I used to get on the fellas on the sports desk for writing too long. I know my demanding a 12” (and no longer!) column from them was a sure way to earn their distain; and my standing firm in it, enough to drive them crazy.
I look at how I go on and on on this thing, and I wonder how much it would delight them to smack me with a deadline and a length limit.
I guess I’ve at times abandoned the editor’s heart for brevity and abused my license for length. Forgive me!
As for my subject matter, it may bore you. After reading lots of missionary biographies and stressing about how my life here in Lopit will never compare, I’ve come to a sort of peace about it.
Those books looked back on a lifetime, selecting only the days and moments that “mattered.” But my blog is a bit of the opposite—you’ve got to suffering through all the days and minutes with me. So I guess that’s boring, but I’m hoping God eventually writes a pretty good book with it all.
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Lopit Computers…
Kim’s been spending hours working on this audio dictionary for Lopit words, so today I rewarded her by changing her computer sounds to Lopit sounds.
When her computer starts, it says “Mong, Mong, Mong, Mong, Mong.” When it turns of, it says, “Ino nalanyar” (go well).
I’m so glad I have an easily amused housemate.
When her computer starts, it says “Mong, Mong, Mong, Mong, Mong.” When it turns of, it says, “Ino nalanyar” (go well).
I’m so glad I have an easily amused housemate.
New birth…
Sometimes, death brings life.
Heinrich and Doris flew back to LH with James on Saturday. About 100 people met them at the airstrip and carried the boy back to their village, where they buried him on his family’s compound.
Later, James came to Heinrich and told him someone had shared the Gospel with him at Kijabe (AIM’s missionary hospital in Kenya) and that he “belonged to Christ now.” They gave him an NIV Bible with pictures and some study stuff, and James is anxious for Heinrich to help him with the words he doesn’t know.
James is a CHRISTIAN. Can you believe it? Can you even imagine how excited we are? Especially Heinrich and Doris? Wow.
He’s a village CHIEF, for crying out loud!
And it gets better.
Heinrich said something about the boy in church on Sunday, and Grace—Joshua & Co’s eldest daughter—was really affected by it. She went home and talked to her dad that night. She broke down into tears, and she, too, gave her life to Christ. Little Gracie!
I really was blown away today when all this came out. I’m so happy for Heinrich and Doris, that even though they weren’t able to save the boy, the village isn’t blaming them for his death and James has turned to the Lord. A whole bunch of doctors from different hospitals in Nairobi were involved in the case, and now they’re building a relationship there—a great thing for the medical work in Kenya, I’m sure, and also great because the Kijabe doctors can share about why they do the work they do.
Then to have such a blessing fall so close to home—to see one of our own MK’s make a decision for the Lord.
I guess I just don’t have words.
But now you know, and you can praise with me. :)
Heinrich and Doris flew back to LH with James on Saturday. About 100 people met them at the airstrip and carried the boy back to their village, where they buried him on his family’s compound.
Later, James came to Heinrich and told him someone had shared the Gospel with him at Kijabe (AIM’s missionary hospital in Kenya) and that he “belonged to Christ now.” They gave him an NIV Bible with pictures and some study stuff, and James is anxious for Heinrich to help him with the words he doesn’t know.
James is a CHRISTIAN. Can you believe it? Can you even imagine how excited we are? Especially Heinrich and Doris? Wow.
He’s a village CHIEF, for crying out loud!
And it gets better.
Heinrich said something about the boy in church on Sunday, and Grace—Joshua & Co’s eldest daughter—was really affected by it. She went home and talked to her dad that night. She broke down into tears, and she, too, gave her life to Christ. Little Gracie!
I really was blown away today when all this came out. I’m so happy for Heinrich and Doris, that even though they weren’t able to save the boy, the village isn’t blaming them for his death and James has turned to the Lord. A whole bunch of doctors from different hospitals in Nairobi were involved in the case, and now they’re building a relationship there—a great thing for the medical work in Kenya, I’m sure, and also great because the Kijabe doctors can share about why they do the work they do.
