The Chicken Hats

Ok, so I just had to post this photo of the boys in the frog and chicken hats my grandparents sent them. I don't know WHERE these things came from, but my grandparents have had them for some years and decided to send them out to the kids, who love them. They argue about who gets to wear which hat. They are wearing the "pajama pants" that are made from local fabric. Kevin's mom had these made up for them while she was here, by a local tailor. In reality, these are not pajamas, but are worn by many of the children and young men around town. Very comfy! - Cami

Shape shifting and a shift in attitudes

So I was reading news on the BBC website this morning and came across the following story: Nigeria Police Hold "Robber" Goat

Apparently it is a fairly common belief in Nigeria that people shape shift, and this particular story outlines how a group of citizens arrested a goat who had previously been a man who stole a car. Here's the link:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7846822.stm

Now, the tendency in America is to laugh at this kind of thing, probably even to shake your head in disbelief that people could believe such a stupid thing. However, as I read it I just felt really sad. That is because we hear about things like that here, too. It is a reality whether you believe in magic, or spirits, or not.

This week, I saw a man who looked like he was mentally disabled. With screeches and hand-flapping, he lurched up and down the street. I asked someone who knew him if he was disabled, and they told me that no, he had stolen a lot of money, and the people from whom he stole had cursed him. That is why is was like this. I asked if he was like this when he was a child, and they said that no, it started some years after the thefts.

I know a young woman whose son had eczema. For months, I gave her creams and pills to help treat the condition, and explained to her that there is really no cure and that most children grow out of it. However, the child had difficult sleeping at night and when she ran out of the anti-itch pills I gave her she didn't contact me for more, or couldn't afford to buy them, or thought they weren't helping. I heard last week that after taking the child for the 20th time to the local hospital to try to cure him (she didn't believe my diagnosis), she was advised there to return to her home district and find a witch doctor (not just an herbalist, these folks also use spiritism). She did so, and from the grapevine I learned that the child is seemingly cured. She is a Christian and attends church regularly.

There is also a belief here that you cannot kill a snake, that it is in fact a spirit. Which explains another reason people are so terrified of snakes, besides the fact that there are many deadly snakes here (we found a small spitting cobra in our yard last year).

Lest you condemn these folks to the category of "uneducated", I urge you to remember that even now in America people believe in spirits, in ghosts, in strange and mysterious happenings. Although not all those stories are believed, those who experienced the events would swear that they happened. And we cannot dismiss the folks here for their beliefs. True or not, people here can tell you story after story about how the ancestors or the spirits blessed or cursed them, how someone fell ill after another person cursed them, or how something bad happened to a family after they mistreated someone. And it is not just bad things happening to bad people. When someone has good crops and then falls ill, people say that the neighbors were jealous and put a curse on him. When a baby is sick, people say that the ancestors are upset with the parents and an offering must be made.

If you come into situations like these and try to explain to someone that the illness is caused by a virus, or poor nutrition, or by an evil spirit or other spiritual reasons (like using charms), they generally will not believe you. Too many experiences over too many years have cemented these beliefs into people's heads. The only way to change people's hearts and minds is through slow change through understanding of the Bible and through the Holy Spirit. Only then do they begin to understand the work of evil spirits and of God's call to follow only Him, not the ancestors, and to live in freedom, not in fear.
-Cami

Unmentionables

Ok, so I held up a certain piece of underwear last week and asked my houseworker what it is called in Portuguese and she said, roughly translated, "boob keeper." I won't post a photo, for which I am sure you are all grateful. This is a "PG" site. I almost choked, and then burst into laughter. Kevin, who was also standing there, went off into gales of laughter. She looked a little embarrassed but also giggled. Now, the REAL word in Continental Portuguese is "Soutien", which is very lovely. But here is is called that other thing, and that is pretty typical. The Portuguese which is spoken here is nothing if not functional. Entire classes of verbs have been eliminated (which means we spent a lot of time mastering something that isn't used here. Well, we never did master it. We poked around its edges.)

People who come here from Brazil can find themselves shocked at the difference in words. There are different names for men's and ladies' underwear there than in Continental Portuguese, and more of the CP words are used here. They have to be careful, or they will end up calling men's underwear "panties" by accident. The kind of thing to make you chuckle.

But seriously, we are surrounded by mammary glands here. it was rather shocking when we first arrived. There are no pacifiers, and so babies go for the real thing. Moms just pull down the neckline of their shirts, grab ahold of it and pull it out. This goes on up to two years old. Sometimes you are talking to someone and there it is, hanging there. Having nursed two babies myself I can cope with this while feeling vaguely uncomfortable, but I'm sure that western men really struggle. Kevin has adjusted really well, but often feels that he OUGHT to look away from the woman in question. But in reality it is just considered normal here and it would be rude to look in the other direction while talking to someone! Ladies walking down the street, baby strapped to the front, nursing away, it happens all the time. I told a friend that in America you'd get arrested for walking around with your boobs hanging out, and she about fell over laughing. Funny thing is, it is terribly shocking to lift up your shirt and expose any part of your midriff. Tummy is totally off limits here, but boobage is normal.

