Back to Work

Thanks, Loguya, for this photo, reminding
me to add waterproof shoes to the packing list
for Uganda trips. I always wear removable shoes when
possible because my toes like freedom.
I will not be sharing the video Loguya took of
me petting and talking to a baby cow.

I’m back in Chad, been back for a few weeks now, and it’s about time for an update. Also, I’m waiting for a meeting to start, so what else am I going to do? Answer emails? I probably should be answering emails…

Instead, a brief update on Uganda-I was there for a week. I met up with friends, new and old. I had some encouraging conversations and prayer time with people who know me well and care about me well. I’m blessed to have lived this international existence so I have friends all over who can speak into my life from their background and experiences. A Ugandan and a Chadian encourage me differently from an American or a Brit, but they all enrich my life in special ways. It’s wonderful when other people’s faith can strengthen yours when it is weak.

I love this friend. She and her husband made a special trip to Entebbe to see me.

Uganda is so pretty

I always try the new Coke Zero flavors.
I do not like coffee though. And also I did not like this.
But if you like the flavor of coffee and diet soda, you will probably like this.

I do love chili lemon potato crisps.
Chili lemon is a superior flavor.

This was an excellent church service, but I was interested to note
that the hipsters have made it to Uganda.
This church was decorated with mason jars and wooden palates.
It's a bit different from my Chadian church that meets under a hangar,
but worship is great in both places.

Another great way to lift your spirits when you’re down is to see success in a risky project you worked hard on turn out better than you ever expected. It’s great to see God working more than I asked or imagined. The little town of Saliamusala was irresistible to me, naturally, seated as it is on the border of 3 countries. When I heard we were doing biosand filters there, I insisted on visiting. After passing through two checkpoints and arriving in a dilapidated town center teeming with drunken men (at about 3pm), I felt a bit unsure of the wisdom of this trip.  Whenever I find myself thinking out what-would-I-do-if situations, I’m usually in a situation I shouldn’t have gotten myself into if I had thought through the what-would-I-do-if scenarios in advance. I almost never think about those scenarios in advance though. It’s never quite as exciting as in the moment.

Saliamusala before our project

Obviously, it wasn’t that dangerous because I survived and went back multiple times. But since we were doing biosand filters in the area, I decided I wanted to see the water source (there are a few reasons for this, but I won’t bore you with them). The people took me down to the water source, which was on the South Sudan side, so my South Sudanese friends and I took a few selfies to commemorate being back in SS again. The last time we’d been there, we’d been 3 on a motorcycle together exploring biosand filter potential and since then children had been born (to them) and we had moved countries because of war (them) or work (me) and it was one of those moments where you remember strongly who you were in the past and how your past self would never have been able to predict this current self moment (do you ever feel that way? This year Amanda feels that way a lot about last year Amanda’s expectations for this year). Anyway, we finally moved down to see the water source and it was pretty bleak. One of the worst I’d seen. And there were many women waiting for their turn to scrape water from the spring in the deepest part of the rock to fill up their jerrycans for their family’s water needs. Usually I can laugh and interact with women and we have good conversations and smile together. These ladies were not interested. I decided in that moment that I was going to try to do a well in this area. Biosand filters are good when you have enough water, but when you don’t have enough water, biosand filters can actually be frustrating because some of the water is lost in the filtration process. I didn’t announce my plan to anyone because I’ve learned the hard way not to promise anything you aren’t sure you can give, and you can rarely be sure of anything, so I avoid promises when possible. Even now I can think of several promises I’ve made that have really come back to haunt me.

Women singing

At any rate, God was in this one, and I will shorten the story by saying that I was able to get the right people to see the situation and my colleagues were able to get the right connections to get the bore hole drilled and the local church was able to reach the area with the Good News and when I went back with some other visitors (very nervous about what we would find), we were greeted by women waving branches and singing praises to Jesus instead of drunken leering men and sense of hopelessness. We were escorted to the bore hole and heard testimonies from all three countries about what the water pump meant to them. The women were then very excited to help us film the story of the area (or they were until we took a million years to film tiny things, but that’s show biz, baby!). They were happy that they could be a part of bringing clean water to others by sharing their story. It is important to note that the bar and the drunk men were still there, but they were no longer the defining factor of that village, nor were they the first or main impression from the visit. 

New hand pump

So anyway, yes, I cried, but I was already in a fragile emotional state at the time, and it was just encouraging to see that God is working through my life and through the lives of people who are obedient to His calling in giving, going, serving, loving their neighbor, and putting Him first in their lives.

And now I’m back in Chad. Joe was happy to see me, as he is happy to see everyone, but he kept me awake all last night, whining to get out and bark at all the neighborhood dogs who were out in force, and so he is on my bad side, but I forget that he is annoying when he lays his head on my knee and smiles up at me. He is so manipulative.

Compare to the "before" pic above

Demonstrating how they used to get water. She was so patient filming this.

Searching for the rat

I’ve also been encouraged praying and worshipping with friends here, and hearing about all that God is doing through faithful people serving Him in Chad, and there are some exciting stories that I can’t put on the internet, sadly. I’m looking forward to the new projects coming up, but also praying for wisdom navigating some tough stuff that we have been hit with over the past few months that are really complicating things. It is not going to stop the work though, because that was already planned way before we came into the picture by Someone who is not surprised by broken promises, inflation, climate change, relational conflict, lawsuits, destructive selfishness or anything else we don’t foresee. He also doesn’t need us to get the work done, but it’s pretty exciting to get to be a part of it. I’m glad I’m in the game, even when it’s hot and muggy and the power goes out for hours and Joe alternates between barking all night or waking me up with his nose right in my face, and I have to ask the guard to come in and help me chase a rat around my kitchen and hope that he won’t come back (because we didn’t catch him) and none of the ATMs work and I have to change the dollars I was planning to use to get a new passport, and the road in front of my house is so muddy my truck gets stuck in it and then I put it in 4 wheel drive to get it out and I get out but the truck is then stuck in 4 wheel drive, so I have to go to the office in 4 wheel drive and ask our drilling chief if he can get it out of 4 wheel drive (he did—it just gets stuck sometimes, he says). And anyway, the power is currently on, the rat hasn’t been back, I found an ATM that works sometimes, my truck is not stuck in mud or in 4 wheel drive, and Joe looks like this:

He's lucky he's cute 

So it’s all good somehow. God’s got this. There’s a bigger world out there that is not stuck in my pain, and things are happening. The race is on, and I’m running it. Not at Eliud Kipchoge speed, but you know, plodding along, taking a lot of water breaks with occasional bursts of speed when I get chased by dogs or have to cross the street without getting smashed.

Working in the village--laptop, cell phone, horse in the background,
turbaned man in the rearview mirror, crazy Swede in the front seat...yeah, that's about right.

Some days my most important work is being a desk

Check out my new ant farm in what was once "chocolate strands" for cake decorations.
I always wanted an ant farm, though I knew if I asked my mom for one, I'd
get the same response I got when I asked for a pet snake, "I don't want that in my house!"
Of course, we were in Indonesia so we had both snakes and ants in our house anyway.
Now I can observe ant tunnels from the comfort of my kitchen. Dreams do come true.

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