To Be Expected

Dustin did not meet with the Social Welfare Officer (SWO) today. Here is what transpired. The birth mother was supposed to have dinner with everyone on Monday night (the third night in a row). They were to talk about going to Blantyre and sort out any kinks in how they were going to chat with the officials there. The birth mother never showed up for dinner. As such, she didn't know what time to arrive the next morning for going to Blantyre.

I talked to a somewhat frustrated Dustin last night, who decided to wait until 8 am at the latest to leave for the city. This morning I talked to him. The birth mother had not shown up, so the others left without her. The crew arrived in the city at 10 am. They immediately went to the SW office. Our man was not there. Dustin tried calling him. He was in a meeting. He said, "Call back in 30 minutes." He did. Then the SWO said, "Call back in 30 minutes." And he did again, and again, and again. Each time the SWO seemed very annoyed that Dustin was once again calling, and yet again said, "Call back in 30 minutes." The grouchy SWO told Dustin to just brief another SWO (lower on the totem pole) who could, in turn, inform him of our situation. Dustin went to the office and everyone was gone- either at a funeral or attending to the Malawi/South Africa fiasco.

The plan now, is to meet the SWO at 8 am (sharp, he said) tomorrow. The birth mother finally came by the house in Balaka and will be traveling to join our motley crew for this meeting. Dustin's sounding pretty negative about it. His words: "The Social Welfare Officer is treating me like shit." This is what we expected from our past interactions from him. But, still, we didn't want to project that past negativity onto the present situation. I'm having an easier time with that than Dustin. The 10,000 mile distance is good for something (if only one thing).

One reason he could be treating us like shit is... he has our story confused with someone elses. On their last phone call together, the SWO told Dustin, "I talked to your wife 10 minutes ago and she said you could meet me on Thursday." All whites look and sound alike. I did not call him at all. There could be another family in a similar situation that is causing the grumpiness (or contributing to it, I should say).

SO... Pray hard that his little heart of ice melts. That he can hear our story. That he has the best interest of Moses in mind. That the birth mother arrives in time. That the lawyer will actually answer his phone. That Dustin simmers down. And that Moses sits still for the meeting (a great feat, apparently).

When I was chatting with Dustin, he was walking up and down the aisles of Game (a huge South African box store in the city) to find a new hotplate. He was trying to feed Moses and talk to me at the same time. We had to end our conversation a bit short (and unhappily). I'll let you know more when I do. In the meantime, pray hard.