19 Aug 06
One of my biggest blessings here is my team. Wow, these people are great. I’m sure part of my thinking they’re so wonderful is due to the proverbial “honeymoon period,” but I’m prepared to cast caution to the wind and say they’re stinkin’ wonderful. We haven’t been without our disagreements and we’ve had to give each other quite a bit of grace because of culture shock, but I’m encouraged by how we’ve pulled together and served one another, especially in prayer. Goodness, does this team pray.
And the general consensus around the Husa house is that our team leader Stephan and his wife Iris are as good as it gets. They’re a great pair. Iris loves us women and I can’t wait to get to know her more. (It’s been a little hard because she’s got four little ones at home, and between them and her, they’ve been in a rotation of sickness.) And Stephan blows me away. His vision for this place and his love for the Lord spur me on. And his character cracks me up. He used to be in the South African army and he’s so hardcore. Yet he’s really compassionate, constantly doting on us women especially.
We laugh about him being a father/big brother to us. The whole falling down the mountain thing gave us plenty evidence of that. The next morning, the village talk was littered with “Oliri” (Stephan’s Lopit name, the mountain near Amirikan) and “Ibedja” (“ee-bed-JA, my Lopit name, runner). I guess he went up and scolded Tito, whose wife I was with, for not taking good care of me and sending me for water just before dark and a huge storm. It got to everyone in the village, because they kept repeating it—wagging their fingers in the air and saying, “Oliri says, ‘You people know better!’ “ Haha. The village put my roommates on house arrest while I was gone, not letting them do anything because “Oliri says, ‘You people should know better!’ “ Oh man I just died when I heard that. What Oliri says is gold. Don’t mess with the crazy Swiss guy.
It got better yesterday. First, some background. During our homestay, there was always this weird guy hanging around the compound I was on. He was actually the one who sent us for water that day and he would just say weird things and even yelled at me one day for not knowing Swahili. But one day he did something exceptionally weird. We were leaving the compound to go to the river and he said, “Ibedja, you must climb the fence.” He said something about when you leave your mother-in-law’s compound and they are still working, you have to climb the fence. I wasn’t buying this, but I had shorts on under my skirt, so I went for it anyway to appease him. At tea after church the next day, I was telling Stephan and the team about this and asking the Lopit guys there what the significance was or if the guy was just being a punk. Stephan got a little ticked and was like, “This guy just wanted to look up your skirt.” That’s what I was thinking, too. Haha.
So he’s been asking to meet this guy and to talk to him for a while. And finally yesterday he had the chance because Mr. Weird come down with us to Amirika. So Steve takes off from his compound on a total mission and finds this guy and just starts drilling him with questions. Pattie and I were with him and our jaws seriously dropped. So he’s asking why he made me climb the fence, why he followed us here, why he made me go get water. And the guys just denying it. The best part was Weird Guy had this notebook thing he was sort of reading through while they talked and eventually Steve grabbed it out of his hand and was like, “You just wanted to look up her skirt, yes?” I almost died. Haha. It went on like that a little and the guy finally admitted it was a “mistake” but never explained why he did it. Steve even got him to apologize. (This is a big deal because Weird is from the rainmaker’s clan, which makes him a lot like royalty.) And then in a last bit of greatness, said “This woman, she has brothers. And you know how brothers are.” Apparently, this idea translates across many cultures. Hehehe.
Anyway, Steve’s hardcore. I can’t wait to learn from him—he’s passionate about theology and glorifying the Lord by learning more about him. So praise God for a great team and a great team leader—both definitely answers to prayer.
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