Yes, Alive

A lot has happened since I last sat down to write a blog. I find myself unsure as to how to begin or where to begin.

I last uploaded blogs the day before Rebekah’s birthday; Mollie and I went to town to do some bd shopping for presents and special food for the bd girl. A package was waiting for me at the post office, from mom and dad containing books, some great grad pics of my bro, and…. A fabulous envelope of amazing artsy cards. I couldn’t contain myself; on the truck ride home I opened a few of them. A lady next to me commented “your friends must really love you and miss you” – I definitely felt loved. Thank you so much friends!!

That week one of the uncles came to the village to prepare for the various teams which will be coming to the village this summer. He was bothered that a current database on the kids is not available and gave me the task of creating one. I am both excited at the prospect of doing the work, and dreading the “working relationship” implications this task holds. Technically there are people in the org who are responsible for this, only it hasn’t been done… so I have to tread carefully and not step on any toes, yet manage to get the work done.

Friday we had to prepare for Career’s Day; a day organized by one of the teachers here to help the kids who are getting ready to graduate and also to provide info for all the students about career options. If I didn’t like the teacher so much, I would have refused to be involved because (can you guess?) I was asked to be on kitchen duty. But because she is such a neat woman, who is working so hard to help our kids, I could not refuse. I organized the S5 boys to haul water for cooking on Saturday, and the S6 boys for chopping the firewood. I have to admit, the S6 boys, while neat, weren’t as fun to hang out with as the S4 boys from the last firewood experience, but let’s keep that between us ok?

The boys were chopping the wood, but the stacking was left to me. I called at the current chopper to stop for a minute so I could gather the wood at his feet and he was confused as to why he needed to stop swinging the axe. “I am trying to protect my skin- don’t want you to chop me” I told him. “But of course madam, I must stop. If we damaged your skin, your value would decrease and as we see it, you are quite valuable.” I laughed out loud, then thanked them as they spoke up- the general consensus among the S6 boys is that I am worth a lot of cows. They boys then proceeded to tell me about things that could potentially decrease my value- including scars from an axe accident. Highlight of the wood chopping though: African pick up lines. Here is the winner: “I will love you until Lake Bunyoni runs dry.”
Saturday went off without a hitch thanks to Rebekah holding down the fort doing the wash at home and Mollie helping me in the kitchen. Again, not the easiest thing to cook in an African kitchen, but I am pleased to report that no one complained about the food.

I know I have commented before on this, but there seems to be a strange time continuum here in our village. Time moves so slowly each day, and yet I find myself completing weeks in what seems like mere days. Please forgive the lack of daily anecdotes, of late each day seems to blur into the next.