travel woes

The goal: Tip top of the north western province (the bush) to the population dense, garbage filled, and materialistic metropolises of the south.

The method: green land rover.

Estimated duration: 3 days.

External conditions: bumps, ruts, pot holes, washed out sections…. The first half on sandy gravel the second on pavement of sorts.

Internal conditions: Five adults, 3 children, 1 baby and luggage. How to fit? Three in the front, 4 plus babe in the back and one plus luggage in the trunk. More luggage belted on the steel rack bolted unto the back. The only way into the trunk seat is to wiggle like a snake over 4’ of luggage, swing your legs up and around and somehow fall (with your rear pointing down) into your seat.

My traveling companions were Mark and Pam with Caleb, Shoshanna and Naomi. Gwen and Chad with Denalyn and little ole me!

Now that the driving is completed I can say that it was an adventure and definitely brought back memories of our family trips from long ago. Just imagine a bunch of tired, cranky and whiny people. Lots of memories….

finally

Well term just finished last week. It's been really strange just how silent the school grounds are without them. One thing I've really enjoyed is not being on someone else's eating schedual. I can actually eat when I want and what I want. (Being limited to Leah's pantry.)

Saw my first mission hospital plus (the highlight!) I saw a new hydro station being built in that same area. Quite amazing. The project has been going on three years and has been built entirely with donations from private donors. Mostly christians. No worries I took lots of pictures and have detailed explanations to go along with them. They have these super cool automatic slit exiting gates that float!! Yah- you had to be there.

Went out and looked at the stars for a bit tonight. Amazing just how bright they are when civilization and its fake lights are no where near. We clammered to the top of Jill's truck out on the airstrip and just gazed. Getting off was a challenge and only one person was injured.

Funny how we are so much in awe of feats of engineering (such as those cool bridges down in the highly populated ares of the southeren states that I have been trying to get decent pictures of for ages and never quite manage!!) and how we recognize that something so intricate must have a designer. Yet so many find it hard to believe that the stars, our universe and (most amazingly!) us, who are infinately more intricate than anything we ourselves could design, have a creator. Why am I not more in awe of him??

We had a pool party today. A multitude of salads, sausage from the farm, mega desert selection and cold water. All this with the dry season's wind starting to rustle through the tree's and sending a shiver through us (a cool 30 degree's at midday today).

Signing off for another little while. God bless!

farm visit

Took the grade 1 and 2’s to the farm last Thursday, big animals and tiny children. Opportunities were many for Angelina’s overactive imagination and protective mother instincts.

We approached the pigpen with much banging and thrashing about, as you never know where army ants may be marching. Seventeen children and 3 adults crowd around a narrow opening from which waifs a must unpleasant odour. This odour is commented and expounded on by each and every child present. From the back of the pack I spot the objects of this bouquet for the senses: A honkin’ big mama pig and her wee ones.

You would think that distance would be one thing that the children would crave, especially in light of the aforementioned comments regarding the STINK! One adventurous child at the front of the pack asks our tour guide, “Can I hold one?” Within minutes three squealing piglets were being clenched by tight fingers as far as possible from the bodies of the holders. Amazingly only one piglet was dropped. Miss P----- performed a daring rescue as it tried to rush through her legs. After the piglet was safely deposited in it’s home I applauded her efforts and insinuated that she had, had previous experience catching pigs. She confided in me that this was in fact her first catch and was one borne of desperation.

At the horses our tour guide again took initiative and let all the kids into the fenced area while the teachers were too far behind to object to any possible safety hazards or to instil in the children a fear of anything 10 times their own weight. By the time we arrived inside the gate children were running, yelling, petting, walking behind the horses and generally not thinking. One would think that the tour guide would have been safety precaution enough but seeing as he didn’t speak the same language as 75% of the children he was commandeering you can understand our nervousness.

As we left the area (with all the kids in one piece minus some socks that got scarred off when the horses ‘charged’) you can be sure that I delivered a stellar speech on proper safety precautions one must take when on a farm. Slightly humorous, as I am a city girl who has no idea about farm life and even less of an idea of what constitutes high risk activity on a farm. Along that train of thought I’m not too sure I’d even be a fair judge of what is high risk in any situation. My motto: better safe than sorry!

Next we watched the cows being milked, again, eventful in my imagination and uneventful in actual catastrophic happenings. Did force Yahia to hold my hand as he kept running behind the cows and straying into off limit areas. Nothing much happened at the lambs/sheep. I must admit that I was wincing in pain for the lambs our kids got to hold. The bleating coming from those poor things as their limbs were being held in a splits position.

