Since it’s been raining more and more the roads are becoming worse and worse since they’re just made of sand and dirt. We decided that we needed to have some alternative routes in our back pocket. So, Sarah and I went out looking for different routes to our village (Yosemite) the other day. We got out the GPS and headed down one of the roads that we knew from traveling to the Ram Village, veering off onto different trails that seemed to be leading to Yosemite. When we’d see a part of the road that seemed iffy, we’d get out of the truck and go check it out. We totally felt like trailblazers and it was really kind of a nice adrenaline rush tearing through the desert in search of new things. Well, we got to this one part of the trail that was underwater, so we got out and went poking around to the side to see if anything looked crossable. We decided to try veering off to the left, cutting it through some thorn trees and back onto the road where it was back above water. So off we went…and soon we stopped. Turns out mud is super tricky. We got out to survey the damage and the two front tires were stuck in the mud…the left one almost completely buried.
We stared at the mess for a while and decided that we needed to dig out the tire and throw some sticks down behind it and try to back out. We started out just bent over, shoveling mud out with our hands, but it soon got low enough that both of us were down on all fours, legs sinking in, clearing as much mud out from under the truck as we could (and we both had on some of our nicer outfits). We had just gotten a pretty good area cleared and had begun putting sticks down when an African man walked up…I’ll call him Saul. He wanted to know where we were going and where we were headed. When we told him, he of course thought we were crazy for trying to take the mobile (pronounced mobilly) on that road. Well, SOMEhow, even though a very, very, very small percentage of them have vehicles, African are absolute geniuses when it comes to getting them unstuck…and they also love helping out the white girls…double bonus. Saul told us to dig out more mud and that we needed more sticks and rocks. Then he jumped right in to help us; he dug some, he walked around tearing branches off of trees, he went out in search of rocks (we were in a fairly rockless area). So we tried again and it didn’t work, but almost…the truck just needed to be lifted so we could get sticks to go UNDER the front left tire. So we jacked it up, shoved some sticks under there, and backed right on out…a mere 2 hours after getting stuck. Saul celebrated by stuffing a hollowed-out bone with what I will call “tobacco” and smoking it.
It was an awesome day. We had a lot of fun, but God showed Himself to us in some really big ways that day. First of all…there was absolutely NO reason for Saul to be out where our truck was. He wasn’t traveling anywhere, he wasn’t a shepherd out there with his flock, and his village was a pretty good distance from where we were. We really think that he saw us driving by his hut and immediately came looking for us, knowing that we’d get stuck. Also, when I thought that we should try jacking the truck up, I kind of gave up on the idea because how in the world would we jack the truck up without the jack just going straight down into the mud. In my mind I imagined what we would need to be able to use the jack…a fairly wide, really thick block of wood. But all that was out there was thorn bush branches. When I went to the back of the truck to fold the seat down and grab the jack, the first thing I laid eyes on was the very block of wood I had just imagined in my head. I’m sure it’s always been there, but I probably wouldn’t have noticed it if I hadn’t already seen it in my mind. And Sarah had a similar experience as well.
We headed back to G-Vegas incredulous at the fact that we had still had a really good day. As we began sharing some of our personal experiences with each other, it became even clearer that God had been the one helping us the entire time. I can’t even put into words everything that He did for us that day and how thankful Sarah and I both were. He never promised that we wouldn’t get stuck in the mud, but He does promise that He won’t leave us when we do. Sounds good to me.
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Three things you should know about me:
1) I love a good injury, BUT
2) I'm terrified of something bad happening to my teeth...especially while I'm here, and
3) This whole "sleeping in a tent" thing is totally new to me.
A couple of weeks ago when we were out in the village it got pretty windy one night. I was laying in my tent, enjoying the breeze and trying to fall asleep when a huge gust of wind came through. It lifted my tent up and started to blow over so I reached my hand up and hit the side to push it back down. That's when my 6 lb. Maglight came plummeting from the gear loft 3 feet above my head and nailed me in the mouth.
