This Week

One day in school Walker got to make a monster pancake that puffed up in the oven and then deflated after we took it out. I'm considering this a science/art project...

He got to kill the monster by drowning it in syrup and then cutting its face into many bite-sized pieces.

The latest project around the compound is "re-thorning" the fence. Large thorn branches are placed all around the compound to act as a barrier for both animals and people. We are paying several local men who are believers to cut and haul the branches. The work speed of Toposa men is quite...relaxed, shall we say, so this will be a week-long project or more.

In other news, we have had three villages in the Lolipan area be extremely receptive and attentive to the AIDS stories this week. We were also able to share the gospel in one of these villages and have invitations to go back to the other two villages on Monday. The rains have started to taper off, and this is the first week in months that we have been able to go out every day.

We had a small but nice victory in Kapoeta today. A lot of our friends have been demanding asking that we buy them things like wraps or cooking pots from town. We also needed to fill up 1.5 out of our 2 gas tanks, buy phone credit (pre-paid South Sudanese cell phone, holla), buy a new air filter for our truck, get several small repairs done to our truck, and stock up on whatever vegetables were available at the market. Not only did we get every single one of the things on the list done, we also were able to find an awesome bonus--fresh fruit! I've seen passion fruit in town occasionally, but it's been a long time since I've seen a pineapple, especially one that looked edible. Rarely do we have a to-do list that long, and I was only expecting to get one or two things accomplished. Three if we were lucky. For those of you who have spent any extended amount of time in Africa, you get how productive our trip was! To most people it seems like a small thing, but it was really nice to have so much success.

Uganda!

After Alyssa and I got back from Nairobi we had a whole week before we headed out again, this time to Uganda. The ladies that work for our company in our part of Africa got together in Entebbe for several days of fellowship and prayer, and let me tell you, it was just what the doctor ordered! We got to celebrate two new babies, hear what God is doing in other parts of east Africa, and pray for each other.

We left Kapoeta and flew to northern Kenya to pick up our teammate Holly, then flew on to Nairobi to catch a commercial flight to Entebbe. Our flight was delayed, plus it was raining, so the stewardesses handed out these stylish trash bags ponchos so we wouldn't get wet when we walked to the plane around midnight.

Entebbe is right on Lake Victoria so it is a really beautiful place!

It was great to spend time with friends and also eat some good food.

And huge thanks to Renee for all your hard work to make it such a relaxing and encouraging time for all of us!

Note: we did actually have a lot of lessons and prayer times, but I just didn't take any pictures then!

Malaria. Again.

The grand finale of our trip to London was that I got to spend six days in the hospital with a nasty bout of malaria. This was my second time to have it in three months, and this time was way worse!

Obviously, I did not get malaria in England. Malaria symptoms usually start showing 1-3 weeks after infection, so I must have gotten it just before we left South Sudan. The last time I had it I was tired and had a headache for about a week before the "real" symptoms kicked in, but this time all of that was masked by a cold/jet lag and so once I got sick, I got sick fast.

Because my fever was so high and I was so "out of it" at the doctor's office, they decided to admit me to one of the hospitals here in Nairobi, thinking that I would only be there for 24 hours, long enough to do a round of IV anti-malarial treatment.

Long story short, it was a bad case of the worst strain of malaria you can have (with a side of respiratory problems), and I wasn't in good enough shape to go home until six days later. Alyssa and Emily are the best friends ever and took turns sleeping at the hospital every night and even bought me flowers for when I came home. I'm feeling much better now, just tired and a little out of breath when I talk. The hospital pharmacy sent me home with a whole cocktail of pills to take every day (8 just at breakfast!). I am so thankful for all the people who prayed for me while I was in the hospital, and who continue to pray for me as I get back to feeling 100%. Your support and love means more than you will ever know!

Minster Lovell and St. Paul's Cathedral

It's hard to top seeing the queen of England, but we managed to have a pretty great last few days! We spent one day in the Cotswolds, looking around the old little English villages of Bibury and Minster Lovell.

 Slightly different scenery from South Sudan, ha!

 My aunt Janet is the best! Everyone should have one.

 Old churches...

 ...with old cemeteries...

 ...and old manor houses (Minster Lovell) that are now in ruins.

This one's for you, Brown family!

Then we went to Blenheim Palace, which is the home of the Duke of Marlborough aka Mr. Fancy Pants with the humongous house.

Fun fact: Winston Churchill was born here. 

We also spent a day in London, complete with a personal tour of the Houses of Parliament and St. Paul's Cathedral. 

 Lamb shawarma for lunch...delish.

Her Majesty

Monday was one of those "wait, did that just happen?" times when we accidentally had the coolest thing happen on our tour de England.

That's right. We saw Queen Elizabeth.

Our original destination was Windsor Castle so we drove to Eaton and were walking through the town when we saw this:

There was obviously some kind of statue unveiling and a considerable amount of security so we asked around and someone told us the queen was coming to unveil the statue in honor of her Diamond Jubilee. We decided to delay our tour and stick around for the ceremony, which was supposedly an hour or so later.

 A girls' choir from a local school showed up to sing a song. And sure enough, an hour later, the queen was there!

 60 spheres in honor of her 60 years on the throne.
The local newspaper wrote an article about the ceremony.

 After she greeted all the dignitaries she came right in front of where we were standing to take flowers from a little boy.

 The tour of Windsor Castle was a tiny bit anticlimactic after that, but still really cool!

England

Alyssa and I are halfway through our version of London 2012 and so far it's been just what the doctor ordered. I am getting to spend time with my family in a place that's fairly familiar and so far it has been so wonderful!

 Got to see this handsome man.

 Love my grandparents!

Got some cousin time with Ella and Cara 

After a weekend at a friend's holiday house we stopped for lunch on the way home. 

England is quite a bit colder than South Sudan, which is totally fine with me!

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.