I Never Thought I Would...

• Narrate "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" in Toposa
• Say the phrase "did you hear that bomb detonate this morning?" at dinner
• Hear multiple gunshots in the middle of the night, but only be annoyed because they woke me up, and not scared because I heard gunshots
• Learn about weird witchcraft stuff because my cultural father is a wizard
• Count the cows that have been brought to a village for a wedding
• Drive through a river with water flowing so high that it goes over the hood of the truck
• Have a baby named after me
• Eat goat intestines
• Teach the story of Isaiah to a group of completely naked old men
• Go white-water rafting on the Nile River
• Briefly have an ostrich as a pet
• Plan my laundry schedule based on how much sunshine there's been that day
• Complain about having to get new pages in my passport because all my pages got filled up so quickly
• Kill spiders with bare hands because I'm too lazy to get up and get a shoe
• Watch the Jesus film while sitting next to a guy with an AK-47 on his lap
• Learn different words to describe different types of poop (animal of origin, length of freshness, etc)
• Be asked to transport a dead body in my truck
• Have a rat drop from the ceiling beam onto my lap
• Consider hot water a luxury
• Actually forget the English word for something
• Be scared that someone might actually deliver their baby in my car
• Have the sub-chief ask me to drive a cow-thief to the police station in a nearby town
• Get malaria multiple times
• Have a 12 year old boy ask for my red nail polish
• Say "it's not that hot, it's only 105 degrees."
• Cross the border between two countries without seeing any kind of security official or having my passport stamped
• Directly address a group of cows and ask them to move out of the road
• Have a friend die of TB
• Be spit on as part of a blessing from an elderly person
• Be constantly corrected on the technique and volume of my clapping

Mvuu

There have been times in the last 22 months that I have felt really stretched. Exhausted, confused, overwhelmed, and then whatever words that mean those things only more so. During the last half of February and first half of March I was literally on the edge of a breakdown every day. I actually cried every day for almost two weeks...sometimes about things that were legitimately overwhelming and then one time it was because I was watching the finale of season 11 of American Idol that someone had given me. 

Through this whole journey, and particularly during the Month of Crap, I have been so aware that God has been using intensely hard experiences to change me into someone who is more like Him. I have so so SO far to go, and it is a really humbling thing. Since coming to Malawi I have been thinking a lot about Toposaland and everything that happened there, and I am starting to see even more clearly the ways that God was working in my life, and how He is continuing to bless me in completely different ways now that I am in a totally different place. New people, new experiences, new job, new living situation, new food, new side of the road to drive on...

One of the really great things I'm getting to do is be a part of two volunteer groups that are working with the Baptist Mission in Malawi. We just put one group on the plane yesterday and another group will come this next week. The last group went to Lake Malawi one day and then to Mvuu Wilderness Lodge in Liwonde National Park at the end of their time of ministry, and they were generous enough to invite me to go, too! The night we got there we had a 3-hour game drive, and then the next morning we had a boat trip on the Shire River. "Mvuu" is the Tonga word for hippo, and man did we see a lot of those!

 Yes, they put flowers on the beds and made our towels into a basket.

We had monkeys and warthogs hang out in front of our safari tent and by our dining area, which was cool until a monkey ran in and swiped some of our breakfast.

 Just in case one of the humongous thatched roofs catches on fire, we have three buckets of sand to put it out with...

During our night drive we saw tons of impala and even a Lichtenstein hartebeest. I really wanted to see a black rhino, but we never got to see one. Once the sun went down I turned into a popsicle, even with 4 layers and a blanket.

 Kudu

 Many, many pods of hippos

 Lots and lots of crocodiles, eek

 Fish eagle at the very top of the tree

And if you look closely, a herd of 12 elephants!

Month in Zambia

While I was technically staff for the training in Zambia, I think I had more fun than some of the participants! It was a really great month of old friends, new friends, and lots of good experiences. While the adults were doing their urban training we were in Lusaka, and then we drove 5 hours northeast to Petauke for the rural portion. Living in tents, using an outhouse and taking bucket showers weren't anything unusual for me, but it was COLD! While I did kind of whine about it a lot (oops), I enjoyed being able to wear my sweatshirt!

The children were in school most mornings, but we also did field trips to help them learn about Zambian culture. On this particular day we went to the market in Petauke and they got to watch a lady make fritas (kind of like large, unsweetened donut holes). The boy that I was holding was so cute that the lady gave him one for free!

 The last few days we went to a really nice resort to debrief. The kids got to watch movies and swim. One morning our two-year-old class collected guinea fowl feathers that they found on the ground. One of them told their parents that we had "put guinea fowls in a bag" which was misleading, but funny!

 Staff of the kids' training.