I sat up and held my hands up to my mouth and they immediately pooled with blood. It hit me so hard that everything was kind of numb. I really thought my front left tooth had been knocked out! I was looking for it because I couldn't tell if it was still in there or not. It was crazy! Sarah climbed in my tent, looked at my face, assured me that my tooth was still there, and got me some toilet paper for all the blood. It was our first night out for the week so some of our water bottles were still frozen and she made me hold one to my face. My upper lip immediately looked like I had put a marble inside it. And the inside was gushing blood.
We took these pictures the next day. My gum ended up turning black and a chunk of it came off...which renewed the fear of my tooth falling out...it never did. And for the next day or two my top lip got so big it was hard to talk and eat...but pretty funny to look at.
And I don't put my flashlight in the gear loft anymore.
I have (finally) posted some other pictures on Facebook. They load much quicker on there than here, but we still don't have good enough internet in the desert to post pics from there. Thanks for keeping up with my adventures and praying for me!
2) I'm terrified of something bad happening to my teeth...especially while I'm here, and
3) This whole "sleeping in a tent" thing is totally new to me.
A couple of weeks ago when we were out in the village it got pretty windy one night. I was laying in my tent, enjoying the breeze and trying to fall asleep when a huge gust of wind came through. It lifted my tent up and started to blow over so I reached my hand up and hit the side to push it back down. That's when my 6 lb. Maglight came plummeting from the gear loft 3 feet above my head and nailed me in the mouth.
I sat up and held my hands up to my mouth and they immediately pooled with blood. It hit me so hard that everything was kind of numb. I really thought my front left tooth had been knocked out! I was looking for it because I couldn't tell if it was still in there or not. It was crazy! Sarah climbed in my tent, looked at my face, assured me that my tooth was still there, and got me some toilet paper for all the blood. It was our first night out for the week so some of our water bottles were still frozen and she made me hold one to my face. My upper lip immediately looked like I had put a marble inside it. And the inside was gushing blood.
We took these pictures the next day. My gum ended up turning black and a chunk of it came off...which renewed the fear of my tooth falling out...it never did. And for the next day or two my top lip got so big it was hard to talk and eat...but pretty funny to look at.
And I don't put my flashlight in the gear loft anymore.
I have (finally) posted some other pictures on Facebook. They load much quicker on there than here, but we still don't have good enough internet in the desert to post pics from there. Thanks for keeping up with my adventures and praying for me!
Monday, June 14, 2010
One Struggly Day
This entry was also in my May update, but I just wanted to make sure everyone knew how faithful God has been to teach me, guide me, hold me up...and just be here.
Total dependence seems to be what God is teaching me so far in Africa. Every single day I tell Him that I can’t and every single day He reminds me that He can. It is the most comforting and reassuring thought and I am so thankful that I can rest in knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt that it’s true. Even knowing that, though, I still struggle a lot. One particularly struggly day during my time with God, I started off by telling Him all of the things that are so hard. He promptly reminded me that that’s HOW He’s teaching me total dependence on Him.
Then I read some Scripture. I don’t even remember what passage it was, but it spoke to me and I was thanking God for the truth of His Word, which got me to thinking about how amazing His Word really is. THEN I got really overwhelmed and stressed out by the fact that in just a few short months, Abby, Sarah, and I will basically BE the Bible to the Sunny people. They won’t have a copy of it in their language and even if they did, the vast majority of them wouldn’t be able to read it. God sent us here to proclaim His Truth with our mouths. It’s such an enormous privilege, but it also bears enormous responsibility! Like I said, I’d gotten pretty overwhelmed and asked God how in the WORLD we were going to do that effectively, in a crazy language, and most importantly…without compromising one single bit of His Word. And He said…that's WHY I’m teaching you total dependence on Me. And that’s why He’s God and I’m not.
Total dependence seems to be what God is teaching me so far in Africa. Every single day I tell Him that I can’t and every single day He reminds me that He can. It is the most comforting and reassuring thought and I am so thankful that I can rest in knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt that it’s true. Even knowing that, though, I still struggle a lot. One particularly struggly day during my time with God, I started off by telling Him all of the things that are so hard. He promptly reminded me that that’s HOW He’s teaching me total dependence on Him.
