Tetherbottle

It always amazes me to see kids in my area playing the same or very similar games to what kids in my home country of Canada and/or elsewhere in the world play.  How do these kinds of things become so global? At any rate, boys in my village enjoy playing a locally adapted version of tetherball. Instead of a ball, they use a bottle with water that has some soap powder in it to make it white (I presume because this is easier to see than clear water).

Here's a little video I shot of two boys playing.

Health Training

Ten days ago we had a day of health training for 17 ladies from seven of our partner churches. The training centred around water, so essential for life and health. Most of the teaching was done by Pastor Kerubino, whom I have been helping to equip as a health teacher for the churches. The training took place in one of the Cush Christian School classrooms.

Plenary session to start off the day

Kerubino using a bottle with strategically-placed holes to show
how diarrhea and vomiting drain the body of water

Ladies made their own demonstration bottles and practiced using them

Another lady demonstrating

The ladies also practiced showing others how to make rehydration drink

Small group discussion

Closing the day with prayer

Late afternoon lunch

Eating with some of my health group ladies & Kerubino

Thursdays at SP

You may have noticed that I usually do blog posts on Thursday. I think I've mentioned this before, but almost every Thursday, late afternoon, some of our team members head over to the Samaritan's Purse base in a nearby town (about a 20-minute drive).

We have gotten to know some of the SP staff and they graciously let us come and use their satellite internet, which is much faster than the dial-up access we have via our cell phone network. I have given up trying to do blog posts on the dial-up.

(Should I also mention that often this is the only time in a week that I go anywhere in the car? Hmm...what does it mean about my life when an outing to SP is a nice change of scenery?!)

Yours truly with Joseph and Vince in the background

We settle down in various places. Usually we're all very focused on the things we need to get done in the precious 2 1/2 or 3 hours we have at SP.  Not much chatting (except on Skype).

Daniel

Scott

Laurie on Skype out in the parking lot, near the satellite dish

The folks that work at the base usually play volleyball on Thursday nights, and some of my team members enjoy playing, which is why we started coming on this particular day.

Random Shots from the Past Week

Cows and huts--so typically Dinka

Literacy teacher (right) helping class member

Literacy class women poring over their primers

Splash of colour amid dry-season browns and grays

Teenage neighbour with leg sore I'm treating

The Team, March 2014 Version

The most notable recent change to our team is the addition of a Kenyan member, Joseph Njuguna. At the end of the month, Joseph will become the director of our radio station, Weer Bei FM. We are thrilled to have him with us, not only because he adds a very welcome third nationality to the team, and because he is African, but because he has a amazing wealth of experience in all aspects of radio. He is just the right person to move the radio station along in the process of becoming fully run by the national staff.

Left to right: Me, Faris Family, Scott, Ward Family (with James in back of them), Joseph, Laurie

School Yard Play

My days are very full right now, with not much time for taking pictures or preparing blog posts. So I'll post a few more pictures I took at the Cush Christian School "de-worming" day two weeks ago.

On Fridays, classroom time ends earlier than on the other days so that the kids can have a longer time to play than during the short breaks between class periods. The jump ropes and soccer balls are brought out, and the kids have a great time.

If there's no second person to hold the rope, the window frame will do!

The boys and girls play soccer separately. Above is the boys' game. They play barefoot, in addition to stripping off any cumbersome clothes (see pile below). They use broken cement blocks as goal posts.

The girls' game was quick-paced and they were very enthusiastic and obviously enjoyed it very much.

Goalkeeper taking her role seriously

Deworming Day

Yesterday an activity took place that involved two of my team's ministry areas: Christian education and health.  Three women from the Parot Church Health Group did some teaching on intestinal worms (a common problem here) at Cush Christian School and then gave de-worming medicine to the students.

The three health group ladies are at the front on the left. They took turns with the teaching, which covered topics like what intestinal worms are like, how we get them, the effects they have on our bodies and how can we prevent getting them.

After the teaching kids came in groups to get their hands washed (on the right), then went on to get the worm pills (on the left).