Scary Arachnids...

Karamoja is naturally a great place for wildlife...especially for bugs. I don't really count spiders as bugs, but they seem to thrive as well as butterflies and grasshoppers and mosquitos there. One of my scariest experiences last year was one night when I came in from dinner, and there was a HUGE spider right by my door. No way I could avoid this thing; it was placed just right so I couldn't get in my room without danger. My imagination probably enlarged the size, but a moderate guess it was two inches across. (I do think that's smaller than it was - I've never seen a spider so big!) I just kind of stood and stared at it in horror for a minute, debating whether to go ask Dave Okken to come kill it for me. But I couldn't bring myself to ask for help. (If only it were a snake!)

Of course, I couldn't possibly squish this monster, though - the thought of it crunching under a napkin still makes me shudder. I thought about it for a while, and decided maybe I could smash it with something heavy...like a can of fruit from the pantry shelf. That should work. Except it didn't; the can was too round, and the spider slipped under it. I about had a heart attack when it moved...

So maybe I could stab it. I got a fork from the kitchen, and got pretty close to poking the spider with it, but the thought of spitting that thing was too awful. What if I missed? Or what if it somehow wriggled off. (I was shaky by this time.) During this whole episode there were a crowd of people watching a movie on the porch, just across the room (Segal, the head nurse, owned a projector and VHS player), and if they weren't too involved in the film, I probably was putting on a pretty good show.

After what seemed like about 10 minutes, though, I pulled myself together and figured out what to do. I took off my flipflops - one to smack the spider with, and the other off so I wouldn't trip if I had to make a quick getaway - and hit that bugger as hard as I could. My shoe made a huge *smack* as it hit the door frame. In fact, I hit that spider so hard that there was literally nothing left of it. The bottom of my flipflop barely had any guts on it. After that my only fear was that some of the spider might have landed on me. *shiver*

And if you think that's melodramatic, then be glad you weren't there. It was worse in real life!

After that, a baby scorpion in my room seemed pretty tame. ;-)

Karamoja Rainy Season Pics

Out of thankfulness for the good harvest, here's some pictures of a very green Karamoja back in late spring, just to get you excited about it, too. :)


sunflowers on the way to Mbale; one of the few times the sky wasn't overcast in the week or so before I left!


On the road through Karamoja...

Sorghum looks kind of like corn to me

View from the hill behind the clinic

Nolan actually took this one, so I suppose I should give him credit!

Kids at Kopetatum Bible study

Karamoja Harvest

There was much less drought this year; it's nice to hear that the fruit of this spring's hard rains are now being reaped in Karamoja! Katie writes that the sorghum harvest has been adundant:

there are at least 50 extra people on our compound every day, thrashing, sifting and hauling the grain.

This is good news, as it means far less hunger than in years past. There's one downside: at the celebratory parties, too much drinking often leads to violence. I'm not down on drinking - as Katie also pointed out, the sorghum beer actually has a lot of protein in it - but there's a serious alcohol problem in the villages, and when you have AK-47s lying around, as well as young children or women who can easily be hurt, it's a bad combination. Anyway, I'm glad they're rejoicing over the good harvest; me, too! I'd like to see their dancing...

If you haven't already seen it, National Geographic's September issue is all about Africa. Check it out!

Rose's baby is due soon...

Martha just e-mailed me this morning, asking me to pray for Rose, whose baby is expected soon. (See my previous post about her.) Last year when she was pregnant I was so anxious, knowing how badly she wanted another child after many past miscarriages or losing children to illness. I didn't think she'd have another chance after that last miscarriage - her husband even took another wife...temporarily, I guess, as she wasn't as good to him as Rose - so imagine my surprise to learn that she was pregnant again.

This time, for some reason, I'm almost more sure that it's her "last chance," but don't feel plagued by worry as I did last year. I actually have a lot more hope that this baby will live; and also hope for her, even it doesn't. Not sure how to say it so it makes sense: it's just, I've seen grace filling her even through suffering, and that comforts somehow. It will break my heart if this baby dies, too, but it won't be a hopeless grieving, like it was last year.