Then I read some Scripture. I don’t even remember what passage it was, but it spoke to me and I was thanking God for the truth of His Word, which got me to thinking about how amazing His Word really is. THEN I got really overwhelmed and stressed out by the fact that in just a few short months, Abby, Sarah, and I will basically BE the Bible to the Sunny people. They won’t have a copy of it in their language and even if they did, the vast majority of them wouldn’t be able to read it. God sent us here to proclaim His Truth with our mouths. It’s such an enormous privilege, but it also bears enormous responsibility! Like I said, I’d gotten pretty overwhelmed and asked God how in the WORLD we were going to do that effectively, in a crazy language, and most importantly…without compromising one single bit of His Word. And He said…that's WHY I’m teaching you total dependence on Me. And that’s why He’s God and I’m not.
Dinner Party
Our volunteer teammate is going back to America in a couple of weeks and so she wanted to prepare dinner for our tailor, Sam, and his family here in G-Vegas. The plan had been in the works for a few weeks, but it was finally decided that we would bring dinner to his family’s house this past Saturday evening. She wanted to make “American” food, so we took noodles, tomato sauce, and beef (not ground beef like you’d usually find with spaghetti, but beef tips). This involved 2 big almost-overflowing pots of sauce with meat and 1 big definitely-overflowing pot of noodles…transporting it was interesting, but I was driving so I was lucky enough not to have an insanely hot pot of tomato sauce sitting on my lap while driving down a road made entirely of sand and rocks.
Well, when you’re the only white people in town, apparently it’s a big deal when you’re coming over to dinner and bringing real, live, American food. When we arrived, Sam and his entire family (wife, mother, father, sisters, nieces…everybody) was, as always, extremely gracious and hospitable to us. Sam has a nice house and the room we were in had a tile floor and they had been burning incense. There were cushions set up against the walls on one side of the room, blankets on the floor in the middle, and plastic lawn chairs set up on the other side of the room…those were for us. They even have a TV so we sat in our lawn chairs and watched the World Cup!
The reason we realized this was a pretty big deal, though, is because Sam had invited a photographer friend over to document the evening. Seriously…we tried to offer him food…he wasn’t there to eat, only to take pictures. So throughout the evening, we would pose for pictures with the family…but especially with the food. They really wanted pictures of that food.
Also, one of the guys who works for Sam, Ian, came over and he is also our friend. A couple weeks ago, Sam had gone down to one of the little boutiques (convenience-type store) in the market and asked the clerk what the white girls always buy. The answer: Cokes. So Ian had picked up 4 Cokes on his way to dinner! Again I was lucky because I was sitting by Abby, who is allergic to caffeine. We didn’t want to turn down a gift so we worked a little system out where we both set our bottles on the floor between us and Abby pretended to drink out of one while I really drank out of both of them. I really took one for the team.
Then it was time to eat. It was a little confusing trying to figure out which platters to put everything on because there were several groups of us (remember…we sit on the floor and all eat with our hands out of the same bowl). There was a men’s circle and two women’s circles so we dished it up the best way we knew how. And we think they liked it, but they may have just been being nice.
Well, when you’re the only white people in town, apparently it’s a big deal when you’re coming over to dinner and bringing real, live, American food. When we arrived, Sam and his entire family (wife, mother, father, sisters, nieces…everybody) was, as always, extremely gracious and hospitable to us. Sam has a nice house and the room we were in had a tile floor and they had been burning incense. There were cushions set up against the walls on one side of the room, blankets on the floor in the middle, and plastic lawn chairs set up on the other side of the room…those were for us. They even have a TV so we sat in our lawn chairs and watched the World Cup!
The reason we realized this was a pretty big deal, though, is because Sam had invited a photographer friend over to document the evening. Seriously…we tried to offer him food…he wasn’t there to eat, only to take pictures. So throughout the evening, we would pose for pictures with the family…but especially with the food. They really wanted pictures of that food.
