Who has placed the stars...

Josh coaxed me (from my "busy-ness" around the house) outside to see the stars tonight. The stars are so beautiful and brilliant, often with very little surrounding light to dull them. The dry desert wind (cooler with the sun down) and the bats kept the mosquitoes at bay while we admired God's handiwork. God has placed each star in the sky and holds it in place - in constellations that can be recognized from all over the earth!

We reminisced about when we were in Zambia - now that was a beautiful sky! In a settlement some distance from the nearest town (Macha is where I'm referring to), the land is flat, the sky is as big as it gets, there is no light to pollute the view, and the stars reach down and grab your attention. Even as dread gripped my heart every time I made the walk from my home to the hospital, knowing that someone was dead or dying (the only reason they would call me at night), the stars reminded me of God's presence, his peace would overwhelm me, and I would breathe in the cooler night air and head for the emergency.

Now I'm thinking of the winter sky in Pennsylvania, Josh and my breath clouding the view with every exhalation, the crisp stars twinkling over our dating walks around Messiah College campus.

And the night sky in New Hampshire, where Ana was convinced that the moon's only job was to follow us and we marveled at the moon's different shapes and colors night to night, peeking through the many trees, following our car home.

What beauty God has given us, to draw our hearts to him, quiet our busy-ness, and remind us of our Creator and Sustainer!

Christian Alliance for Orphans Summit

For those of you in the USA, here's a conference to check out. It's Christian Alliance for Orphans Summit and the theme is "justice and mercy flow from the Gospel." AMEN! It's May 3-4 in Southern California. I've never been, but always wanted to go... check it out! :)

http://www.summitviii.org/blog/

Precious water

As I stare at my filthy feet and smell a slight... scent... coming from everyone, a friend asked about the water situation here.... I'll do my best to explain!

We live in a "mzungu house" with city water piped in.

Most local Acholi live in huts and go to the local borehole to get water each day - carrying a jerry can full of water back on their heads (do you know HOW heavy that is?! At least 40 pounds!) or they might rig a bicycle or a wheelbarrow up to carry more jerry cans. This is why you have children - to fetch the water! ;-P

Boreholes do not generally dry up - a borehole is a narrow shaft drilled deep enough to access under ground water supplies. These supplies are deep (sometimes a mile deep) and generally do not have problems during a typical dry season here.

On the other hand, city water comes from a reservoir on the surface (it may come from other places too, I don't claim to be an expert on this!). My laundry dries within an hour in this dry dry heat, so you can imagine that with no rain to replenish the supply for months on end, the supply dries up.

Our house has a pretty big tank (enough to do one shower, toilet flushes, two loads of laundry, and a sink full of dishes - as I found out this week) and so as long as the water comes on from the city at some point for long enough, our tank fills up and we have water in most of the house.

Lately, the water hasn't been coming on at all... meaning, I drained the tank trying to keep the house and clothes clean last week and we're down to sponge baths, using dirty water to mop the floor, and... going to the borehole. Praise God for boreholes!

So, today we need to take a trip to Home of Love to fill our jerry cans and make those last. No more "pool days" (water play in bins) for a while. No nice hot showers for a while. And the laundry... yikes - disposable diaper days? :)

No task

After a more than usual amount of chaos this morning, I headed off (sans-children) to pick up Stephen. Our goal was to take him to the local hospital where there is a physiotherapy department, get him an assessment, a regular therapy schedule, and some equipment (stander, AFOs, new wheelchair)... After all the usual delays which included having to stop to buy "airtime" for our cellphones, buying ground-nuts for Home of Love, going to Home of Love to get the paper work, setting up my babysitters to watch the kiddos... we arrived at the hospital! Horray!

The physiotherapist was very kind (although unhappy to see Stephen in Gracie's convaid - bad positioning! haha!) and told us to come back Thursday for a full assessment.

SO, we loaded back up, bumped back over the crazy cow-path roads again, bumped Stephen back over the paths to his home, greeted the local residents at their huts and prayed with them, and I took Lucy back to Home of Love.

