Holes

The second day of Swahili class has come and gone. It's amazing how fast we are flying through everything, but we only have 5 days and today was shortened due to our afternoon project. Overall, the learning is going well... we only wish we did the outdoor small groups more since our classroom is filled with tropical plants and the background view is a giant mountain. Perfect.

Hilari (sp?), a local who makes beautiful woodwork, stopped by today around lunchtime and since we had our money exchanged, we were able to make some purchases. He used both the ebony wood and the light wood together to make beautiful sculptures of masks, candle holders, elephants, giraffes, nativity scenes, etc.

This afternoon after lunch, we took trucks (and luckily did not get stuck) to a family's home. This is the couple that was diagnosed HIV positive, yet their children are not. Pastor Hafermann and the others have given them a free house set slightly on the outskirts of town, and our job today was to get started on their outdoor latrine. The previous hole that had been dug was approximately 6 feet deep, yet it was directly outside of their window, so the smell entering the home would not have been a pleasant one. After filling that hole, we started on another one nearby and on the side closest to the house, we started digging trenches for the outhouse. We only got about 4 feet of the new hole dug, but it was still a satisfying feeling to see the difference.

We dug in shifts and the ones who were not digging were able to play with the neighbor children, who loved the bubbles and stickers and coloring books everyone brought. We were also able to watch them play a game very similar to Mancala, but more complex. They used nuts from the trees and had dug little holes in the ground to play the game in, and had a grand old time. I'd like to try and get my laptop working soon so I can upload pictures I have taken onto the blog.

After we returned, everyone showered because we were filthy from dirt flying around all afternoon. We ate dinner and discussed our plan for tomorrow. Tomorrow is the first day we will go to a village. We will leave in the morning after going to the morning church service here at the Seminary, and the village is a couple hours away. It will be an all-day event, which will involve hours of church. It sounds as if the village does not have a church, so the service will be taking place under a large tree. I learned the Swahili word for "tree" today... it's amazing how fast these things leave my memory.

At dinner, I was commenting on how wonderful and natural the food all is. Then, I found a worm in my tomato. Point proven....the little sneak.

Before bed, we practiced our songs we are going to sing at the village tomorrow...good old camp/church songs that Katie, a music education major, has organized and choreographed. We're going on tour when we get back to the states!

Peace,
Anna