Then to have such a blessing fall so close to home—to see one of our own MK’s make a decision for the Lord.
I guess I just don’t have words.
But now you know, and you can praise with me. :)
Also, some prayer…
Our team is taking a bit of a beating right now.
Daniel is still in Nairobi.
There’s a plane on standby in Loki to fly Iris out the instant she says go, because she’s been really sick.
Poor Steve is in Nairobi—away from his wife—at a field conference and some other potentially hard meetings, and now I’m sure he’s worried about Iris.
Jen’s looking to fly out as well, to talk to a specialist about some nagging allergies.
So just keep us in your prayers. We’ve had blessings upon blessings heaped on our heads, and we know the road won’t always be easy—but it never hurts to pray that we find encouragement and strength in what could prove to be a really tough time for everyone.
Thanks!
Daniel is still in Nairobi.
There’s a plane on standby in Loki to fly Iris out the instant she says go, because she’s been really sick.
Poor Steve is in Nairobi—away from his wife—at a field conference and some other potentially hard meetings, and now I’m sure he’s worried about Iris.
Jen’s looking to fly out as well, to talk to a specialist about some nagging allergies.
So just keep us in your prayers. We’ve had blessings upon blessings heaped on our heads, and we know the road won’t always be easy—but it never hurts to pray that we find encouragement and strength in what could prove to be a really tough time for everyone.
Thanks!
Sunday, October 07, 2007
Naming Ceremony…
Kimmie’s language helper’s wife had a baby the other day. Mark’s been waiting on this one for a while. He’s got two wives and eight girls, and all he wants is a boy. Imagine how bad we felt for him when it was another girl. Heinrich and Kim have both tried to explain to him it’s his “fault,” not his wives’, but he doesn’t buy all that.
He’s really suffering right now—for this and other things—so please lift him up in your prayers. He’s not a Christian.
Anyway, some pictures from the naming ceremony… 
He’s really suffering right now—for this and other things—so please lift him up in your prayers. He’s not a Christian.
Anyway, some pictures from the naming ceremony…
Peanut, Peanut butter…
We like this time of the peanut season, because it’s when they all sit around in the fields and pick the peanut shells off the plants. We like it because, a) we just sit in a circle talking, which is great for language learning and b) we can actually do this part without looking like fools. Even our friends would agree. They’re hardly as apprehensive about us going to the fields with them as they were during weeding time (when we’d occasionally pull up some plants instead of weeds).
Walking to the fields is an adventure. It’s basically just pure sorghum for miles, and I really don’t know how they don’t get lost all the time. We couldn’t see a thing.
Anyway, it was good times. Laudina took us out to her field and we sat chatting for a long while. The new hot topic in Lopitland is when we’re leaving. I think the long break a couple months back got everyone—them and us—thinking about what it’s going to be like when we leave. Laudina says we’re going to go home and get husbands. She says we have to send a picture back (somehow?) so she can show everyone and say how “very, very, very good” our husbands are. Then we have to move back with our kids. That seems to be the consensus.
Power Struggle...
We’re looking for any excuse as to why our solar power has been so paltry lately, other than the fact that Kim and I are both working a lot on technical stuff for the team. We thought it’d be a splendid idea to get up on the roof and clean ‘em off. Kim decided she’d climb up, until she got up there and wimped out. Getting down proved harder—she needed a little help from Pattie. That’s some pretty full-on hand-to-butt contact.
Davitika (I will never know how to spell that) ended up shimmying up there like a champ. There were a few moments where we were sure she’d fall through the thin iron-sheet roof, but she adhered to Kim’s instructions to walk on the screws really well. She looked a bit like a tightrope walker.
We have really great friends. :)
Davitika (I will never know how to spell that) ended up shimmying up there like a champ. There were a few moments where we were sure she’d fall through the thin iron-sheet roof, but she adhered to Kim’s instructions to walk on the screws really well. She looked a bit like a tightrope walker.
