Side Effects

Wow, I am tired!!! The days are getting long, but no less interesting. Mefloquine is an anti-malarial medication that I am taking while I am here, and if you look it up on Google, you will see that there are some interesting side effects. I have been experiencing some very strange and lucid dreams. At about three this morning, I woke myself and a few others in my room up when I shouted, "Stop!" I was dreaming that we were playing with the children and Colton comes running up and starts spraying me with pesticide. These dreams are so strange...

I woke up at about 6 this morning and again watched most of the sunrise from the front yard. I prepared my lesson for VBS this afternoon and waited for the others to wake. Jaimie, Colton and I went for a pretty good walk through town and were able to interact with a few locals. Everybody in Africa is 'fine' if you ask them. Just before breakfast Jaimie and I went back out and bought some chappatti from a sidewalk (closer to side dirt) vendor. Chappatti is pretty much an extra thick fried tortilla and it is delicious! Breakfast ended up lasting almost until lunch, so the post holes we were planning on digging didn't end up dug. There is this funny concept here that we are told is called Africa Time. Nothing is on time and agendas and schedules are absolutely worthless. A doctor may tell you that he will be over at 9 in the morning and if he shows up after lunch it is no big deal.

After lunch was time for VBS. So much fun! We started by teaching them the song and motions to "River of Life," and I think that most of the non english speaking children learned it faster than I did. I followed this with a teaching introducing Paul to the kids. I then taught about the free gift of love and grace from G-d that Paul discusses in Romans 6 and how this love naturally changes everything within us as we learn to let more of ourselves be given to G-d as explained in Romas 12. The children are very smart. Phil and the New Grace school have done a wonderful job teaching the children. We finished VBS by learning a number of African games and making name tags for the children. Next, we took a trip to a small house that many widows call home that Phil and Hope Africa have been helping along with all of our orphans. The widows welcomed us, danced, and sold a lot of us some beautiful floor mats.

The highlight of my day was definitely meeting a new family member. I have sponsored a child by the name of Paul Munyes. He is 12, loves math, and would love to be a bank manager after finishing school. My BS was earned in mathematics, and I worked at a bank so we do start with something in common. He was very shy when I first met him today, but was soon opening up and smiling a lot. The relational customs here, as I mentioned before, are much more comfortable with little need for personal space. It is completely natural for the boys of any age to come up and just hold my hand. As Munyes became more comfortable, he was soon holding mine.

Blessed are you, Lord, our G-d, King of the universe for giving us life, for sustaining us, and for bringing us to this moment.