Tuesday, 7-7-09 Day 21 (potato fight).

Today is one of those days that I am SO thankful for malaria pills! I had some awesome dreams last night that I got to fly home for a weekend to see my family, and THEN come back to Kenya. In my dreams, I spent the whole day with my parents, my brother, and my sister! I was subsequently very refreshed this morning and revving to go for the day!
Our first path ministry is today, I’m so excited! I’ve been looking forward to this for a while! Today’s agenda was to visit various members of the church. I didn’t really understand this, because I was previously under the impression that we would be visiting new people who are NOT a part of the church. My opinion meant little to our guide, who assured us that visiting the church members was what we were supposed to do; so I just went with the flow.
The coolest thing about path ministry is that I was able to witness the way ordinary people live on a daily basis. Most families that we saw had either no father figure, or the father was out of town and working. Mark and I noticed that some houses were decorated- an artist or the friend of an artist would decorate the in-and-outsides of the hut with black paint. (they used bold and usually floral patterns to create their art.) Most of the women that we came across were incredibly shy. They were often nervous because they weren’t expecting company and felt unprepared for our arrival. At every household, we had to refuse their offers of food and drink; and more often than not we were told to wait until the neighbor could bring their chairs over so that all of us American’s could sit. I adored being able to see and play with the many kids that I saw, and truly loved getting to pray for the women and their families. I was very surprised and excited that one of the houses that we visited belonged to my friend Judy! Judy is a very quiet lady that I immediately felt connected to. She’s a few years older than I am, has a very handsome baby boy, and is one of the most generous and kind people I have ever met in my life. Her smile is bright and contagious! I had the pleasure of meeting her brother, who lives with her and her husband. He was very kind, but I had a feeling that he was scared of Mark.
All in all, path ministry today was great and I’m looking forward to doing it again tomorrow!
At home I enjoyed some PB&red-plum-jam! I was eating up on the rock, watching the dogs play, when Consolaté, a cook for the school, came up to say hello to me. She told me that She and her 6 kids at home we hungry. I got a sick feeling in my stomach knowing that there wasn’t much I could do to help, and instead did as I was instructed to do. I told her that she should talk to Pastor Protus about it so that a solution could be worked out. She kept pushing me to help her right then, and I kept referring her to Protus. It broke my heart to do this. I don’t know if she ever did talk to Protus, but I did find out from Judith (who was none too happy about the situation) that Consolaté gets paid every month for her job.
After this conversation, I was recruited by Jan to make more bracelets. Yay. A little while later, Jan decided it was her nap time, so I took the opportunity to explore some more of the compound and to pray for Instruction from God. What did I get from God during this time? The infamous, “wait”. I feel like I’m in some kind of holy Obedience School.
After my futile attempts to get some answers from the Man Upstairs, I hung out with Mark and Mike. I’ve decided that Mark is way too tolerant of me! I know that he has 2 daughters around my age, and I wonder if that is part of why he has acted so fatherly toward me. I personally don’t mind, because I miss my dad and am glad that I have someone around who is comforting in a fatherly way.
I got to have an 18 minute phone call with my family before dinner! It was SO nice to hear their voices! After thanking Protus over and over for the use of his phone, I was summoned to help prepare dinner by Jan.
We got into an argument about dinner tonight. She wanted me to peel potatoes. Peeling potatoes is something I don’t do. She tried the “you need to do it anyway” approach. I don’t take that very well either, and I unfortunately had a moment of being out of control of myself and told her that it simply wasn’t going to happen. (I hurt myself on potato peelers all the time- so unless there is a dire need for me to be the specific potato peeling person, you can find yourself with un-peeled potatoes.) She then brought to my attention that If I planned on being married, I needed to learn to peel potatoes because my husband is sure to want potatoes with his dinner. By this point I was pissed off, and told her (politely) that if my future husband wanted peeled potatoes then he could be a man and peel them himself. Then I offered to wash the potatoes (and carrots) while mark peeled them. That seemed acceptable for everyone involved, so Mark (who thought the entire argument was hysterical) happily peeled the potatoes (and carrots) because then he wouldn’t have to do dishes tonight. (for reference, snappeas, chicken, and gravy were also on the menu tonight!)
I happy did the dishes after dinner tonight (my white flag for the potato-peeling mishap). I washed, rinsed, and dried, and put away everything to the happy tune of my Ipod.
I’ve noticed tonight that the moon is especially beautiful. I would love if I could take the African sky home with me! As I lay in my tentcot writing this, I’m feeling a little overwhelmed. I miss my home and my family so much, and it seems like seeing them is so far away from now. I’m trying my best to not feel entirely useless on this trip- Because in secret, I’ve wondered what I’ve really done to contribute to this mission. God has yet to reveal his plan for me (plans for both my time on this trip, and my time after getting home) so I don’t know what direction I’m supposed to face. Besides my usual nightly prayers, I want to include this one:
Lord, set my path before me, so that nothing shall happen that is not of your will. Let what I do here be pleasing in your sight. Amen.