PAMA: Day 2 -- "Let there be... rain!"

08-08 blog

Day 2 in the Village of Pama

Today is our first full day, time to roll out of the sack for breakfast.

What time is breakfast, just a mere 6:00 am. When you are living in the land of sunlight being all the light you start early and end once the darkness sets . . . day over. It's taking a bit of getting used to the whole going to bed each night around 8:00 PM, but actually after a full day, nobody is complaining.

Today's plan, get involved with work and ministry with African people, something a little tough when you consider the overwhelming language barriers that exists between our two worlds. None-the-less, we divide into some teams and head out into various ventures.

Team 1 is in charge of the games. With a large collection of children constantly surrounding all that we do, there is never a lack of willing participants. Games like duck, duck, goose take on a whole new excitement with a group of overly eager children. Unfortunately, we quickly found out that our repertoire of game knowledge was not going to be sufficient so we did the only logical thing we could, turn to the anyone with large game playing experience and work as a team.

By lunch time we had played the limbo, a made-up game of throwing a soccer ball in a rope circle that met with limited success, but then came the idea of making a circle out of concrete blocks, having everyone sit in about a ten foot circle from the center and try to roll, bounce, or throw the soccer ball so that it stays in the circle. Sounds like simple task, but as many that were playing found out, it wasn't all that simple.

In fact, what made this so interesting was that the cheering got to be so loud that soon a really large crowd had gathered and children were playing, adults, just about everyone within earshot was lining up to give it a try. Clearly, this idea was given by the Holy Spirit as it allowed for many who had continued to stand around the fringe of the white people a chance to come closer laughing and interacting with each other. This was the last game of the morning and finished team 1 off on clearly a high note.

Team 2 started its day diving right into the construction site. There were aluminum roof panels to be hoisted on the roof to the African construction workers who were busy nailing them down. The progress on the roof of this new school was amazing as people worked together to move it along.

Another part of the construction team was delegated to moving, stacking and sorting of the bricks that had been made. Really it seemed like a pretty uneventful job, just pick up the blocks, move them one place to another and do it all over again. This particular assignment went south quickly when a lifting of one of the blocks revealed some sort of red African snake and the only word that all the Africans said in unison was, "Poisonous!"Everybody scattered and soon the snake was dead bringing with it a sigh of relief from all those around.

The interesting part of this story is that up until this time several African men were just sort of standing around watching while our team worked and then after the snake they jumped right in and finished the pile themselves. They certainly didn't want the pile to continue to provide comfortable hiding for who knows how many other snakes... It was a good feeling to know that behind the constant stares, people were warming up to a level of caring for our team.

Team 3 was given a rather unusual assignment, head out into the fields of the local Grace Brethren pastor and help him gather in his crops, at least that's what we thought our assignment was going to be. The actual fact of the matter turned out to be something entirely different.

First of all, the walk to the field was a whole lot farther than anybody counted on. Ten minutes walking, twenty minutes walking, thirty minutes walking finally at about forty minutes they reached their destination.

When I asked this team later about their experience they filled me in on what had actually taken place. Basically, the Pastor had simply taken the team to show them the many fields he cared for as a part of this family.

The striking thing was how he had set fields for family members, he has eight children, a field for his mother, a field for his new grandson, and one particularly striking allotment, a field for the orphans of the village. All of the fields were worked by members of his family, but the food that was gleaned was divided out accordingly.

Finally it was lunch time and today was going to be a special day. As a way of saying thanks to our team for coming, the Pastor, his name is Gaston, had asked us to come to lunch at his house today. In America you'd be hard pressed to find someone to open their home to complete strangers, let alone, twelve of his new best friends. We gladly accepted his invitation, and went to lunch only about two hours later than planned. In the CAR nobody wears a watch, probably for good reason as it helps to cut down on the frustration about how keeping track of time is not an African value. The team just sort of sat around, resting, reading, just hangin' out waiting for our lunch to get underway.

