Celebration Time!

It's happy days around here! Well, at least for me if not for Jim. Jim's still swamped with work and rather overwhelmed. He's meeting with a client this morning -- a Saturday, even!!

I'm celebrating because we had our first meeting with the new team of leaders for the women and there was a lot ... truly, a huge amount ... of progress. We turned a corner away from the negativity and gossip and really began to move toward unity. It's a stretch to lead such a culturally diverse group -- the language barriers are the toughest part. Fortunately, the only other woman who's native language is English is on the team. But (and she's just like me) when I really get on a role, I talk WAY TOO FAST. So, yesterday, because I was excited about getting moving forward and we had so much to do in two hours --- well, I had a gal signal me everytime I was speeding. Unfortunately, anything above a crawl is speeding!!

Imagine trying to explain synergy to women who don't speak much English!! But it worked -- math, a universal language, helped on that one!! When we worked on our cultural norms/core values, a foreign concept to them but one they appreciated very quickly, I was so thrilled! Right away words like trust, mutual support, communication, respect, ... were mentioned. Over-all, I was very pleased!! The only bummer was the varying cultural understandings of "time." Even after saying to each one, personally, that it was very important to arrive at my house at 9 a.m. because we had to end at 11 a.m. -- we had 2 women arrive at 10:30, without apologies!! (And that was even after Lucy called them at 9:30 to tell them that her Madame had a meeting going that they were missing.) "Time" was actually the first word mentioned for our norms but I listed it second so as not to blatantly offend the late arrivers. Time -- definitely something that gets a "needs to improve" on the report card. Oh well, we just keep smiling!!!

Another cause for celebration is ... (insert drum role sounds) ... OUR SHIPMENT ARRIVED!!!!! It had been delayed so many times that I had to take some serious action. So, on Wednesday I called the woman in charge and said, "I have been very patient, yes?" She said, "Yes, Madame." I said, "OK, I am now done being patient. I am now angry. You confirm that the shipment will be arriving and then you don't even let me know when the plan changes. I have changed my schedule for too many days. This is the end." I don't know if that helped but we did get the shipment the next day!!! And when the men from the port called Thursday to say that they were delayed and that it might be too late to leave the port soon I said, "no, it will never be too late. You said it would be delivered today and it must be delivered today. We will be ready for you anytime of the night. Please call when you are leaving the port." They called at 5:15. It should take, even with traffic, one hour. They arrived at 8:15. I didn't ask questions. I just cheered and clapped and shook a lot of hands and said, "THANK YOU!!!!!" And, nothing had been stolen by the customs guys and nothing was broken!! Pretty incredible!!! So, it took 2 1/2 months to get across an ocean and almost 2 months to get across a city. As they say here, "This is Nigeria."

Because I had the women coming the next morning, I wanted to have every thing put away or at least placed in the right room upstairs. Lucy insisted on staying late to help me because she was almost as excited as I was!! Jim and Moses helped down load the boxes and then Jim had to work in the office and Moses had to get to his church sooooooo Lucy and I worked liked crazy women for two hours. By 10:15 we had everything in the main part of the house taken care of and everything else distributed. Lucy was squeeling with delight with everything she pulled out!! We now have shampoo to last three years, candles to supply the entire camp if we had some emergency, books that I fear I may never have time to read, and yarn for about 20 projects!!! And, of course, I have some of my lovely tea pots and cups and saucers. It's strange how secure I now feel with my "stuff" surrounding me!!!!! Nothing necessary, but lots of things that bring joy!

The Bible Class will be here in a few hours. I will end it at 3 p.m., even if they don't get here until then!!! It'll be an adventure, for sure!

The Mango Tree Fellowship was terrific, as always. I was the only woman in a group of about 20-25 guys. Somehow, that's got to change. I was asked to teach next week. Lucy said she'd be there. Please pray as I need to speak in a way that they will understand!!!!

OK, I'm off to polish my silver -- yes, I did ship just a little bit of lovely antique silverware. Celebration time!!