Stopped by the orphanage and introduced our kids to their kids. Not much bonding happened. Likely because of the relative closeness in age they needed more time for warming up to each other. We had taken the 3 and 4’s on the same tour last week and their favourite part of the trip was the orphanage. They all adopted one of the wee ones and piggy backed them round and had a jolly good time.

yellow

Yesterday’s reading class erupted into an argument over my cultural heritage. No conclusion was reached, and incidentally none of the class guessed anywhere near the correct mixture of bloods that I call my own. An attempt at recreating the conversation follows: Julius, “Miss S---- is all yellow so she’s Chinese.” He grabs my arm to show his classmates proof of this statement. “Miss P----- must be Chinese too because she looks the same.” For the record Leah (Miss P-----) is one of those of north European descent who burns in order to tan and who is more pink than yellow. I tried to explain to the class what I was and who my grandparents were. The response to my so eloquent speech was made by Donex, “No she can’t be Chinese because her arms are yellow but her neck is all white!“ Apparently I need to tan my neck!

hot hot hot

It's getting hot enough that I purposely look for shade when I'm outdoors. The muddy pool even looks appealing.

 

Time has flown by so fast. When I booked this trip I though that the months I would be away would be an enormous amount of time but Ania you were right. Way too short. Half Term is a bit like camp, but the regular day-to-day is much more disciplined. Especially the Senior grades, they have so much work.

 

As to crocs and gators? They just aren't here. Some reasons being: we are close to the source of the river, we are at a higher elevation so it gets cooler, and the river is on the smaller side and moves pretty quickly.

 

The lack of any type of wildlife is sad. I've seen nothing bigger then a skinny, wimpy green snake. Mind you that was big enough- it surely made me screech.

Half Term

The second Half Term has come and gone. (Even though this is a mathematical impossibility I hasten to assure you that it is an actual event.) It started Thursday afternoon and ended Saturday at the same time.

I have attacked and conquered the flying fox. It was a raging success. Rather scary the first time, but even after landing on outstretched arms (still have bruises) I went a grand total of five times. I was even brave enough to let Jeanette take some pictures!

Played three-on-three ball hockey during the heat of the day and burnt my face to a crisp.

One of the tubes going down the river carried myself. There were no pictures taken of this momentous occasion so you will have to use your imagination. Picture me outstretched on a gigantic rubber tube with arms and legs flailing trying to steer the stupid thing clear of trees, roots, reeds and other obstacles. Needless to say I hit every single one with shrieks of excitement. It was so great I went twice.

The above, coupled with a number of rounds of 'Pom-Pom-Pull-Away' and other such games, made it difficult to walk, raise my arms above my head and just generally move. I ached.

Sunday: We took a 20 minute walk to the closest church for worship service. The afternoon was a time of rest, relaxation and Settlers.

Monday: Leah needed to have her work permit stamped so we walked into town with Joyce, she kindly gave us language lessons. Joyce a lovely, local lady with quite a life story who cleans here at the school. We were so thankful that she was with us as white people going into the village create quite a stir and what with cultural differences it's always hard to know how to greet people properly without causing offence. We left here around 1:15 and didn't get home until 5:00. I now have a backpack tan on my arms.

All this week is spiritual emphasis week. There's a couple from up north who've come to teach the children and they are simply wonderful! Full of life, new ideas and the solid gospel. They are doing the morning sessions on Philippians using 'Captain Book' and 'Madame Castaway'.

No emailing outside of the email address here at the school until the beginning of April. Bye!

orphanage

Hostiles have been surrounded and annihilated or at least moved their barracks temporarily. Will update on future developments.

Yesterday was movie night. As per usual many children crowded around any available adult willing to cuddle. So I had one sweet gal on my lap and two little boys squished up on either side of me. One of the grade one kids, Donex, was holding my hand. The lights were on momentarily to fix a glitch in the VCR. Donex kissed my hand, looked up at me, saw my grin, would have blushed if he could have, and hid behind his hand. Adorable.

Tanis was here for a short one and a half days. It was nice to see a face from home.

Just found out that the handwork class I'm 'teaching' is actually a real class and I need to come up with a mark. Painful. You should see the final embroidery products. I could do better with my eyes closed.

The orphanage:

The orphanage started when a missionary lady found out that all babies who survived childbirth when their mothers didn't were considered to be possessed by demons. They would be thrown on their mother's graves and left to die. When she discovered this practice she started taking the children in.

It's about a 30 minute walk from the school here. The setup is a bit different than the traditional orphanage. Most of the kids are orphans but they all have their own mama who lives with them. Maybe a grandmother, or someone from their village. When the children reach the age of six they are sent back to their village and they are taken in by relatives.

There are two ladies who look after the running of the place, Helen and Esther. One is Scottish the other Irish. Very kind and hospitable.

The kids love hugs and are adorable little urchins. We walked in the gate and they all came to inspect us. As soon as we offered they swarmed us. It was impossible to walk an inch they were hanging off us. We visited Helen for a bit, I had my first taste of soda since arriving here. Then we observed the preschool class. They said their numbers, the alphabet and sung a surprising repertoire of English songs. They were so proud. I'm going back either this Thursday or next and am hoping to get some pictures this time.

