Struggles of This Missionary

A few years ago a friend of ours wrote us and commented that we always write about the good things that happen in our ministry and life. She wanted to know if we ever had problems of any kind and wondered why we didn't share those things with people. I have thought about that from time to time over the years and just thought that it was always best to have a positive attitude when sharing about our life overseas. However, in the last couple of months, God has been showing me that I need to be more REAL. You know sometimes I have a bad day too even though I am a missionary. Missionaries are real people just like you (whoever reads this blog, if anyone). So I thought that over the next few days I would share some of the things that I struggle with from time to time.

Struggle 1: We have lived in Chongwe since 2001 and since about 2004 we have struggled with having enough water. We have a bore hole at our house so inside our house our water is plentiful. We use Chongwe towns water for watering our yard which we may get one bucket a day if that much. So during the rainy season our yard looks pretty and green but during the dry season our grass begins to dry up and disappear in sections. At one point, we even paid Chongwe town to run separate pipes to our house and our neighbors so that we could have water. This worked for about one month but then stopped for some reason. However, we still get a bill for 50,000 kwacha each month(which is about $15.00) that we are expected to pay when we only get about 1 small bucket a day of water. Well, the other day I went out when the man from the water company brought us our bill and told him that we were not going to pay this bill until we start getting water. He said they are working on the problem which is what they say most of the time, but my goodness it has been years since we have had good water. As I talked with him I found out that it was not just us and our one neighbor right now without water it was all the homes below us also which is quite a bit. Now, I don't think they have been without water the years that we have because I think I would have heard about it by now. However, I realized after talking to him that I should be thankful that at least we have water from our bore hole so I can drink water when I want to, I can wash clothes, take a shower, etc. I know it probably sounds silly to want your yard to look nice, but I do.