We are so blessed. Maybe it's Michelle & I who are bringing the blessings, I don't know, but whatever it is, we have been blessed beyond measure. We are technically in the bush of africa. There will be pictures to come, but all around us there are huts that people live in, run down houses, goats for sale, chickens running around, weird looking ducks waddle past us while hissing at us. Yes, you read that right. They hiss. It's really interesting. Mango trees litter the yard with fallen, rotting mangos. Women walk around with babies strapped to their back, and when they are hungry, they move them around to the front, whip out a boob, and feed them. Toto, I'm definitely not in Kansas anymore.
But, where we are staying, we have showers, we have toilets – real, american, flushable toilets with toilet paper, we have doors and windows and cement floors. We have water that is okay to drink without boiling, tableting, iodine-ing or doing anything to it. We have an outside light that allows us to see in the middle of the night, we have our tents that block us from nasty little Malaria-carrying mosquitos, We have a lady who cooks for us. Who cooks us wonderfully tasty meals and we have a truck to ride around in. We. Are. Blessed.
We are working with Operation Mobilization – an organization that works toward getting churches to work together for the greater good. We're currently unsure of what we'll be doing – we were going to do a lot of construction projects, but we found out that people who came here in the past also brought money to do those jobs (of which we have very little). So, no money = no materials = no construction projects.
Our contact is a lovely middle aged man named Antonio. He has one heck of a story that I haven't uncovered yet, but I do know that his parents a few years ago, he lost his wife to Malaria in 2008 and has just lost so many things. But he still has his trust and faith. He loves God and serves him with all that he has – he lives alone here at the base but does have a young man, John, 17, who helps him and is in what I would call an apprenticeship. Antonio is also engaged to be married.
It's a good place to be. Antonio has such a gentle spirit and has been wonderful to us in the few days that we've known him. I'm excited!
With love,
Amanda