After the training was over I flew back to Nairobi and the next day hiked in Hell's Gate National Park with another Journeyman and her friend who is visiting from America. If you're ever in Kenya, go to Hell's Gate! It was beautiful, and hiking through the gorge was a really neat experience.

I.Love.Kenya.

Road Trip: Juba

I'm writing this from Juba, the capital of South Sudan. Holly and Jonathan got back from Nairobi late on Thursday night with our supervisors from Uganda in tow. About 15 minutes after they walked in the door they said, "We are going to Juba tomorrow and we want you to come with us." So here we are! There are many new families with our company who will be moving to various parts of South Sudan, including Juba, in the next year and so the five of us are on a scouting trip to see what is available here in the capital, how much things cost, and making some connections with various people (and in case you're wondering, there is more here than I expected and all of it is really expensive...over $10 for a box of cereal from Kenya). So far it's been really fun and I'm so glad I'm doing this trip with this group of people.

The road from Kapoeta to Juba is really horrible and even though it's not that far on a map, it took us 8 hours to make the drive. Plus we have no air conditioning in our vehicle, our shocks AND our brakes went out...but no flat tires, so that's a plus!

 David and Jonathan stopped several times to check some questionable-looking bridges.

 Me, Renee, and Holly

 This sign was about 2 hours into our trip.

 We saw plenty of tanks that were abandoned after the war.

Once we got to Juba we made our first stop at this stop called Marko's Ice Creams...best ice cream EVER, which probably had something to do with the rough car ride. No pictures of that, because obviously we ate ours in record time.

Juba is basically one big marketplace, with some banks and places to eat thrown in every now and then.

 Plenty of different brands of cigarettes available...

...and almost every shop sells large tins of milk powder...

...and there is lots of traffic, ugh. Mad props to David and Jonathan for their awesome driving skills!

We are staying at some newly built guest rooms on the East Africa Mission compound. Way nice...we have power 24/7 so we can even run a fan at night! We have had some wonderful fellowship with the people who are working here and I am so thankful for their hospitality and generosity. 

Lest you be deceived and think that we are staying here, I'll just say that this is one of the nicer aka crazy expensive hotels in Juba and we wanted to see what the pool was like. Only $15 for a day pass to use the pool.

 If someone had "accidentally" pushed me in, I wouldn't have minded. Juba is HOT.

These are the pool rules. My favorites are #3, #6, and #11.

You Can Take the Girl Out of Texas...

...and apparently Toposaland can suck the Texas right out of the girl. Some examples:

The days I drive to Kapoeta can be stressful because most of the time I am the only white person in town, and therefore I attract a lot of attention without trying. I had been getting really annoyed with the traffic officers pulling me over for no reason and then having to deal with their poor English and my non-existent Arabic. Someone suggested that I speak to them in Spanish just to mess with them and I was totally on board until I went to actually say something in Spanish and I couldn’t even remember a greeting. The only thing that was coming to me was “aloha” and I knew that wasn’t right. Then I thought I would ask if they spoke Spanish (in Spanish) and what came out was “hablo iyong Espanol?” which is a combination of Spanish and Toposa. Fail. I ended up having to ask Alyssa what “hello” was in Spanish because I couldn’t remember it. Hola. Aloha was close, if we were in Hawaii.

It’s been really REALLY windy here for the past few weeks and everyone is talking about how they are “eating dust” because of it. Someone asked me if it was windy in America and I said that in my village it does get windy during some parts of the year. I was trying to describe what is a common occurance in west Texas and for the life of me I could not remember the English word for what I was trying to describe. What I said in Toposa was that sometimes there are big thorn bushes that go on the road when it is windy so when you drive you have to make sure you watch the road. SIX HOURS later when I was in bed, I realized that the word I was wanting was tumbleweed.

(A bonus that has nothing to do with Texas)

Last night during our story group I started laughing while someone was praying because there was a goat near me that had the hiccups. HA!

Letter to Nairobi

Our friend Leno came to say goodbye to Alyssa before we left for Nairobi on Wednesday, and while he was sitting with us, he told us he wanted us to get paper so that he could send a message to the people of America (Alyssa) and Nairobi (me...I had told him I was coming to Nairobi to greet my friends, which is true). He said the message in Toposa, and I wrote it down in English. Most of you aren't "the people of Nairobi" but it's still a nice greeting, and one that's very Toposa. I purposely didn't make the English flow in the American way, but kept it translated word for word from what he said.

Hello people of Nairobi. Hello visitors.

I am greeting everyone in Nairobi. This is for all the children. Hello to the mothers and fathers. Good is coming to you. I'm greeting Nairobi. Hello people. Hello dirt. Are you well? Everyone? I want everyone to come here. Hello to the women, too. Napo, Regina, Napir greet you. Najio, too, all my wives. All the wives of Leno greet you. Leno, Mindy's father, greets you. Is everyone well? When Mindy comes back she should bring something small for me, and also clothes. The end.

