Saved By My Grandmother's Handheld Fan.... by Justine

This week I was asked to travel down to this remote village called Magugu from Monday morning to Tuesday afternoon.
I went down with Linda Stephenson and Simon Fletcher, a 20 yr old guy from New Zealand who is doing an internship here at the Joshua Foundation. What Simon and I were assigned to do was take photos of each child of the Magugu school started by Joshua Foundation to raise support back in New Zealand. It was pretty cool being on the other side of raising support for kids. It was SO hot tho. We learned how to say "smile" in Swahili ( :) "checka!") they were so precious. They all laughed at my pronounciation of their names.... "manuthani Utalkle" to "john Clinton" to "heavenlight ramwostwe". I really loved working there. The food (they cooked over a fire outside) that they fed us at the school was beans and chickpeas and this thing called "ugalie" (kinda like thick, stiff mash potatoes). I looked down in the pot and saw half a spider. I prayed ....and eventually ate. After school, Simon texted this guy that he knew from before to come over to the school and say hi, named "Emmanuel", who invited Simon and I to his house. As we walked to Emmanuel's, it started to rain as we walked to his house and I didnt cover my bangs!...thats right, I've started to embrace the African way of life. I've come a long way :) So we get to Emmanuel's house and he decides he would like to honour us with a meal. We're given individual stools to set our plates on and I looked over and saw a cockroach crawl and hide in one of the cracks of Emmanuel's stool....I prayed. The usual African tradition occured of the sister serving us as the men sat and talked. As you can tell, i was impressed. They opened up the three pots of food that they had brought to the table. One was Ugalie, one was chicken......claws and cocks comb, and WHOLE small fish from their local lake. Simon said he only wanted half of the fish, and Emmanuel seemed intent on seeing the whole fish being eaten. So I volunteered to split it with him....So Simon split it....and the chivalrist guy he is, gave me the HEAD...it just stared at me.....Ironically earlier that morning before I had left on the trip my parents and I had talked about the scripture that says to eat whatever is put in front of you and how this verse was especially important for missionaries. Again, I prayed...and ate.
That night I was shown to my room at the guest house. The toilets were outside and the only sinks and mirrors were out in the courtyard for all to see. The toilets were a hole in the ground. I've never had all five senses offended so abruptly at once. The smell, the sight, and in the hole, the insects hissed....and a family of cockroaches lived there. The sinks didnt actually work. They were just decorative. So thank Heavens I've perfected the skill of brushing teeth without running water. As i was doing that tho, I started to feel splashing on my feet...Yes, the pipes didnt work and leaked. They offered a bath aswell......they heated up lake water over coals and gave you a bucket for you to wipe yourself over with in your room. I decided I'd shower when I got home. Linda said I might want to open up my windows at night because of the intense heat, but to be careful that I hide my bags cuz the locals have been known to use long poles thru slightly open windows to hook your jeans, pull them back out the window and check your pockets etc. for money. My mosquito net had holes the size of my head. I slept with no covers and just used this hand fan that i had accidently (thankyou Jesus) brought with me to cool me down. I was SOO hot. My legs were wet with sweat! I fanned until I was too tired to move. Then by 3am it cooled down and I was freezing. I was SOO thankful for morning to come. We went out for breakfast and had chapaties and tea. As I was eating Simon told me to look under my chair, and there, to my shock and horror was a cat eating a duck HEAD. ....I then realized I wasnt hungry anymore. We finished off the long day of photography and headed home. I was so ready to go home... as soon as I came through the door I couldn't stop smiling at how much I missed my home...and running water. It was a great experience that I'm glad I had...I don't know if I'd want to experience going back to Magugu too soon tho...

ps. the pictures are of the school kids recieving gifts (bibles) from their lovely New Zealand sponsers...