The Gift Of Tongues

11-4-08
Start praying prayer warriors…we’re feeling the strains of our environment - healthwise.

Today we went straight to the orphanage…at 10A and via 2 stops: one at the cabinet shop (Shannin is getting a lockable cabinet for the medical supplies) and the other to get paint supplies that had yet to be purchased. With each stop, we sit in the back of a very hot Landcruiser with a gathering crowd of curious onlookers. We can only imagine that we look like the caged lion in a traveling circus – evidently moms don't teach their kids that it is impolite to stare.


The journey this morning took 2 hours. Despite our best efforts to get an early start, or to try and get some work done, we can’t seem to do it! We have yet to finish painting, but we’re learning to go with the local culture and try and take it easy.

Doug is having the worst of it though as his American patience is wearing a little thin. He keeps telling all of us to just “take charge” and make a decision, and every time he does, the locals just look at him and do it in their own time anyway. It’s very comical.

Speaking of Doug…it’s also comical to note that Doug has inherited his Father’s language skills. To his credit he has tried to learn the Lingali and French words for the common things and has even written them down on a cheat sheet, but frequently he will mix Spanish (what little he knows) when talking to the natives. Not to mention, the hand gestures that ensue when they have trouble understanding the Spanish. If they still don’t understand the Spanish and hand gestures, he’ll speak louder broken English with a heavy Italian accent. Usually this situation ends up with him grabbing an interpreter.

Lee, you can be proud.

While the delays make us feel like we’re not doing as much as we could, we’re getting a lot accomplished. The local Passionists haven’t known what they needed for the new building and it seems that every contractor was taking advantage of them with their bids. We saved them a ton of money by finding new ways to cut corners without giving up much of the quality.

The new dormitory’s walls are raw cinderblock. Now, the cinderblock here is not what you’re thinking of at home - it has a much larger mix of sand than mortar and will crumble if you don’t pick it up with 2 hands. As a result it is extremely porous and absorbs the paint a little too readily.

How do we save on paint while still getting good coverage? We add mastic (drywall mud) to the paint at a one-to-one ratio, let it dry, and then cover it with a second coat of paint. Viola! The locals mentioned that they had never used the mastic in this manner, but it was good. Not quite the quality we would like for the walls, but $20 saved means another kid can eat for a month – really makes you think in that context.

(This guy, Montasi, is the spitting image of an African version of my nephew Steven)

We wanted to film the kid’s greeting us this morning so Paul and Doug went on ahead to get their hellos over with and break out the camera equipment. Needless to say it didn’t work out so well as the kids were looking for the rest of us and spotted us from afar. This of course starting a mad dash to greet us; Paul and Doug were left in the dust as they ran down the mile trail we hike in on for every visit. Of course, this should have been very predictable.

Today Zach and Shannin had a little medical clinic going over the little infected cuts and wounds that the kids have.

It’s amazing to me how many of these there are. While any one of these wounds would be something that would get cleaned, antibiotic ointment applied, and dressed in the US, they are simply ignored here as they happen way too frequently. Some of these have caused a systemic infection resulting in the high fevers that we have seen.

One of the village workers cut his leg badly while we were there. I should say rather that he filleted the skin off of his shin in several places. I was a little surprised how bad it was. He was going to head to the river to rinse it out when we sent him to our little “clinic.” Latex’d up, Zach peeled the skin back, cleaned the wound with peroxide, applied Neosporin, and put a dressing on. It looked so good that the guy returned to work and was telling all of his co-workers that his leg was “straight from America.” Hopefully, it heals okay and doesn’t get any worse or he’ll think we were the reason why! :-)

(Nyesha gets her first pair of shoes)

Well, we’ve been out of power for the past 3 days. I’m told that this is pretty typical and can sometimes last a month. So…little to no water, no power, no internet. There is not much you can rely on from the government here. We’re learning to adjust, but it makes it difficult to get the laptop and phone charged up in order to get this out. Sorry for the delays.