We have really great friends. :)
House of Bath…
Little Stinky got her dream come true the other day. Do you remember me saying that when we gave her sister a bath, she came tottering up naked later, stinky underwear in one hand, little bit of soap in the other? Well, we were “babysitting” again the other day—Ibiong went off to the river and left the kids with us—and we couldn’t resist giving them baths. Monica was sitting happily on my bed, little feet dangling off the edge, face covered in yuck and smelling pretty foul. (Can you see the stuff coating her face?)
So here you have the results. The kids outside (you can see them looking in) asked if we were borrowing them from Ibiong and would take them back to our village (what they call the USA).
So here you have the results. The kids outside (you can see them looking in) asked if we were borrowing them from Ibiong and would take them back to our village (what they call the USA).
Powdering the kids up is probably the most fun part of everything. It’s such a curious thing for them. Monica wouldn’t have anything done to Baby Kim that wasn’t done to her.
Check out her little footsteps! We made her a “dress” out of an old Banana Republic tanktop we found at the second-hand market in Nairobi. That’s a designer dress, people. Haha.
Baby Kim kind of has bug eyes. I think I’ve said before that she looks a bit like an alien. A cute alien. Anyway, when you have her outside on your hip, then walk into the strange whitey’s house with her, her eyes get HUGE. It’s actually quite humorous to watch. She’s giving some big eyes here, but I’m telling you, they get bigger.
Monica’s cleanliness didn’t last long. Kim decided to take some liberties with the roll-on deodorant. Ellen befell a similar fate the next day; we smeared it all over her body, she smelled so badly. 
Rotten Vegetables…
I should say, Ellen is doing better. My mom asked me about her, and I realized I hadn’t given an update. I sometimes forget ‘cause about a million things happen a day that I think would be nice to write about.
Our little sweet pea is doing fine and getting all her cookie-snatching strength and charm back. Mom said she might send an outfit over for her. I think Abuba would love that. She told me to greet my mother “very, very, very, very, very much” from her.
Our little sweet pea is doing fine and getting all her cookie-snatching strength and charm back. Mom said she might send an outfit over for her. I think Abuba would love that. She told me to greet my mother “very, very, very, very, very much” from her.
Pray for James…
Heinrich and Doris have been concerned for quite a while about their friend’s son. The friend is James, one of the chiefs, and his little boy has been sick for a while, and they’ve been unable to get him better. So they decided the other day to get him out of Lopit and to Nairobi, where he could get real medical attention. We have a lot of peoples’ generosity to thank for that, I’m sure.
James had never been out of Sudan before, so H and D had the forethought to give him important lessons, like how to use a toilet and take a shower. They gave him a toothbrush, among other things, and sent him off on a plane Wednesday morning with assurances from the doctors that they’d be able to treat the boy and would return him to Lopit feeling much better after only some simple treatment.
Word came through two days ago that they’d been mistaken. They found a soccer ball-sized tumor in the boy’s stomach and said it’d already destroyed a lot of organs. James begged them to take the boy to Germany, to treat him with chemo. The doctor said it was too late. James, who we’d hoped would be led to Christ through this, asked why we couldn’t just pray to Hollum (God) and He’d heal him.
The boy died late last night in the hospital. My heart aches for James, in Nairobi now but flying back as soon as possible with the boy’s body. Lopit tradition has the family surrounded immediately by the entire village, and provides a familiar way for them to mourn. The closest James has to anyone there is Daniel, who was able to receive him and—from what I understand?—was with them through it all. And I’m sure there are other DIGUNA folks there coming around James, but how hard…
I know H and D are taking it hard, and it will be hard to come back to Lopit, the harbingers of such bad news. Please pray for this whole situation, that God would work through it.
James had never been out of Sudan before, so H and D had the forethought to give him important lessons, like how to use a toilet and take a shower. They gave him a toothbrush, among other things, and sent him off on a plane Wednesday morning with assurances from the doctors that they’d be able to treat the boy and would return him to Lopit feeling much better after only some simple treatment.
