Well, the last few days in Mbale it was raining quite a bit, and we had received word from friends here in Karamoja that it had also been raining "too too much" in Nakapiripirit. Nevertheless, we prayed and set out for the journey around 11:30AM. Erika and I rode with Pastor Al and Laurie again.
The first bit of the journey is a real, paved road (lovingly referred to as "The Tarmac") -- but once we got onto the dirt [mud] road we knew pretty quickly that this would not be an easy journey. We hit three particularly rough spots. In the first significant stretch of slippery, muddy ruts we came to, there were other cars and trucks coming the other direction already stuck. We headed in for the ride (it felt a bit like being on a shying horse... if anyone out there knows what I mean... one minute you're going left, the next minute you're spinning right, you're turned sideways, tilting side to side, and holding on tight). There was one particular point when I really felt scared because the car was tilting and sliding and I was so worried we were going to tip over (and I would have been on the bottom side, getting squished into the mud! But God protected us and Pastor Al kept the car upright :) However, we did get legitimately stuck, and it took several backward pulls by Bob's massive Dyna truck to get us out of the rut.
Later on we came to a similar rough spot. Bob, Heather, Ryan (a visiting pastor from Kitgum) and Pastor Al actually walked out the course through the mud and planned the best way to navigate the huge ditches and ridges. We made it through without getting stuck. The funniest moment of the day -- we've got our windows down and Pastor Al is vigorously steering through this labyrinth of puddles and potholes, we're all quite tense and holding on tight and as we're coming over a tough patch someone standing on the grass on the driver's side says "How are you?" Pastor Al, spinning the wheel like a boss, replies "I am fine!" We just broke down laughing hysterically. How does it LOOK like we're doing?!?!?! We're basically going sideways through a muddy trench the size of my house! But Al's right, "It is important to greet!"
The last spot of the really daunting spots actually ended up not being too bad. There's a broken bridge at one point. Several men were standing around trying to guide cars through the water and up onto the other bank. We watched Pastor Dave in the car in front of us go in... it's up to his wheels... his exhaust pipe is underwater for a few seconds... he almost looks stuck... but then he's up and out. So Pastor Al just went for it and it actually didn't feel as bad going over it.
We made it home to Karamoja again. It's raining cats and dogs here. It had been dry the past couple weeks so I really thought the dry season was here. Think again. The climate change here is remarkable... the seasons have completed shifted. Unfortunately that makes it quite hard for the Karamojong, who can't easily foresee what to plant when... some have planted again in these extended rains hoping to get more of a crop. We'll see how this rain effects things here next year. As long as we don't have to drive in it, it's a good thing... but the Mission has to take several more trips south in the next month, so these roads can add a lot of stress and uncertainty to our plans. Please pray that they will dry up soon!
Friday, November 25, 2011
Thursday, November 24, 2011
Many many good things (and a couple bummers)
Highlights of today:
*Chatting with Christi bright and early this morning (and yesterday I was able to Facebook chat with David and Christi, which was fun :P
*African tea at Chat 'n' Chino -- although Elizabeth's is still better :)
*Walking around Mbale with Erika. I got some bright patterned fabric which I'll have made into skirts sometime in the next five months... and I bought some earrings and a necklace. I need to keep buying beads so I'll have enough for the Christmas edonga (dance)... I'm told that when attending any type of celebration in Karamoja, you should wear every single bead and bangle you own. Forget about whether they match... just pile them on. I only had one strand of red akimat beads and one pair of green earrings, which is simply unacceptable.
*Refusing to buy into mzungu (white person) prices while shopping. One woman tried to sell Erika a skirt for 25,000 Ugandan shillings (~$10) when it probably should have been USH10,000 or less. They see our skin and double or triple the prices. One woman tried to sell me earrings for USH10,000 (~$4) but I went around the corner and I bought some for 1,000 (less than 50 cents)! It's not that I'm so stingy... but it's not right of them to charge so much, and it makes it impossible for local people to buy anything at these stores when everything is marked at mzungu prices and tourists coming through won't try to barter. I'm not good at bartering but I hope I'll improve with practice. At this point I usually attempt a couple lower prices and if it's not going well I just leave rather than standing my ground and fighting for it.
