Hello again, C4 friends and others following along. I just finished writing a posting on my blog, but thought you might want to see Leonard and Renee Leachman's little girl Oma, so please follow this link here!
As I was thinking of what to write here, so as to actually have content, and not just repeat my blog, or send you link surfing, I thought of a few things that we have learned here.
1) Improvisation is the key to live here. So many things will not work the way you want them to, or something will break and need to be fixed. In Stuart's kids camp today, we had balloon games planned to do with all the kids. 2 different age groups, in rotation, 3 rotations per group. But, when kids aren't used to having access to balloons frequently, you don't have an interpreter, and the grass has very sharp edges, balloon do not last very long for any games to be played! Also, I tried to repair several wheel chairs today and previous days, and I can not tell you how frustrating it is to not have a hardware store handy to by spare bolts, nuts, tools and WD-40.
2) I have asked the question - "What is your name?" a lot this week. When you have 150 dark skinned children, the girls with braided hair, the boys with shaved heads, and they are all about the same size and body shape, and you have a hard enough time understanding their names and accent. Oh boy. It would take me a month here to learn every one's name. One boy was kind enough to take a crayon and write his name on the skin of his chest for me one night - Iko. I laughed, but I can recognize him now!
3) I appreciate napkins and running water to wash my hands. On previous missions experiences, I had come to appreciate hot and cold running water, but now I will just appreciate having any water at all that can run from a faucet into a sink. You don't know what that means.
4) I am humbled by the things that I want, and what I really need in life to live. I have not taken a single thing out of a refrigerator this entire week. We need refrigerators, really?? No, we don't. You can live without them, and quite well, for the food that we have eaten this week.
I am running out of time here in the office, so I will say good night. I hope to blog one last time tomorrow night, and give you a few hints at how you can make our homecoming a profitable one for everyone involved!
Live To Tell,
Adam J
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