It is apparent people are getting somewhat fed up with the strikes here, even though they are imposed by a political faction most approve of. Even on strike days, public transportation is up and running and some shops are open. That has been wonderful for us because Caprice and I have been able to get out and visit friends and even have friends over to our flat for lunch or chai. The relaxation of the strikes has given us the opportunity to start studying the Word with a couple girls across town. They are actually my language teacher’s sisters. They are both older than Caprice and I or perhaps our age. They don’t really know their ages because their papa had to change their documents to make them older so they could begin school at an early age. Anyway, these girls have been dipped before, but we aren’t really sure they understand all that they claim to believe. It has been beneficial for them and us to disciple them and take them through the Word in a simple way that explains the Good News clearly. Please keep the time we get to spend with these girls in mind as you lift us up to the Father. This wonderful news is also accompanied by a rather hilarious story, of course, so get ready: Sunday, we were able to spend the night at these girls’ home and eat dinner with their family. We spent some time studying and the rest of the night talking about all sorts of things (boys mostly, always an area of common interest). Anyway, the next morning we spent playing with their nephew in their courtyard area. When it was time to leave, one of the girls and the little boy walked out with us to the main road. She waited with us until a Sumo came. A Sumo (is not a wrestler) is a sort of SUV/Jeep like vehicle with 2 bench seats and then the trunk is equipped with 2 bench seats. Typically, a full sumo has four in the front seat, four in the back seat, and four in the trunk space. Well, two sumos passed us already and they were both full, although one sumo had room for just one person. When the next sumo came, I was determined to hop in because I knew, being a strike day, most of them would be full. So when the next one stopped, I hopped in the trunk space (which already had 3 men in it) and I kind of pulled Caprice on top of my lap. Soooo culturally not-appropriate, but I was frazzled and tired and wanted to go home. Anyway, we are busting up laughing, because this sumo is FULL of men (except for one woman in the front seat in a full burqa) and they were staring at us like were pagal (insane). We finally controlled our laughter and tried to act like everything was normal. I was squished against the guy next to me, which is really not ok, and I kept pr.ying that he wouldn’t be creepy or be caused to stumble or anything. Also, Caprice was practically in the lap of the man across from us and I really couldn’t blame her for telling me she hated me the whole ride back to our neighborhood. To top things off, she swears she saw a man behind us on a scooter mouth the words, “Oh Wow!” after staring at the back of our vehicle for a while trying to figure out how that many people were in the sumo. After we arrived, we climbed out and neither of us could feel our legs so we spent some time walking and recovering from that traumatic experience. I hope everyone else in that sumo was able to recover, too.
Anyway, things have been significantly better the past couple weeks, but some days the situation is still tense. There is a facebook group that I’ve joined that gives updates about what is going on all over the Valley and people are still agitated. However, there is great hope that Obama will somehow fix this area of the world when he comes to visit the country later this month or next month. Our supervisors have even been asked to go and meet with him and explain the situation (to which they responded with hearty laughter!). Caprice and I have started our ethnographies, but have had trouble motivating ourselves to write. I was frustrated the other day, just a little bit, because while we were stuck inside during the strict curfew days, we didn’t have hardly enough information to even start our paper, but now that we can actually be out and about, we need to spend a lot of time writing. Even still, I am excited to write it all out and have a chance to sit and think about what all I’ve observed over the past 4.5 months. In other news, I found out something sad. We will be leaving our city November 20 and be in the U.S. by November 24 or 25. ;( I would love to stay longer, but apparently that isn’t in the plan, so we will be leaving then. I’m thankful that I haven’t started in shutdown/withdrawal mode just yet, because we still have almost a full month left. A lot can happen in a month and we need to be faithful to the end. Please continue to lift the Valley up and all those working here for the Kingdom.
Blessings and Love to you!
Kallie-Jo