Actually though, the constant nursing of the babies is really good for them. Diarrhea is a terrible, terrible problem here and without this constant nutrition we'd see death rates much higher. Did you know that some years ago formula companies tried to convince Africans that they should give bottles, not nurse? I wonder how many babies died as a result. Few people have access to good clean water here, and it is not safe to give local water from the tap to young babies. So now we see signs all over the place encouraging women to nurse their babies. Very few could afford to pay for formula anyway, but there was a belief for awhile that formula was BETTER for babies than breastmilk. All this nursing creates an interesting societal dynamic, though. It means that women simply can't get away from those babies unless they are able to shift feedings somehow to further apart. It means that there are babies in all the church services, and all the women's meetings, and things are a lot more "exciting" and noisy. Babies are brought everywhere, carried on their mother's back on front in a type of sling made by a piece of material. I was at the central hospital yesterday with a friend and her baby and they were everywhere! - Cami

Humbled and Confused

We had a couple of things happen this week that just left us shaking our heads. But in a good way. As many of you know, our financial support has been low for a long time. Many missionaries around the world are experiencing this, and many have had to leave the field. So, we don't take it personally and know that lots of folks in the USA (and in other countries) are struggling. We have adjusted our lives somewhat, where we can, and are trying to ride out the storm.

Last week, one of our supporting churches held a meeting to decide what they were going to do about their missions budget. We felt pretty sure that we would hear back that our support was cut by half, which would have been a blow. However, after the meeting we heard that almost all of the staff of the church has agreed to work for free. Yup, free. No salary. Now, how these people are going to live, to pay their bills, I have no idea. But they said they would do this. The Board there also said that they feel they have a commitment to their foreign missionaries, to keep us on the field, and that we would continue to receive their full promised support, Lord willing.

When we heard this news, we felt humbled. Thank you, Bakerville Church, for standing behind us even when it hurts really bad.

This week, we received our regular monthly statement (list of donations) for December. For the first time since July, we received our full salary. And there was much rejoicing. There were some folks who gave sacrifically and we are going to celebrate by going out and buying a big bag of milk powder! Well, actually I did buy two blocks of cheese, which we rarely eat these days, and invited friends over for pizza! However, every month, whether we receive all that we hoped for or not, I look at the list of people who sent money in and I feel humbled. Well, I feel somewhat guilty too, but that is fodder for another blog entry. It can sometimes be hard to receive. I look at the names and think "You know, she could have gone out to eat with that money. He could have bought a new CD and gone to the movies". There are a million other things those folks could have done, including giving to some very worthy causes, but they sent it to us to keep us here doing this work. Why? That's where the confusion part comes in.

God works in people's hearts, I know. He does it in my heart. And I don't believe everyone should give to us. But for some reason he's chosen these folks to stand with us in this work. And I am humbled when I think about it. I just have to shake my head, and say "Thank you. We'll try our best." - Cami

We're not in Kansas Anymore

This little house (called a "dependencia" here) used to have a roof. And the "porch" area also had a roof. We had a massive storm here a few days ago, that left me wondering where our early hurricane warning system was (my dad keeps us informed of incoming heavy weather). The driving rain and fierce winds were whipping everything around, and peeled the roof right back, about 10 feet. The tin roof pieces will have to be removed, pounded, new cement blocks put in the wall, new wood crossbeams, etc. It's always something. We are very blessed to have this little shed, though. Before we moved into our rental house, the guard and his whole family lived in this 2-room cement house and were glad to have it. Many people here have straw roofs, which tend to leak badly and blow away in high winds. Now we use it for storage of things which would otherwise tend to "walk away" when we are not around. - Cami

This and That

We are back at home and the usual things are going on around here. The water goes on and off, sometimes for a few hours and sometimes for a couple days. We felt kind of self-satisfied here at our house for the first year of our residence, because the water almost never went off. However, in the last 6 months we are sinking to the poor water service of everyone else! Of course, we are located right next door to the city water pumps and tanks, so we can go next door and get a bucket of water if we need it.

Kevin has been working on our broken pipes all week, and today we have water in the house and in the washing machine! It felt so good to take a shower last night instead of the bucket bath we've had for 2 weeks. Those never leave you feeling completely clean.

