Owens in Africa

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Posted by Owens Family on September 21, 2007

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This is us: David, Judi, Justine and Zac Owens.

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Shikamoo: I clasp your feet ...... Marahaba

The greeting Shikamoo which literally means "I clasp your feet" is said to older people to show great respect. Marahaba is the reply which acknowledges the respect.... However, a friend of mine who is a missionary here had an incident that gave "shikamoo" a whole different meaning. Her mother arrived from the US and was enjoying the adventure of the masai bush when nature called. As is usual she made her way to the drop tiolet some distance away. On her way to the long drop tiolet a masai woman passed her and in passing greeted her with "Shikamoo". As you would expect the american woman had no idea what this meant and asked another couple of missionaries who were nearby what this meant. They replied by giving her the literal translation : "clasp your feet". The american woman immediately assumed that the masai woman who had spoken to her was giving her advice for the task ahead. "Good to know" she thought..... and followed the advice

Visit from the UK team - Burn Church St. Albans Vineyard

Team Tanzania The flight was on time – customs clearance went without a hitch. We got a text from our daughter that they were waiting for us at arrivals at Jomo Kenyatta airport and it was only 20 minutes after ETA… were we really in Africa? Fortunately the Nairobi traffic was kind to us that early Sunday morning and it wasn’t long before we were together. Thus started a wonderful, event-filled ten days. We had already picked up Zac from boarding school for Easter holidays the day before, and traveled down with our two kids to Arusha in our car, following the bus with the team. 7 people for 10 days experiencing for the first time African missions. The team was led by Rick Flatt and consisted of Sarah, Daniel, Rebecca, Heather, Michael and of course, our lovely daughter, Celeste. After arrival in Arusha, where the team experience relief that they were sleeping in a western style house with flushing tiolets they spent one night before our adventure into the bush. Here there were no flush

Just when you thought it was safe to eat mango......

Last night we had the disturbing experience of cutting open a mango that we had been eating (and enjoying) to find a large hard beetle like animal crawl out, with lots of small black eggs behind it...... Horror, repulsion and shock were among the first reactions.... Of course, we had to google.... this is what we discovered... The insect pest inside the mangoes is the mango nut weevil or stone weevil, ‘Sternochetus Mangiferae’. The young one or grubs as soon as they hatch out from the eggs tunnel in a zig zag manner through the pulp, endocarp and the seed coat and finally reach the cotyledons. As the fruit develops, the tunnel gets closed. The grub feeds on the cotyledons and destroys them. The adult emerges from the pupae also and feeds on the developing seed and this may hasten the maturity of infested fruits. The adult emerges from the pupae also and feeds on the developing seed and this may hasten the maturity of infested fruits. The adults hibernate in between the crevices

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