Fire, Smoke, and Back to School.

You knew a post about fire was coming, right? This is the season of fire after all, so it was just a matter of watching and waiting and the yearly "fire story" would come along.

Well, for the past while we've also been watching and waiting for fire. This is September and the bush is dry and brown--the perfect tinderbox. And wild fires are all around. Huge tracts of land have already been torched around us. We do our best to maintain a wide, clear swathe along the boundary. We have animals, and agriculture projects (not to mention people, equipment, etc), and we really don't need all that going up in flames. So needless to say, day after day and night after night, we have all kept a watchful eye on the horizon for smoke.

On Tuesday, we did some watching and waiting of another sort as we awaited the arrival of the nation's First Lady. She was visiting a neighboring community and we had been invited to meet her and set up a display showing mission's various programs.

Women's Ministry Display Table

Pastor's Training Display Table (note health manual in bottom right of photo :))

By noon, things were ready and in high gear. The crowd's excitement was palpable as many ululated (high-pitched singing) and danced in circles around drummers beating on raw-hide drums. This created a fair bit of sweat and huge clouds of dust. Then the wind would blow and in its indecision about where to take all that dust, it would blow first this way then that, and in doing so gave us all our fair share of grit several times over.


The display tables were set up on one side of the entry road, and Dwight and I were placed in the long and very packed elbow-to-elbow receiving line-up on the other side. So there we all were outside in the hot sun and wind and dust celebrating our expected VIP's visit.

Several hours went by this way and as we stood and waited and watched for the First Lady, a rising column of smoke over the mission farm caught our eye. A quick call home confirmed that the fire was inside our boundary line and rushing toward the cattle pen. Several dignitaries had still not arrived at the VIP event, so we decided it was safe to peel off for awhile to help organize firefighting.

Rick and Dwight take a moment to size up and decipher the direction of the fire and the wind before putting a plan into place.

One group of guys rushes off to beat flames.

While all this was happening, a couple came walking up the road. The husband went on ahead to check on safety while his wife and small baby stayed behind and waited. I found out she'd just given birth the previous day, and already here this new mom was walking many kilometers out into the bush to her home.

I believe the estimate of area burned was about 100 hectares that day, but mid-burn we were called back to our spot in the line up. The dignitaries had arrived and the First Lady was soon to arrive. And so we left the fire to rejoin the crowd.

Kids are back in school now after their breaks, as they are everywhere it seems. Every morning during our devotional/work coordinating time, this little guy walks past us on his way to school. I love seeing kids going to school :)



Here's the mission truck after its last run to town for supplies. Among those supplies are a few bikes for students who have a very long walk to school. Aren't they going to be happy!

Bikes for students, check.
Brooms for clinic/warehouse, check.
Diesel for generator, check.
Paint for construction, check.
Chipboard for building, check.
And that's just the start. Truck trips to town are always full-day events.

Students helping to harvest vegetables in the garden.

We had some very warm weather for several days last week, and I guess that's the signal for all spiders to come out from their burrows. We discovered this guy by one of the bookcases in our house the other night. Ack!

Pity to kill him (for several reasons),
so Dwight caught him and put him back outside where he should be.

Pinned under a plastic container.
Yes, plastic containers are useful in many ways out here!

Just to give you an idea of size.

As if spider #1 wasn't bad enough, we discovered spider #2 crawling onto our cutting board!

And as if that wasn't bad enough, he sprinted onto the sliced bread!

Anyway, I'm late with this post and I really need to run. Here's hoping for fewer fires and spiders this week!

Searching for Signal

“Were you searching for ET?” a friend jokingly asked when I posted some of these photos on facebook this week.

Well, no, not exactly. We were searching the heavens for strong “RX” (receive) and “TX” (transmit) signals with our internet satellite dish. Strong signal = lock-on quality which makes the RX and TX lights on our modem go solid green = internet. But they have to be green, and solid. No flashing lights. And no yellow lights. Those aren’t so helpful.

So why all this? Well, it’s a long story. In short, about a month ago we decided to try a new satellite internet system. That didn’t go so well so we decided to switch back. Problem was, somewhere along the way our BUC (pronounced “buck”, and an essential component in the system) got misplaced.

The BUC is the part behind the "microphone" (my term)

Without a BUC, basically you have no internet. So the search was on. It took several weeks, many phone calls, much discussion, and finally a replacement was found. We knew our problems weren’t over yet. What we didn’t know was the degree to which they weren’t over. Connecting a complex internet system out here in the bush without the necessary technology or savvy isn’t very easy!

So this is how it went:
Day 1

Took us the entire day as we:
1. Replaced the BUC,
2. Downloaded the programming software,
3. Loosened and tightened bolts,
4. Tilted the dish this way, that, and the other searching for strong signal. (But no. RX was solid green, but TX was bent on flashing. You have to have ALL solid green lights to have internet.)
5. Phoned technicians far away for new ideas on what to try next.

Even so, dusk found us standing outside staring at the dish feeling rather perplexed and a bit defeated

while the TX light flashed on the modem inside.

The next day was supposed to be a stat holiday but we knew we wouldn’t spend it sitting around in the shade sipping coke.

Day 2
Took us the entire day, again:
1. Moving the dish into every possible position and contortion 1/16th of an inch at a time. (It was a long, hot day in the sun.)

When moving a satellite dish, there is Axis 1, Axis 2, Axis 3, and so on.
Side to side movement is "azimuth" if I recall correctly.

