Ziplocks, Laughter, and Locking the Door

by Heather

Well, I learned three lessons this week.  Lessons about Ziplocks, laughter, and locking the door. 

On Sunday, six McCropders visited a church in a nearby village.  We arrived and were shown to our seats.  Guests like us sit on the stage in the front, facing the audience.  The service included baptisms, introducing the new district leader, and presenting gifts like chickens and bananas.  It was a lovely service until... right after the part where we greeted the church (that is, entertained the church with our rudimentary Kirundi)... Abigail, who had been unusually quiet for a five-year-old, murmured something about a stomach ache.  I whipped out a Ziplock bag, not a moment too soon.  The Ziplock caught MOST of the disaster, and I found some more on Jason’s sport coat when he stood up later in the service.  Our seats up there on the stage made it tough to be discreet.  Lesson one:  always travel with a Ziplock bag.

The service was several hours from completion, so I took the kids outside for a little fresh air.  Next door in a classroom building, some chickens were awaiting distribution in the church service.  Anna gave each chicken a name, set them up on the school benches, and began to teach them French.  This seemed pretty normal to me, or at least normal for Anna.  The others in the room, however, found the whole scene entertaining.  Laughter lifted the stress of the vomit fiasco, and lesson two became clear:  laughter helps to put mishaps into perspective.

When the chickens entered the church service, we accompanied them and stayed for the duration of the service, which ended at about 2:30pm.  We stayed for lunch and arrived home by about 4:30.  Upon entering the apartment, we discovered a mishap which challenged me to put lesson two into practice.

Somehow, evidently, unfortunately, Abi’s chicken, Ebony, was inadvertently locked in the house.  Ebony ate everything edible, and she made a VERY VERY BIG MESS.  Worst of all, she discovered one of Anna’s pet chameleons… and killed it.  : (   She also laid an egg on Abi’s bed.  We were hoping that Ebony was so miserable while trapped in the house for an entire day that she would never want to come in the house again, but alas, she seems to have decided that Abi’s bed is the only place she wants to lay her daily eggs.  Lesson three:  always make sure all your pet chickens are outside before locking the door.

We certainly will continue to learn many lessons in the year ahead, but I'm glad to have these three down now.