The khawaijas go to the hospital

In today's episode of the "Khawaija Show", J and T go visiting at the hospital...

Sunday, who helps us in our house, gave birth to a little boy last Sunday afternoon. She's an amazing woman - she cleaned our house, washed a pile of clothes and dishes on Saturday, and on Sunday afternoon, gave birth to a little boy! She was only in labour for 1 hour! The baby was born safe and sound in her house, with only her neighbors around to help her.

However, last night, the baby got sick, and started running a very high fever. So she brought him to the hospital. Since we hadn't had a chance to go and visit the baby yet, we thought we should go and see them in the hospital, which is also the culturally appropriate thing to do.

It was quite comical, actually. First, we had to stop at the shop to buy some juice and some little cakes for the new mother. Then we had to find them. Jackie and I, along with 3 of the women who work on our compound, wandered around the grounds, in and out of various wards, for nearly 30 minutes before we found the building Sunday and her baby were staying in. We were quite the scene - Vicky is very pregnant and very forward, Nadia, who came from the North and was all wrapped up in her scarves, Cicilia, who just quietly smiles, and then two bewildered white girls (khawaijas)!

Anyways, we eventually found Sunday and her baby. And the Khawaija show really began. Of course, anytime there's a new born baby around, I have to ooh and aaah and coo. Sunday and her baby were staying on one side of the ward, while there were probably 5 children and their mothers and various other family members on the other end of the ward. At one point, I looked up over to the other side of the ward, and saw ALL of their eyes trained on me and Jackie! I guess they don't get too many white girls visiting there, and they were all curious to see what we were going to do, I guess.

Well, I tried to ignore our audience and just enjoyed seeing the baby and talking a little with Sunday. The baby is so precious. From what I could tell, the baby was diagnosed with some sort of infection, and so was being given IV antibiotics. He had been all sweaty and hot, so Sunday was keeping him bathed in baby powder, which is why he looks like he's also turning into a khawaija!

Here's a photo of baby with his mother:
And just because the baby is so cute...
We had a nice visit with Sunday and her baby, and before we left, Sunday asked us to pray for the baby. So I got to pray that the Lord would heal the little baby. Life here is so fragile, and when I see this little child sick, and who knows what kind of medical care he's receiving... well, I can only trust that God is in control and can heal this little life. So please pray with me for a full recovery for this baby, so he will grow big and strong, full of Life and knowing his Creator.

One of the other women who works with us in the guesthouse was also in the hospital at the same time. She, unfortunately, had a miscarriage on the weekend. Please also pray for Mary. She lost a child a few years ago, and has not been able to get pregnant again until now. In the meantime, her husband has taken a second wife, since Mary wasn't able to give him more children yet. I can't imagine how difficult it must be to be in Mary's position now. So please pray for her, too, for comfort and for her to know God's love during this difficult time.

Sundays are made for rest...

And that's what I did today. I love Sundays. I woke up late (though I was already hot when I woke up at 9:30am!), and had a nice long warm shower (not because we have a hot water heater, but because the sun was already warm enough to heat the water in the storage tank!), and had an egg with my coffee (which my housemates, who woke up ages before I did, had already made!). Then I settled in to listen to a John Piper sermon on my MP3 player, which I downloaded last night. John Piper has the most amazing resources online. I love it, because there just isn't a good place to go to hear a good sermon in this city... or if there is, I haven't found it yet! There are also no Christian bookstores here (in fact there aren't ANY bookstores of ANY kind here!). So, having free resources online makes me happy.

It was a great sermon - very encouraging as it talked about the "call" of missions and the roles that everyone has to play in how God is building his Kingdom among all the nations of the earth. Very good. I would stick a link to the specific sermon I listened to... except that it seems my Internet has stopped working at the moment!

