This past week in Kapsowar was very busy for Andre and I. This week was the last week of the school year for most of the schools. I was invited to all the school ceremonies and graduations activities.One thing that I have learned this week is that people here have lots of patience especially when it comes to starting time of programs and appointments. You learn quickly that people and relationships are way more important than starting at the advertised time. The pastor of the AIC church just laughs every time I ask him " when are you going to start with the program " . He says that " we in the West have watches but Africans have time " and that is so true. Everything slows down , way down and for Andre and I it feels like heaven.
The town of Kapsowar is bustling with activities and very dependant on the the hospital .It is fun to stroll through their little shops because it feels as if you step back in time. Where can you still buy a coke out of a 300ml. glass bottles or Fanta orange , Sprite or Bitter Lemon Krest for 25 cents US ? It is as if we experience a little bit of our childhood again and it triggers many wonderful memories of our former years growing up in South Africa.
There are also many very skilled seamstresses who are still using old Singer sewing machines that work with foot action and not electricity. I made friends with one of them the last time we were here and she insisted on making me another skirt. Well I don't think that you can buy a beautiful African printed skirt , lined and tailor made to your body for $8 (material included ) anywhere else in the world, And did I mentioned that it was finished within 2 days ? I showed up a little earlier than the scheduled time and she was busy ironing it with an iron that dated out of the 1800's , it is one of those that still uses hot coals inside .
Speaking of electricity , we have at least one power outages every day and on Thursdays it is longer than just an hour,sometimes up to 5 hours .They do power sharing to overcome the problem of scarcity of electricity. We had many romantic dinners with all the candles burning .I am so thankful for a gas stove and as long as we can eat we are happy. We also have to switch the geyser on for hot showers and when finished you switch the geyser off again. We finally started to remember to switch it on at the right time because it takes an hour and 30 minutes before the water is hot enough for a shower.
One of the permanent missionaries is renovating a house for a family that is suppose to arrive this coming weekend , so everybody that can do something is helping out . I love to paint so I got the job of painting the house on the inside.
I was also asked on Thursday to preach at a women's conference held by the local church for all the churches in the area . The conference was on Saturday , starting at 11 am and end at 4.30 with "lunch".The assigned pastor could not come from Nairobi and they thought that as a women I should be the perfect candidate. What a blessing it was to be accepted as one of them by these beautiful women who love the Lord with all their hearts.
There is one thing that African people can do very well , to sing and dance in their worship services. There are 16 local churches in this area and it was just an amazing experience to hear their testimonies and learn that they have the same joys and sorrows as we do. I think they are more honest and open tho share what is truly on their hearts than us .Kenyan women are very warm and caring and they dress very smart for any event that takes place at the schools or churches. Even the little kids are dressed in their Sunday clothes with the boys in suits and most of the dresses are made locally by seamstresses.
Andre and I try to go for a long walk every day for our daily exercise but this week was also a busy week for Andre at the hospital and today was the first day in a week that we could get our daily exercise.
Andre saw some heartbreaking cases this week and I think the cases that breaks our hearts are those of children who die because of lack of means to get to the hospital in time or patients who just do not have the money for further treatments. Although the missionary doctors work for free , the patients must buy their own medicine and pay for surgeries and hospitalisation if they can afford it
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