Shopping in Namalu

Yesterday morning I went to the Farmer's Market here with some friends. Picking out onions at one of the Hutterite tables reminded me a lot of shopping at the Market in Karamoja...crowds of people so you have to be careful not to bump into anyone, rows of vegetables, even meat for sale. But everything's more expensive at the Farmer's Market, and there are no brown puddles to avoid stepping in (if you can), or tin roofs to seek shelter under if it starts to rain. There's no sugarcane for sale alongside the road, no mangos of questionable goodness on sale 4/500 shillings (about a quarter in US dollars), no bargaining. And no smells! Cattle, refuse, unwashed people. But for some reason I really missed that yesterday. You certainly didn't have as much selection (bannanas, tomatoes, and onions are redily available, and usually cabbage and avocadoes, as well as mangoes, but that's about it on the fresh fruit and veggie list), but aside from than that, the Karamoja market experience is quite interesting!


The mall

"Markete Day" in Namalu

Hunger

I was just reading Katie Tricarico's blog and read her post today about a boy who just died of starvation. It's really shaken me up; I knew this kid, Simon Peter. He's one of the kids I recognized instantly when I came back this year. Anyway, his father was (is?) a blind man who shelled g-nuts (peanuts) and other jobs that blind or otherwise handicapped people could get paid for. His mother, Regina, worked for the mission for a little while, then requested advance pay for a trip, and never came back. That was about five or six months ago. She took some of her younger kids with, I think, but Simon and his older sister were left to fend for themselves.

I honestly don't know it happened that no one helped him, and I'm sure everyone else is wondering that, too. It's hard to know who's truly needy in a culture where no one has very much, and hunger is still very prevalent, even with food programs and so on. But the thought of this kid starving just horrifies me, I guess because I knew him somehow well.

Baby Morning

Kris just e-mailed to let me know that Segal (the head nurse at the clinic) and his wife Joyce (or Mamachippa, to distinguish her from the other Joyce, Aleper's mom) have a new baby. Apparently Joyce had her baby on the bedroom floor, a month early, and during a case of malaria, but they're both doing well.

Here's what Kris says:

She is a very tiny, very perfect, beautiful little, fuzzy head of hair, little baby.

I got all excited because I thought I'd get to see her in October, but actually I'll just get to the Eldeens, who are coming here. (Which is going to be great!)

Anyway, that was completely wonderful news to get this morning. Babies die do often in Karamoja (they die so often here, too, for being in a first world country), and this just makes me so, so thankful for her safe delivery.

Segal and Joyce decided, fittingly, to call her Morning.

Not to early to start planning...

A friend who's interested in going to Karamoja next summer came over yesterday; we spent most of the afternoon looking at pictures and talking about Uganda. It was nice going to K'moja by myself before, but I think it would be even better to be going along with someone! :) So we'll see how it turns out. (I think I'd be happy saving money and vacation time all year just to "vacation" in Karamoja every summer.) Anyway, that visit has gotten me all excited about K'moja - although I suppose I didn't need much encouragement.

I rented a documentary called "ABC Africa" about AIDS orphans in Uganda - haven't watched all of it yet, but what I saw was pretty good. There was a woman leading a group in singing who sounded a lot like Josephine. People in other parts of Uganda, of course, are a lot like people anywhere else. The little kids were completely fascinated by the camera and showed off just like kids in Billings would.

There's nothing wrong with being totally interested in anything having to do with Africa, particularly Uganda and even more especially Karamoja, but I'm realizing it's pretty easy to obsess over Africa just because I love it and miss it...I mean, learning African geography (pretty high on my list right now) is great, but that's more about me than about caring for the people that live there. I know I can't send all the food I waste over to the AIDS orphans, but I believe in a God who cares about their lives, and so I can pray for them and write letters to my friends in Karamoja and talk to people here about what it's like there, too.

But I still have plans to watch every decent movie about Africa I can find...

View from Mbale Resort Hotel