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More of life in the village - began writing in the village, and will slowly finish this week



As I sit here to write, I am surrounded by small children –some nephews, a little orphaned girl, and a great-nephew, plus some of my own children coming and going. I came to the church building to write, because the internet reception is better, the heat is not as intense, and I thought I would be alone – if I could speak the language I might ask them to leave for a little while, but I think that choosing love, and bearing the noise of all the “emotokars” (cars made of pieces of wood –that don’t resemble cars, but with an imagination and some good sound effects, they become perfect cars!)…in the time that it took to write that, they realized that I wasn’t looking at pictures or doing anything interesting, so they took their cars outside –but left a baby behind to play on the dirt floor.

Actually, the floor is not dirt, it is made of cow dung. Here is Benjamin’s description of the [making of the] cow-dung floor: “I watched one of my cousins make a cow-poop-floor. First, they collect the cow poop in a broken jerry can, then they put it on the ground, and pour water on it, and mix it with their hands. They spread it around and let it dry in the sun. When it is dry it is a hard (and a little bit bumpy) floor.”


What a huge contrast lies between those last two paragraphs and where I now sit (still surrounded by my own children), on our third and final flight home to Vancouver!

Today is Thursday (In Canada); we began our journey on Monday (In Uganda). We thought that we would leave Monday morning, but then Samuel needed to bring Papa to a hospital, which ended up taking all day. The children and I stayed home to finish our last bit of packing, which included having my sister-in-law hand wash a small “load” of clothes, and sweeping out our very dusty hut, one last time. By the time Samuel was back with papa (who actually needed surgery and was told he would have it the same day, but was lied to about when the doctor was coming), it was coming to 7pm. Samuel still needed to collect all of the tools that we had borrowed from friends in Canada, give final instructions to the construction workers, and we needed to say goodbye and pray with our family. While Samuel collected tools, I did a “bore hole run” and then packed everything in the van.

Saying goodbye is SO hard, especially when we don’t know when we will be back…travelling is hard too –though God has given us SO much grace, and it IS sufficient. The children are mostly very patient, peaceful ad obedient, but being stuck in a car for hours, long flights, short stop overs, lack of sleep, and time change is still all a challenge! And now, we are almost home.

Home…

But this blog wasn’t going to be about home or about travel, it was going to be a little synopsis of our time in the village, and some of our experiences –I have already shared a bit about lessons learnt, and also about a few cultural observations, but have been asked to share a little bit more about what life is like, so, will write a few short stories below:


Dirt
Dirt is just part of life in the village, and cannot be cleaned away, swept away, nor really ignored. Maybe gotten used to, but not ignored. It is also the dry season right now, and the family compound has no grass. Plus, we are building a house, so there is construction material, cement and sand dust, and lake sand, and animal droppings around the yard. And then inside the hut, the dust from the walls and from the grass-thatched roof, are filtered through mosquito nets onto our beds.

I don’t even know how it is possible, that even after sweeping off the bed, shaking out the sheets (having it “made” with a blanket down during the day), that there is still dirt on the beds when we tuck the kids in, and even more in the morning when we wake up. I sweep my hand over it in the pitch dark, and the static electricity in my body lights up the bed, with finger-trails of light. Then in the morning, my nails are always full of dirt, and I use(d) orange tree thorns to clean them out.


Coming soon:
Light
Rats
Other critters
Church

banking
(and pictures)

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