Bizarre and Rain

I woke up this morning with an odd, but comforting feeling. As I sat up, I knew that the Presence of God was with me. I am glad for that one intense, yet peaceful moment as the rest of the day has proved to be more than bizarre.

The cow Truffle in the next door pasture, mooed all night, keeping me awake despite earplugs and a pillow over my head.

During this morning's walk with the kids to school, I had great difficulty getting into the schoolyard as the cow Oreo pushed against the gate in hopes of an escape from the mud and hundreds of biting flies that were on her. She then jumped over the barbed wire fence in frustration or fly craziness. Really, the cow jumped over the fence?!

As I was walking back, I saw that Ngonzi the mission worker held a 6-7 foot fat and dead cobra on his mpanga (knife for cutting grass). He said that he did not kill it, the dogs did. It was Josh that then asked where was Jessie, the dog who has killed at least 8 cobras in the past. Sadly, this cobra killed her.  As Pat said, “She died valiantly.”

Bizarre continued as we had to mediate a dispute about a land boundary and neighbors that reportedly bribed mission workers to move our boundary lines.

Travis walked into the health center to see almost a hundred people huddled around a small child and a wailing mother as that child has just died. The overnight nurse had not reported to work last night and the child perished. The ward continued to fill with 2 more measles cases today. One child is so covered with the boils that his skin is completely swollen. Two CSB grads are volunteering to map out which villages these cases come from in order to plead to the District Health Officer of Bundibugyo to send vaccinations to these areas.

Meanwhile, we are in process of purchasing a small parcel of land from our next door neighbor as he needs money to get his brother out of jail. But the bank ATM (that is 45 minutes from here) has had at least 50 people in line for the last week and has inconsistently given or not given money out.

And we just received a phone call about a question about land WHM owns in Fort Portal.

And our house and the VIA (visitor, intern, apprentice) house are mysteriously not connected to the grid electricity…for 4 days now.  Thankful for solar electricity at our house, but concerned as we have visitors coming in a few weeks to a house that does not have solar electricity.

And the cell phone company that we use either sends the same message repeatedly or not at all. Bizarre.

All of this is happening as I hear the thunder rumbles of a rainy season storm approaching. A large part of me wants for a huge rain to come and wash away all of the bizarre, messy and sad parts of life here. But that is not how life works. Rains come, provide temporary relief and a pause, but they also end. Today, I am grateful for the Presence of God in the midst of the bizarre and in the provision of His sweet rain.