Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Afrikan Adventure: Ants in my pants

The water is back! Ah, that precious resource. You don’t realize how important something is until you find yourself dehydrated and covered in a layer of dirt…although for that brief period I seemed very tanned! I’m sad my “Survivor” experience is over...for now at least. So this week’s African experience was we were invaded by biting ants. Thousands of them marching more than one by one and the little ones were not stopping other than to crawl up my pants and bite me. Yes, I really did have ants in my pants and they bit me. It was all such a pleasant experience. You couldn’t stand in one spot for very long or you’d be in trouble. We tried many things to get rid of them…the most fun being covering the ground with gas or nail polish remover and setting it aflame!

So the Netball field is up and running. Last week I was out there and had my first experience trying to play. I don’t really know how to play which is a slight problem when all the girls just keep yelling in Nyanja and I have no idea what’s going on. It seems to be a combination of handball and basketball. The girls are pretty intense. I am hoping to do a Bible study with the girls who play while Luke works with the guys playing soccer.

On Saturday I was at New Horizon Orphanage recording some of the girls singing. It was my first recording experience here and everything seemed to hold up and we were able to record about seven songs, some in English and some in the vernacular. So now I am editing them and hope to have them ready soon.

It seems I have come down with a bit of a head cold leaving me dazed and lethargic. I guess that’s what I get for eating things off the floor! I’ve been working on getting a bunch of music organized here at the farm to use with the team and the community. I am also hopefully going to be starting teaching some basic music classes at church, so I need to start getting curriculum ready for that.

So that’s the latest. Other than a little post nasal drip, I am doing well. The organization is going through a bit of a transitional period right now in leadership so a lot of formal ministries are on a bit of a hold, leaving me to have to be more “entrepreneurial” with finding ways to serve. So that can leave me a bit frustrated at times seeing all the need around and not really being able to get at it. So if you could pray that God would show me what I’m supposed to be doing here and just continue to bring people and opportunities for me to serve and love. I think my frustration partly stems from coming from a society where we feel the need to do, do, do and see results right away. So I continue to learn about waiting and patience! Thanks once again for your encouragement and support. I hope this letter finds you well and free of ants in your pants!

God Bless,

Shannon

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