*Thanksgiving dinner. Turkey with barbecue sauce, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, cabbage salad, rolls, beans (of course), and something meant to be pumpkin pie which was strange and full of small diced pieces of pumpkin, but it still tasted good. So, not your traditional meal (we knew it wouldn't be, with Ugandans catering) but it was delicious. Then a Christian couple who live here in Mbale and are friends of the missionaries renewed their wedding vows after the dinner, which was really sweet. :)
Not so great:
Being harassed while trying to shop... I wish we could just shop in peace, but that's not possible here, it seems.
No hot showers.
RAIN. SO MUCH RAIN. We'll have to see how the roads to Karamoja are tomorrow... who knows, we may be stranded here another day if the roads are impassable. Being stuck here wouldn't be too much of a trial for us :) But it would be difficult for the pastors and there were people here in Mbale who wanted to visit Nakaale for the weekend, so it would be a shame if our visitors missed their chance to come up.
But altogether, this was a good day :)
*Chatting with Christi bright and early this morning (and yesterday I was able to Facebook chat with David and Christi, which was fun :P
*African tea at Chat 'n' Chino -- although Elizabeth's is still better :)
*Walking around Mbale with Erika. I got some bright patterned fabric which I'll have made into skirts sometime in the next five months... and I bought some earrings and a necklace. I need to keep buying beads so I'll have enough for the Christmas edonga (dance)... I'm told that when attending any type of celebration in Karamoja, you should wear every single bead and bangle you own. Forget about whether they match... just pile them on. I only had one strand of red akimat beads and one pair of green earrings, which is simply unacceptable.
*Refusing to buy into mzungu (white person) prices while shopping. One woman tried to sell Erika a skirt for 25,000 Ugandan shillings (~$10) when it probably should have been USH10,000 or less. They see our skin and double or triple the prices. One woman tried to sell me earrings for USH10,000 (~$4) but I went around the corner and I bought some for 1,000 (less than 50 cents)! It's not that I'm so stingy... but it's not right of them to charge so much, and it makes it impossible for local people to buy anything at these stores when everything is marked at mzungu prices and tourists coming through won't try to barter. I'm not good at bartering but I hope I'll improve with practice. At this point I usually attempt a couple lower prices and if it's not going well I just leave rather than standing my ground and fighting for it.
*Thanksgiving dinner. Turkey with barbecue sauce, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, cabbage salad, rolls, beans (of course), and something meant to be pumpkin pie which was strange and full of small diced pieces of pumpkin, but it still tasted good. So, not your traditional meal (we knew it wouldn't be, with Ugandans catering) but it was delicious. Then a Christian couple who live here in Mbale and are friends of the missionaries renewed their wedding vows after the dinner, which was really sweet. :)
Not so great:
Being harassed while trying to shop... I wish we could just shop in peace, but that's not possible here, it seems.
No hot showers.
RAIN. SO MUCH RAIN. We'll have to see how the roads to Karamoja are tomorrow... who knows, we may be stranded here another day if the roads are impassable. Being stuck here wouldn't be too much of a trial for us :) But it would be difficult for the pastors and there were people here in Mbale who wanted to visit Nakaale for the weekend, so it would be a shame if our visitors missed their chance to come up.
But altogether, this was a good day :)
Happy Thanksgiving!
Our hotel is supposed to have hot water (we turned on the water heater half an hour ago) but, alas, Erika and I have only enjoyed half of the delights of the big city. Fast internet, yes. Hot showers, no.
So, in light of another little letdown in the form of an icy shower on this rainy evening, I need to keep in mind all that I'm thankful for...
I serve a merciful and loving God who has given me so much now, and has an eternity of joy and peace prepared for me in heaven. Every small setback here seems so insignificant in the light of an eternity with Christ. "O praise the Lord, O thank the Lord, for bountiful is He, because His loving kindness lasts through all eternity!" Psalm 106:1
I'm living out what I've been dreaming about for years. I'm in Africa. I've met amazing people and I have wonderful students. I am living in a frontier missions context, in a brick hut, learning a tribal language and making Christian friends in Karamoja who will be with me as brothers and sisters in Christ forever. I get to spend so much time with kids doing what I love. It's so surreal. I'm truly blessed.
I have a great family, church family and friends back at home. I have internet access and a Ugandan cell phone so that I can keep in touch with all of you, even though we're an ocean apart.
I am healthy. I'm safe. I get to sleep on a real bed, drink safe water, and lock my door at night. I don't live in fear. This is not a given for the vast majority of people in the world. Please, be thankful for these things.
