One pair of glasses... many laughs!

It's Hot.

By Shel Silverstein

It’s hot!
I can’t get cool,
I’ve drunk a quart of lemonade,
I think I’ll take my shoes off
And sit around in the shade.

It’s hot!
My back is sticky,
The sweat rolls down my chin.
I think I’ll take my clothes off
And sit around in my skin.

It’s hot!
I’ve tried with ‘lectric fans,
And pools and ice cream cones.
I think I’ll take my skin off
And sit around in my bones.

It’s still hot!

Snake!

Mr. Snake.
In our kitchen!

Disclaimer

I was thinking...
Since I only post pics of places and events that don't really have to do with Kalacha or what we are doing here it could be slightly confusing for people.

To explain : Cameras are not looked at kindly. By taking a picture of someone's camel you are stealing their blood... blood is life. So I can't just walk around town with a camera. Out of town with our team or with friends we can have the camera but I don't often get to take pics of everyday life here in Kalahca.

So the types of events that DON'T get picture posts are things like...

- Mobile Clinic - we went with the nurse Gloria on a mobile clinic. There were 6 of us in total, Gloria (the nurse), Ware (Gloria's help and translator), Paul (the pastor), Abudo ( the mechanic and translator) and then Barbara and I were just tag alongs. With the car we can bring health care to people who cannot get into town on a regular basis. Gloria gives shots for the kids, weighs them to make sure they are not malnurished and does general health care as well. Paul does a small talk about God, the Creator of all, the healer and the reason why we are out there doing this for them.

- Girls night - Barbara and I started up a girls fellowship night. We want to create an atmosphere where we can get to know them, learn with them as well as give them opportunity to ask and discuss things. Most of the girls here are quite shy so to help with that we eliminated the less shy/louder guys so the girls have a chance to talk and ask. Before our 'study' time we go to play ping-pong. None of us are very good, but it is sure fun to try!

- Olla Arangesa - This is the village that Barbara and I spent out homestay at. We go back every once in a while to visit. It is only an hour or so walk from town so we head out while the moon is still the main source of light and come back before lunch. I love spending time in the outside villages, there is a very distinct difference from 'town' life! The only thing is that we have to drink SOOOO much chai! To be good hosts they have to have us to their house to drink chai, which means we have to go to each hut to drink chai! Luckily its a small village... only 4 huts. BUT the cups in the villages are twice as big as the ones in town, so we drank the equivalent of 7 cups of chai in 2 hrs time! We need to practice our refusal techniques!

"Picnic!!! I love picnincs!"

Ezikiel's arm has healed well, he is almost ready to have it out of the wrap!

As we drove past Kalacha Dida there were some camel herders camping out there. They were still there when we drove back so they got to see all of our glow stick madness... I wonder what they thought of that!

Ezra is getting SO big so fast! He is even sitting up on his own!

Enock - Watching the dirt throwing competition (which was quickly stopped before we got to deal with dirt in the eyes).

Last one across the desert is a rotton egg...

Next time we should play hide and seek!!! :)

"This dirt sure looks tasty"

Chalbi picnic... welcoming our new station managers - Rachel and Eddie and their 5 kids.

What it looks like when all the children throw their military (thanks to the Brits!) glow sticks!

Glow sticks are not only fun but they double as tracking devices for children running around the desert in the dark! It is quite fun to watch them run around because you can not see the child, on the glow stick - running, falling, fighting, flying through the air!!!

Just a few Pics

" Hey Sleepy Head Get Up!!!"
Because of sorio (sacrifices) all of the animals have to come back home, back from pasture in the surrounding areas. So we had camels living all aournd our house, as well as donkeys, goats and sheep. The donkeys are SOOOO loud...its a good thing I sleep through anything!
This is me having a second Christmas! All of the wonderful Christmas cards and packages that people sent me came on the plane that arrived on new years day. THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH!

Making sure that their camel sticks around.

The sufria (pot) garden has a new experiment in it now. The beans turned crusty and died... I don't think they liked the salt. So now we have some chives. I love chives so I hope they grow!

Here is our house... Cards from home hanging on the wall, the world map on the table, the chives soaking in the sun.... home sweet home!

An intense game of SPOONS! I am so happy that the youth feel free to drop by whenever and we have fun playing games with them... Uno, Dutch Blitz, Spoons... From the left to the white - Adan, Dub, Robe, Barille, Barako and then Barbara.

This is Galgalu, one of our neighbor kids who is so sweet! She is the one that we normally see carring water 4 or 5 times a day.

Rain

Waan atini setu bokay arr roba? = Do you think it will rain today?

Before the rain comes a HUGE dust storm blows in... "cleaning up before the rains" we have been told. It was amazing to watch this one come in over the rocks from the east, but it blew past us to the north and we didn't get any of the rain.

Olle Bokaya = rain stick

The wind dies, the clouds come, it starts to feel really hot (which is over and above the normal HOTness of Kalacha) because of the humidity... and we all hope for rain!


The day before last we got some rain... not enough to get the ground wet, but enough to feel some drops!