Anyways, it was good. Afterwards, as I sat and did some cross-stitch (I know, I'm getting old and granny-ish already as I sit around drinking tea and doing needlepoint - but it's nice to have a brainless occupation once in a while and create something pretty at the same time!). But whilst cross-stitching, I was listening to MercyMe. In particular, I was listening to a song that was sung at the memorial service for my friend Steve a few weeks ago called "Homesick". I don't think I would have been able to hold it together had I heard that song in his memorial service.

The lyrics to that song are posted on the "Memories of Steve" website. (Which, by the way, is an amazing way to share memories of Steve, since he has so many friends scattered all over the world!). Anyway, I just spent some time praying and thinking about my dear ones who got to go to heaven before me. This whole idea of "home" and "homesickness" seems to be a recurring theme in my life. I just keep coming back to it, over and over again, since I get confused about where "home" is sometimes!

I must admit that I don't often get homesick for Canada, though of course, I really miss my family and friends and hot showers. I even sometimes miss other countries that I've had the privilege to spend time in, and I miss the friends and experiences that I had in those places. But when I get homesick, it's usually for a place that I've never even been to or seen with my eyes. I do get homesick for heaven, for a place that just sounds so incredible. A place that has no need for the sun or the moon, because the Lord will be the Light. A place where there is no more sickness or crying. A place where I will ride again with Steve, and will get to hold my baby neice in my arms and see her beautiful smile. A place where I will know and be known... by the One who created me and loves me. How amazing is that?

So sometimes, when I look around and I see the difficulties of life here on earth (both here in Africa and at home), my heart aches to be "home".

But it's a good ache, too, you know? Because it's Hope, it's the Promise of things to come. And it's the privilege of living out part of that Kingdom in the here and now. So I hope today you're feeling a little homesick, too.

Where's my t-shirt?

I earned my "IT Babe" t-shirt this week, let me tell 'ya. I think I have finally gotten the computer going again, with an incredible amount of help from my remote computer geeks ... they're all married men, so I don't think they would appreciate the "IT Babe" label.

I learned a ton, though it's all knowledge which I hope I will not have to make use of any time in the near future! I felt like I ran a marathon yesterday - I was in the computer container from 9am (the time we turn on the generator) until after 6pm. I didn't even leave to eat lunch - I just ran out to go to the loo and grab a plate of food, which I ate whilst mucking around on the computer! It's probably not good practice to eat in front of a computer (and I have a salad dressing stain on the front of my t-shirt to prove it!), but it was when my guides were available, so that's when I worked. Too bad there was a huge pot of fish head stew for lunch - ew. I ended up with a plate full of matooke (plantains) and tomato salad. It didn't quite keep me going for the long haul, so I also had a Nature Valley peanut butter granola bar for a snack - thanks to leftovers from the work crew that was here last week from the US!

Finally, this afternoon, I think I got the computer all back together again. Tomorrow we shall move it back into the office where it belongs and see if it actually DOES work like it's supposed to! Once that's done, I'm taking off my IT Babe t-shirt (don't worry, I wear many other t-shirts underneath!) and revealing my "multilingual education specialist" t-shirt.

Jackie and I were called to a bit of a surprise meeting at the Ministry of Education yesterday. I was up to my elbows in the guts of computer, so I couldn't go - but Jackie went, and now we've got a bit of of work to do! Pray for us tomorrow as we sit together and try to come up with a plan for how to move forward in a good way with some of the things that some people in the Ministry want to do... though others in the Ministry don't want to do those things... so we've got to tread carefully and figure out the best way to approach this situation!

IT Babe

I almost forgot about something I wanted to blog tonight: my housemate Annamarie said that she would get a t-shirt made for me. It would label me an "IT Babe" - not a "geek" or a "techie" or anything else. But an "IT Babe". I kinda like that one.

But really, I think she was still in shock from the wheel falling off their SUV on the way home in the middle of the road! Yup, just another typical commute in Jb - who needs the front wheel anyways?! So probably once the shock of that wears off, she won't be thinking of me as an IT Babe anymore... :(

Surrounded by my friends...

