You Can Hear Ants

I just started a fire so I can have a hot shower tonight.

I've been here in Mumba for a little over a week now, and the adjustment has been kind of tough, as I knew it would be. I am learning just how attached to my standard of living I really am.

For starters, the food is different. Lynn Caraway affectionately refers to margarine for toast (Blue Band, anyone?) as axle grease. Lunch is usually rice and beans. We get American-like meals for dinner, but they're all just a little bit off. The other night, we had omelets, which made for our best meal so far.

The Shermans have missionary friends that live in the Rukwa valley a few hours away, and they have cousins visiting. They were up in Mumba for a day, and someone asked them what their first meal would be when they go home next week. He said they were going to Denny's. I thought, "Man, I could go for Denny's right now."

And at that moment, I realized that I was wanting Denny's and that something was seriously wrong. Seriously, Denny's? And I have only been here for two weeks. You don't realize just how much you're attached to things like greasy American food until they're gone.

But before you think life here is all mystery foods and rustic housing, hear this: A favorite evening activity here is playing Call of Duty. The Shermans have a wireless router that we use to play each other. Not a bad game, if I forget the fact that I've been regularly humbled by an 11 year-old along with everyone else I've played
against. Last night Aideni, a friend of Trevor's who lives across the field from me, got in on the fun. The Africans humbled me in soccer on the first day, and now they're humbling me in Call of Duty. It's great.

It's hard for me to get into my email. I have my computer set up to use a modem with a sim chip from a cell phone to get me onto the internet. It took me a few days to get into it, but now I've got it figured out. I pay by the byte, so it's going to be impossibly slow and expensive for me to put pictures up on here. I've taken around 300 so far, but they'll all have to wait for me to get home.

I have lots of pictures of ants. If you watch the Discovery Channel or Animal Planet, you may have seen one of those "World's Deadliest Animals" shows. I saw one once where Siafu, better known as army ants, were at the top of the list. They go into an area and clean out all of the living things. They devour rats and cockroaches and spiders and, sometimes, people trying to read.

Which brings me to how I learned that the house I'm living in (by myself) is built on top of a Siafu colony. The other night I was reading when Steve Sherman came over to get me for dinner. He went back outside then ran back inside and threw off his pants in my kitchen. He had ants in his pants. They crawl up your legs, and you don't feel them until they bite your thighs – the only remedy is to remove your pants and pick them off. But when we had eliminated the threat, we went outside, and the front walls of my house were swarming with millions and millions of ants, a group large enough to eat a sick or old person. They were taking it over. This is the first time I have ever been able to hear ants. Hopefully the last. But we took lots of pictures. You'll see.

The first week was pretty light, work-wise. Trevor, Steve and I have been building a movie screen out of bed sheets and 2x4s. When it's finished, and once our sound equipment is ready, we'll be going out to show the Jesus Film. Hopefully we can get started this week. This week I also started teaching Trevor some geometry and literature. Thankfully, I have a teacher's guide with all the answers for geometry. In literature, though, I fear I spilled all I had on the first day. Characters, setting, plot - conflict, crisis, resolution… What am I forgetting? (Amy, I'm looking in your direction.) I guess I can just make him read a lot and have "discussions." Also, I'll soon be working on a newsletter for their 70+ churches in the area.

Six weeks from now, I'm climbing Kili. Or, at least, I'll be trying to.

Four weeks after that, I'll be heading home. I miss all of you a ton, and I look forward to seeing you all then.

Time to keep that fire going.

In the meantime, keep praying.

jim