Africa Journal Day 4

Tuesday, April 26, 2005
Day 4
Mkar Guesthouse, 6:00 am
I am sitting on the porch of our guesthouse, after awakening to the sounds of roosters and chickens. Someone is sweeping the night’s leaves and debris from their compound across the way. The power is still off after the electrical storm of last evening. I was napping yesterday, when the wind blew up, followed by the heavy downpour and thunder, so typical of rainy season. Unfortunately, NEPA, the national power grid is still very vulnerable to electrical storms. But our guesthouse is wired to the hospital generator that ran until 10:00 pm.
What an incredible day yesterday was! Andrew slept off his jet lag most of the day, but I was far too excited to sleep. I wept as I embraced my dear friend Terkegh Tsegba (James), who had kept up a long-distance relationship with me for twenty years. We chatted at the guesthouse, and later he and his wife Dooshima, took me to Gboko (the next major town) to email Cathy and post my blogs. On the way back, we picked up some “take-out”—fired yams with pepper sauce, and a type of rice cake with roasted (and peppered) beef. Andrew was awake enough to enjoy it with us as we reminisced and shared together at the guesthouse. Terkegh has a memory as sharp as a tack (he picks people out of pictures that who names I long forgot).
Several heart-warming moments standout this morning as I reflect. Some of the children and nursing students whom we invested time in twenty to twenty-five years ago, are now leaders and doing what they can for their community, and their church. Achir is one such young man. We have a picture of him holding Andrew, when he was eight, and Andrew was a baby. Achir dropped by last night; he is married, is working with youth through Boy’s Brigade, and his big smile speaks volumes of his joy. Another moment was earlier in the evening when a man, in his middle years, had a group of children around him. I watched them from a distance. Later, I found out that he has a passion for youth ministry, and this was a “catechism class.” I was struck by the children’s respect for him, and the rapport he obviously had with the kids.