Word came through two days ago that they’d been mistaken. They found a soccer ball-sized tumor in the boy’s stomach and said it’d already destroyed a lot of organs. James begged them to take the boy to Germany, to treat him with chemo. The doctor said it was too late. James, who we’d hoped would be led to Christ through this, asked why we couldn’t just pray to Hollum (God) and He’d heal him.
The boy died late last night in the hospital. My heart aches for James, in Nairobi now but flying back as soon as possible with the boy’s body. Lopit tradition has the family surrounded immediately by the entire village, and provides a familiar way for them to mourn. The closest James has to anyone there is Daniel, who was able to receive him and—from what I understand?—was with them through it all. And I’m sure there are other DIGUNA folks there coming around James, but how hard…
I know H and D are taking it hard, and it will be hard to come back to Lopit, the harbingers of such bad news. Please pray for this whole situation, that God would work through it.
Grandpa Heinrich…
Heinrich told me a story about his Lopit “grandfather” the other day, and I can’t help but share it.
Heinrich and Doris brought these crank-turn tape players from Germany, and dug up some old Latuka language (not so far from our dialect) recordings from Look, Listen and Live. The LoPeeps love them. Unfortunately, it’s not a very stable medium and they often switch out the Gospel tapes for their own ancient tapes they got from the refugee camps in Kenya, so we’re looking to go in a different direction. But that’s beside the point.
Apparently, this old man—self-declared grandfather to HK—really digs the players, but couldn’t for the longest time get the turning thing down. He just couldn’t do it. So a whole bunch of monyemiji and Heinrich sat with him a whole afternoon at the mangot and tried to teach him how to crank it. He finally caught on. (Heinrich said one of the main obstacles was his inch-long fingernails, which Doris graciously clipped for him.) Now all he wants to do is turn it, turn it, turn it, all the time and listen to the tapes. And he tells everyone he can do it himself. I think only Heinrich’s smile upon that declaration can rival the old man’s!
Heinrich and Doris brought these crank-turn tape players from Germany, and dug up some old Latuka language (not so far from our dialect) recordings from Look, Listen and Live. The LoPeeps love them. Unfortunately, it’s not a very stable medium and they often switch out the Gospel tapes for their own ancient tapes they got from the refugee camps in Kenya, so we’re looking to go in a different direction. But that’s beside the point.
Apparently, this old man—self-declared grandfather to HK—really digs the players, but couldn’t for the longest time get the turning thing down. He just couldn’t do it. So a whole bunch of monyemiji and Heinrich sat with him a whole afternoon at the mangot and tried to teach him how to crank it. He finally caught on. (Heinrich said one of the main obstacles was his inch-long fingernails, which Doris graciously clipped for him.) Now all he wants to do is turn it, turn it, turn it, all the time and listen to the tapes. And he tells everyone he can do it himself. I think only Heinrich’s smile upon that declaration can rival the old man’s!
Yeti: (n) see Andrea Ifeja
Yesterday, my dear friend Lisa told me it sounded like I was becoming a bit of a yeti.
Hmm.
I asked Kim what a yeti was. She didn’t know. I had just written myself off as one of those old, disconnect people who googles newfangled slang to keep up with the world, when Lisa told me she didn’t really know what it was exactly, ‘cept that they used it on Friends and it seemed applicable.
Upon searching it, she found it was “abominable snowman, a hairy humanlike animal reportedly inhabiting the snows of the high Himalaya Mountains,” and quickly apologized.
Apology not accepted. It sounds a bit right. Though I did pluck my rather unkempt left eyebrow this morning, I still think I’m of that distinct “hairy” rank. The only thing I can’t account for is the snow thing. There definitely isn’t snow here.
Hmm.
I asked Kim what a yeti was. She didn’t know. I had just written myself off as one of those old, disconnect people who googles newfangled slang to keep up with the world, when Lisa told me she didn’t really know what it was exactly, ‘cept that they used it on Friends and it seemed applicable.
