Arrival in Lopit

Note: This blog was received via air mail (snail mail) just this week so that is the reason for the delay ... Ginger

July 29, 2006 ...
Tonight, I shared a pit latrine with a toad, two chameleons and a myriad of other African critters.

Just now, a mango crashed down loudly on my tent from the tree above our camp.

I can hear pesky murmur of children's voices from somewhere in the village ... or maybe that is simply the mosquitoes. (It is 11 o'clock, I suppose.)

Africa is such a crazy place.

We arrived here in lopit a few days ago, after being inducted into missionary life by a ridicuously bumpy 8-hour drive across the Kenya/Sudan border and all the way into these hills.

It was nuts, seeing all that countryside fly by as we manuevered our way along the dirt -- never paved -- road and around the many potholes and random detours.

We saw so many people -- with varying degrees of clothing -- along the way, most of whom stood waving, seemingly baffled by our terribly white skin. Once, we stopped to lunch under some nice trees. There were men and women there from some tribe who fussed over us terribly. These three women took turns holding Salome -- my German teammember's red-haired one-year-old baby girl -- and eventually tried to persuade Doris to leave her with them. (Doris didn't take them up on the deal.)

It was so surreal, the whole trip here we saw so many goats and camels and baboons and things. The land seemed to go on forever, only occassionally interrupted by a cluster of huts or a water pump. It felt like a dream.

I had to carefully choose my bush to pee behind -- the land is riddled with landmines from the war, but they've cleared the roads and a 5-meter buffer. Still, I never could have imagined myself being careful of landmines while popping a squat in the Sudan. That's crazy.

What's more, once when Kim and I had found the perfect bush, there was some sort of mysterious animal making noises inside it. Curious. I guess I'll never know if said mysterious animal was dangerous or if my life was in danger. HaHa.

I took my first bush showers with confidence and took on the aforementioned pit latrines with ease. I've been about two early morning cock-a-doodle-doos from drop-kicking a rooster who'd taken perch just outside my tent. We're all contemplating ways to shut up that cat in heat. A man sweeps outside my tent each morning. He's sweeping the clay/dirt ground though, which I may never understand.

I played catch just as soon as I could after I got here. It wasn't long before my teammate Craig missed my throw. It went awry and put a dent in my teamleader's landcruiser. I always like to get things off on the right foot.

In the last couple of days, we've moved the game outside the compound, drawing quite a bit of attention from the village people. You won't believe this, but the lopit women have pretty good arms, all things considered. Alright, my pillow calls and I need to get the dik-dik (strange deer-like pet) out of our tent before she wakes up my tentmates ... (such an Africa moment.)

Mong!