Dear friends and family,
I apologize, it has been SOOO LONG since I have posted anything regarding my life here. Everything has been great, and I am definintely alive and well. (Somehow.)
This photo is of the line waiting to get into the clinic we had set up in Biharu a few weeks ago. During each outreach, we have a medical outreach going on at the same time as seminars and Kids Club (games, songs, Bible stories). Hundreds and hundreds of people line up to see Dr. Len and Adonith. (Our 2 doctors.) This clinic was really great, and a lot of people were seen.
This past week we were in Kashaguru- a village that can only be reached by boat!! We just got back today, so check Flickr in a while and photos from there should be uploaded. We took a 13-14 hour boat ride to the village on Wednesday afternoon. It's madness. The African way is absolutely RIDICULOUS. They pack seriously 500 people onto a boat, and 350 of them don't have rooms to sleep in. There are chickens and fruit and sleeping people ALL OVER THE DECKS. So annoying. When we got on the boat (when we were leaving Kashaguru) 1st of all it was 2 hours late, so we were sleeping on the beach until 11pm. Then it took an HOUR to get out to the ship in a smaller janky little boat that was packed with about 75 people (30 of which were ours, plus all of our luggage). Once we got out to the Liemba (the ship) we were pushed into the 3rd class cabins (which is where everyone loads in) into a MADHOUSE of people who are so rude and pushing and going insane. It's no way to get anything done. Seriously. Not to mention its about 85 degrees down there! Ugh. What a nightmare.
Back to the village. Kashaguru was pretty nice. They were SOOO welcoming. We hadn't been welcomed like that in any of the other villages we went to! When we arrived (which when we got off the Liemba going there, we had to get on one of those small boats to get to the beach) they were having a huge dance fest Africana style on the beach waiting for us! Then they ALL grabbed all of our luggage, threw it up onto their heads, and walked with us into the village. It was cool. While we were there, we had another medical outreach, which went really great, we had some seminars for the mamas and the babas, and we had kids club which was for the little kids. This village was SOO ready for us to get there, especially since the last 2 times Hope of the Nations tried to go there something went wrong and they couldn't get there! (Since it is only reachable by boat, and the Liemba is the only boat that stops near by there, they pretty much dictate everything, and the last 2 times they were unwilling to give H of N a place on the boat!!)
Anyways, we got back just a few hours ago, and it was a longggg journey home. I'm just thanking God that we made it safe and sound. Keep on checking back for some more photos!! I will be uploading pictures from the Kids Club Leaders Camp we had a couple of weeks ago, and also of the trip we were just on, and a FEW photos of the trip Derek and I took with a couple of friends to Bujumbura, Burundi!
Love you all, and if any of you talk to Janelle...TELL HER TO CALL ME!
XOXO
Mel
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