Mwingi

Sorry, I have not been able to blog like I thought I would be able to. The nearest Internet café is a 30 minute walk and by the time we get home in the afternoon it is hard to walk to town, check emails, type stories, shop for needed supplies, and make it back home before it gets dark. Therefore I am going to try and be more diligent to type up my blogs at home so all I have to do is copy and paste them…we will see how that goes.

As many of you know, my team, along with Robert and Lois plus Mesh, our translator, traveled to the district of Mwingi for about 4 days. As we were traveling along pot hole filled roads, we finally saw the town of Mwingi sitting nestled on a hill in the distance. It was a lot larger than I was expecting. I knew the health center we were going to was not right in the mist of town, but what I didn’t realize was how far out our destination really was. We were not really going to Mwingi, but to the small village of Gui in the district of Mwingi. After two, laughter filled, hours of bumpy roads and beautiful scenery we finally arrived at our destination. The car ride was so dusty we looked as if we had a really good orange tan. J

Gui consisted of puppet shows for children at the health clinic and nursery school. For our puppet show Solomon and Ruthie (our puppets) sang a song and shared the gospel with the kids. We also blew bubbles, made animal balloons, sang songs, and took the weight and height of all 60 some school kids. We also were able to spend a good bit of time in the children’s ward at the hospital. I showed pictures of my family (which they loved), read books, made balloon animals, and prayed with the mothers and children. Most of the children in the ward were there due to Malaria. These children and mothers were absolutely precious. It was such an eye opening experience to be in this hospital.

The afternoons were filled with laughter, games, dance, and my favorite London Bridges Falling Down with the 8 or so kids that lived on the compound. Gui was hot so in the afternoon we would sit in our guesthouse courtyard and wait for the compound kids to come out and play. One day we were sitting in the courtyard and heard their laughter as they tried to get our attention. Jenny, one of my teammates, looked up and there sat several kids sitting in the chicken coop trying to make us laugh and come out to play. Some days their songs and dance lured us out to the compound grounds where we shared lots of laughter and smiles. On the last day of play we heard Mwende (the oldest of the kids) trying to sing in English, which she didn’t speak, London Bridges Falling Down that we had played in the days before…it was absolutely precious.

Night time…because of the heat and open courtyard our nights were often filled with "friends" that came out to visit. When the massive roaches began to come out I’m sure our screams were heard around the village of Gui…good times. My favorite nighttime adventure took place during our praise and worship time after dinner. We were all sitting in the living room area that came off the courtyard when something like a bat flew in. You have never seen so many people hit the floor or go face down on the couch to get away from this thing. It flew in for just a moment and then flew right back out. Sweet Lois asked what was going on and we all said, “Didn’t you just see that bat fly in?” She said, “No, I was worshiping with my eyes closed.” Jokingly she asked weren’t we all…My response was, “Yes, Lois, didn’t you see us all face down on the floor!” Good times, good times...

Although our time in Gui was short, I greatly enjoyed it!