Upon searching it, she found it was “abominable snowman, a hairy humanlike animal reportedly inhabiting the snows of the high Himalaya Mountains,” and quickly apologized.
Apology not accepted. It sounds a bit right. Though I did pluck my rather unkempt left eyebrow this morning, I still think I’m of that distinct “hairy” rank. The only thing I can’t account for is the snow thing. There definitely isn’t snow here.
Tuesday, October 02, 2007
Life of Learning…
I’ve been reading a lot lately, for the TIMO curriculum, and I’m enjoying what I’m learning. We’re on our church-planting and discipleship unit, which is cool. In the other units, I think maybe the theory was a little more distant from the practice. Or maybe I’m just more into this stuff.
Granted, we don’t have many folks here who can be disciple. There are very few Christians. But that’s what’s golden—remembering to focus on a few, and trusting God to work through them to the rest. And it is the same with my friends in the village. I don’t have people who are already Christians, but I have people who I can be something to and witness to. As a house, we learned long ago to have a close core, not to spread ourselves too thin. That’s what you always hear about the same folks.
Anyway, I read J.I. Packer’s Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God last week. Excellent book. It talked about these two great truths—God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility. Lots of folks get all bent out of shape wrestling with these two things that they see as contradicting. And they run themselves ragged trying to reconcile these two truths. But it was nice to walk with Packer on a road I’ve walked before; to again have my thinking swiveled is always good for me. I love deeply the sovereignty of God and feel equally the responsibility of man. I love what C.H. Spurgeon said when someone asked him to reconcile the two truths—“I wouldn’t try. I never reconcile friends.” So, it’s nice to be reminded that both truths are from God’s Word. God never lies. And sometimes we have to accept what maybe to us is a mystery—and live our lives holding both in equal esteem, not playing them off against each other, because God doesn’t.
I also was reminded that God is sovereign, and because of that, what I’m doing out here isn’t pointless. God will move if and how He wills to. “Were it not for the sovereign grace of God, evangelism would be the most futile and useless enterprise that the world has ever seen, and there would be no more complete waste of time under the sun than to preach the Christian Gospel.” :)
What else? I read a book by some Guillebaud guy who does ministry in Burundi, For What it’s Worth. It’s about no holds barred discipleship. What I took from it was about the Christian life. Though living a Christian life sometimes seems like an insurmountable thing, we have to press on it in. He quoted Christopher Columbus who, though his crew was on the verge of mutiny and things were looking grim, he ended his journal each day with, “Today, we moved westward!” So, each day I want to be able to say I moved “westward” in my sanctification. I also liked this, from Newton: “I’m not what I ought t be, I’m not what I’d like to be, I’m not what I hope to be, but I’m not what I was, and by the grace of God, I am what I am.” Superb.
It all tied in well with my recent Piper sermons on Romans 7. We have hope in the face of our weaknesses and struggles in this world because we have Jesus Christ.
I listened to a sermon this morning by a one Brent Rue (don’t know this fella at all), the gist of which was that our relationship with God should be rooted in intimacy. And he said that we need to spend more time being loved by God, to be able to love him. He said that love is recognizing what God has done in our lives, and telling him all about it. An interesting point.
Then I just started last night a book called Creative Ministry (Nouwen), which said in the introduction: “If it is perhaps possible for a doctor to cure a patient even where the doctor hardly believes in the value of life, a Christian minister will never be able to be a minister if it is not his own most personal faith and insight into life that forms the core of his pastoral work.”
It’s actually funny how God weaved all my recent reading and studying together. I’m reminded that the whole string of what I just talked about—discipleship in ministry, the sovereignty of God in grace that undergirds and justifies that ministry, God’s grace in my own life that I can live my Christian life from and on, and how out of that Christian life, my ministry flows, and I’m able to lead others to Christ in discipleship. A neat little circle, isn’t it?