... except that they all happen to be computers! I have really turned into the ultimate computer geek today. The main computer for one of our translation teams died sometime over the weekend. On Monday morning, the casualty was discovered. And I have spent the last two days trying to do something about it!

I'm SO glad I have people all over the world at the end of a Skype line who can help me. I even have Andy sending me pictures of different cables by email so I have at least a little bit of a clue as to what he's asking me about :) Who knew there was a difference between SATA cables and PATA cables?

Of course, my little adventures into the innards of the desktop computer was hampered by the rain. The tin roof on the office block is being replaced at the moment. Of course, it's supposed to be dry season now, but somehow, the rains have kept coming. So over lunch time today, it poured. And I mean, poured. When it rains here, it's not just a little drizzle. It's a deluge. So once again, for the second time in a week, the ceiling boards have been ruined and a room has been flooded in an unexpected downpour.

This time, the downpour came into the office with the dead computer. Even after the flood, the ceiling boards were wet and dripping, there was water running down the walls, and quite a few puddles on the floor. At least the computers had been covered by some plastic sheets in the middle of the downpour, so they were safe!

But I certainly didn't want to turn anything electrical on in all that water, so I had to move the computer into the container where all the other computer stuff is kept. I felt like such a geek carrying all the computer bits around the compound, and finding power cords, and getting it all set up again. I even learned how to yank the hard drive and the memory out of the computer!

So there I was, all day long, surrounded by my friends. The Toshiba M1, and his extra special battery. JJ and his faithful service as a backer-upper of data. M3 and her trusty little hard drive with all my music, photos and data on her. And the newcomer, JD7, who just seems to want to keep sleeping, and can't be roused no matter what we seem to do to him! All these little friends of mine - they all have their own quirks, but somehow, they're family. So I'll do what I can to keep them all happy...

Roads in Town

Andy took a few little videos with his phone whilst in our fair city last week. The resolution it's great, but it gives you the idea of what it's like to drive across town...


Now can you see why we call this road "Rag Doll Ally". Make sure you notice at the very end the big Hilux coming right for us! Keep in mind, as well, that is one of only two main roads which goes from our side of town to pretty much anywhere we need to go!

Um, right. I just tried to post the video... after waiting for a few hours (yes, literally hours) for it to upload... only to get an error message in Italian. So. No video tonight. Maybe another day... once I get the Italian dictionary out to figure out what that error message meant...

How to keep cool on a Sunday afternoon...

We went out for a lovely lunch, and then a little trip to the market (where, rather unfortunately, I bumped into "my" immigration guy. I was hoping that my profuse sweating would show him just how unattractive I really am. But he still seemed happy to see me, as I was wiping the drips from the end of my nose...). Anyways, it was sweaty today. The weather is changing from the rainy season to the hot season, so now we've just got hot and humid. Yuck.

However, one of my old neighbors left me this lovely little pool.I hadn't yet set it up, but today was just so sweaty, so I thought I might as well get fully immersed in some water, rather than just being wet in uncomfortable places. I was going to set it up outside in the yard somewhere, but then Annamarie reminded me that I probably wouldn't do well sitting that close to the grass for too long. (It was very nice of her to remind me of my hay-fever, though I think she's just tired of hearing me sneezing and snorting and sniffing all the time!). So, I ended up setting it up in the verandah - the perfect combination of shade and non-grass!

Now, this isn't the most flattering picture, but the following will give you an idea of the size of my swimming pool:Just big enough for me to be half-way immersed... but it's amazing how quickly being immersed in a pool of cold water can cool you down! I took my book and "swam" for over an hour, and the cooling effects stayed with me for quite a long time afterwards, too! So I might just make it a habit to have a Sunday afternoon swim :)

Footing

Now, if we had just gone footing we would not have had the trouble with getting the cars through the mud. "Footing" is what they call "walking" over here. Today at lunch, we were eating with some of our guests who have come for a workshop to start translation projects in their language. They've been with us in the guesthouse a few other times for workshops, as well, and they just arrived today to stay for another 3 weeks. They're really neat people. Today they were telling us stories of what it was like during the last war. So many people had to walk. And walk. And walk.

