In the evenings we will usually play a game, watch a tv show recorded on our laptop or just hang out with others in the compound. I had anticipated watching a lot of movies in the evenings, but we don’t. We watch a movie once a week, on pizza and movie nights. We make pizza on Friday night and watch something we bought at the movie shop in Harare for a dollar. It’s a family tradition that we brought with us, one that has been important to the girls. On Saturday nights we have our neighbours over and play canasta and chat for a few hours. On Tuesday evenings we have dinner and a Bible study at the junior Frys’ house and a potluck and worship and prayer time there on Sunday nights. Lia and Naomi have teen Bible study on Monday and Thursday nights. It’s funny how busy we can be out in rural Africa.
We go to bed around 9 because of our early start in the morning. It took quite a while for me to be able to fall asleep when we first arrived in Africa. Every noise caught my attention and I wondered what it was. We could hear people on the path and I’d wonder if they were in our compound. Being married and a father of two girls I would lay awake at night trying not to think about all the terrible violence I’ve read about in Africa. I would often get out of bed and go downstairs to make sure nobody was there. We don’t have burglar bars on our windows and the locks don’t really work, so our house is less than secure. We heard about some break-ins at a local village so we asked about getting a security guard for our compound at night and from then on we’ve had one. A barbed wire fence and gates have also been installed, so this has helped me have more peace at night.
Some barn owls took up residence under our veranda roof and would take off with a blood-curdling screech and wake us up with our hearts pounding. They would land on a vent opening above our bedroom and screech, so I eventually climbed up there and put chicken wire up so they couldn’t do that anymore. They still land on the roof and pull at the thatch, digging around for rats, but at least they don’t screech right above our heads anymore.
I would take the owls over the rats, any day. Hard not to get cozy with your friends at that table. I”m sure the locals are missing you very much.
It’s a tough call. Your heart is in your throat when the owl’s screech wakes you up. We’ve learned that personal space is a very different thing in Africa. We get to message with our Shona friends occasionally and they are anxious to have us back and we can’t wait!