Rain on a Hot Tim Roof

November 26^th-30^th: Thursday-Monday

We spared the Turkey. We decided to give good will towards birds by letting him off the hook for thanksgiving. We may have ruined our gesture by killing 6 chickens Thursday instead though. For our thanksgiving dinner we pulled all the stops. We had stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, salad, rolls, and some form of cranberry sauce from a can. We all ate together in the courtyard. After dinner we had a time for everyone to give thanks for anything. We also sang a couple songs. As we sang a massive storm cloud moved over the mission. Lightning shot across the sky illuminating the cloud bank. It was awesome.

After putting up the trusses on Jim’s house and then some pearlings along the top of the roof line. After that though Bob and Craig decided to call off work for a bit. The roof was a bit too wobbly, resting only on steel posts and rebar to add the extra pounds of more pearlings. We’ll wait tell the work crew lays some more stone up to and around the trusses.

That Sunday during church it began to rain. I never remember it ever raining so early in the morning before. It started out quietly enough shortly after we began Sunday school. Within a few minutes though the sound of the rain on the tin roof completely drowned out sound of Al and Lokwii. Thus we sat for several minutes talking amongst ourselves and watching as Bobby and Mary ran back through the pounding rain to get their bed cloths off the Wrights roof.

The rain ended and Al began teaching again however it turned out to only be a lull in the storm because the rain started up again almost immediately. Sunday school was canceled for the day and the congregation mulled about waiting for the rain to let up. James and I though walked back in the rain. As we neared the Okkens compound the sun came out although the rain didn’t let up. I love it when the sun is shining and the sun is out.

Bob asked me to go down to Mbale with him to help the Mayville’s, a missionary couple, to pack their container since they are going back to America. We left that afternoon for Mbale. It was fun driving down because Bob got to drive through a bit of mud. Bob talked almost the entire way down about his life. He has lived a fascinating life.

That after noon after arriving in Mbale we went to the landmark were Bob ordered a massive amount of food. We had 3 or 4 appetizers along with several mains dishes, rice and Nan. We spent the night at the Shelburne's house were I began reading a really interesting story about England and Wales during the time of King Henry through John.

The next day Bob and I headed over to the Mayville’s which is just down the road from where we slept. We spent the day helping the Mayville’s, Tom and Carolyn to pack up their things. Tom and Carolyn are a nice couple somewhere in their fifties. Most of the things they had packed but there was still a lot of little things to do and quite a few boxes to tape up. This meant that Bob and I spent the entire day helping. Bob had hoped to only spend the morning and then pick up some supplies and be away by 5.

We ate lunch of samosas and chapatti along with a case of coke. Several men from the church came to help and most were sent home after lunch. That afternoon while waiting for more boxes to be readied for packing I say one of the strangest things I have ever seen. Directly outside the brick fence there were between 20 and 30 big hawks or eagles all swooping low over the road, no more than 5 feet from it. They would swoop low and then rise and circle up for another pass. One of the workers told me that they were eating flying ants. In only a few minutes all the birds had gone.

They day wore on and by 5 we still hadn’t left and were still a long ways off. By 6 we had all but finished and Bob decided to drive back anyway rather than spend another night in Mbale. That night we drove back to Karamoja under a full moon. Truly Africa is a beautiful continent.

We arrived at 8:30 that night and Martha had prepared a small dinner for us. After eating I stayed around and talked to Martha, Rachel, and Anna for a bit before heading back and hitting the hay.