Most of them left their homes in various locations in the South, and they started footing. They just put one foot in front of the other until they reached a border, and relative safety. Then they had to walk back again. One of the men with us had a little child of about 4 years old, as well as a baby. This man had to carry the baby, along with a few of his belongings, a tent, a cooking pot, some basic food and water, so he wasn't able to also carry the small child. Normally, it took people 1 month to walk from their village to the border of a neighboring country. But with this child, it took 3 months. Imagine walking with all of your possessions and your baby on your back for an entire month. Then imagine doing it with 4 year old size steps!

My getting the car stuck in the mud once in a while absolutely pales in comparison to the thought of walking across this country - and I live in a very big country!

No party is complete...

... without getting stuck in the mud on the way home!

This evening I went in convoy through the jungles of suburban Jb to the new compound of some friends of mine for a BBQ birthday celebration. It was really a crazy place to find, and there's one pretty dodgy section where you have to cross a bit of a river. On the way there, I was riding with the folks who live there, in their Toyota Hilux. We got to the river bank, Francis paused for a minute, took a deep breath, and then we plunged in and quite easily got out the other side.

I then enjoyed an amazing party - it's been a long time since I've been to such a big party, but it was a really nice mix of people that I know quite well, people that I sort of know, but have wanted to get to know better, and people that I've never met before. Plus, the food was great. I love BBQs - even when they have a slab of goat sitting on the grill! There was also some chicken and a few sausages. I think the sausages were brought in from Nairobi, along with a bit of ice cream, specially for tonight!

One of the highlights of the evening was the bagpipe rendition of "Happy Birthday"! The nieghbours must have really been wondering what was going on when the bag pipes started wailing! The birthday boy is Scottish, you see, and we happen to have a friend here who plays the bagpipes. So it was the perfect surprise for him, and for the rest of us! Who would have thought we'd get to hear bagpipes in the middle of Jb?!

Anyways, on the way home, I drove with my friend and nieghbor, Kathy, in her SUV. I think it's a Prado or something like that - I'm not exactly sure. But it's more the luxery kind of SUV, not really the "working" kind of SUV. So we tried to drive straight through the river again... and got stuck as soon as we hit the mud on the bank. Ooops. Kathy had never had to use the 4WD before on the car, and I didn't know how to stick it into 4WD, either. Thankfully, we were driving in convoy with two Rav4s, one of which was carrying a fellow Canadian who seems to know quite a bit about 4WDriving. So he popped into the car, got it into gear, and got us out of the mud in a flash... or, rather, in a splash :)

We then got out sticks and stuff and started trying to poke the other sections of the river, to see if there was a shallower way to go through, as the Rav4s are a bit smaller and have less clearance than the Prado. So there we were, a bunch of white folks in the middle of the suburban jungle in the middle of the night, trying to get three cars through a river.

But in the end we were all successful and we managed to find our way home! No party in Jb is complete without an adventure getting home!

"It wasn't a very interesting day, really"

Jackie and I are sitting in our little verandah, enjoying the night noise. I'm sneezing and congested because something green and growing has gotten itself lodged in my nose. I've taken a double dose of allergy medication, so I thought it would be a good day to ask Jackie for her opinion on what she thought I should blog about tonight. Her response was, "It wasn't a very interesting day, really." So, there you have it. It wasn't a very interesting day.

But not having anything interesting to say never stopped me from writing before... so...

