Teacher, teacher

Greetings, all! Thank you for reading our blog and responding so frequently. It is so amazing to think we are halfway around the world and able to still communicate with our loved ones. Your comments reassure us that all is well and that you indeed are following our activities. Thus, we know that you are continuing to pray for us and are seeing/hearing how God has been answering us. 'Cuz God is good, all the time. And, all the time, God is good.
First, please pray for Ida and Keith, as they are away from us for the night (Friday) in Livingtone. They are scheduled to meet with their lawyer in the morning concerning the adoption of Mutiba. Thus far, these 'appointments' have not come to fruition. So, their request is to pray for this to happen as scheduled.
Next, we've encouraged our youth to blog for us all. Can you tell?!? Most impressive, too, wouldn't you agree? My thoughts are quite scrambled, so I may not make as much sense as I'd like. It's also late; and I've haven't been getting much sleep. No surprise there, as I don't usually need much. I am feeling foggy; but here goes. Spending time with all ages of 'kids' (pre-school, OVC, and basic school) has been fun and fantastic. They all follow us around, climb on us, want to play with us, talk to us, and call us 'teacher, teacher'. It is so endearing, yet so bittersweet, as we can't possibly do everything with everyone. Jesus Quest was been so interesting! My large 'small group' has shared such storms in their lives as hunger, poverty or being poor, and having no roof or shelter over their heads. Many are orphans, but they shared that Jesus loved them and they were alive. Then, we did a 'three-legged' relay race which they seemed to love and laughed almost hysterically. When I 'tried' explaining to the teacher that this was called a three-legged race, she interpreted for me. As they proceeded to grab one more person and 'tie' up one leg from each of them, it became quite obvious that even English speaking 'teachers' did not always understand. Bryan and I watched in amazement, as they hobbled, tripped,and laughed even harder doing a 'four-legged' race with three people. When asked what game they liked the best thus far, they exclaimed the 'three-legged' race they had just run! Even these 'teachers' were calling us teachers, as we helped Ben (and Cindy) with our instructional computer labs. I worked with two women in one of our sessions, and they remarked that I was such a good computer teacher. Will wonders never cease! Don't laugh, Donald!
When Emily, Cindy, and I had our opportunity to participate in one of the 'outreach' programs (translation: away from Mwandi and the mission, and quite possibly near to or 'in' the bush), we traveled with 4 local volunteers and one medical technician. We went to one of the 'under five' clinics and helped with immunizations for these little ones. We helped weigh babies, record important data, administer drugs and even ended up playing games with the village children and older siblings. Cindy taught them Tag; Duck, Duck, Goose; Ring Around the Rosie; and Emily helped with the Hokey Pokey. I was able to help Emily with Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes and the Macarena (sp?). Then, to help calm all that enthusiasm, I suggested Pictionary in the sand. Though skeptical, Emily went for it. I ran back and forth, asking our volunteers for the African names of the animals she was drawing. What happened, though, was these kids just started copying everything she was drawing. It became so 'quiet' yet so revealing. Talent like you wouldn't believe unfolded before our very eyes. And, all of this outside a mud hut with a thatched roof while drawing in the sand! The tragedy was seeing the three and a half foot high destruction on all of the village huts from the recent flooding, yet then finding joy, acceptance, and peace in these fascinating people. Thankfully, only one of the children who came to the clinic had not gained weight. His mother rode back with us into Mwandi to the hospital so she could get supplemental food. Then, our driver drove her back to the village. We were in Kasaya, next to the Kasai River.
Well, tonight we had another first. We've been hearing about very large insects but not really seeing any. (Everything is larger here: giant impatiens and other flowers, lizards and reptiles, and trees and bushes.) We've even had a quite large 'flat-bodied' spider (an Arachnid, NOT an insect!), one of the 'good' kind, living in one of the girls' bathrooms. In fact, we named said spider George Herald Simon, the first........Sir George, for short. But, tonight in the kitchen I heard a very loud, insect-like noise and then felt a tickle on my neck. I turned to see some sort of 'giant' insect on my shoulder. I must admit that it startled me a bit and I couldn't tell what it was. Cindy was with me, so I asked her to get it off me. She later shared that there was no way she was going to swat that thing with her hand, so she grabbed a towel. After swinging at me a couple of times with a little of bit yelling and laughing, she was able to get it off me. Of course, we had been cleaning up, so some food went flying, as well. When I asked where the bug was, she said it was in the towel, which was lying on the floor with the spilled food. When I looked, I was shocked to see the 'monster' on the floor. Jon saved me from having to 'kill' it by doing it for me; but I called in those who wanted to see it. I must say it looked to be a cricket about one inch wide and at least 4 inches long. Everyone was pretty grossed out by it; but then the 'fishing' stories started and that thing grew to be about two feet in no time at all. LOL! Laura shared that her dad had jumped up from the table with our first shriek and was rushing to 'save' us.

Well, it's now late; and I must close.
Much love & many hugs, Pam