No Time for Blogging!

As I described in a previous blog, we have been “Overwhelmed.” Darlene’s load the past three weeks was equivalent to what full-time Nursing faculty in the US would teach in an entire academic year! It was important that I do everything I could to take care of her, off-load her, and assist her…which added to my load! But we made it, in good shape…thanks to your prayers and God’s enabling.

Personally, I have done a lot of writing this past month. I am teaching an online course for Northeastern Seminary, in which I am thoroughly engaged and enjoying immensely. It has involved the composition of numerous (and rather lengthy) “posts,” on the order of mini-lectures. I have also been carrying on a vast email correspondence with prospective visiting faculty for Hope Africa University.

By the end of most days, writing a blog was the last thing I wanted to do! (We offer a sincere apology to all our cyber fans!) I will try to do better over the next three weeks.

It’s a Small World After All!

While Darlene and I are here teaching at Hope Africa University, I am simultaneously teaching an on-line course (my first) for Northeastern Seminary in Rochester, NY.

The internet has brought the world closer together. I have been monitoring how long it takes email messages to travel half-way around the globe: some have arrived within a single minute! Though we sometimes refer to email communication as asynchronous, it is possible for me to have an email exchange synchronously, in real time with very little “lag time.” I find this amazing!

Since we were last here on campus in Janaury-February, 2010, Hope Africa University has installed a computer network with connection to the internet. It is still a modest system. Students have to sign up for access on designated computers in the library: they are allotted 30 minutes. This past week, the system was upgraded and a second server was installed to segregate the secured system from student access.

From our apartment I can see the router in the library, so I get a good Wi-Fi signal. My access to the internet is as good as I have at home. What a blessing: I am able to carry on my work “per usual” (well, I guess that’s a blessing!).

Earlier this week I said to one of my on-line students at Northeastern Seminary: “The world is a much closer place than when I went off to seminary in 1964!” Indeed, it is.

An African Hymn

I (Wayne) just returned from a Sunday worship service. One of the hymns we sang is titled, “Dieu va faire encore.” This is a hymn well-beloved and often sung in Burundi.


In French, this African hymn reads:

1 Dieu va faire encore, Dieu va faire encore:

2 Allelulia, il guerit les maladies, il ressuscite les morts;

3 Il est vivant pour tourjours, il ne change pas;

4 Dieu faire les miracles, les miracles,

5 Dieu va faire encore.

6 Dieu va nous garder, Dieu va nous garder;

7 Dieu va nous benit, Dieu va nous benit;

7 Dieu va nous sauver, Dieu va nous sauver.


Translated per the numbered lines, the hymn reads:

1 God is going to act again! God is going to act again!

2 Hallelujah! He heals the sick; He raises the dead.

3 He lives forever; he does not change:

God is going to do miracles…miracles!

God is going to act again!

God is going to protect us; God is going to protect us.

God is going to bless us; God is going to bless us.

God is going to save us; God is going to save us.

God is going to act again!

OVERWHELMED!

We are about “maxxed out.” It has been a very busy and frustrating week…simply getting our classes underway.

Every year—this is our fourth—we have experienced considerable strain in the transition from American culture and “our way of doing things,” and the realities we face in Africa. Here it takes 3-4 days (in a 3-week course!) to get underway: that is frustrating for all visiting faculty.

Personally, we have been faced with other challenges as well. Last year, I had left behind 15 copies of a 50 pages of course handouts; this year, those materials cannot be found. Fortunately, I had brought a “master set,” so I was able to get the materials reduplicated (at my expense!). Darlene had a more substantive (70+ pages) set of text materials for her undergraduate course. Anticipating as many as 40 students, she had these copies made in the US. Too much to carry in our suitcases, we took a big box to Indiana last summer to be shipped over in a container. Those materials cannot be located either, and the class is not 40 students but 50+!

All of the visiting faculty (there are 7 of us here at the moment) are carrying heavy teaching loads. But Darlene’s is the heaviest. Additional to lecturing to her large class 3+ hours per day, she has to supervise 3 clinical practice groups for the students. Beginning on Monday, she also will be teaching the first graduate-level Nursing course to a group of 5-6 of the recent B.S. grads. Over the weekend, Darlene has to figure out how she is going to schedule and manage all of this!

I have tried to help her in every way I can. The past two mornings, I have arranged and set up her classroom. Yesterday, I helped with the clinical skills labs: my assignment was to teach the students how to measure and record height and weight! This morning, I helped her check out the oto/opthalama (ear/eye) scopes and charge the batteries.

We are overwhelmed, but your prayers sustain us.

It's a Blessing!