Also, one of the guys who works for Sam, Ian, came over and he is also our friend. A couple weeks ago, Sam had gone down to one of the little boutiques (convenience-type store) in the market and asked the clerk what the white girls always buy. The answer: Cokes. So Ian had picked up 4 Cokes on his way to dinner! Again I was lucky because I was sitting by Abby, who is allergic to caffeine. We didn’t want to turn down a gift so we worked a little system out where we both set our bottles on the floor between us and Abby pretended to drink out of one while I really drank out of both of them. I really took one for the team.
Then it was time to eat. It was a little confusing trying to figure out which platters to put everything on because there were several groups of us (remember…we sit on the floor and all eat with our hands out of the same bowl). There was a men’s circle and two women’s circles so we dished it up the best way we knew how. And we think they liked it, but they may have just been being nice.
The Chicken Man
There are no restaurants in G-Vegas, but in the market there is the Egg Bar and the Chicken Man. The Egg Bar is actually a table behind which a man makes egg sandwiches and sells them. The Chicken Man sets up on the corner and has a table of pre-prepared food which he sells. The girls named him the Chicken Man because he apparently makes really good chicken, but the one time I had gone to him we had beef brochettes (like a shish kebob).
Our supervisor and a volunteer team had been traveling all over the country on a vision trip to see what area their church might like to invest in and continue to come to in the future. They were taking a rest stop for the night in G-Vegas so our supervisor asked us to set it up with the Chicken Man to cater dinner for us at our house. We went down there and talked to him telling him that we’d like brochettes and fries for 11 people and what day and time and everything.
Our supervisor and the volunteer team arrived and the Chicken Man got to our house with bowls and platters of food. We set everything up on the table, paid him, he left, and we dug in. Well, when we took the cover off of the beef bowl I thought to myself that the meat didn’t look quite right. But at this point, I’m used to “meat” actually being various intestinal material and valves so it didn’t really bother me that much. Then another girl who is a Journeyman here and had been traveling with the group asked me what kind of meat it was. I told her it was beef, but asked if she thought it might be something different. She said she did think that and one of the translators that had been traveling with the group told us that it was sheep. Oh, okay, that must be why it doesn’t look so beefish.
Well, I got my plate and started eating it. It tasted a little bit different, but felt a lotta bit different. Just when I was thinking that it might be liver, my supervisor asked the other translator if it was liver. I started to confirm that that’s what I thought too, but my supervisor told me not to let the volunteers know that that’s what we thought because they seemed to be enjoying it and might freak out. Then the first translator, who told us it was sheep, told us that it was actually sheep HEART!
It really wasn’t that bad, but we couldn’t believe that we had this poor volunteer team from America come to our house in the middle of their exhausting trip all over Mali when it’s 140 degrees outside and they were probably looking forward to a somewhat normal meal…and we served them SHEEP HEART. And it was a HUGE bowl of sheep heart. A lot of sheep had to die for that meal. The fries were good, though.
Our supervisor and a volunteer team had been traveling all over the country on a vision trip to see what area their church might like to invest in and continue to come to in the future. They were taking a rest stop for the night in G-Vegas so our supervisor asked us to set it up with the Chicken Man to cater dinner for us at our house. We went down there and talked to him telling him that we’d like brochettes and fries for 11 people and what day and time and everything.
Our supervisor and the volunteer team arrived and the Chicken Man got to our house with bowls and platters of food. We set everything up on the table, paid him, he left, and we dug in. Well, when we took the cover off of the beef bowl I thought to myself that the meat didn’t look quite right. But at this point, I’m used to “meat” actually being various intestinal material and valves so it didn’t really bother me that much. Then another girl who is a Journeyman here and had been traveling with the group asked me what kind of meat it was. I told her it was beef, but asked if she thought it might be something different. She said she did think that and one of the translators that had been traveling with the group told us that it was sheep. Oh, okay, that must be why it doesn’t look so beefish.