Oh, that I will have a lifetime of such learning. :)
Granted, we don’t have many folks here who can be disciple. There are very few Christians. But that’s what’s golden—remembering to focus on a few, and trusting God to work through them to the rest. And it is the same with my friends in the village. I don’t have people who are already Christians, but I have people who I can be something to and witness to. As a house, we learned long ago to have a close core, not to spread ourselves too thin. That’s what you always hear about the same folks.
Anyway, I read J.I. Packer’s Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God last week. Excellent book. It talked about these two great truths—God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility. Lots of folks get all bent out of shape wrestling with these two things that they see as contradicting. And they run themselves ragged trying to reconcile these two truths. But it was nice to walk with Packer on a road I’ve walked before; to again have my thinking swiveled is always good for me. I love deeply the sovereignty of God and feel equally the responsibility of man. I love what C.H. Spurgeon said when someone asked him to reconcile the two truths—“I wouldn’t try. I never reconcile friends.” So, it’s nice to be reminded that both truths are from God’s Word. God never lies. And sometimes we have to accept what maybe to us is a mystery—and live our lives holding both in equal esteem, not playing them off against each other, because God doesn’t.
I also was reminded that God is sovereign, and because of that, what I’m doing out here isn’t pointless. God will move if and how He wills to. “Were it not for the sovereign grace of God, evangelism would be the most futile and useless enterprise that the world has ever seen, and there would be no more complete waste of time under the sun than to preach the Christian Gospel.” :)
What else? I read a book by some Guillebaud guy who does ministry in Burundi, For What it’s Worth. It’s about no holds barred discipleship. What I took from it was about the Christian life. Though living a Christian life sometimes seems like an insurmountable thing, we have to press on it in. He quoted Christopher Columbus who, though his crew was on the verge of mutiny and things were looking grim, he ended his journal each day with, “Today, we moved westward!” So, each day I want to be able to say I moved “westward” in my sanctification. I also liked this, from Newton: “I’m not what I ought t be, I’m not what I’d like to be, I’m not what I hope to be, but I’m not what I was, and by the grace of God, I am what I am.” Superb.
It all tied in well with my recent Piper sermons on Romans 7. We have hope in the face of our weaknesses and struggles in this world because we have Jesus Christ.
I listened to a sermon this morning by a one Brent Rue (don’t know this fella at all), the gist of which was that our relationship with God should be rooted in intimacy. And he said that we need to spend more time being loved by God, to be able to love him. He said that love is recognizing what God has done in our lives, and telling him all about it. An interesting point.
Then I just started last night a book called Creative Ministry (Nouwen), which said in the introduction: “If it is perhaps possible for a doctor to cure a patient even where the doctor hardly believes in the value of life, a Christian minister will never be able to be a minister if it is not his own most personal faith and insight into life that forms the core of his pastoral work.”
It’s actually funny how God weaved all my recent reading and studying together. I’m reminded that the whole string of what I just talked about—discipleship in ministry, the sovereignty of God in grace that undergirds and justifies that ministry, God’s grace in my own life that I can live my Christian life from and on, and how out of that Christian life, my ministry flows, and I’m able to lead others to Christ in discipleship. A neat little circle, isn’t it?
Oh, that I will have a lifetime of such learning. :)
Letting Go…
The bottom of my feet are tinted green. I had fading blue streaks on my arms for nearly a week. My fingernail beds have similar discolorings—from the preschool paint—and my thumb and forefinger are stained with the deep violet of GV, the wonder drug that we slap on the village kids’ cuts nearly daily. I wake up each morning to my increasingly wild curly hair, and I’m forced to giggle at myself in the mirror. Today, my skirt and my tanktop do not (and could never, even in the wildest fashion dreams) match.
I’m starting to think maybe I’ve let myself go. Kim keeps trying to call me back to the living. I wonder what the implications of this are. Hmm. Hopefully, I’ll be able to pull it together before our next trip back to civilization…
I’m starting to think maybe I’ve let myself go. Kim keeps trying to call me back to the living. I wonder what the implications of this are. Hmm. Hopefully, I’ll be able to pull it together before our next trip back to civilization…
Go Cubs, Go!