On Sunday afternoon, we had a visit from a young African couple (originally from Rwanda) with whom we had become acquainted during our previous tours to Hope Africa University. Joseph, who graduated two years ago, serves as the Assistant Registrar. His wife Violet has been one of Darlene’s students in the Nursing program, and was recently graduated (on December 17, 2010).


They brought with them their first and only child (to date), a daughter. She is now two years old. Her name is Blessing. She is a beautiful little girl, absolutely perfect in every way.

We enjoyed Blessing immensely. Although shy, she was not intimidated by our white faces. However, she did choose to sit beside her father rather than on the empty chair beside me. Darlene was surprised that Blessing allowed her to take her to the bathroom.

Blessing’s parents had brought us, as a house gift, a box of apple juice. As we shared it together, we were fascinated to watch Blessing take her Dad’s empty glass and pour the half contents of her drink back and forth between the two glasses…carefully, not spilling a drop. Although she is now learning to speak Kirundi, at the end of the visit we succeeded in getting Blessing to say, “Bye bye.”

It was a blessing to have Blessing and her parents in our “home.” We were reminded: Children are a blessing from God! Jesus welcomed the little children and blessed them.

Darlene and I are blessed to have six grandchildren (currently, ages 8-13). From halfway across the globe, we bless them today.

So it goes...

Our travel from ROC to BJM went smoothly. The flights were on-time, all our goods arrived intact, we encountered no problems or challenges; we arrived fairly rested (although we are still acclimating to the 7-hour time change).




We are now “settling in.” The McCowns have been assigned one of the two primary guest apartments. It has a small living/seating room (with thee chairs) and a small (dining) table. The main bedroom has a double bed (which is quite comfortable) and a wardrobe for our clothes. A second bedroom (which has a single bed) is furnished with one small desk table, which Darlene will use. I am currently using the dining table for my desk. So it goes here…



We have already cared for a number of needed repairs. The refrigerator was not working, because the door did not close properly. Wayne diagnosed the problem, and was able to correct it with a couple inches of Scotch tape! There was no shower curtain, and the rack from which it was to hang was broken. Darlene found a curtain, and Wayne repaired the rack using a piece of the wrapping tape we had brought for his injured hand! We mounted the broken mirror alongside the bathroom sink using the double-backed foam tape we had brought. Wayne found some screws and mounted a rack on the back of the bathroom door on which to hang our towels. So it goes here…



We are now trying to find things we had shipped over in the containers, and others course materials we had left behind last year. Some we have located; some have not yet been found. So it goes here…



Many of our students from previous years, having heard that we are back on campus, have been stopping by to greet us. So it goes here…



Two other visiting faculty also arrived this week: Dr. Barb Rose (Roberts Wesleyan College, retired) and Dr. Beth Habeker (University of Oregon Medical School). Yesterday afternoon, Randy and Alice Matthewson arrived from the Congo, and will be staying over the weekend. Tonight, we all plan to “go out” to dinner together. (It has become a tradition for the visiting faculty to go out and share a common meal on Friday evenings.) So it goes here…



We hope to meet our classes and begin on Monday. It is more probable that we will get underway on Tuesday. So it goes here…

On the Eve of Departure

It is the eve before our departure. As Darlene has reported to several friends, “Our bags are packed, but not yet zipped.”

We have been involved this past week caring for a myriad of preparatory details. We got all our bills paid (in advance) including our federal, state and property taxes. We downgraded the insurance on our autos, and suspended (put on vacation) our cell phone and internet connections. Etc., etc.

We now consider it a divine providence that we were delayed and remained at home this past month, for two BIG reasons.

(1) Our 21-year old furnace went “caput” the week before Christmas! (This could have proved very problematic, if it had occurred while we gone for an extended time.) And the timing was perfect: We fell within a three-month window for getting a NY state rebate through our gas and electric provider for installing a “high efficiency” furnace and programmable thermostat; moreover, we can claim 30% of the cost as a federal tax deduction on our 2011 return. These are both part of current “stimulus” programs, and our participation in stimulating the economy makes us feel really good!

(2) On December 15, our older son Mark and his wife Dorcas brought an 8-year girl named Isabelle into their home as the first step towards adoption. We got to be part of that process, and share in their joy through frequent phone and email exchanges. We also got to be part of their support network, when Isabelle’s birth mother unexpectantly died the following week, on Christmas eve.

The injured hand is healing nicely. (Some folk think it looks “awful”; others say it looks “really good”!) While we still must remain vigilant in caring for it, the risk of infection has decreased dramatically in the past month.

In God’s timing, we leave tomorrow.