I could go on and on. I have so much. Most of all, I know that all I have, I didn't acquire by my own strength... the Lord has been so good to me. I deserve nothing... I'm given everything I need, and more, and an eternal hope which is worth more than everything else put together. God does not guarantee that I will always be safe, healthy, secure, connected. He may take all that away. He may call me to a much more difficult task than the one He's currently placed before me. But those circumstances shouldn't affect my real joyfulness and thankfulness. Those are rooted much more deeply.
I hope you've all had a blessed and happy Thanksgiving!
Love in Christ,
Emily
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Asyomi ayong ngaKaramojong!
I'm loving my ngaKaramojong lessons so far. Theirs is actually quite a sophisticated language... more complex than I expected (why is it that our Western minds seem to automatically equate almost everything African with simplicity?). It reminds me of Latin and Greek in that (as far as I can tell, and I'm no linguist, so feel free to correct me) nouns have different endings depending on gender (masculine, feminine, neuter) - so we have to learn both noun and verb conjugations. Of course, there's only so much we can learn in the next five months, and the people we talk to will still understand us if we mess up our conjugations (I still haven't quite mastered "we" forms so I always use first person singular, no matter what... yeah I should work on that).
Anywho, for anyone who wants to learn a few phrases, just for fun, here are just a few of the many phrases we've learned in the last few weeks. "ng" = the sound you make at the end of the word "sing" -- "c" = "ch"
Ejok! (hello!)
Angaleo-a? (is it good? response "ee, angaleo" - yeah, it's good)
Ngai ekonekiro? (What is your name? Answer: Erae ekaakiro Ngakiru -- that's my Karamojong name, which is a reference to "the time of the rains" -- since the rain was CRAZY when I first arrived here. My teacher Rose named me).
Ai ilosi iyong? (where are you going?)
Alosi ayong lore/lodakitar/losukul/lotic/lodonga/locor/alo Mission (I'm going home/to the clinic/ to school/ to work/ to a dance or party/ to the water hole/ to the Mission compound)
Ngikonikaru naie? (how old are you? My answer: Erae ngikakar ngatomoniareiangiuni - I am 23).
Ngae ekiro nakaato kon? (what is your sister's name? Answer: Erae ekiro a nakaato kang Christi).
** Funny side note, I was learning to say "My mother's name is Beverly" and the Karamojong CANNOT pronounce that name. It was soooo funny to hear them stumbling over it... I finally just told them we'd call her Betty. Sorry, mom!**
Mam ngace (no problem!)
Now for numbers 1-20 (I might have some of the teens wrong... but I'll do my best!)
1 epei
2 ngiarei
3 ngiuni
4 ngomon
5 ngikan
6 ngikanikapei
7 ngikanikarei
8 ngikanikauni
9 ngikanikomon
10 ngitomon
11 ngitomonakepei
12 ngitomonakarei
13 ngitomonangiuni
14 ngitomonangomon
15 ngitomonankan
16 ngitomonankanikapei
17 ngitomonankanikarei
18 ngitomonankanikauni
19 ngitomonankangomon
20 ngatomonangiari
I can't even begin to write the 20s. The teens are bad enough. Ridiculousness!
Anywho, for anyone who wants to learn a few phrases, just for fun, here are just a few of the many phrases we've learned in the last few weeks. "ng" = the sound you make at the end of the word "sing" -- "c" = "ch"
Ejok! (hello!)
Angaleo-a? (is it good? response "ee, angaleo" - yeah, it's good)
Ngai ekonekiro? (What is your name? Answer: Erae ekaakiro Ngakiru -- that's my Karamojong name, which is a reference to "the time of the rains" -- since the rain was CRAZY when I first arrived here. My teacher Rose named me).
Ai ilosi iyong? (where are you going?)
Alosi ayong lore/lodakitar/losukul/lotic/lodonga/locor/alo Mission (I'm going home/to the clinic/ to school/ to work/ to a dance or party/ to the water hole/ to the Mission compound)
Ngikonikaru naie? (how old are you? My answer: Erae ngikakar ngatomoniareiangiuni - I am 23).
Ngae ekiro nakaato kon? (what is your sister's name? Answer: Erae ekiro a nakaato kang Christi).
** Funny side note, I was learning to say "My mother's name is Beverly" and the Karamojong CANNOT pronounce that name. It was soooo funny to hear them stumbling over it... I finally just told them we'd call her Betty. Sorry, mom!**
Mam ngace (no problem!)
Now for numbers 1-20 (I might have some of the teens wrong... but I'll do my best!)