The Time My Toposa Father Got Married

My Toposa father, Aloso, recently got married to his second wife. Toposa culture is a never-ending puzzle and I will never come close to figuring it out, but I will say that the celebration experience is always an interesting one. The Toposa take their ngakidamdam times seriously and really it's enough to make any American party seem really lame.

 For this particular ngakidamdam, the people from Aloso's village got ready and then sort of paraded to the village of the girl he was marrying. The women wear lots of bells, extra beads, and many buy socks and shoes in town to wear for these fancy occasions. 

 This is my Toposa mother, Regina, who is wife #1. She borrowed my rain boots for the celebration. I asked her if she was happy that her husband was getting another wife and she said it was very good. Toposa women and girls work very hard to tend their gardens, fix their houses and prepare food for their families, so more wives means there are more people to help with the work. Happiness and love are not part of the marriage equation here.

 Many people wear animal tails just above their elbows. They are sort of like tassels and the women will throw their elbows up to greet others during the celebration.

 Basically there is a lot of running around, blowing whistles, jumping, singing, and general chaos for several hours. The people of each village group together and have a dialogue back and forth in the form of yelling, chanting, stomping, etc. Part of the dialoge is the bargaining for how many animals the man will give the woman's family.

Random Things, and an AK-47

Recently our schedule has been way more relaxed than normal so a bunch of really random stuff has been happening. This has been due to two reasons. One, we've finished our AIDS storying and two, everyone except for me is about to leave for America. The Lewises are going on furlough for six months and Alyssa is finishing her two-year term. We finished homeschooling last week and the boys are enjoying their last few weeks with their Toposa friends. Everyone is packing and saying goodbyes and trying to get ready for all the changes! After a trip to Kenya next week to re-stock, I'll come back (by myself, sad!) and spend the next six months working on an audio recording project with some Toposa believers so that they will have some of God's Word recorded in their language! Finally!

My recent, less spiritually significant project has been learning how to make Toposa bracelets. For women in Toposaland, beauty is measured by how much and what kind of jewelry they have. Women spend a lot of time sewing beads onto goatskin skirts and making necklaces, bracelets, and belts. I've successfully made two bracelets with a lot of little help at the start and finish, and it's actually pretty fun! Everyone seems pretty shocked that I can do them so I'm not sure if I should be offended that they didn't think I could thread string through a bead, or if I should be happy that they are impressed... My next project is a belt. Those are harder because they take more beads and it's easier to lose track of the pattern. My goal is to finish just one belt during dry season while the women are in the village instead of the gardens. This way they are available to help me with the hard parts and to correct my mistakes!

In other news, it's started to get stinkin' hot during the day and the men have started to leave for cattle camp. During dry season they take their cows further away so that they can find grass to eat. One of my friends left a few weeks ago and when he came to say goodbye I couldn't resist the perfect photo op with his AK-47.

And yes, that is red nail polish that he has used to paint his gun...

Napio is a really cool guy and God is using him in special ways. Most Toposa have a good ear for learning stories because of their oral culture, but Napio has like a superpower or something and can remember almost every detail of every story he's ever listened to. When we've listened to chapters of the New Testament on the audio player, he is almost always a few words ahead of the player, no matter what we're listening to. How many 16-year-old boys do you know that have the bulk of the New Testament MEMORIZED?! As you pray for me and for the Toposa, remember Napio and ask God to protect him (physically and spiritually) at cattle camp and to give him many opportunities to tell the stories from God's Word to the other men!

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas and a happy new year from Alyssa and Mindy!

(Maybe next year Toposaland will have some snow...)

Dad Comes to Toposaland

My dad came to South Sudan to spend Christmas with me! I am so, so, SO thankful for his week here. 

His birthday was the day after he got here so we made a cake! He's not into celebrating birthdays, but Alyssa and I are and hey...cake is good no matter what the reason.

We went to a nearby village so that he could meet my Toposa father and some of my other friends.

My American father and my Toposa father!

Dad got to experience Christmas Day, Toposa style! It was quite a bit warmer and a lot less commercial than Christmas in America.

He even ate maize meal and goat meat for Christmas lunch!

A big shout out goes to my Dallas friends and church family for sending SO MUCH! I feel so loved, and I really appreciate the effort that Trinity Fellowship (and others!) went to in order to be so generous to me.

Why yes, that IS a bag of Chick-Fil-A sauce packets and dark chocolate Reeses...

At first I thought there was some terrible mistake because a maroon t-shirt was one of the gifts. Phew, it was a TWU shirt and not an Aggie shirt! Thanks, Katherine!

Merry Christmas from Toposaland!