The Two Cow Herds

     During the days that we don't go tell the AIDS stories or the story cloth in a village, we work on writing down the AIDS stories in Toposa. Our goal is to have a recording of these stories (along with audio files of the New Testament, etc.) available on a solar player so that we do not have to physically be in a village for the information to be heard.

Um, makes my brain hurt.

     There was once a herd of cattle that stayed far out in the forest with a group of young men. The young men looked after the cows and kept them safe. They would sing songs to relax the cows at night, and they would clean the cows and make sure they had plenty food for grazing.  One night, hyenas came into the camp to attack the herd, but the young men fought them off with their spears. The next night, a leopard came into the camp to attack the herd, but the young men fought it off as well. The cattle were safe from all the wild animals, because the young men protected them.

     But then one night, while the young men were asleep after dancing for many hours, a man-eating lion snuck into the camp. It crept up silently and pounced on the young men, one by one, before they knew what was happening, and killed them. The cattle were left all alone in the forest. When the hyenas came, the young men were not there with their spears. The hyenas killed some of the cattle. When the leopards came, the young men were not there with their spears. The leopards killed some of the cows. Soon the herd was destroyed by all the wild animals.

     Now, there was another group of young men with a herd of cattle, who lived in the forest some distance from the first herd. These young men also looked after their cattle and kept them safe. One night, hyenas came into the camp to attack the herd, and the young men fought them off with their spears. Another time, a leopard came into the camp to attack the herd, and the young men fought it off as well.

     These young men heard about the man-eating lion and how it killed the young men at the other camp. They did not want the same thing to happen at their camp. So they set guards at night to watch and wait for the lion. One night, the lion tried to sneak into the camp, but the guards saw it and chased it away. Every day, the young men set guards in case the lion tried to come back. They never forgot that it was out in the forest, so they were always watching. 

These young men stayed alive, and the cattle were not left alone in the forest. When the hyenas came, the young men were there with their spears to fight them off. When the leopards came, the young men were there with their spears to fight them off as well. The cattle were safe and happy, because the young men were there to guard them from all the wild animals.

**We use this story to explain how AIDS is like the lion that comes to attack. If they are careful to remember the information they can keep AIDS away from their village, just like the second group of young men kept the lion away from their camp. 

Storm Clouds

The clouds were comin' fast the other day. Look at how cool the sky was! We drove home as fast as we could and almost made it before the rain hit! 

If I were Alyssa, I would have some great analogy about how these storm clouds are like the storms in my life, coming without warning and causing me to run away from the trouble they cause...or something like that. But I really just thought these pictures were cool, so this is all you get! :)

(and just for the record, these were taken on my iPhone and I didn't put any effects on them or anything...just straight up Toposaland weather!)

Happy Labor Day!

Any excuse to celebrate something American is good enough for me! We made pumpkin pie with some of the pumpkin that my mother Regina Nakwam gave us, used cabbage and potatoes from the market to make coleslaw and potato salad, and pulled hot dogs from Nairobi out of the freezer. WIN!

I took some of the pumpkin pie to Regina so she could try some. Natabo loved it and started to cry when there wasn't anymore. A girl after my own heart...

She started fussing when there was only crust left.

This is my brother, Lokuru, who was in a grumpy mood, probably because the pie had run out.

This is Regina's house (left) and cooking area (right). And yes, that's a cow inside of her house. Regina has a big garden across the river, works in her husband's garden that is next to our compound, and also has pumpkins growing around her house.

Lots of pumpkins behind her house!

The last volunteer team passed out bandanas as part of the field day activities so my friend's little girl, Lomayen, had strips of bandana sewed onto her skirt. So cute!

I Love Pumpkin

One of the benefits of having Toposa mothers/friends is that sometimes we are given stuff from their gardens. Pumpkins are now "in season" and so I am loving it! We've already cooked two and still have another one and a half left to go! A little glimpse of the process:

Regina's garden is really close to our compound so it's easy to walk to.

Pumpkins here are usually green and white on the outside, not orange.

Notice how tall the sorghum stalks are. I get seriously nervous whenever I can't see Regina because I'm afraid I won't be able to find my way out! 

It's a LOT of pumpkin so I can only fit half of it at one time into our biggest pot. 

Depending on the pumpkin, it takes 1-2 hours on the charcoal cooker for it to soften.

 

This is only half of the pumpkin, all mashed up with a fork. After it's cooled then we freeze it. I'm pretty sure most of our freezer space will be filled with pumpkin, which is fine by me!

Toposa Earrings

Toposa ladies can get really into their jewelry. The more beads they're wearing, the better. I have one billion several bracelets, necklaces, rings, and even this sweet belt that my Toposa mother made for me. While she was making it she told me "I am making it very big because you are fat." Rude.

Anyways, the one thing that I haven't been able to wear are the Toposa nachulo ka akit, or earrings. I had tried in December and in May to wear them but my left ear kept getting infected. Third time's the charm?

My friend Regina made the earrings for me so she and her son Lochek came to put them in.

The Toposa pierce their ears with thorns so the holes tend to be a lot bigger than those of us who just have the posts. The first time Regina tried to thread the string in my ear she said "Oooh ndoshi!" Or "Oooh it's small!" We had to burn the end of the string to poke it through the hole in my ear.

I would like to say I'm not usually this sunburned and sweaty looking...but I am. I've stopped caring. I live in South Sudan, people.

Then finally once the earrings are threaded through you tie the knot and burn the ends of the string so they don't come untied. The only way to remove the earrings is to cut them out...which I did exactly three days later when my ear was infected again. Sigh. I think I'm giving up on this one.

Toposa Olympics

While the rest of the world is obsessing over the Olympics, those of us in Toposaland who are missing out on watching any of them are creating our own Toposa-style sporting events!

We have a volunteer team here this week and their target group is the "punks" which I have mentioned previously. The team is spending two days each in three different places and their strategy is alternating telling stories from God's Word and teaching the Toposa how to play American games. As a general rule, the Toposa are extremely unorganized and very rowdy, which makes them perfect candidates for field day activities. None of them have ever done anything like this, so it was lots of fun for those participating and for those of us who were watching!

3-Legged Race

The lady on the right is Regina, my Toposa mother.

Wheelbarrow Racing

Tug of War

Sack Races

One of "Those" Moments

I had one of those "wow, I really do live in South Sudan" moments yesterday. I have them regularly because crazy stuff happens what seems like all the time, but I think maybe I'm starting to expect crazy. What fun would it be if my day actually went like I had planned?

The moment yesterday wasn't actually very high on the crazy scale compared to most things. There was a meeting that all the school children in the area needed to attend so Alyssa and I picked up the ones from the school near us and drove them to Naskal. So there we were, driving through the bush (literally, through bushes) with a truckbed full of Toposa boys chattering away and laughing when we hit an extra big bump.

Most of these boys are regulars at our story groups near the school, and many of them are now followers of Jesus. At least once a week one of them will ask to come with us to kilipai, which is the word they use for telling stories from God's Word. I really enjoy them and even though taking them to Naskal was a simple, non-crazy thing, it made me really appreciate the experiences that I get to have while living here.

He wasn't one of the boys that went with us but he was so darn cute and very proud to have his picture taken.