Birthday Sparklers and an African Hail Storm

Today was our monthly birthday party. On the last Saturday of every month, we celebrate all the birthdays for that month. Although birthdays are not celebrated in this culture, the kids really enjoy the party. The birthday kids got a small bag of goodies and everyone enjoyed juice and cookies-- a happy time at the compound!

This month Christina bought back sparklers from Uganda. John is having a hard time containing his excitement...

Esther, Me and Estella

And, after we enjoyed the festivities, as if on que, a storm blew through the compound. Hail rained down for almost 30 minutes! We were in the dining hall, roofed in tin, so the noise was deafening. But, as soon as the kids spotted the hail, they were on a mission...a mission to collect as many ice balls as possible. It looked sort of like an Easter egg hunt. A terrible, cold, wet Easter egg hunt...

Yoli and Manuel
Susan was drenched and ICE cold. A better nurse would have probably stopped the kids from dashing through the icey cold rain. But, c'mon, these are the memories from childhood that stick with you! How often does it hail in Africa?! :)

Cecilia enjoying her hunt for hail balls

How in the world can Elijah sleep through all the noise?!

What a Saturday!

Role Call

These are the missionaries I am working with in Sudan. I am truly blessed to be able to work (and live) with people who are fun, dedicated and interesting! I was afraid I would be lonely or bored, but they make sure I'm not!

God provides all of my needs...even my social ones!

Tara (teacher), Mindy (nurse who just returned to the States) and Christina (school administrator)

Mindy, Tara and Lance (director of Harvesters. The "boss man")

Farrah and I- Farrah is another nurse, staying until March!

Chuck and Gloria -- short term missionaries who are returning to the States in 2 weeks

His Mercies are New Every Morning

I have often marveled at the beauty of Africa—especially her skies. I snapped these photos one morning when I discovered the rising sun had cast a pink hue to the entire sky. The color seemed to seep from every direction at once. It was as if the sun could not make up its mind from where to debut. Magnificent.

I am woman, see my build

The women on our compound wanted a bookshelf in the Pyat (the common space where we eat our meals) to store our growing number of community books. The men, less interested, suggested that, perhaps, we should build it ourselves.

Not wanting to seem incapable, we informed the men that we were, in fact, rather talented and resourceful women. A bookshelf was no great obstacle.

After a week of being “too busy to start our project”, Tara had a great plan. The plan required no sawing or nailing and absolutely NO carpentry skills. The resulting bookshelf made Tara, Farrah and I glow with pride.

The men called it “Sudanese Ugly”.

What do they know?

Our Smallest Orphans

This is Baby Faith and I in the clinic. Faith is Mercy's twin sister. They are now two months old and we just gave them their two month immunizations!

Mercy has recovered well from her respiratory infection. Faith had Malaria the week after Mercy was sick, but she has also recovered well. They are both doing great!