Playing Catch-Up and Praying for a Gueno

I am sorry for being such a horrible blogger. I quickly lose patience with the internet speed and decide "I'll just wait until next week," and now it's been over a month since my last post. I'll try to give a somewhat quick summary of some things that have happened over the last month and then will try to post one or two more pointed blogs…so here goes!
 

•  Living in a mud hut in the village was interesting. On the way to a huge lake, I rode on the back of a motorcycle (boda-boda) for so long that my face was visibly coated in dirt. We ate the best fish I've ever had in my life, sat around a campfire, and went to the introduction of a couple we have gotten to know at the church. An introduction is like a pre-wedding ceremony that is based around the man going to the woman's family and negotiating the bride price, which is usually a bunch of cows and other livestock. It's held at the woman's family's home, and everyone dresses up in traditional outfits (gomis). There is a lot of dancing by the future bride and her friends, dancing with everyone, speeches from the family members, a message from the Pastor, and a lot of waiting. Especially for the food. Least favorite part of the village: squatty potties. We use them occasionally when we have to, but they were all we had in the village. It's the one thing I don't think I could ever get totally used to in Africa…a hole in the ground as the bathroom. Nope.

• Nairobi, Kenya was great. It was a nice refresher before beginning the last leg of our time in Uganda. It was much more like a "city" that I am used to than I expected: we saw a movie, window-shopped in a really nice mall, ate frozen yogurt/gelato/salad and other things we haven't seen in months, and I even took one really hot shower. (The next day the heater wasn't working and I took the coldest shower of my life…ah, oh well) We went souvenir shopping in a market outside the mall where people sell things made by the Maasai Mara tribe in Kenya. That was interesting…I'm now a professional haggler. People literally try to drag you to their stuff and try to get you to buy it for way too much. At the end I got a lot of great deals and wanted to go back and haggle more…ha. We also went to a giraffe park one morning, where the diversity of people was just as fun to watch as the giraffes themselves. There were people from all over Europe, the Middle East, India, the U.S., Spain or Central America and who knows where else all in this little giraffe park. The world seemed so small for a minute. Oh, and I also got my ears pierced for the first time. Didn't hurt at all. We spent a lot of good worship time with the other teams and some good down time with each other. I almost cried after I went with a few of the girls to see a movie because I realized that I would rarely, if ever, get to hang out with these people at home, in America. I won't even begin to describe the craziness of the 20+ hour bus ride each way- you can check out Aly Reed's blog about that. The views out the bus window were absolutely incredible.

• It's finally rainy season in full force, and it's awesome. Sarah and I have danced around in the rain- twice- and gotten soaked. I've ridden in the back of a truck and a motorcycle in the rain- both pretty painful. We turned our courtyard area into a slip-and-slide once by putting soap in the standing water and sliding around like crazy people. A few people had a mud fight…I opted to take pictures. The weather also cools down when it rains which is much appreciated.

• Celebrating Easter in Africa was awesome. Far from the distractions of peeps, bunnies, dyed eggs and buying a nice new “Easter Sunday outfit”- it felt more to the point. On Palm Sunday we walked to church, and on the way almost every person- kids included- had their own palm branch. Our team got to sing a few songs at Good Friday service while Marissa painted a really cool picture, and Somer shared a poem she wrote. Sunday we presented the Everything skit (you can check out the original one on youtube if you haven’t seen it before). I’d never done a skit before, and was kind of skeptical as to whether or not is would translate well in Africa, but it went really, really well.

• Every weekday VOC has a lunch hour prayer service, and our team is responsible for doing worship and preaching on Fridays. It’s usually just the people who work at the church and a handful of other people that come off and on. A couple of weeks ago I was asked to preach, and I way unnecessarily freaked out. I hate public speaking and anything that requires me to talk for more than five minutes straight. I literally was dreading it so much that I put it off until the day of, because I couldn’t think of anything I wanted to talk about. After working myself up and being an emotional wreck, Jesus and I finally worked it out, and I came to terms with how ridiculously self-centered I was being about the whole thing. I gave up my control and my obsession with sounding and being perfect, and it all turned out just fine. Funny how when you reach the end of yourself God’s grace gets to show off.

•  I had the most ridiculous meal recently. Oh my goodness. Check out Darby’s post “I ate Obama”

• Random funny story…we go to an area just outside of town where VOC has a church plant and just visit people in the area. Last week we went to see if Jaspher was out of prison (more on him in another post) and it turned out he wasn’t, so I played with a group of kids for a couple of hours. At one point I noticed a lady lying under a tree nearby who looked like she was in pain, and after someone explained to me that she was sick I went over and prayed for her. The kids all crowded around like they normally do, and soon afterwards we went back to playing. We started naming all the foods we could think of and I was learning how to say them in Luo, when we got to “chicken” or “gueno.” Some of the kids pointed at what apparently was a chicken…it was one of the most pitiful creatures I have ever seen. It was half-grown and it’s eyes were glazed over, and its weak attempts at escape when the kids poked and prodded it were painful to watch. Then all the kids knelt down around it, put their hands on it, and started mumbling under their breath- all the while occasionally glancing at me and laughing. I was thoroughly confused until I realized they were praying for the chicken. Oh man. So cute. I wish I had a picture.

• Last Saturday we went to Sam and Doreen’s wedding! They are the couple I mentioned at the beginning- we went to their introduction. They are beyond adorable and so sweet. We spent the first part of the morning rehearsing- more on that in a second- and trying to look as nice as is possible in Africa. We got there around noon (the ceremony was supposed to begin at eleven, but this is Africa) and it didn’t begin until about one. Jordan had been pulled away that morning because- surprise!- he was going to be IN the wedding because one of the groomsman needed to be a driver or something. It was crazy. We sang a cheesy (but cute) love song medley during the ceremony, which would have been kind of weird in America but people loved it. At the reception we did a dance that Brittany and Darby choreographed to a Christian rap song about being a Biblical woman. It was absolutely hilarious and slightly humiliating, but we did pretty darn well for our one day of preparation. We also helped serve the food, which kind of ran out before everyone was served- oops. African weddings are all kinds of fun.

 
I can’t believe we only have three more weeks left. Life at home seems like something a million miles away that I don’t understand anymore, and I’m kind of nervous about the transition back. I am praying that I don’t get distracted from ministry here by thinking too much about home, and that once I get back that I won’t lose anything I have learned and grown in while here. Keep praying that the rest of our time will be fruitful and that we would stay focused and motivated. I’m hoping to write at least one more post today that is more in depth, and to not wait so long until my next blog so I can do more than just scratch the surface in a long list of different things! Thank you so much for your prayers and support. Apoyo Ba! (Thank you seriously)