Day 9

Going from the mission house to the hospital for morning chapel, we were relieved to find that the water towers were still standing. The repair seemed to be working.

After chapel, Diane went with Janet to the Sons of Thunder orphanage near Livingstone. The facility provides a home and care for 52 children under the age of five who have been orphaned by HIV/AIDS. Those of us who have been to Zimba the two previous trips have visited the facility which is located on what had been a farm. It has a really nice guest house, a building they use for a school, a building with a couple of large dormitory style bedrooms for the kids, and a developing clinic. The facility has hundreds or thousands of acres of land and there are several small clusters of family-like compounds around the grounds that are supposed to raise crops for themselves and surplus to sell in the market to support the facility. There is a fair amount of teaching necessary to change the agricultural practices to make them efficient, productive, and self-sustaining. Diane stayed there most of the day while Janet ran a couple of errands picking up supplies in Livingstone.

The two young men we hired to dig the trench for the conduit from the well house to the water tower finish the trench in the early morning. While Bud and Glen worked on the plan for running the wire, Mark and Larry bolted the metal support bracket we had made for the window air conditioner in the new O.R. When that was finished, Bud, Mark and Glen began stringing out the five wires so they could be pulled through the conduit. After puttying in a wooden sheet to seal off the opening above the air conditioner and the bottom of the window frame, Larry joined the others to pull the five wires through each successive 13’ piece of conduit. Since the wire wasn’t long enough to span the full length needed, we had to construct a junction box about two-thirds the way from the wellhouse to the tanks. By then we figured out two things: we didn’t have any cement with which to glue the couplings joining the conduit (and the building inspector had stopped by to insist on the gluing), and we needed more wire.

The medical team had four surgeries scheduled but only three showed up. All three went quite smoothly with nothing unusual arising. Consequently, Dr. Kari and anesthetist Barb felt able to chat more casually with the two local members of the surgical team, David and Siabowa.
Because they ran out of material, the construction team concluded the work day around 4. The medical team finished up for the day around 5. The surprise was planned for 6. It gave us all a chance to get cleaned up and ready for the surprise.

July 2 was Glen and Diane’s 25th anniversary. Glen had planned that on that day, he would be responsible for the devotional. Unlike most days, he wanted to conduct the devotional before dinner. He had asked all but Diane to be co-conspirators in his surprise for Diane. As a part of the conclusion of the devotional he had chosen (1 Corinthians 13 – the chapter on love), he wanted to get down on one knee and propose to marry all over again. Inviting the other women to be co-conspirators meant that Glen immediately lost control of the event. The plans grew in intricacy and scope. It was decided that since Barbara is a licensed pastor, the re-marriage ceremony should proceed immediately after the proposal (assuming Diane would say yes). Then, of course, the wedding dinner and reception should follow. Some of this Glen was privy to and some of it came as a surprise to him as well.

Diane returned from Sons of Thunder as planned. The devotional began as planned. As Glen turned, dropped to one knee, and proposed again, Diane gushed her consent – and the party was on.

Diane was whisked away to put on the fancy white silk top the women had borrowed from one of the women on the hospital staff and a veil. She was handed a bouquet of poinsettias cut from the plants in the yard. Then she was escorted by Bud up the makeshift aisle (sidewalk) in the front of the mission house to where Glen was standing, and Barb was positioned to conduct the service. It was a wonderful re-marriage service with culturally appropriate hooting and yipees.

After giving away the re-bride, Bud became the official photographer, Larry the videographer, and Dr. Kari the pianist. Ann had baked a special apple pie for the occasion and Joan and Edy had prepared a special dinner with grilled chicken, potato salad, grilled sausages, other treats and of course the anniversary cake in addition to the pie. The chilly evening air caused us to move the dinner indoors rather than on the picnic table as planned, but the floral arrangements of poinsettias and bougainvilla (sorry, I butchered the spelling on that) cut from bushes in the yard followed the gathering indoors as well.

It was a really nice evening and service of re-commitment. Diane and Glen were both pleased with their surprises – and Glen was greatly relieved that she said yes again.