Off to Sunday Evening Fellowship!

attack # 2

Last night Leah and I stayed at the admin longer than usual to use the internet. It was dark by the time we were finished and we had neglected to bring our flashlights with us. We booked it the whole way home, in case the army ants had reappeared. Didn’t see anything. Entered the house and by the time we had made it through the kitchen Leah was dancing. Again, I escaped, for a time. I went outside with my flashlight to investigate. Found a line surrounding one corner of the house all along the foundation. The houses here aren’t exactly bug proof let along leak or rodent proof so I went inside to check the inner wall along the same corner. Leah’s bedroom. At cursory inspection all seemed normal, thankfully my senses were heightened and I moved closer to the wall then tugged the curtain aside. Ants. Ants. And more ants. So last night we moved out and I will not be moving back in until I have been sufficiently convinced that the ants have been contained. While packing I received two bites as gifts. It wasn’t too bad. What is bad is when you have no idea that the ants are on you and crawling up, then when they reach your waist they all chomp at the same time. That is why, Krista Lee, army ants are scary. Leah and I have been given refugee status.

army ants

I believe I got Gab to post a picture of the army ants by our house. They look rather non-threatening I must admit. Never judge a book by its cover. Army ants eat everything in they cross. I have heard stories of them eating whole chickens, parrots, babies and anything smaller than those leaving only the bones. They travel in long lines and when their line is disturbed they scattered to best defend the attacker. So if let's say Leah walks in a line of army ants they will immediately scramble up her legs to her waist and start pinching. It is supposedly quite painful. Their method of attack is to use claws to pinch at the skin. They stay stuck until they are pulled off or the chunk of skin is separated from its owner. If the get into a house your best off to move out for the couple of days it takes them to clean the house out of bugs, bats and other critters.

My story starts late Monday evening. I had been reading my book, as it was my afternoon off, when an explosion of furry tore through the front door. Leah had come upon multitudes of army ants and was in a bit of a panic. They were covering the road to our house. She proceeded to tell me every gory army ant story she knew.

Monday night: My malaria pills give my some pretty strange dreams the night after taking them. So Monday night the army ants were making a feast of me. Was really tired the next morning.

Tuesday: Leah notified Mr. P of the encroaching predators.

Wednesday, after Birthday Party, in the dark: We were running home along the road hoping that if we did step in a line of the ants they wouldn't be able to react fast enough to climb up us. We safety arrived at our house and took our time entering and putting our away pieces of our costume. We made it to the hallway and Leah starting jumping up and down and yelping at me to get her dress off her. It was a longer than floor length dress from the attic. I yelped at her to stop jumping so I could manage the zipper. In went the dress to the tub. It was covered in big juicy ants. They were also all over the bathroom floor. Leah started filling the tub with water to try drowning the ones in there and I got my trainers to wallop the ones on the floor. All this was accomplished while we were hoping around so no more would attack us. Leah got around 4 bites and we counted about 30 ants in the tub the next morning. I ran out to the kitchen to see if there were any in there. There was a line all along the outside of the house right in front of the door, and a smattering of other confused ants that had been swept along by Leah's dress to various part of the house.

There was no way either of us were spending the night in that house. By this time the ants in the bathroom had started marching up and down behind the sink. Mr. and Mrs. P let us stay at their place overnight so we packed up. How to lock the door with a line of ants precisely where I needed to stand? First I dosed them with bug spray. (I bought 4 bottles of it for something!) It didn't kill them but it did stun them. Leah shone the flashlight at my feet to watch for attempts at climbing me while I locked the door. We both were jumping up and down and swatting phantom itches along our legs so the process took a while. (Note: it's very hard to watch someone's feet while your flashlight is bobbing up and down.)

The next morning the maintenance crew hunted down the anthill and dosed it with petrol. Then they found the marauding ants and burnt them. Our house is safe- for now. I also have my trusty rubber boots, doused with bug spray, that will hopefully stun any attempts at attack.

Birthday Party

This past week has been really busy as it was Birthday Party. Each term there is one big birthday party for all the birthday's that occurred during that same term. The theme this term was the 'Wild West'. Hilarious watching African children attempt the American Midwestern accent while wearing vests, cowboy hats or kerchiefs (or neckchiefs?). I dressed up as a prairie farmer lady. It was the easiest costume I could find. The attic of the main sitting room is loaded up with all types of costume's. It's any kids dream come true.

Each class performed a song and a dance. There was also a variety of skits. I laughed so hard. I have short clips of some of them so when I come home if you care to see them just give a yell.

I had a revelation yesterday: I look better when I actually do my hair in the morning. Hence the 'yuck' picture. It also helps if you don't let kids touch it. Another funny thing about my appearance: Just after I first arrived Mark had asked Leah how I was adjusting. Leah, "She seems to be doing ok, only she was super pale when she got off the plane and I'm worried she's getting sick." Mark reminded Leah what Canadian winters do to skin tones.