1 epei
2 ngiarei
3 ngiuni
4 ngomon
5 ngikan
6 ngikanikapei
7 ngikanikarei
8 ngikanikauni
9 ngikanikomon
10 ngitomon
11 ngitomonakepei
12 ngitomonakarei
13 ngitomonangiuni
14 ngitomonangomon
15 ngitomonankan
16 ngitomonankanikapei
17 ngitomonankanikarei
18 ngitomonankanikauni
19 ngitomonankangomon
20 ngatomonangiari
I can't even begin to write the 20s. The teens are bad enough. Ridiculousness!
Green Garden
This morning we were on the road by 8AM on our way to Mbale for the quarterly Mission Meeting. Erika and I rode with Al & Laurie Tricarico. The roads were bumpy, but dry. We got chapatti (think homemade tortillas, cooked in oil... delicious) at a stand along the way, enjoyed the scenery, and tried to have good conversations although it's tricky with the noise of the car bouncing through potholes!
We arrived in Mbale around lunchtime, Erika and I checked into our room at the Green Garden Hotel, and then we went with Laurie and Josh to BAM, a grocery store. Erika and I went crazy buying everything we'll need (hopefully) to live comfortably between now and the next time we're down country (I probably won't be down again till Jan. or Feb. at the earliest... whenever we have our next mission meeting). Afterwards we went to Chat N Chino's, an American-style coffee shop. The service was slow but the food and drinks were good and there was wi-fi and... so wierd... WAZUNGU (white people) everywhere. Most of us were there for a while - all the teens, Martha, Laurie and Sunshine... then the teens scattered in a couple different groups across the city (they've grown up here so they're completely confident and know where they're going... which is kinda cool). Erika and I decided to stick around and enjoy the wireless and Coke floats for a while (Carolyne Scott would be proud!). We also met a pastor who is going to be coming to our mission Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow, who is doing church planting work up north in the Kitgum, literally 2 hours away from any other Westerners.
Then Erika and I each nabbed a piki (public transport motorcycle) for the short ride from the cafe back to our hotel. I was a bit nervous about the piki but it wasn't too scary, although sitting sideways on a motorcycle in a skirt with a heavy backpack on is kinda tricky, as far as balancing goes. But we both had careful drivers who went nice and slow for us mzungus. We'll be taking lots of them tomorrow, I'm guessing.
We came back and got cleaned up for dinner. Our shower is literally a shower head hanging from the ceiling, a bucket on the floor in the middle of the bathroom, and a drain in the corner where you can dump out the bucket. No curtains or anything -- so the whole bathroom gets completely soaked. Poor Erika didn't see the water heater button you have to press for hot water (although I pressed it and the water still didn't get hot... oh well). Hot showers and fast internet are the two main things to get excited about when going down country!
We had dinner at Delicious Dishes, an Indian restaurant. Erika and I tried to get pikis in but neither of the drivers we hailed had ever heard of the restaurant so we let them leave. We ended up just walking down. The food was great and almost the whole mission came. The Wrights gave us a lift back to the hotel, which was nice, cuz Erika and I don't really want to travel alone at night unless we have to. I'm sure it would be fine, but it's good to be cautious.
Now we're just chilling in our hotel room under our mosquito nets. There's mold on the wall and the TV only has one channel (loud African beats, all the time!); our windows don't close and have no screens so who knows how many bugs and geckos could climb in tonight (Erika has already bravely squashed a massive moth)... but overall it's a pretty good room. The best part is we're splitting the cost and it comes out to $10 or $15/night each. Not bad :)
We arrived in Mbale around lunchtime, Erika and I checked into our room at the Green Garden Hotel, and then we went with Laurie and Josh to BAM, a grocery store. Erika and I went crazy buying everything we'll need (hopefully) to live comfortably between now and the next time we're down country (I probably won't be down again till Jan. or Feb. at the earliest... whenever we have our next mission meeting). Afterwards we went to Chat N Chino's, an American-style coffee shop. The service was slow but the food and drinks were good and there was wi-fi and... so wierd... WAZUNGU (white people) everywhere. Most of us were there for a while - all the teens, Martha, Laurie and Sunshine... then the teens scattered in a couple different groups across the city (they've grown up here so they're completely confident and know where they're going... which is kinda cool). Erika and I decided to stick around and enjoy the wireless and Coke floats for a while (Carolyne Scott would be proud!). We also met a pastor who is going to be coming to our mission Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow, who is doing church planting work up north in the Kitgum, literally 2 hours away from any other Westerners.
