African Flare

If I had to describe today in a word, it would be “African.”  Weird, strange things happen in South Asia, but somehow the things that happen here have a definite African flare.  For example, today…

1.  We needed to go to two villages and do health/nutrition teaching and VBS.  We knew from the get-go that we were going to be crunched for time and needed to make the most of every moment.  So, we got up early to go, piled in the van, and headed out.  Of course, there were a few errands that needed run, so we bounced our way through the city dirt streets from one place to another.  It is the beginning of the rainy season here, so some of the roads had crater sized puddles in them that prohibited our van from crossing the road.  At one point, we turned down three different streets and had to turn around because we could not get through.
   
2.  Lunch today was “all shook up.”  Literally.  Because of our morning errands, we were late getting to the first village to teach and didn’t finish there until 2:00.  We were all hungry and ready to eat, but we needed to get to the next village.  Undaunted, the member of our team in charge of the food, said we are going to eat in the car.  Now, had we been in America or even most of the roads in South Asia, this wouldn’t have been such an undertaking.  However, we were on a washed-out road full of ruts.  We could only go about 10 mph and we rocked and swayed, lurched and lunged, and jolted and jerked.  I held the plates, mom tore the bread, and some other ladies scooped the chicken and threw the chips on the plate.  Somehow we managed to not upend anything as we were flung like rag-dolls around the van.  We even managed to get most of the food in our hungry mouths.
   
3. We arrived at the second village and knew we had just enough time to do our program once more…barely…before the sunset.  We had a great group of women, had been welcomed from the African chief, and were whizzing our way through the health teaching.  Then, the women began to whisper.  The wind began to blow.  The clouds began to turn dark.  The translator began to speak faster.  Everyone started getting agitated.  It was going to rain.  Mom turned to me and asked, “Should I stop now or talk about diarrhea?”  I said to talk about diarrhea…maybe the rain would hold off.  Since we didn’t know how long we had before the drops began to fall, so mom kept talking while I gathered our things.  Mom wrapped it up and then asked if we could say a closing pr@yer.  At the words “Amen,” the torrent fell.  Did I mention that we were gathered under trees?  Yep, we got wet as we ran across the village to hide under the shelter of our van.

Our leader of the team, affectionately called by our national partners, “The Boss”, send out this synopsis of the day and some requests. 

“Today we had a very long day and we all are exhausted. We started the day off in Vongba with the same program as yesterday. The villagers seemed to be engaged in the health class by asking good questions, the kids had a great time learning and playing, and Jason and I are wearing out shoes walking to corn fields. They do not put their corn fields where they live so that the goats and chickens will not eat their crops. Therefore we end up walking very long distances to get to the fields. I say get a fence, but what do I know!

The highlight of the day was seeing the new well! They just completed the concrete around the top last week and the pump has been delivered but not installed yet. They were hoping to get it done by the time we arrived but the installing crew was in another village. I cannot wait to show everyone the video we took of them thanking us for the well. They are very appreciative and thanked us several times. We prayed over the well that it would last for many generations and that the story of why the well was built would remain for generations as well. It was built out of a love for the people of the village and out of love for the One who died to save them. We will trust that Gsd will use that in His master plan.

Tomorrow we head about 1.5 hours to the North to a campground for children. We will be putting on a children's camp for about 200+ kids (emphasis on the +). We have no idea how many will show up but we are ready for whatever comes our way. We may stay the night there to save us three hours of driving each day. If we do, we will have no communication access until Sunday night.

Pr@y for the camp. Ask that the kids coming will be open the Good News message. Request for stamina for the team. Although it has not been terrible, it is warm and that wears you down quickly. The campground has no a/c so we are not sure how we will fare tomorrow night. We look forward to sharing with you all the stories of the camp. This should be fun!”

I’ll update after camp.  Thanks for lifting us up!