Mercy Watson

Sometimes, something happens that just brightens your day, no matter how dull or bright it already was. For us, this past week, it was a very generous care package from our dear friends in Los Alamos. Inside we found a letter, very nice yarn for knitting (we both knit), knitting patterns, and books for the children.

Not just any books, but Mercy Watson books. Mercy Watson is a pig who lives with Mr. Watson and Mrs. Watson at 54 Deckawoo Drive. Her favorite food is toast with a great deal of butter on it. In every book she manages to get into misadventures involving the neighbors, the police, the fire department, animal control, and of course, toast. More often than not, there is a chase. Mercy *loves* a chase!

And our children love Mercy! The same family that sent the package introduced us to Mercy through books on tape to take on cross-country drives. One listen, and we were hooked. The adults I mean. Mercy is great!

 Anyway, this is a mission blog, not a book review blog. Suffice it to say, everyone, including our house help, has been busy reading Mercy books, and Logan and I have been busy knitting, while Helena and James are learning to knit and crochet. 

On Saturday I cast on for a new project (what will eventually, hopefully, be a beautiful shawl) and knit a few rows, then glanced outside to see the fencing material we had recently purchased. We have a small garden, and the neighborhood has goats. The goats eat our plants, and we need to keep them out. Beyond the fencing material, I saw a goat in our garden snacking on our beans, and decided that the nice new yarn could wait, but the fence couldn't. 

I spent the better part of the day digging holes and putting in fence posts. The Sun was sinking in the West, I was tired and sweaty and very, very dirty. I only had a few more posts to sink into the ground, when I looked up and saw...

A pig! Now, it's not unusual to see loose goats, or chickens, and there was even a herd of cows that trotted by my classroom window once... but I had never seen a pig out of her pen before. Beyond the pig was a small army of young men trying to stalk and catch her. When they got too close, off she went!

It was a chase! Mercy *loved* a chase!

I joined in, and we chased the pig through the woods, crashing through the underbrush and fallen branches. Soon enough one of the young men got close and flopped right on top of her, pinning her to the ground. The pig's owner told me this was the 4th time this week the pig escaped!

After the retelling and explanation as to why I was covered in burrs when I was only building a fence in our front yard, Logan declared the appearance of Mercy Watson in our yard in Cameroon to be the highlight of her day. I'm not sure if the pig that wandered into our yard enjoyed hot toast with a great deal of butter on it, but she seems like a pig after Mercy's own heart. 

I wish I could say that after building the fence and chasing the pig we all went inside and Mrs. Watson served up piles upon piles of hot buttered toast, but reality turned out better. I watched my tan wash off in the shower, ate a delicious meal prepared by Mrs. Horne, and turned in early, dreaming of toast and butter and knitting. And Mercy.

-Eric