Well, I got my plate and started eating it. It tasted a little bit different, but felt a lotta bit different. Just when I was thinking that it might be liver, my supervisor asked the other translator if it was liver. I started to confirm that that’s what I thought too, but my supervisor told me not to let the volunteers know that that’s what we thought because they seemed to be enjoying it and might freak out. Then the first translator, who told us it was sheep, told us that it was actually sheep HEART!
It really wasn’t that bad, but we couldn’t believe that we had this poor volunteer team from America come to our house in the middle of their exhausting trip all over Mali when it’s 140 degrees outside and they were probably looking forward to a somewhat normal meal…and we served them SHEEP HEART. And it was a HUGE bowl of sheep heart. A lot of sheep had to die for that meal. The fries were good, though.
Sunday, June 13, 2010
Rain!
Well I do believe that we are officially transitioning into the rainy season. Last Monday night, we were in the village when a really bad dust storm kicked up, which has usually been indicative of rain. We’d seen a little bit of rain here and there, but on Monday it really poured! It was sprinkling off and on all evening, but we kind of thought it would stop by bedtime because that’s what it had always done before. I had already set up my cot and mosquito net on the porch because that’s a little bit cooler to sleep in during hot season than my tent. Our hut and our porch both have roofs made out of sticks and grass, but the porch roof is looser and lets rain through. It turns out that when the rain comes through that roof, it turns to mud because everything up there is so dirty. Well, by the time we walked from H-Mama’s to our hut, my pillow, sheet, and Thermarest were COVERED in muddy rain. I have a tent with a rain fly so Abby & Sarah helped me set that up (theirs was already set up…it just had to be moved). It was absolutely the craziest bedtime we’ve had in Africa.
I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned it, but our hut is made out of mud (mixed with animal poop), including the porch floor, so the ground was all muddy and puddly, but we still had to set the tents up because that was the best option. Also, it was CRAZY windy, so the 3 of us are trying to lay down a mat on the ground to protect my tent, get out the poles which are knocking into everything, attach my tent to them, AND put on the rain fly, all while the wind is going nuts and we’re being pelted with muddy rain. AND it was completely dark outside so we’re doing all of this and trying to hold flashlights at the same time. BUT I’m not going to complain because it was pretty fantastic to sleep in a much lower temperature to the sound of rain on my tent.
All I have to say is thank GOODNESS Ethan made me practice setting up my tent…complete with the rain fly…as SOON as he, Emily, and I got back from buying it. He even timed me. I think it helped. It’s like Monday night was the moment I’d been preparing for all along, like the Olympics of tent pitching.
I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned it, but our hut is made out of mud (mixed with animal poop), including the porch floor, so the ground was all muddy and puddly, but we still had to set the tents up because that was the best option. Also, it was CRAZY windy, so the 3 of us are trying to lay down a mat on the ground to protect my tent, get out the poles which are knocking into everything, attach my tent to them, AND put on the rain fly, all while the wind is going nuts and we’re being pelted with muddy rain. AND it was completely dark outside so we’re doing all of this and trying to hold flashlights at the same time. BUT I’m not going to complain because it was pretty fantastic to sleep in a much lower temperature to the sound of rain on my tent.
All I have to say is thank GOODNESS Ethan made me practice setting up my tent…complete with the rain fly…as SOON as he, Emily, and I got back from buying it. He even timed me. I think it helped. It’s like Monday night was the moment I’d been preparing for all along, like the Olympics of tent pitching.
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Ram Village
There’s a village that we visit every so often called the Ram Village…named that because after taking a medical team there (before I got here), the village gave them a ram to show their appreciation. They are SO generous and hospitable and we have tried to maintain a relationship with them…especially because it is also a Sunny village. Maybe someday we will be able to tell them stories from God’s Word in Sunny or it would be really amazing if personnel could even be stationed there someday.
So, in order to continue our relationship with the Ram Village, we went out there Thursday afternoon and spent the night. Here are a few tidbits from our travels:
The last time we went there, there was a large group of us and they fed us a REALLY nice lunch. We wanted to show our appreciation to them so on our way out there we stopped at the market and picked up some noodles, mangoes, and a couple of (live) chickens. I was driving so I stayed with the truck and all of our stuff that was in the back. It was pretty hilarious to see Abby walking up out of the market carrying a rooster and a hen upside down by their tied-together feet. We had brought a cardboard box to transport them in. Most people just sling them over the handlebars of their motorbikes, but we didn’t really have that option.