Turns out, a hair-line move here on earth translates into a miles-wide gap in space.

2. Re-running the software and carefully following all the steps.

Dwight and Rick in our "internet office"

Even so, dusk found us still searching for the illusive solid TX green light, but at least the software helped narrow down our search. While the guys pushed and pulled at the dish outside, I watched the monitor and shouted encouraging numbers out through the window.

The black space is, well, "no signal". Yellow is "better, but keep trying". Green is "good". Green peaks are better than green valleys. This is where we ended Day 2. Even though TX was still flashing, we felt we'd made good progress.

Day 3:
Took very little time at all. When the power came on, miraculously TX and RX were both solid green. Yay!

The modem.

Age-old lesson learned: If it’s not (real) broke, don’t mess with it.

In other news, here’s Celestino searching for the bridge we usually depend on to get supplies to the mission school. Oops...

There have been many fires in the area, as there always are at this time of year, and the bridge Dwight and some hard working staff built several years ago had burned to nothing more than a hole in the ground. Good thing it wasn't dark when they came upon this!

Celestino and Joao managed to move some of the burned logs into place to get through the dry riverbed.

We sure have our work cut out for us before rainy season comes along.

Before I sign off, a few shots of local wildlife.

We noticed a leaf stuck to one of our walls the other night.

A closer look revealed not a leaf, but a moth. Clever disguise, little fellow. But it would work much better outside…where all the leaves are.

African Black Sunbirds finding sweet nectar in my flowering aloes. The black one is the male and the beige/yellow one is the female. (Talk about opposites!)

Here, the male gives me a brief stare-down while I train my camera on him. Sorry to disturb you buddy, but really, it could be worse. It could be an internet satellite dish.

Getting There

There was a bit of a panic one morning last week. We were just finishing our routine morning meeting with staff when I caught a quick movement out of the corner of my eye. One of the guys had something on the end of a stick that he held stretched w-a-a-ay out in front of him, as far as possible, and he was rushing to dispose of whatever it was. It must have been pretty dangerous, so my curiosity was piqued.

“Wait, wait! What is it? Let me see!”

The guy stopped mid-step and turned around ever so carefully. There, on the end of the stick, was no snake, no furry, ogley-eyed spider, nor anything too horrid at all for that matter. It was a plain old chameleon. A fairly frightened one at that who was moving as quickly as possible toward safety!

Unfortunately for the chameleon, his species are programmed for disguise, not speed. And so his attempts to “scurry” were quite pathetic. At best, he swayed backwards and forwards repeatedly, in super slow motion, as his front foot reached forward, poised for eventual touchdown.

It’s pretty safe to blink, even several times, when watching chameleons walk. You won’t miss much.

They're quite harmless, but many here believe they’re deadly poisonous. I reached for the stick to rescue the little fellow and to relieve the guy holding him. As I did this, an animated discussion broke out as we shared our differing ideas about chameleons and the possible danger they pose. Some voiced concern that chameleon eggs on cassava leaves could easily be eaten by accident and poison a person. I was more concerned about the level of cyanide poisoning in the leaves themselves. They thought I was funny. I thought they were funny. We all had a good laugh.

The chameleon thought it wasn't so funny at the time but it could be later, after he’d reached safety. If he could just put that foot down and actually get there.

I think Raimundo (holding the stick) and I have similar thoughts about chameleons.
He doesn't seem too worried.

While we were having some fun but also challenging moments at home base this week, Dwight, Rick, Joao and Pastor Ricardo spent just shy of 2 weeks picking their way over dangerous highways and bad dirt roads to visit, teach, and encourage pastors and people in remote areas. I traced their path as best I could (below). The round trip covers approximately 1200 km.


Need I say why I don't accompany my husband on these trips? Conditions are rustic and besides, there are dangers along the way too. Who knows, maybe one day I'll muster the needed sense of adventure and go along. But not yet. Thankfully, Andy and Dwight took some great photos which I'll share here.

Rick, Heather & Co. hauling a trailer load of orphan gift packs for Chiriza and Chueza.
Good thing they were well wrapped on the bad, dusty road!

Crossing the Chiri River on the "ferry".
These bigger rivers are know for both hippo and croc attacks.

While Dwight drove, Pastor Ricardo "manned" the phones.
Dwight's phone is a busy one. Apparently Pastor Ricardo's is too.

Graduating pastors in Guro

Lunch with the Community Leader in Mutarara

Unique Christmas Gift packs, carefully shopped for and put together by Rick, Heather, Pastor Mariano and others, were distributed to orphans in programs in Chueza and Chiriza.

Awaiting gifts and lunch.

Gifts are so fun!

Grannies and elderly women who also receive help.


The Chueza church runs a garden to provide vegetables for orphans in its orphan feeding program. The walk there is several kilometers long.



Desperately needed pots for cooking were delivered on this trip as well.


Fresh produce from church garden in another area called Baue.

Follow up for the women's literacy program is also provided on these trips. Here, one of the remote women's class teachers receives supplies.

Here, a woman receives a certificate for completing a course in leadership training.
I love seeing the women involved like this.

"Work-for-food" project in Sinjal.
Bricks made will be sold to generate income to purchase more grain.

Checking out a possible remote base in Sinjal for the mission.
A place to call home while so far away from home would be ideal on these remote location visits.

Who knows...maybe I could be lured off on one of these crazy trips after all? There may be a few dangers and some adventure, but it would be a great experience. Maybe one day I'll get there.