Slippery When Wet

Well, you know you’re in rainy season when you have no choice but to be in 4 wheel drive to get to church which is only a few blocks away. The once barren dusty dirt paths that was home to so many goats, sheep, donkeys and chickens is now absent of most except the donkeys that seem none too happy to be standing in a river of flowing mud and waste. Not quite the streams we experienced from our former trips to North Carolina. Also absent is the desire to grab my fly fishing rod and throw a fly out for a trout. The thought of what we may pull up is quite disheartening. With all sarcasm set aside, we are being blessed with rain. We only have a few months of rain before we return to the desert climate where we will be lucky to see a single drop of rain for several months. The mud will be turned once again to a dry dust that stings the eyes, and fills each breath you take. These rains sweep through and act as the sanitation crews that you wait for all year long. Where there is no dumps, no garbage trucks, no bathrooms, and plenty of roaming animals, the dirt paths we call streets become a state of what many would consider to be deplorable. What government and man does not offer in a remote place like West Africa, God does. Even though this may sound like a place that one would be bitter if God were to set them in, this is the place that makes my heart race with excitement. This is home. I could not think of a place I would rather be.

I arrived at church this past Sunday to teach, and was amazed at the amount of people that still made it to church. I have no idea how they make it there. It was nearly an impossible task with my truck, unless I had a canoe, I could not imagine how I would get there. As I sat and pondered how they got there, I noticed the perfectly clean dresses the women wore, and the men’s shoes!!!! Not a drop of mud on them! I am looking for some star trek transporter machine! I look down and notice my shoes full of orange mud from the 10 feet I had to walk from my truck to the entry of the church. Embarrassed, I slowly slid them under my chair, and then hid them behind the pulpit. There are still so many mysteries of Africa I need to learn.

The fields, which are actually defined as any area that is more than 10’ x 10’ that does not have a building on it, are growing well in Yako. Any abandoned property, any small open area next to the paths are now growing corn, millet, beans or peanuts. It is certainly a different landscape than we  have experienced  since December. Come the end of October, we will lose it all and wait anxiously for next years rainy season. We are enjoying the green for the short time it lasts!