We headed toward the Ram Village and when we pulled off the paved road we tried to put the truck in 4WD because the sand gets pretty deep driving out there. Well the gear shift was bogged and wouldn’t budge so we had to stay in 2WD. It was one wild ride. You can’t stop in sand or you’ll get stuck and most of the time the faster you’re moving the less chance you have of getting stuck. Of course this also means that the truck is a little more difficult to control because you’re just flying along, trying to stay on the tracks, avoid rocks that could very easily pop a tire, and keep the thorn tree contact to a scrape and not a full-blown plowing over. And then all of a sudden the sand ends and turns into giant rocks, but you’re still going pretty fast and so you’re just bumping all over the place. So we were fishtailing all the way through the desert. I’m not gonna lie, it’s actually pretty fun, but there were more than a couple of times that we were worried the chickens were gonna fly out, or get knocked out, or even die. So when we got to the village, Sarah ran around back to look in the box. Abby and I asked if they were still alive and Sarah said, “Yeah they’re alive…and one even laid an egg!” Abby thought she was joking. I thought she was being serious, but was still shocked to look in the box and see 2 live chickens and an egg. I’m pretty sure my driving has never had that effect before.
We then found the “second mayor,” I’ll call him Bach, and greeted him. We continued making our way through the village greeting the appropriate people and sitting on their mats with them. We ended up having lunch at Bach’s home. I can’t even tell you how generous and hospitable these people are. They don’t have much, but they always offer you their very best. When you are their guest your comfort, safety, and needs are their highest priority. We spent the entire day with Bach’s family, occasionally venturing out with him to greet others.
Not knowing exactly what they would want to do with us, we had brought our tents and everything for sleeping. Bach’s family ended up setting out a piece of foam and a fuzzy blanket on the ground in their inner porch for us to sleep on. Again, they offered us their very best. So even though we’re used to sleeping in our tents where we are protected from all of Africa’s favorite night creatures, we couldn’t turn down our host’s generous offering.
WELL, the night creatures were in rare form that night. We walked in and I spotted a decent-sized spider on the wall above where our heads would be. After Abby and I stared him down for a good 10 minutes, Sarah came in and tried to smush him…he was quick, though, so he escaped, but off of the porch nonetheless. Then we went to the bathroom a few huts over and came back to one of the giant scorpion spider monsters ON OUR BED! Sarah killed it, but I knew it would be a long night after that. We lay down and I heard something crawling so I shined my flashlight and it was a beetle. I’m not particularly scared of beetles or anything, but I don’t want it crawling on my face while I’m sleeping, you know? So I smashed the heck out of that with my flip-flop. We laid back down and about 2 minutes later I heard something crawling on the wall by our heads. I shined my light and it was a giant cockroach. So I smashed the heck out of that with my flip-flop, too. All 3 of us were pretty on-edge at this point. Once, Sarah’s foot accidentally touched mine and I about came out of my skin. I finally laid back down and even fell asleep for a little while, but was mostly awake for the rest of the night. And we discussed it the next morning and we’re all pretty sure that there was a bat hanging out in the little wall opening about 4 feet from our heads.
We woke up and had breakfast with Bach’s family. As usual, they offered their very best. Later in the morning, during tea, an English-speaking man had come by to visit. Through him, Bach told us that other people come to the village, but they have business to take care of or specific things to talk about and then leave. He said that we came even though we can’t talk very much…that we came just to be with them…and that was good. He knew through our broken Sunny and nonverbal behavior that we just want to show them that we care for them. Worth the spider-filled, sleep-deprived night? Absolutely.