Eventually the call came, and we were off. Upon arriving at the Gaston's home we realized that once again here was a man giving not out of his plenty, but out of his need. Thirteen people in his family, and here he was feeding the twelve of us as well.

On the menu? Gozo, something made from Manioc, a plant that grows here in Africa. It grows well, but has about no nutritional value and its preparation is extensive. It has to be picked, soaked (which is the most crucial part of the process as the plant is poisonous unless soaked long enough and in the right way), dried (which entails spreading it out on a piece of aluminum to allow the sun to dry it), ground (which is mostly done with a stick in bowl with sort of a downward pounding motion), and then made into some sort of doughy stuff that you eat. It's not really high on anyone's list of favorites here on the team. The smell alone during the preparation process is enough to send you.

Also on the menu, goat meat. This was delicious! That is until I realized that goat was a delicacy in the CAR and most people here (those who are lucky enough to own goats) keep their goats as sort of a savings account to be used when they have real need for something expensive and then they would trade or sell their goats for that need. Again, here we were, eating kings, and not even knowing it.

We also had rice and macaroni, it went quickly, and chicken. The chicken was tasty at least until I decided to ask the question about how each family butchered their own animals for food and we realized we had just been admiring the new chicks that were running around outside before we came in for dinner. Lunch ended with meeting Gaston's entire family and while I hoped for a big group picture it quickly became clear that they were now eating the left over food from our lunch and this wasn't going to be a good time. Yet another reminder about the hospitable heart of these African people.

We headed back to camp and begun getting back to our assignments talking and sharing about what we had experienced as we went. Once back to the camp the game team endeavored to pull off what could have been the very first ever relay race which involved spinning around, sliding under a wood bench (which many ducked with the heads before going under), leaping over plastic trunk and then ending with three somersaults, tagging the half-way line person and making a beeline back to the beginning to tag the next person in line.

I had the privilege (?) of manning the somersault portion of the race and let me tell you, I saw more black bottoms, naked bottoms, rolling to and fro than I will probably ever see again. Smiling and laughing at this station was clearly not optional as the children giggled and tumbled without care for just a few moments forgetting about all the struggles that beset this impoverished part of the CAR. It was a good feeling to know that at least for awhile we had brought some relief and joy to the children of this village.

Meanwhile the remaining teams regrouped and construction was begun again and a new team of teachers was established. This group of ladies had learned some french and Sango while we were in Bangui and now were going to get the chance to use their new found knowledge to help teach the children of this village. Unfortunately they started a tad bit late and with the sunlight being your only source of light, they had to quit early and head back.

Well, they wanted to head back except it started raining. An African rain is some kind of rain. It came down like a monsoon. Gushing, bucketing, pouring rain. Rain so hard that you could barely see through it. It was here that we learned all too quickly about water and camping. For the men back at the camp, shovels, trials, anything we could find to move dirt started flying into action as water poured in from all sides on our humble abodes. It was coming in from around all the sides as several guys worked to dig a ditch and build a clay barrier as a way of keeping our campsite from being a washed out.

The rain also came from above, not the heavens, but from the gaping holes in the thatched roof that we were living under. The holes could not be fixed because they were too big and too many, so we dug drainage like canals right through our main dining area in an effort to keep the water from soaking all of our stuff.

It rained and rained and rained. Which I guess could be an okay thing, unless your bathroom was an open hole in the ground, with a grass fence, no roof and unless your only means of cooking any dinner was a wood fire that had by now been all but extinguished. I don't know exactly how long it rained, but it had to be at least three to four hours.

Finally we gave up on the outside fire and built one under the roof where we were lodging, got some dinner, shared some time around the Word and called it a night. No complaints here, everyone was exhausted and the enticement of a warm sleeping bag called loudly to us all.
I can only wonder what tomorrow will bring. Guess I'll close my day with some prayer for our team and I'll talk to you tomorrow.

RAD