Africa Tid Bits

April 7, 2007

Habari prayer team!

i have now had three full nights of sleep and i am feeling much better, so thank you for your prayers in these areas. Mama Joshua, one of my helpers, and i got all the school supplies in town yesterday and the rooms are being prepared for the boarders. Pray that things work out with my classroom, because i can't use it until three days into the class. So pray for our temporary location when the class begins. Continue to pray for my prepartion and teaching!
And here are some interesting Africa tid bits:

------the bus system is called the Daallaa Daallaa. It looks like an old VW van and they literally squeeze over 20 people into it. Yesterday i counted 24 adults in my bus! People are sitting, standing, and there is a guy hanging out the window (and sometimes the door) trying to get people to take the bus. Even when we are completely packed he still trys to convince people to jump on! The gas prices are so high, especially in comparison to their economy, so that may have something to do with it.

------Collins, an African missionary on the base, is getting married today (and we are all invited!). For wedding gifts, people buy him whatever they want, and it is more about what they want to give than what the person actually needs. There is no organization to it, so Collins has gotten three big beds already, complete with mattresses and head boards! Both sides of the families decided to get him one. In the same way, he may get two full sets of forks but no knives, and all different prints of plates. His apartment is already full with stuff....half of it stuff he doesn't need!

------The Masai school is on holiday for a month so the school is closed. But the Masai don't have a concept of time so the teachers have to come back once a week so the kids don't think the school has shut down completely. To them everyday is the same, so even when they are on holiday they go to school and are confused when no one is there! When it happens day after day, for the extent of a month, they think they are done! They can play! It is ineffective to try to communicate this concept to the parents as well, because they don't have a calendar or keep track of months either. Sounds kind of nice doesn't it?

-------It is not uncommon to see men holding hands with men, or walking with their arms around each other. There is a much stronger sense of family and community here.

-------Yesterday I ate lunch in town and one of the women ordered fried fish. It was an entire fish, head, eyes, tail, dipped in batter. Not all that appetizing to us Westerners.

------All the women's clothes are made out of colorful fabric: skirts, shirts, head wraps, shawls, dresses. The women use matching fabric to carry their babies on their backs. They tie it in front and the fabric securely holds the child in the back. The little kid's legs stick out the sides which is really cute. The babies look really content when they are traveling like this. Maybe I can talk Ashley into carrying her baby in African fabrics (;

Tonight is the Bible School's graduation and tomorrow is the graduation, so I will tell you about those ceremonies shortly.
Thank for you for the prayers and God bless,
Christina