So, in order to continue our relationship with the Ram Village, we went out there Thursday afternoon and spent the night. Here are a few tidbits from our travels:
The last time we went there, there was a large group of us and they fed us a REALLY nice lunch. We wanted to show our appreciation to them so on our way out there we stopped at the market and picked up some noodles, mangoes, and a couple of (live) chickens. I was driving so I stayed with the truck and all of our stuff that was in the back. It was pretty hilarious to see Abby walking up out of the market carrying a rooster and a hen upside down by their tied-together feet. We had brought a cardboard box to transport them in. Most people just sling them over the handlebars of their motorbikes, but we didn’t really have that option.
We headed toward the Ram Village and when we pulled off the paved road we tried to put the truck in 4WD because the sand gets pretty deep driving out there. Well the gear shift was bogged and wouldn’t budge so we had to stay in 2WD. It was one wild ride. You can’t stop in sand or you’ll get stuck and most of the time the faster you’re moving the less chance you have of getting stuck. Of course this also means that the truck is a little more difficult to control because you’re just flying along, trying to stay on the tracks, avoid rocks that could very easily pop a tire, and keep the thorn tree contact to a scrape and not a full-blown plowing over. And then all of a sudden the sand ends and turns into giant rocks, but you’re still going pretty fast and so you’re just bumping all over the place. So we were fishtailing all the way through the desert. I’m not gonna lie, it’s actually pretty fun, but there were more than a couple of times that we were worried the chickens were gonna fly out, or get knocked out, or even die. So when we got to the village, Sarah ran around back to look in the box. Abby and I asked if they were still alive and Sarah said, “Yeah they’re alive…and one even laid an egg!” Abby thought she was joking. I thought she was being serious, but was still shocked to look in the box and see 2 live chickens and an egg. I’m pretty sure my driving has never had that effect before.
We then found the “second mayor,” I’ll call him Bach, and greeted him. We continued making our way through the village greeting the appropriate people and sitting on their mats with them. We ended up having lunch at Bach’s home. I can’t even tell you how generous and hospitable these people are. They don’t have much, but they always offer you their very best. When you are their guest your comfort, safety, and needs are their highest priority. We spent the entire day with Bach’s family, occasionally venturing out with him to greet others.
Not knowing exactly what they would want to do with us, we had brought our tents and everything for sleeping. Bach’s family ended up setting out a piece of foam and a fuzzy blanket on the ground in their inner porch for us to sleep on. Again, they offered us their very best. So even though we’re used to sleeping in our tents where we are protected from all of Africa’s favorite night creatures, we couldn’t turn down our host’s generous offering.
WELL, the night creatures were in rare form that night. We walked in and I spotted a decent-sized spider on the wall above where our heads would be. After Abby and I stared him down for a good 10 minutes, Sarah came in and tried to smush him…he was quick, though, so he escaped, but off of the porch nonetheless. Then we went to the bathroom a few huts over and came back to one of the giant scorpion spider monsters ON OUR BED! Sarah killed it, but I knew it would be a long night after that. We lay down and I heard something crawling so I shined my flashlight and it was a beetle. I’m not particularly scared of beetles or anything, but I don’t want it crawling on my face while I’m sleeping, you know? So I smashed the heck out of that with my flip-flop. We laid back down and about 2 minutes later I heard something crawling on the wall by our heads. I shined my light and it was a giant cockroach. So I smashed the heck out of that with my flip-flop, too. All 3 of us were pretty on-edge at this point. Once, Sarah’s foot accidentally touched mine and I about came out of my skin. I finally laid back down and even fell asleep for a little while, but was mostly awake for the rest of the night. And we discussed it the next morning and we’re all pretty sure that there was a bat hanging out in the little wall opening about 4 feet from our heads.
We woke up and had breakfast with Bach’s family. As usual, they offered their very best. Later in the morning, during tea, an English-speaking man had come by to visit. Through him, Bach told us that other people come to the village, but they have business to take care of or specific things to talk about and then leave. He said that we came even though we can’t talk very much…that we came just to be with them…and that was good. He knew through our broken Sunny and nonverbal behavior that we just want to show them that we care for them. Worth the spider-filled, sleep-deprived night? Absolutely.
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