I got a delightful email in my inbox this morning, saying my dear Cubbies have clinched the Central!
Oh, what joy! Oh, what bliss! Oh, what sports happiness!
Oh, what cruel, CRUEL fate, if the Loveable Losers make a push for the October Classic in my absence.
Meh.
But, still, go Cubs, GO!!!
I expect updates, people. I’m ashamed I didn’t have a dozen emails in my box. (Ahem, Phil.)
On a similar note, I use my Todd Walker baseball card as a bookmark, and little Monica was quite enraptured by it yesterday during church, as she sat on my lap. I’m pretty sure—because of my Cubs baseball calendar—all the children think the “men of my village” all wear some combination of white, blue or gray uniforms with pants that are much too small for them and funny gloves. Good times.
Oh, what joy! Oh, what bliss! Oh, what sports happiness!
Oh, what cruel, CRUEL fate, if the Loveable Losers make a push for the October Classic in my absence.
Meh.
But, still, go Cubs, GO!!!
I expect updates, people. I’m ashamed I didn’t have a dozen emails in my box. (Ahem, Phil.)
On a similar note, I use my Todd Walker baseball card as a bookmark, and little Monica was quite enraptured by it yesterday during church, as she sat on my lap. I’m pretty sure—because of my Cubs baseball calendar—all the children think the “men of my village” all wear some combination of white, blue or gray uniforms with pants that are much too small for them and funny gloves. Good times.
Heating up
I know you folks at home are enjoying all the wonderfulness (would you believe that’s a word?!) of Autumn back home, but ‘round these parts the thermostat is quickly climbing. I can’t believe how stuffed I am after a climb up the mountain. We here in Husa are praying this is just our bodies adjusting, otherwise this doesn’t bode well for our surviving dry season. Eek.
Thankfully, my wonderful father brought this supercharged fan from the United States of America (I like to write it out like that). Unfortunately, all that wonderfulness (again!) does a quick number on our solar system and might prove more a sad reminder of what could have been in the end. Oh pity. We will somehow prevail!
Even though it’s an oven here, my heart still feels the Fall, and I actually felt a physical ache in my body the other day for going to an Illini football game. Funny, because it was Saturday, which I hear was the very day my dear Illini pounced the stupid Littany Lions and caused enough of a pulse in the Illinois football program for my father to declare it resurrected. Wonderful! If this is so, I’ll be forced to miss sports year-round—college basketball season runs right into professional baseball season, which overflows into college football time, and before you know it, it’s back to Assembly Hall. Call it the circle of life.
Fall to me is bonfire smores, and I just tried to resurrect Kim’s fire from her baking this morning for the purposes of such an indulgence. (We found Nairobi had marshmallows this trip! Unfortunately, not a true graham cracker in the country.) My face is now ashen from blowing on the few lukewarm coals, and I’ve given the silly thing over to—by the grace of God?—light itself.
Enough about my thoughts on Fall… I’ve got an entirely different reality outside my window that’s currently calling my attention to my laundry on the line and a threatening storm. (I’m telling you… every time!)
Thankfully, my wonderful father brought this supercharged fan from the United States of America (I like to write it out like that). Unfortunately, all that wonderfulness (again!) does a quick number on our solar system and might prove more a sad reminder of what could have been in the end. Oh pity. We will somehow prevail!
Even though it’s an oven here, my heart still feels the Fall, and I actually felt a physical ache in my body the other day for going to an Illini football game. Funny, because it was Saturday, which I hear was the very day my dear Illini pounced the stupid Littany Lions and caused enough of a pulse in the Illinois football program for my father to declare it resurrected. Wonderful! If this is so, I’ll be forced to miss sports year-round—college basketball season runs right into professional baseball season, which overflows into college football time, and before you know it, it’s back to Assembly Hall. Call it the circle of life.
