waiting....

...for the rain to stop.

...for food to cook

...for walter to stop stealing eggs from the neighbors chickens

...for my packages to come.

...for electricity to return

...for the internet to work

...for christmas and new years



the rain is making me crazy. i spent the last few days under house arrest. i'm going a little stir crazy. cooking is harder than usual because my charcoal is wet and won't light. and walter is causing problems with one of my neighbors who doesn't appreciate him going around the yard stealing eggs before she can pick them up. its a little awkward. anyhow, as soon as the rain let up today i was out the door on my way to town to see if my packages arrived. rumor is that i have some coming. nope not yet. no mail at all. its ok, i'm really sharpening my waiting kills. its good practice. so now i 've waited for the electricty and internet to come back on here. it did. good.

and now is a waiting game for the rainy season to end. it just started but i'm already ready for it to be over. its virtually impossible for me to get any teaching done because the schools and health center are all at least a couple km away. most things shut down anyway so i guess this gives me more time to plan. and wait.



with all this this rain i've had a lot of visitors that stay a while as we wait for it to lighten up. my three favorite kids came over one morning and decided to stay the whole day. Enosh 4, Musa 5, and Nathan 6, spent the day with me listening to garth brooks christmas carols and U2, helping me light my fire (i literally was letting kids play with fire...oops), and helping me plant some beans and pumpkin. we would sprint out the door as soon as the down pour would break. i would poke the holes in the garden and they dutifully followed dropping one seed in each whole. they were great helpers. i've also been watching the women here a lot. i know, yes, that sounds kind of creepy but its not i swear. i just have noticed how relentlessly they work. this morning i was taking walter for a walk in the rain and i saw a woman, with a crying baby strapped to her back, hoeing her farm, another women, again with a baby strapped on, was carrying water on her head while herding her cows down to pasture. amazing. there is a quote in a book by barbara kingslover that describes east african women as "ballet dancers who are completley unaware that they are unstage." so true. the book is called the Poisonwood Bible if anyone is interested. it paints a pretty accurate picture of east africa and and the missionary efforts here in the last century.

i miss you guys and love you! happy holidays!