Our electricity is going out a lot more frequently, too. Over the last couple of months, we lost power almost every day. Usually only for about 15 minutes, but it means we go around and shut off and unplug computers and appliances (in anticipation of a power surge), and get the flashlights and oil lanterns. About the time we grope about in the dark to accomplish all that, the power comes on. It is frustrating.

We've had some little visitors around the house and yard lately. Earlier this week, Toby and I were working on replacing the porch screens when I noticed the cat pouncing in a corner of the veranda. I looked again and SNAKE!!! We lept up on the chairs near us and watched as the cat wrestled with the long, thin, green snake. I immediately think "green mamba" when I see a green snake, but this one turned out to be only a harmless yard snake. Our valiant cat Lucky turned it's head into mush and then carried it off to eat the rest of it. Kevin was unable to get the snake away from Lucky, but we got an ID on it so we could see what kind it was.

Yesterday, our house worker called out to me in fear, and I came to see what was happening. She had a large centipede trapped behind a door, and was holding the door shut with a broom. I thought it was no big deal, and tried to capture it with a dustpan and small broom, but quickly realized that it moves FAST! and it's wiggly little legs were waving around wildly. She mashed it on the head with the broom and carried it out, and then it started roaming around again. Finally I killed it with a big rock. It wasn't until I saw it in the sunshine that I saw the large poisonous pincers that make a nasty sting. Ick!! It was about 8 inches long, no lie. This is a photo of a South American one, only one I could find on the web with a quick search, but it looked pretty much like this.

This morning, I was walking across the yard and spied a 9 inch milipede off on some adventure. This was quickly put to an end with the back of a shovel, and he now reposes under a tree in the corner of the yard, forever and ever. Harmless critter, really, but I can't have those coming near the house. Sorry, just can't.

Meanwhile, the heat is impressive these days. Nothing compared to what folks in the Middle East suffer in the summertime, but we have high 90s and high humidity. Ben walks around covered with cornstarch since he breaks out into a bright red heat rash without it. He likes it, though, and frequently asks to be powdered.

- Cami

Putting out a Fire in Nampula

Ok, so another missionary told us this story and we think it is just so funny that we have to repeat it. I probably have some of the details mixed up but oh well.

So, this missionary was outside of his apartment building in Nampula and noticed a big crowd at another apartment building. Smoke was billowing out of the windows, but no one was doing anything. He walked down the street to the fire station (the only one in town happened to be only a block away) and found a fireman sitting there in front. "You know there is a fire, right?" "Right" the guy replied. "Are you going to go there?" he asked. "Yes," replied the fireman. "We are waiting for the fire truck to come from the airport.". Apparently the fire truck at the airport has an extension to allow the hose to go into a higher building.

So, eventually the fire truck comes driving up and they raise the pole and fire away with the hose. Gush!! Unfortunately, it is into the wrong apartment. They flood the place. So, they reposition the hose. Gush! Again, wrong apartment. The stairs must be a waterfall by now. So, finally they move the hose outside the right window and "phhhtttt", nothing comes out. No water in the truck. Off goes the fire truck to get more water.

Meanwhile, they send a fireman walking up the stairs to the apartment with a little hand-held fire extinguisher. He uses this to put the fire out in just a few minutes.

And yes, this is a true story.

-Cami

Thanksgiving

Now that I'm getting caught up on posts, I wanted to put up some photos of our Thanksgiving celebration (on the actual holiday of Thanksgiving. Organized by me and Melissa Maddux, a Church of Christ missionary, we had about 30 people and nationalities including American, Dutch, Mozambican, and Canadian. No turkey this year - it was toooo pricey at about $60 for a turkey at the supermarket. So, we bought frozen chickens from the Christian business here in Nampula that sells them, and the staff at the SIL center roasted them for us over the fire. Yummy! SIL has a translation center here in Nampula that is a hub for missionary activity. It has housing for passers-through to rent (it was built to house their missionaries and translators for seminars), the missionary kids' school is there, and the Sunday night english fellowship meets on site. We had the opportunity to rent their dining hall and use their staff to cook the chicken, set up the tables and wash the dishes.

Here's Ben and his little Dutch friend, Eslie. I am sure I am spelling it wrong. Ben had his chicken bone and was rolling around on the floor. During the evening, we had some excitement when a huge bunny spider was spotted creeping across the floor. It was quickly caught between two bowls, and the MKs had a great time looking at it. Ewwww.

It was really so nice to celebrate this special day with our friends and colleagues, and to be thankful for all that we have been blessed with in the past year. And the yummy food didn't hurt any,either! We had REAL mashed potatoes (mashed by hand by exhausted Melissa!) and apple and pumpkin pie (made from scratch), and all sorts of other good things. - Cami