By American doctor standards, I spent the day doing nothing. No therapies, no equipment, no AFOs...

By relationship standards, I spent the day giving a kid a ride in a van he likes very much, taking him away from the shaded patio where he spends his boring days, into the community. (In response to a question that I posed to him, he replied [in acholi] that he really likes riding in my van! Haha!)

By relationship standards, I spent five hours talking with Lucy, an amazing faithful woman of God who has amazing insight, wisdom, and encouragement.

By relationship standards, I got to greet and pray with an elderly man and a Home of Love worker who has been sick at home. I got to go inside his hut with Lucy and learn a little more about him. I got to hopefully encourage him that he's receiving the proper treatment as I looked at his xray and his medications and agreed with what he's been given.

Praise God that HE has bigger plans for us than accomplishing a task! What a blessed day!

The (hot) dead of winter...

It feels like we're in the dead of winter - the depressing lull in early February that comes in New England when the days are too short, the wind too cold, the snow shabby, trees stick-figures against the grey sky, and snow days have lost their appeal. Except we're sweating and parched.

The earth is dead - no rain for months now. The heat is intense. The dry dusty gusty winds from the Sahara in the morning are intriguing but not refreshing.

And the lack of green certainly affects us. Just like it does in the winter in New England. Where is the new life, where is the miracle of new leaves and lush grass?

In the mango tree, as we watch baby mangoes grow against all odds, without rainful (but with plenty of sunshine!)...

In the avocado tree still producing...

In the boreholes that never dry up...

We just have to look for the miracles of life a little harder as we guzzle precious water and apply chapstick, as we bathe over buckets so we can reuse the water to wash clothes, and as the darkness closes in at sunset (albeit hours later than it would in New England February!).

Praise God for seasons, even seasons we enjoy less! Every season has its purpose - a season of waiting, a season of rejoicing, a season of sorrow, a season of action...

(Ecclesiastes 3)

Country mice visit the big city

Yes, we feel like those country mice... It's not until you leave your home that you realize certain things about your home.

1. Dirty clothes and dirty feet and legs are normal to us but sure stand out in the majestic Ministry of Health building!

2. Flipflops and T shirts have become standard wear but we sure look shabby!

3. Cheese and meats options at the grocery store made me want to dance around.

4. A slightly air-conditioned store made me linger.

5. I felt the need to shower and dress up just to go out of the house in Kampala.

6. I forgot I was in Uganda momentarily. (Couldn't remember WHAT country I was in, but Kampala isn't the Uganda I know!)

7. It took us 20 minutes to decide what to eat at the food court in a mall (more than ONE option?! In Gulu, if you go to a restaurant, you don't need the menu, you just ask what they have that day because they likely only have ingredients for ONE dish, if that.).

8. I frantically looked around for the fans in the home we're staying in: NONE! But it's cool at night! You don't need them!

Kampala looks very different too - it's a city of hills, it's much more lush right now thanks to Lake Victoria (Gulu, we now realize, is BROWN in the middle of dry season), there are more diverse birds...

Culture shock within our own country! ;-P

Cottage Cheese

In honor of my dad, who can't stand cottage cheese, I made some today. (haha!)

Really simple, actually.

1. Heat milk to simmering.

2. Add white vinegar bit by bit. (I did NOT use rennet as called for in most recipes and it worked just fine!)

3. As soon as it separates and curdles, remove from heat.

4. Strain through cloth and strainer.

5. Rinse the curds.

6. Break up curds and salt to taste.

There you go! Some recipes say to stir in half and half or cream... I don't have that, so for now, it'll be more like farmer's cheese - a little drier than store-bought cottage cheese.

I'm not sure yet what I'll do with the whey - smoothies? Ricotta cheese? Feed to the dogs for protein? Nothing today though - one project is enough! Hopefully the electricity will stay on long enough to chill the whey and keep for tomorrow.