As we walked from the COTN compound out to the village my heart overflowed with joy and anticipation. I didn’t know exactly what to expect. Every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon the interns here at Children of the Nations split into groups and go to 5 houses spread throughout the village to do home visits. We were able to split up and go with them a few times while we have been here. While walking you can see fields of long withered grass swaying in the wind. A woman washes her and her families clothes in a pool of standing water as her children frantically wave at us passing by. We turn a corner and see tiny one or two room houses clustered together. The houses are built out of brick. The dirt is red clay here, so although everything we own now has a red tinge to it, it makes finding sturdy building materials a little easier for the people. Houses are grouped in families. As we came upon the house that became our home, I was told that the surrounding houses belonged to the children of the lady we visited. It didn’t take long for everyone to realize that we were there and a group started to form. The woman that owned the home, her daughters and daughter-in-law, along with their children and neighbors children rushed to greet us. They would say, in their own language, “How are you?” and then I would stumble, splurt out the few wrong words that I knew and watch them roll with laughter at what I was saying. Yesterday when I went again, I finally had “How are you?” And “Fine, and you” down, but then they switched it up and started saying “Good afternoon” which I was then supposed to reply in another way, which I kept getting wrong, so they once again got to laugh at me! I’m convinced that they love to laugh at us! After the greetings were told to sit down on the mats that they had rolled out for us. I am in a group with Chris, Alyssa and David. Alyssa had prepared a short message that day from Psalm 139. It was very quick and to the point. Afterwards we asked what we could do to help them out around the house and they told us to do their dishes. That required taking buckets over to the water pump, pumping water, and bringing it back. Unfortunately the way that the women carry everything around here is on their heads. So I was given a very shallow pan of water that was filled all the way to the top and it was put on my head. As I walked I learned how slow and smooth I needed to walk so that the water would not slosh all over me, which it did! The girl that walked with me kept asking me if I wanted to let her do it, and I said no and eventually I made it. The other girls were given larger buckets but they were not nearly as full. I would have been jealous, but they were much heavier than mine…and I got to carry one of the heavier ones a week later! When we got everything back, the dishes, soap and scrub brush were brought to us. That day their were only a few dishes so Alyssa and Chris did them while David and I played with the kids. I eventually got my chance to do the dishes, though, and it was very interesting. The big pans that they cook with get very black around the bottom from the fire and no amount of scrubbing with soap and water will clean it, but add a little dirt to the mixture and the black comes off quickly! So we washed dishes with dirt, and the silver of the pans quickly shined through! They were very happy about the way we cleaned the dishes, meaning they didn’t go back and clean them again! They started to make some corn bread as we played with the children. We were having fun, dancing and swinging, and then some of the women decided that they should teach us how to dance! So all of the women and the children got into a circle and one person went to the middle to keep the beat, with a pan and a stick! They were jumping and shaking and singing, and all the while expecting us to do everything they did. They had so much fun laughing with us and at us! The next time we went instead of dancing the women got all of the children together in a choir and they sang songs for us! They were adorable! Then yesterday at our final home visit, we had the children color and while they did that Alyssa and I were taught how to mash the corn and then to sift it. Needless to say, we got laughed at again! It was really hard work, my arms got quiet the work out. It has been such a good experience to do home visits. They don’t care that we can’t speak their language and I’m pretty sure the only reason they bring out stuff for us to do is for their entertainment. They just like having us around.
