Highlights from this past week

We slept outside on our porch in our mosquito tents and air mattresses this week in the village.  It was at least somewhat cooler but sleeping on concrete creates some really aching places each morning especially for these almost 38 year old hips!  Speaking of 38 -- several people this week 'found' out I was going to be 38 and they just can't believe it. It's unheard of here to be that age, not married and without any children.  It has been an opportunity  for me to share that "God has not provided a godly man as a husband yet and His choice and way is always the best".    To this, they let it go.   But sleeping outside is an adventure in sleep - every morning we have to put up and take down the tents because the porch is where you 'visit' during the day.  The har-ray's (donkeys) are obnoxious to say the least,  the call to pray several  times a night is a vivid reminder of why we are here and the rooster doesn't just crow in the morning!

I had the chance to talk about Esa with two of the younger girls in our compound.  One afternoon everyone was resting and we wanted to do some language learning.  There are several young teen girls that live around us that we've come to know and love.  "Ann"  is my 'special' one.  She is 12 and in 5th grade.    Since there were no other adults around she and another friend felt a little more open I think to talk to us.  She asked me if I prayed.  I explained as before, that I do to our Father and our Savior and that I follow the Esa road.  It was confusing for them by their reaction so I tried in my broken French to explain further.  I eventually asked if she knew who Esa was?  She said no!  I explained the Son of God (which I wouldn't normally do).  The other girl not from our compound then told her ' Moussa'.  I said no, that it's not the same.   (You see here,  Moussa/ Moses and Esa would be the same because they were both great prophets) When more kids came in the conversation got diverted.  But, I pray for more time alone with these young girls.... "Ann",  "Little H" and "Jerri" and for words to speak to them.    

We saw a real (kind of) toy being played with for the first time.  The boys have some balls, perhaps a whistle, or they play like a bocce ball thing with nuts of some kind or we've seen them race at night or the young ones hit the metal ring with a stick (they way our grandparents played probably) but other than there aren't any real toys.    But one night, "Ann" layed down on the mat next to us and showed me her very precious item..... after politely trying to play with it while examining it with my flashlight and trying not to looked shocked or confused but knowing  that it was a bone of some kind with hair...   she pulled out some small pieces of material and began dressing it.    It was her lay-long-ko-tea (doll) which we eventually figured out (we think) is the tail bone of a goat with the hair attached on the end.  When you wrap some cloth around the bone and a piece in the hair, she bounces along just like a Barbie!  

The other faith here as many of you may know is very  rules, rituals and points orientated.  Fridays are  a big day.  People will walk all morning from surrounding villages to come to the city on Fridays.  It is the day of prayer and you get more 'points' in your hope-to-get-to-heaven book if you prayer at the "building of faith" specifically on Fridays.   We've seen it many times, but I hadn't yet seen it in North Star. People lined up in rows by the 100's outside the building all praying on their mats.  It is such saddening sight really and as we always do when we drive past, we pause and pray for them all, that they will one day see "The Truth" without points and prayers required.   It is also big business day because many vendors set up their wares around the area on Friday but also, the beggars come out just for that day.  You see, the followers of this faith, believe that if you give alms (money) to the poor specifically on Fridays, you also receive more points towards heaven.    This particular Friday as we drove past the afternoon prayers were ending,  the crowd and cars had dispersed and a pick-up truck pulled up and some of the 'beggar' boys were jumping into the back of it....  I don't know you tell me!?

I did my first loads of laundry (wash clothes= yahn-key da  air-rah-may) by hand this week in the village.  Not mine but I helped  13 year old "Jerri" from my compound do her families in the afternoon when she got out of school.  We walked about 10 minutes to the lahm-bay (river) which is of course dried up right now but there are small wells throughout the riverbed to draw water.    There is an exact motion they do with their hands that washes and rings at the same time and you do this multiple times in multiple buckets with each item.   I never did quite get it right.  We had 3 buckets of water, so I figured one rinse water... but nope, we just continued to do the same washing technique in all three buckets with each item and then randomly (or at least in my mind) transfer the dirty, soapy water from bucket to bucket with the clothes.  When we finished ringing them out finally, we layed them out on the banks to dry which of course in this sun and heat, they do quickly.  Oh, it's also very normal to just take off the clothes you are wearing and wash them too!  She asked me if I wanted to take my shirt off and I politely said I was good.

Play on words - we learned that they have 2,3,4 words for many items and sometimes have difficulty deciding amongst themselves what a word is called!  Makes language learning, funny and difficult at the same time.  Then there are the words that sound similar except for one vowel, but are not even closely related.  For instance,   go-day (bracelet without beads), gi-day (as in the word if and this is a well) and then gee-day (mountain)

One night after we had finished our 5th meal for the day at about 8:30pm, I just felt like I was going to explode...  I just did not think I could sleep with this big of a stomach.   Everyone was laying on their mats and visiting as we do after dinner so I decided to stroll a little and as I did, I sang praises to our Lord lifting my hands in the air to Him.   Our family thought this very interesting (more like "what is this crazy American doing now").  One group wanted me to stop and sing for them each time I passed which I did of course.  I tried to use as many songs as I could with Esa's name in it so they know that is what I was singing about.   They even gave my action a name and tune of its own.... tear-ray-tah (walk) sue-gay (sing)!   I think I will continue this whenever I can.

Our normal Breakfast called hohn-day is actually one of my favorite foods.. (among us workers it is nicknamed lucky lumps).  It is made from pounded millet, with a small amount of water added to make it into tiny dough balls, then song-u-may (bee sap leaves) are boiled in water and lots and lots of sugar added.  Put the dough balls and liquid together and it makes a yummy warm breakfast soup!

As I sit in the dark finishing this for our 2nd power outage of the night.  They have become more and more frequent so we don't now if the warmer weather is going to bring this or what.  We also lose water pressure inside the house when we lose power so we get water in a bucket at a faucet in our yard... looks like a bucket bath tonight even though we're in the city.