Fall to me is bonfire smores, and I just tried to resurrect Kim’s fire from her baking this morning for the purposes of such an indulgence. (We found Nairobi had marshmallows this trip! Unfortunately, not a true graham cracker in the country.) My face is now ashen from blowing on the few lukewarm coals, and I’ve given the silly thing over to—by the grace of God?—light itself.
Enough about my thoughts on Fall… I’ve got an entirely different reality outside my window that’s currently calling my attention to my laundry on the line and a threatening storm. (I’m telling you… every time!)
Lizards, lizards… everywhere.
A lizard found its way into our frying pan the other day. Perhaps some clever bug’s antics to keep from being eaten. Fortunately (or unfortunately?) the pan was cooled. We’re not that desperate for meat.
Rainy season brings the most spectacularly weird encounters with animal and bug life. I’m always interested to find a cornucopia of critters in my bed each morning. (You know, inside my mosquito net.) Keeps life interesting.
Rainy season brings the most spectacularly weird encounters with animal and bug life. I’m always interested to find a cornucopia of critters in my bed each morning. (You know, inside my mosquito net.) Keeps life interesting.
“Ote, ote, ofu, ote”
Here’s a Lopit language and time-telling lesson for you.
If your housemate hears a suspicious, soft cadence of “ote, ote, ofu, ote” (“dry, dry, wet, dry”) in the sideyard after you’ve spent the whole day doing laundry, it’s high time you get out there and defend your precious clothes from little Thomaso’s dirty-fingered checking to see if they’re ready to take down.
Haha. It’s too bad the fingerprints these kids leave on my heart will last far longer than even the ones they stain my clothes with, or else I’d be tempted into frustration…
If your housemate hears a suspicious, soft cadence of “ote, ote, ofu, ote” (“dry, dry, wet, dry”) in the sideyard after you’ve spent the whole day doing laundry, it’s high time you get out there and defend your precious clothes from little Thomaso’s dirty-fingered checking to see if they’re ready to take down.
Haha. It’s too bad the fingerprints these kids leave on my heart will last far longer than even the ones they stain my clothes with, or else I’d be tempted into frustration…
Friday, September 28, 2007
Quick Prayer Request
Abuba brought little Ellen over yesterday, saying she was hot and shaking. I took her temp and it was ridiculously high—nearly 105. I stripped her and put her in a basin with water, the poor thing. Then let her sit with Abuba with wet towels on her forehead and chest.
Her little eyes were rolling back in her head and she was shaking.
Kim and Pattie came home in the meanwhile and we took turns fanning her. We must’ve fought that fever for two hours before we finally got it to stay down.
We’re not doctors. We don’t have children’s Tylenol. We don’t have children’s malaria medicine, if that’s even what it is it. Seeing our little gem like that was heart-wrenching.
We also found out yesterday there’s something like chicken pox running through the village. Baby Pattie is covered in spots and quite miserable, as are a growing number of children. I’m not sure if chicken pox runs through here often or if we should be worried about the adults catching cases. Then there are all the elderly and pregnant women.
Anyway, I have only a minute, but I wanted to ask for some prayer for health in our villages. This chicken pox thing is on top of all the malaria that’s normally around. Thanks for your prayers!
Her little eyes were rolling back in her head and she was shaking.
Kim and Pattie came home in the meanwhile and we took turns fanning her. We must’ve fought that fever for two hours before we finally got it to stay down.
We’re not doctors. We don’t have children’s Tylenol. We don’t have children’s malaria medicine, if that’s even what it is it. Seeing our little gem like that was heart-wrenching.
We also found out yesterday there’s something like chicken pox running through the village. Baby Pattie is covered in spots and quite miserable, as are a growing number of children. I’m not sure if chicken pox runs through here often or if we should be worried about the adults catching cases. Then there are all the elderly and pregnant women.
Anyway, I have only a minute, but I wanted to ask for some prayer for health in our villages. This chicken pox thing is on top of all the malaria that’s normally around. Thanks for your prayers!
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