Then Erika and I each nabbed a piki (public transport motorcycle) for the short ride from the cafe back to our hotel. I was a bit nervous about the piki but it wasn't too scary, although sitting sideways on a motorcycle in a skirt with a heavy backpack on is kinda tricky, as far as balancing goes. But we both had careful drivers who went nice and slow for us mzungus. We'll be taking lots of them tomorrow, I'm guessing.
We came back and got cleaned up for dinner. Our shower is literally a shower head hanging from the ceiling, a bucket on the floor in the middle of the bathroom, and a drain in the corner where you can dump out the bucket. No curtains or anything -- so the whole bathroom gets completely soaked. Poor Erika didn't see the water heater button you have to press for hot water (although I pressed it and the water still didn't get hot... oh well). Hot showers and fast internet are the two main things to get excited about when going down country!
We had dinner at Delicious Dishes, an Indian restaurant. Erika and I tried to get pikis in but neither of the drivers we hailed had ever heard of the restaurant so we let them leave. We ended up just walking down. The food was great and almost the whole mission came. The Wrights gave us a lift back to the hotel, which was nice, cuz Erika and I don't really want to travel alone at night unless we have to. I'm sure it would be fine, but it's good to be cautious.
Now we're just chilling in our hotel room under our mosquito nets. There's mold on the wall and the TV only has one channel (loud African beats, all the time!); our windows don't close and have no screens so who knows how many bugs and geckos could climb in tonight (Erika has already bravely squashed a massive moth)... but overall it's a pretty good room. The best part is we're splitting the cost and it comes out to $10 or $15/night each. Not bad :)
The Karamojong pronounce his name "Chairman." They call the other dog, Jackal, "Chuckles."
In other news, while shopping, they had GARLIC SCENTED SHAMPOO.
There are no words.
Airplane pictures :)
I LOVED having a daytime flight from Brussels to Uganda. We were flying over the Sahara for at least two hours... here are a couple shots of the desert. Didn't turn as well as I'd hoped... but still, kinda cool to see the shadows on the sand. If you look very very carefully in the top picture, you can see a trail through the sands... from the plane I could even see some white tents pitched in the middle of nowhere. I cannot even fathom living in such a place. It goes on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on....
And here's my little Rwandan buddy :) There were two others, including a chubby little waddling baby girl, but I couldn't get a picture of them. We played a lot and since they didn't speak English, I got to brush off my college French and communicate in the most basic way with them. Dr. Leon never would have guessed I'd be using my French here of all places! Little kid French accents are the beeessst. I'm so glad I had that empty seat beside me on the plane so they could visit me :)
Saturday, November 5, 2011
Take a deep breath before reading this post.
Erika and I are alive and well today, so no worries :) But it was a terrible week...
First off, both of us got the stomach flu (or some unfortunate illness) -- Erika at the beginning of the week, and me at the end of the week. It's not fun being sick here... but we were fine. I got tested for malaria twice (finger pricks... not painful at all, thankfully) but both tests came back negative so they think it must have been the flu. So now we're kinda playing catch-up with our lessons, but we're not too far behind. Everyone here is pretty flexible because illness is just a regular part of life here... you have to work around it. Our student Kipsy had malaria this week, too, and Jimmy, another visitor, has been sick for a couple weeks. That's life.
The worst part of the week, though, was Wednesday afternoon. I was complaining in my last post about the monster spider. Well, we killed another one of those Wednesday morning... so I thought, man, Erika's sick, there's another nasty spider, that's enough bad stuff for one day. Ha!
That afternoon Erika was digging around for a receipt. I was up in my bunk reading reading for class or something... she pulled down a black Adidas duffel bag, which had been stacked at the top of all our luggage, at the end of our bunk beds, right next to our pillows. She's rummaging around in it for at least three or four minutes, pulling stuff out, digging in the corners, when she gasps and says "I think there's a snake in the bag." I'm up on the bunk so I just tell her to run and get the guard. She finds Papa Lokwii ("Lo-kwee"), an elderly man who works as our gardener. I could hear her talking to him, trying to remember the word for snake (he doesn't speak English). "Umm... ee-.... emun?" She told me when she said "emun" his eyes bugged out and he jumped.
