracious hospitality. You put out tea and whatever snacks you can rummage up.
Yesterday, we walked to the market to get some supplies and got a call from Lulu. She invited us over for lunch. So, I set aside my list and thoughts of what I was going to do when I got home, and we went for lunch. She made pilau – a rice dish, that was really good. We stayed for a bit and then headed back to the market. After arriving home, Herbert and Emily came over to visit. They had come from a funeral and were very hungry. So, we served tea, bread, cookies, bananas and popcorn. They left after a couple hours. As I finished cleaning up, George said…. We have more visitors! Lulu came over with her kids who wanted to visit us. So, out came the tea and remainder of the snacks. (I learned a tip – visit early in the day before the good snacks are gone!) We had a nice time with them.
They may be staying at our house with Nala while we are gone. To get the kids used to her, we brought her out to play with them. It’s weird for the kids because they aren’t used to dogs being pets. They did pretty well until Nala got excited and jumped up on Alan. He wasn’t hurt, just scared. He recovered fairly quickly.
By the time our last visitors were gone, it was 8:15 and I was beat! It was a nice day and once again God reminded me (for the millionth time!) to be flexible. People are what is important in life and I would miss out on many blessings by sticking to my schedule!
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