My day began with yet another trip to the airport! This time I was bringing the work team away so they could catch their flight home. I felt a bit like a tour director - I've learned from Richard how to get a group of people through that airport most efficiently. It goes like this:

1. Before leaving the compound, a single focal point gathers each person's passports, tickets and travel permits. Reciepts (especially those that have been hard-earned by yours truly) must be removed from the passport for most efficient processing.
2. Everyone gets in the trucks and you proceed to the airport.
3. Once at the airport, driver stops in the middle of the road nearest the front doors. Driver keeps an eye on other vehicles which may be backing into our truck whilst passengers unload the luggage. Passengers proceed to the front door and wait in the shade whilst driver drives across the road to park the truck.
4. Driver now puts on her airport guide hat and finds her group, quietly waiting together with their pile of luggage.
5. Airport guide instructs group to stand in a corner out of the way, then procures stack of passports, tickets and travel passes and proceeds to fight way through crowd to airline check-in desk.
6. Airport guide clears a way through the crowd to the other side of check in desk so luggage can be wieghed and tagged. Airport guide instructs group to stand out of the way on the other side of the luggage scale.
7. Airport guide makes sure passports, tickets and travel passes, along with newly acquired boarding passes are neatly stacked and that all pieces of luggage are tagged for the appropriate destination.
8. Airport guide guides women to take their luggage to one side of the security desk and the men to the other side of the security desk. Airport guide observes whilst group opens luggage and allows security personnel to have a look inside.
9. Airport guide instructs group to go to departures waiting area and to try to find a seat.
10. Airport guide procedes to immigration desk. Airport guide goes back to group to borrow a pen (a more experienced airport guide would never forget her pen!).
11. Airport guide elbows way to the front of the crowd to find the appropriate departures list. Airport guide writes names, passport numbers, nationalities, hometowns, and destinations of each individual group member on list. Note, answering a phone call in the middle of completing this form will forfeit your turn, and you must go back to the end of the line.
12. Airport guide manouvers through the crowd back to the other immigration desk and stands in front of air cooler whilst waving a stack of passports in front of the uniformed immigration officer with the stamp. Greeting him in the local language in a smiling voice will help get your passports to the front of the line.
    
13. Airport guide watches while each passport and travel permit are stamped, and makes sure no boarding passes slip out in the process. Upon completion, Airport guide gives a friendly smile and a appreciative nod, as airport guide knows that the man with the stamp is a good man to befriend.
14. Airport guide shoves her way through the crowd to find her group. Her work is almost done. If steps 7 - 13 have been done correctly, there will be a passport, travel permit and boarding pass for each member of her group. The group will accept their documents with an appreciative smile and encouraging words for a job well done.
15. Before airport guide leaves her group to the mercy of the airport, she must give a few final instructions. First, direct any women in the group to the bathroom near the small shop. The squatty potty on the left-hand side is bear-able in an emergency. Also, let them know that when their flight is called, there will be two lines - one is for men and one is for women. The men's line will be much longer, as there are typically more men flying and the security searches seem to be stricter. Women will be on the plane first. This is key, as flights leaving this city are all "Free seating". The men should be instructed to ask the women to save a seat for them, if they have a preference as to where they are seated.
16. The airport guide should now make sure that one memeber of the group has her telephone number, just in case the flight is cancelled and the group needs to be picked up again.
    
17. If there are no further questions, the airport guide's important role is complete. Hugs, or handshakes (as appropriate) can be given, and well wishes and kind words are exchanged. The airport guide can now leave the airport, greeting any friends or acquaintences she may see on the way out. In the parking lot, airport guide can once again put on her driver's hat and congratulate herself on a job well done.

Once my role as airport guide was complete, I drove across town to my favorite Eritrean shop where I procured some office supplies and phone credit, and then it was back to the office. I just stayed in the office for the rest of the afternoon, catching up on a bunch of bits and pieces, including sweeping and dusting out the computer room!

See, it really wasn't a very interesting day, really.

But just for your viewing pleasure, here's a hilarious photo that Andy took of me in the computer hub last week! Do I always look this excited whilst surrounded by computer kit? Or maybe it's the Tim Horton's mug full of Kenyan coffee that's making me so happy?!