The Monkey Hunt Part One

Sounds like a good novel, eh? But it's actually what's happening now at the base in Mwandege. I'll let you know how it turns out, but here's the gist of it: we have a monkey problem (for monkey affeccionados, they are blue monkeys according to our East Africa travel guide). They steal the fruit (well, I guess it isn't stealing because monkeys don't have laws and don't know about ownership) from our farm, which we eat, and which is how the base supports itself in small ways. Anyway, there's a huge tribe of them, and they're everywhere. They always seem to be in the tree that is outside the window of our outhouse (it's like having a tv in the bathroom, only interactive and I'm always wondering if they're going to see me and want to climb in through the window). The other day they were taking a close tour by the base and were frightened away by some of our staff. Incidentally, they left a baby monkey behind, which was easily picked up by the men. Papa and mama monkey are very upset and want the baby back. We are keeping him (humanely, Jen & Phil) to lure them close enough to shoot them. But we don't have guns. We have bows, and also one guy on staff has deadly aim with large rocks. The monkeys are too smart to stand still while we shoot (by we, I mean the men on staff; I've never used a bow), and the in fact leap away whenever they see the bow. So we are at an impass. I don't know what happens next. Everyone asks me if we have monkeys in Canada; hamna (we have none). Then they ask if I want to take the monkey tribe home with me, and I say no for several reasons, and they all laugh. But I explained we have raccoons, which are a lot like monkeys--climbing trees, clever hands, stealing food, making messes, breeding rapidly. And no one on base eats monkeys (this info is also for Jen & Phil especially). But if we can kill the dominate male, then hopefully the rest of the monkeys will go away (we are on the edge of a large forest that they are free to roam about in and swing from trees and fling poo). More on this later (when there's more to report).

Okay, praise report! Five babies this week and counting! Three were actually delivered on the same day, and two within five minutes of each other! Yes, one woman was on the floor telling us she was pushing while the woman on the delivery table was delivering her placenta. It was truly a BAS moment. I wish you all could have been there. We could have used the hands. I actually took off my gloves from the first woman, gave some perineal support with a towel and a bare hand while the doctor was changing his gloves, then when he took over the support I grabbed fresh gloves. All healthy babies, first three were boys and the last two sweet girls. The nurses keep telling me since I delivered, they must be named after me, or the boys after Jason. But then no one would ever say their name right, and always call them Judith or Jude (the Y here is more like a stop at the end of a word, so as soon as anyone sees my name written, they are unable to say it properly). God has been so faithful to me. I've also been helping in the clinic, weighing patients, taking blood pressure, inserting IVs, administering injections.

My swahili is painfully slow in coming along. I had a small breakthrough on Thursday, when I realized I was no longer thinking in Spanglish when trying to speak. This is a good step (as the other day someone asked me a question, which I understood, and wanted to say yes, 'ndiyo', so I was nodding my head and about thirty seconds later the word for yes came along and I said it). But it also seems like whenever I learn something, I'll go around saying that all day long, and then the next day someone corrects me and I find out I've been saying something bad or just wrong or nonesense. It's quite frustrating. It's as though all my language instincts are wrong in Swahili. I had really great instincts while learning Spanish; possibly because it was latin based and many English words are also based in Latin. Swahili is in fact (here's some more linguistic detail for those of you--Patrick--who were asking) a creole: Arabic and Bantu, with some Portuguese thrown in for good measure (biblia, familia). Which explains its basic simplicity in structure, and also why I can't seem to learn much of it--really no European or latin language at all (besides the three Portuguese words). It's like learning to write with your left hand blindfolded and standing on a balance beam. It's possible, but difficult when it's an entirely different manner of speaking and translating thoughts into words. It's quite frustrating. Pray for me! God created this language, too.

Questions of the Week:
First question (submitted by John from CVYA): have I ridden a cheetah yet? Yes, in fact we have a cheetah on base for use by clinic staff for when there is a delivery and I have to get to the clinic right away. 70mph is so much faster than I can run. We call him 'Chui.'
Second question (submitted by various Vineyard people): what do I eat? Mostly rice and beans (every night for dinner), and at lunch always ugali (corn flour pasty stuff) with some sort of stewed vegetables (varies day to day). Although the other night we had chapati with our beans, and it was heaven. I was so excited!

Words of the Week:
This week's words all come from the Lion King. Well, most of them. it's a starting place.
Simba=lion
Asante Sana=thank you very much
Rafiki=friend
Twiga=giraffe (haven't seen one yet)
Tembo=elephant
Mtoto=baby or child or son or daughter

I came into town today to meet Helen from the dts in Morogoro. She's from London. I don't know if I've talkeda bout the dts kids in a previous blog or not. Anyway, we went out to lunch and basically just hung out together. She said she needed a break from the people she's spent the past six or seven months with; I just wanted to hang out with a muzungu and get off the base for an afternoon. She asked me why I came to Africa. I told her I don't know. I came to work in the clinic, and I came because God told me to, and I came because of unfinished business, and I started crying in the restraunt while we were talking. But it made me realize a few things. That part of why I'm here has been a test of our faith (Jason's & mine)--whether we will trust God when it doesn't make sense or do the sensible thing instead. I'm doing 'unfinished business' (see previous posts) for Dagmar. What that looks like I"m not sure. But it's going on in the spiritual realm, and I don't have to understand it all for it to be effective. I don't have to specifically do everything she would have done to finish things for her (and the rest of the team maybe?). But it's about obedience; walking in the light; speaking life; touching people and dispelling darkness in whatever form it presents itself: disease, pain, hardship, heartache, religion.

Thank you all so much. I was going to say more but my time here is nearly up. If you're disturbed by what I said about the monkeys, that is what I was going to elaborate on; what sets us apart from animals (specifically apes/monkeys), some thoughts I've had lately on that in light of the monkey hunting, and also a great book on this topic is Frank Peretti's Monster. More later. Thanks for all your prayers. I'm in need of them. It's hard being away. I love Africa, and I hope to come back (with Jason!), I will be sad to leave, but very happy to come home.