A little foodie

So, I know this blog often centres around food.  But, well, what can I say, food is a major feature in my life!

Here's a photo of the lovely plate of dessert that I had in the City on Friday evening:

Mmmm... doesn't it look delicious?  I mean, seriously, who would have thought you'd get kiwi fruit over here?!

Tonight, though, my dinner was almost just as delicious, and made up from just as many imported bits:

The broccoli came from the City.  The butter which was drizzled over the hot broccoli came from the City.  The bread with actual grains and whole wheat came from the City.  The cheese inside the bread came from Entebbe.  The peach/orange juice which I washed it all down with also came from the City.  I can't believe just how good that broccoli was.  Seriously good.  Just stirfried in a bit of olive oil (bought in this town, but imported from somewhere in the middle east) and a pinch of salt (bought here but imported from Uganda) and a bit of butter melted over top.  Wow.  So good.

I had a little sandwich and veggie for supper tonight because I feasted at lunch today.  We have a new couple here to join us in the work.  They're Kenyan and are just really wonderful.  I love 'em.  I took them to meet a chap who's half Ghanaian, half Burkinabe, who somehow grew up around Canadian missionaries.  He's here recording a New Testament in one of the local languages.  It's so cool to hear about his work, as he goes all over Africa making recordings of New Testaments, making the Word available to people who, for whatever reason, can't read it.  Such an amazing work that he does, and faces a lot of challenges while doing it.  He and his colleagues from all over Africa just go around to various countries, recording entire New Testaments in something like 25 languages per year.  Because so many of the cultures here in Africa are primarily oral (that is, they LOVE to talk and listen, rather than read), having the Word available in audio format is so incredibly important. 

Unfortunately, with this particular language group that he was recording here, he had a hard time finding enough people who could read their language, especially women, in order to get the entire New Testament recorded.  This language has had a New Testament published for several years, and has so many literacy books produced... but literacy in the language has yet to reach the masses.  Someday, I hope, it will.  But I'm so glad that there are people like Caleb who are running around Africa making sure people get their translated Scriptures in a format that they can access quickly and easily.

I know, sounds funny that a LITERACY specialist is extolling the virtues of recordings.  But it's all a piece of the puzzle that's so necessary in making sure people have the resources they need to figure out who God is.  Both literacy and listening are equally as important!

Anyway, I started on this because I was talking about our lunch... we were chatting and chatting, and I was hungry, so I invited everyone to lunch.  So it was me, this Ghanaian/Burkinabe, and two Kenyans sitting together around the table eating Ethiopian food in this country, and all working towards the same goal and purpose.  What a beautiful picture it was.  It's moment like that where I really do feel so incredibly blessed to be given the opportunity to work and live where I do!