On the day we were leaving, a friend came to church to give Anne a book. He had bought it for his wife, but when he read it he knew he had to give it to Anne. One passage in particular was very important. The book was the story of a lady working in Sudan, and she was sharing how it must have been a bit of a chuckle for God when he decided to send a super achieving, type A personality to Africa, where the most important thing is not the task at hand but the relationships with the people involved. This was reiterated to me yesterday when I had to go to the bank with Robert, our local "Hopebuilders mainstay" and Johann to be added as a signatory on the Hopebuilders account. Along the way, one of the many phone calls Robert took was from some of his friends arranging to meet at a restaurant for lunch to celebrate the end of the year. So, before we got to the bank, we enjoyed a very taste plate of pork with vegetables, posho, matooke and spinach with Robert and some of his friends. We got to the bank, and did the other required shopping, but what we had thought was the purpose of our trip became secondary to spending time with Robert and for him to be able to introduce us to his friends.
And all of this time, life continued here at the village and we were scarcely missed as the team powered on with the bricklaying.
We are always learning.
p.s.
Posho - a largely tasteless food looking like mashed potato but sticks together in clumps. Used to soak up the juices of the food and fill the stomach.
Matooke - mashed green bananas steamed up inside banana leaves and then eaten with the juices and other vegetables (carrots, peppers etc)