At this point she wasn't sure it was a snake, she just knew she had seen something moving in the bag. Could have been a lizard, a scorpion, anything. But she grabs a broom and Papa Lokwii brings his walking stick, and he manages to hook the handle of the bag and bring it outside. As soon as he lifted the bag, I could tell it was way too heavy... there was something in there. He brought it out to the concrete block in front of the schoolhouse. I waited to make sure it was actually in the bag before I got out of my bunk (in case it had snuck out and was under the bed) but soon I saw Papa Lokwee and the dog jump, and got out of bed as fast as I could to watch the beating. He beat the snake to death. It was a five foot forest cobra... and we were later informed that one bite can kill an elephant in three hours. He smashed its head in and the blood is still on the concrete.
So, talk about God's providence. Erika had her hand inside a bag with a deadly cobra for several minutes and wasn't bitten. Let me tell you, she was shaken up. It was a close call. But she wasn't meant to die on Wednesday. God was protecting her and He shut the cobra's mouth.
We are now being extra careful (paranoid??) about ALWAYS keeping our doors shut and locked. It must have crept into the banda when we had the door ajar at some point... probably trying to escape the rain. It has been raining several times a day here (dry season? yeah, not so much).
So, basically, we survived. And Psalm 91 is our theme, I'd say. We survived the plague and the cobra. Another lesson in trusting God... we can't make it on our own here. Talk about a reality check!
We're fine now... it's a sunny day, we've got time to get our work done, and tonight we have a community meal so we can just relax. We're both feeling much better today.
Special thanks to Aidan Kharroubi, who has been praying specifically that God would protect us from snakes :)
First off, both of us got the stomach flu (or some unfortunate illness) -- Erika at the beginning of the week, and me at the end of the week. It's not fun being sick here... but we were fine. I got tested for malaria twice (finger pricks... not painful at all, thankfully) but both tests came back negative so they think it must have been the flu. So now we're kinda playing catch-up with our lessons, but we're not too far behind. Everyone here is pretty flexible because illness is just a regular part of life here... you have to work around it. Our student Kipsy had malaria this week, too, and Jimmy, another visitor, has been sick for a couple weeks. That's life.
The worst part of the week, though, was Wednesday afternoon. I was complaining in my last post about the monster spider. Well, we killed another one of those Wednesday morning... so I thought, man, Erika's sick, there's another nasty spider, that's enough bad stuff for one day. Ha!
That afternoon Erika was digging around for a receipt. I was up in my bunk reading reading for class or something... she pulled down a black Adidas duffel bag, which had been stacked at the top of all our luggage, at the end of our bunk beds, right next to our pillows. She's rummaging around in it for at least three or four minutes, pulling stuff out, digging in the corners, when she gasps and says "I think there's a snake in the bag." I'm up on the bunk so I just tell her to run and get the guard. She finds Papa Lokwii ("Lo-kwee"), an elderly man who works as our gardener. I could hear her talking to him, trying to remember the word for snake (he doesn't speak English). "Umm... ee-.... emun?" She told me when she said "emun" his eyes bugged out and he jumped.
At this point she wasn't sure it was a snake, she just knew she had seen something moving in the bag. Could have been a lizard, a scorpion, anything. But she grabs a broom and Papa Lokwii brings his walking stick, and he manages to hook the handle of the bag and bring it outside. As soon as he lifted the bag, I could tell it was way too heavy... there was something in there. He brought it out to the concrete block in front of the schoolhouse. I waited to make sure it was actually in the bag before I got out of my bunk (in case it had snuck out and was under the bed) but soon I saw Papa Lokwee and the dog jump, and got out of bed as fast as I could to watch the beating. He beat the snake to death. It was a five foot forest cobra... and we were later informed that one bite can kill an elephant in three hours. He smashed its head in and the blood is still on the concrete.
So, talk about God's providence. Erika had her hand inside a bag with a deadly cobra for several minutes and wasn't bitten. Let me tell you, she was shaken up. It was a close call. But she wasn't meant to die on Wednesday. God was protecting her and He shut the cobra's mouth.
We are now being extra careful (paranoid??) about ALWAYS keeping our doors shut and locked. It must have crept into the banda when we had the door ajar at some point... probably trying to escape the rain. It has been raining several times a day here (dry season? yeah, not so much).
So, basically, we survived. And Psalm 91 is our theme, I'd say. We survived the plague and the cobra. Another lesson in trusting God... we can't make it on our own here. Talk about a reality check!
We're fine now... it's a sunny day, we've got time to get our work done, and tonight we have a community meal so we can just relax. We're both feeling much better today.
Special thanks to Aidan Kharroubi, who has been praying specifically that God would protect us from snakes :)
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