Visitor season is in full swing! Last week, Christopher and Pastor Dave Okken picked up a group of new visitors including a team organized by the Presbytery of Southern California. Our present visitors are involved in many aspects of the work. Volunteers are working at
Carmel has fully recovered from malaria. I figured, all you praying saints deserve an update! She is now back to her toddling, laughing, stubborn ways. And what a delight it is! In the midst of her illness, I shared my struggle and feelings of guilt
The fevers started Saturday night with a whimper. It took three days, two trips to the clinic, a remission, a relapse, countless second guesses, two sleepless nights and one negative test to finally confirm that Carmel has malaria. Although my fears imagined other cases, this
The rains have come. With them, a myriad of changes. The temperature dropped forty degrees in one week, the river separating our compounds from the main road and clinic is no longer dry, porch decoration is now damp laundry, toads and frogs are croaking happily,
How would your behavior change if your insurance policies, savings accounts and retirement funds were entirely dependent on the people you knew, favors you could call and strangers you could cajole? I’d like to think it would make me a nicer, more sacrificial and persuasive
A few weeks ago, I had the honor of accompanying some of our health teachers while they taught in Nakaale village. One of our missionary associates, Leah Hopp, is presently on furlough in Canada, but during her absence she has hired and trained local women
One of the questions I frequently get asked by strangers that pass me on the path, is whether I’m breastfeeding. At first I thought this slightly strange. I’ve sat through multiple lessons from our community health teacher when I accompanied her to the village or
A universal of impending or newly acquired parenthood, is that it is a magnet for advice, stories, anecdotes, smiles from loved ones and strangers a like. You’ve all heard the stories of pregnant women being approached in grocery stores by a passerby who wants to
The benefit of having an infant and traveling across ten time zones is that I didn’t suffer from jet lag, at all whatsoever. In fact, I arrived more refreshed than I’d been in days since I was actually sleeping when Carmel was sleeping on the
“I feel pregnant!” was my recent response to a simple inquiry into how I’m feeling. I am often asked how I’m feeling. This seems to be the most socially acceptable way to ask a pregnant woman how she is doing. In retrospect this response may
The holidays have come and gone. The New Year is here, and with it a reminder of the passage of time. In the past month Christopher and I have become professional house-sitters. When I told my grandmother that I was getting really good at making