Here is a link to our travelblog, if you’d like to read about and see some pictures of the grasshopper eating fest. I was conspicuously absent. 
http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Tanzania/Centre/Iringa/blog-673172.html
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My day began with four-legged creatures, two legged creatures, and who knows how many other legs. It all started when I came into the kitchen area and saw something dark streak across my pantry floor. I thought it was a rat. The evidence behind the fridge and freezer indicated something much bigger than a mouse. EW! It still could be a rat, for all I know, but after Jacob helped me move the fridge and freezer, we found a big gecko hiding under the fridge. Jake tried to get it…and missed, all except the tail. That’s too bad, because now it will continue messing under the fridge and freezer. Once the fridge and freezer were moved away from the wall, I swept up the stuff. Then off I went to retrieve the mop off the back porch. At that point I saw the pile of termite wings that had blown in during the night. I swept those up. Then, as I opened the kitchen door to retrieve the mop, a grasshopper flew on me. I got that off of me and then picked up the mop, which, by the way, has a 2 ft. broken-off stub for a handle. When I brought the mop inside, I had to pick a few grasshoppers out of the mop, and then discovered that it was full of nairobi flies. Not good. Nairobi flies are not truly flies, but beetles, and they don’t even fly. However, they are wicked. They do not bite or sting, but they are full of toxin. If one is smashed on your skin, it will do give you something akin to a chemical burn, like this:
Fortunately, I did not get any on me, which is amazing, considering how many there were. Needless to say, the the first half of my day was a little…challenging. George, being the nice husband that he is, took us out to lunch. After we came home, I noticed that nairobi flies were coming into the kitchen. Upon investigation, we found that hundreds more nairobi flies were swarming around a couple of plants that were outside, near the back porch. We moved the plants and worked to clear out the mess. Earlier in the day, George got a call from Carey, asking us if we had a bunch of grasshoppers. You see…Editha, Charles’ wife, loves to eat them. Carey was calling on her behalf. Well by this time there weren’t many around that we saw, so we didn’t have enough to bother collecting. Well, wouldn’t you know it, they found plenty and cooked them up this evening. They were so kind to share. To make a long story short, George, Jacob, Luke and Lindsey tried them. Yuck is all I have to say about that. Pictures will be posted on our travelblog tomorrow. The sun has long gone down, and my day ends with the flying creatures who’ve come back in force. Flying termites are swarming the back porch and making their way under the door, grasshoppers are flying around in our house, and the termites that have lost their wings and are crawling around on the floor. We simply cannot keep up with killing them all. Oh…and there are some other kind of flying beetles that crawl around for the most part, but once in a while decide to fly and dive bomb someone. Don’t forget the mosquitoes! I give up. I’m going to go crawl into the safety of my mosquito net-covered bed and take refuge. I hope all of these creepy crawlies have the decency to at least let me be while I sleep. Seriously!  Our neighbor's laundry, spread across the ground to dry in the sun. The shack in the background is their chicken house. Sometimes our blessings we forget, counting we ignore. Take a moment to reflect; you’ll discover you have more… You have more than many in this world, much more than you deserve, So, make time to thank the One who gave, and then go out and serve. I’ve been missing in action for a little over a week, due to the fact that we have been away from home. We are currently in Lilongwe, Malawi, where we are visiting and working with Ed and Lina Crookshank for a couple of weeks. August 12 we pulled out of our drive just after 3 a.m. and made the long, long drive to Lilongwe – all in one day. It was about a 15 1/2 hour trip. Malawi is experiencing a fuel crisis, which adds extra challenges when the work here involves much driving. In spite of that (sitting in long queues for a couple of hours) we’ve managed to keep on going according to schedule here. This past weekend Lindsey and I, along with Lina Crookshank, went to the village of Salima for a women’s “retreat”. If the word “retreat” conjures up in your mind a place for rest and relaxation, then think again. There were about 800 women who came from as far as four hours away. Most of them slept on the ground, along with their babies, on a layer of dried straw, in a semi-enclosed area. Cooking was done over open fires and the softest seating available was the ground.
For most of the women, it was a retreat, since they had a break from their responsibilities at home and were served three meals a day. Lindsey, Lina and I were able to stay in the house of one of the local church members there, for which we were very thankful. They were very good to us.  Isaac's House in Salima On Friday morning Shupie, the young woman who does most of the translating for Lina, began the early stages of labor. She really did not want to miss the ladies retreat in spite of the fact that her due date was about 10 days away. By noontime, Lina decided that she ought to take Shupie back to Lilongwe, so that she could go to the hospital there. We weren’t sure how far along Shupie was in her labor, and Lina certainly didn’t want to get caught driving after dark. Neither did we want to have to deliver a baby out in the village, if we could help it. So, after lunch Lina and Shupie headed back to Lilongwe (about a 2 hour drive), and Linz and I stayed. That night Linz and I could do nothing but laugh at ourselves – out in the village, no vehicle, can’t speak the local language, and I almost ran out of phone minutes! George was nice enough to transfer some to me, so at least I could get in touch with him if the need arose.  Roaches in outhouse - how'd you like to visit here at night?  The Bath House I spoke three times. My lessons were on the topics of 1) How Women Can Serve, 2) The Role of Mothers and 3) Loving Your Husband. Honestly, if I had known previously what some of the issues that are problems for the ladies here I would have chosen differently. You might think that the problems the Tanzanians have are similar to those of Malawians, and to some degree, that is the case. However, the Malawi women, especially those that come from the more remote villages, are so mixed up in their thinking concerning marital and family relations that one hardly knows where to begin. We also had some extra challenges because a number of the women were, to put it kindly, uncooperative. Food supplies disappeared, some went down to the lakeside beach (just a few hundred yards away) and publicly bathed topless or more (which, by the way, is not done by the people of this village, and the local church members were quite upset by it), in addition to other problems. The positive side is that there were definitely some who were kind and obviously had come with a genuine desire to learn the Word of God. We hope that we were of some encouragement to them. Lindsey spoke twice to a class of young women, once on Works of the Flesh vs. Fruits of the Spirit, and the other on issues that challenge young women, such as commitment, jealousy, purity and modesty. She did a great job!  Lindsey Teaching in Salima George, Jacob and Luke, as well as Ed Crookshank and Isaac (whose home Linz and I stayed in) drove to Salima Sunday morning for worship. Jacob taught Bible class and George taught preached. Both of my guys did a great job, of course.  The Sunday Crowd Besides Lindsey’s and my adventure to the village, days have been filled with going to a different teaching point each day, where George teaches a four hour class on Personal Evangelism. However, Linz and I decided to stay at the house today to recoup from our weekend, which is why I’ve been able to catch up with online stuff. Hope you all have a great week! |
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