It’s about seven A.M. The sun is still working its way up and is just now high enough to peek through the trees, scattering beams of light across the front lawn. I’m sitting outside on a wooden bench under a canopy of leaves. One of the men, Joseph, has just let the cows out. One white and brown spotted, two dark brown, almost black, and a small calf. It stops to munch on some grass, then runs off when it realizes its mom has gone on ahead. It’s such a blessing to be on a farm this month.
The yard is surrounded on four sides by green shrubs taller than I am. Several trees are growing out of the shrubs as well. There’s a gap in the shrub off to one side, where the cows live, and another out back with a small gate that leads to the squattie potties and the shower area. The hole in the squatties seems even smaller than last time, if you can believe it. But the shower situation is incredible. When we want to shower we tell one of the women here, and she mixes boiling water and cold water together for us. So we get to take warm showers in the cool morning air. It’s lovely.
The house is black with rust-colored trim around the bottom, brick under the windows, sky blue trim around the windows and the roof and the corners of the house, and a triangle of cream on the very front. I have my own room this month, unless you count the rat that lives in the closet. He’s harmless, don’t worry.
The breeze is blowing this morning, and sitting here in my skirt and t-shirt I am almost cold. The chickens are beginning to make their way around the yard, scratching in the dirt. Cassie taps on the window to get my attention and call me in for breakfast. Hard boiled eggs, bread, butter, and tea. I love my buttered bread and tea, and almost always eat way too much of it. That’s okay though, because I need energy for walking down the dirt roads to the church in the hot sun, and then door to door.
Austin and I are a team, along with some of the church members who translate for us. At the first house I share, and the man accepts Christ! Also, a chicken poops on his floor. But nobody seems to notice. At the next house we pray for a man who is unemployed. He has a poster of President Obama on his wall that says “Dreams Come True.” We go to another house and visit with a woman and her fussy grandson. She has a poster on the wall of the world’s worst dictators, and I’m not sure but it looks like Margaret Thatcher is one of the people on the list. The last man we talk to is in the process of building a house. He has set a frame up using skinny logs, and then packs mud chunk after mud chunk together to form the walls. Eventually they’ll put a cement floor in. We head back to the church and pray, then head home.
Sometimes we visit schools and speak about the importance of education, staying in school, resisting peer pressure and making good choices. We’ve also visited a special needs school. On Sundays we preach at church, and sometimes our ministry is just visiting with people. Our free time this month looks like watching movies together on a laptop, or reading, writing, or listening to music on the bench under the leaves or in one of the hammocks. My personal favorite is lying in a nearby field and looking at the stars.
As always, thanks for your support, your prayers, comments, and encouragement. I couldn’t do this without you!
Up next, month nine in Tanzania.
