Ants, Opulence, and Amos

The Ants came marching in, and in and in!!! And then they crawl on you and bite you. One would think that something so little could not cause much of a problem, yet these little critters are becoming the bane of my existence!!! Doom (Insect killer) works for when they come en mass, but for those little one’s that escape and find your skin you must just endure the little bites and pray you don’t lose your sanity!!! The other night as we got into bed we discovered a couple hundred had made their way en route to a dead bug that we discovered under our bed!! I’m sure all the Doom we sprayed may destroy our lungs, but I will take the risk rather than share my bedJ

Opulence – This one was brought up this morning by Scott who is wrestling with the discrepancy between how we are living here, and those living so near to us. What would true solidarity look like for us here, if the truest act of love is indeed living in solidarity with others?? We can tell ourselves many things about this that make us feel better, such as “but look, we are really roughing it compared to our North American life”, or “at least we are here doing ‘something’”, but are we just deceiving ourselves?? It is a fine line that we will likely always struggle with, and to be honest, I am thankful really for the struggle and for a husband that seems to always push further than I might on my own. Scott wrestles with this from a theological and practical lifestyle point of view…..and both of us think about it from a parenting point of view: How much do we push them? How much do we make it comfortable for them so they like Uganda? How much is too much like home? Tough questions…but we feel like we’re striking an OK balance so far.

Amos is the grounds keeper here at the 10 Acres. Early this morning he was out raking the grass, which the kids then picked up behind him. He was barely done before we heard a knock at our door…he wanted to help us with our laundry. Had he seen our poor results from the first time around? Or just feeling sorry for us poor Mzungus? We had been planning to do laundry today and had actually been gathering up towels and clothes that needed washing so we headed outside and acquired MANY new tips to help us along. First; we should soak our clothes overnight before washing them, Second; When the wash water gets dirty you move all the tubs down the line and only need new water for the final rinse – this was revolutionary to us in our water use. Third,; there is a strategy to ringing things out (very different from the haphazard way we had been using; Fourth; Hang your clothes inside out so that if they fall off the line they don’t get dirty again; and Fifth; he asked if we could do laundry every second day (apparently it was a lot to washJ). Amos did not come wanting to be paid…..he simply came to help. We have a lot to learn!