Is It Safe?

Besides the questions “When are you going to retire?” (answer: “Just getting started.”) and “When are the Ostranders going to stop making babies?” (answer: “Uh… any other questions?”), the question I’m most frequently asked, “Is it safe in your village?” Fair question since the Ostranders were flown out of here via the UN helicopter back in July and then returned 29 days later. Reality is that on Monday it might be safe, and on Tuesday it might not be, so I’m going to answer, “Kind of safe, and since it’s not possible to leave every other week, we don’t.

But… good things do happen here! Over the past week, we’ve been able to set up Sawyer water filtration systems at the university, the university clinic, and in every home in our village. I asked Ruzisana, our Grounds Manager, to bring to me, one at a time, a mama from each house of our village with the intent of he and setting up a water filtration system in each of their homes. A few days later, there was a knock at my door, so I opened it…

… and saw Ruzisana and 17 mamas sitting in our front yard. “Michael, the mamas are here,” said Ruzisana.

A few hours later, under the watchful eyes of some very short local “health inspectors”…

… Ruzisana had each home set up and each mama trained how to use these systems which are made up of two buckets and a Sawyer water filter kit. 

On the walk back to our house, I found Miles and crew working hard to finish putting up the trusses on the village’s church building project.

Impressive.

The Three Stooges!

Miles’ is teaching a Small Solar Systems certification class as part of the local university’s newly accredited Vocational Training Program. Solar energy is slowly creeping into our area, so there is a great need for skilled technicians.

The guy at the far end, facing the camera, is Tambwe, one of the oprhans, but also Miles’ apprentice.

The other day, Miles moved his classroom over to the orphans’ home to give his students a chance to put their new knowledge to work helping Miles set up a simple solar energy system to light up the orphans’ home.

“Closets” for hanging clothes, such as the one in the background, are typically a rope that you hang your clothes over, although some people store their clothes in a suitcase.

A Crime Scene?

Nope. Even though life can be stressful to process here at times, the girls continue to creatively show us adults how to escape the sometimes-harsh reality of life.

Ruthie needed a power nap, as she said she was losing her toddler’s ability to think concretely.

See? She also wanted to see how much chalk her nightie could absorb.

And to think that another little girl is joining this bunch in a couple of months.

Somehow! - Michael