Of What the Children Know
Last night it rained on the missionary children's Easter egg hunt, and I've never seen children more happy about a drenched holiday activity.
All day it had been hot, the intense heat that squeezes the moisture out of every last corner and lifts it into the clouds.
We felt it build slowly, especially throughout the all-church retreat, where evangelical congregations had been gathered all weekend for singing and teaching from missionaries and their own members, culminating in the Easter service. Between preachers, mildly chaotic offerings, and a Lord's Supper that used homemade bread and millet beer from a single cup, a couple lead songs from their seats. The call-and-response hymns followed the beat of clapping, drums, cowbells (of which we need more) and an assortment of homemade percussion instruments. Near the end several ladies left to prepare the meal - fish, rice and spicy peanut sauce - that we enjoyed at the end of the service. We ate underneath a mango tree, hiding from said building heat.
Late afternoon, the missionaries gathered at one of their homes for a capella singing, Scripture reading, supper and the Easter Egg hunt. We finished the service, and one of the kids reported large, dark clouds building overhead. Yesterday we had the same phenomena, but they had blow away without leaving anything behind. Not this time. After a thick, sweet smelling gust, a drizzle fell and grew into fat drops over the course of the next hour. The children were ecstatic. They twirled in the remaining rain after the egg hunt.
Growing up in Togo, they know the value of dry-season rain.
At the moment most of the wells are dry. Only a few springs and water laden areas remain. We saw one hand-dug well with water about 36 feet from the surface. It might be a good place to start drilling, now that we have most of our rig!
We need a few more purchases and extra materials to be well prepared (it's impossible to avoid potential puns; my apologies) - we need a bit specifically designed for the layer of rock we're sure to go through, and a tool to extract the pipe if our fittings become unglued from the drill stem, for example - but otherwise we're ready to begin. Last post I said that if we were ready to go by now it would be a miracle. How appropriate then that we're ready on the anniversary of our redemption and the greatest miracle of all!
All day it had been hot, the intense heat that squeezes the moisture out of every last corner and lifts it into the clouds.
We felt it build slowly, especially throughout the all-church retreat, where evangelical congregations had been gathered all weekend for singing and teaching from missionaries and their own members, culminating in the Easter service. Between preachers, mildly chaotic offerings, and a Lord's Supper that used homemade bread and millet beer from a single cup, a couple lead songs from their seats. The call-and-response hymns followed the beat of clapping, drums, cowbells (of which we need more) and an assortment of homemade percussion instruments. Near the end several ladies left to prepare the meal - fish, rice and spicy peanut sauce - that we enjoyed at the end of the service. We ate underneath a mango tree, hiding from said building heat.
Late afternoon, the missionaries gathered at one of their homes for a capella singing, Scripture reading, supper and the Easter Egg hunt. We finished the service, and one of the kids reported large, dark clouds building overhead. Yesterday we had the same phenomena, but they had blow away without leaving anything behind. Not this time. After a thick, sweet smelling gust, a drizzle fell and grew into fat drops over the course of the next hour. The children were ecstatic. They twirled in the remaining rain after the egg hunt.
Growing up in Togo, they know the value of dry-season rain.
At the moment most of the wells are dry. Only a few springs and water laden areas remain. We saw one hand-dug well with water about 36 feet from the surface. It might be a good place to start drilling, now that we have most of our rig!
We need a few more purchases and extra materials to be well prepared (it's impossible to avoid potential puns; my apologies) - we need a bit specifically designed for the layer of rock we're sure to go through, and a tool to extract the pipe if our fittings become unglued from the drill stem, for example - but otherwise we're ready to begin. Last post I said that if we were ready to go by now it would be a miracle. How appropriate then that we're ready on the anniversary of our redemption and the greatest miracle of all!
posted by El Peregrino at
2:49 AM
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