Of Snakes and Women

Yup, it’s true; one of my biggest fears is here. The guard informed us that he saw a black snake as thick as his arm in our yard. Okay, when the Bible speaks of God putting enmity between woman and snake…well…I have an extra large dose of enmity between me and snakes. I HATE THEM. I had a lizard jump at me when I lifted the lid off the toilet this morning and I screamed. What do you think I would do if I found the snake? Of course my boys’ think it’s the greatest thing in the world now that we have a LARGE, potentially dangerous snake in our yard. Forget playing with fire, now they are moving on to bigger and better things. Bransen and Hayden have knives strapped to their waists, and they are “guarding “the compound with Mr. Fred, the guard. This is when I have to say prayers of protection over my children, and trust that God will put angels around us. Tim, ever the encourager, thinks it is a Black Mamba, the deadliest snake in the world. However, in his words, “Cheri, the bigger the better, it will be harder for it to fit through small spaces, plus if you’re ever going to be bit by a Black Mamba, Africa is the place, because maybe they have an anti-venom here.” Okay Tim, I feel much better now…

Snakes aside, today was a good day. We made progress on the coffee house, as well as the fish project. I don’t think I’ve mentioned the fish project yet, maybe I have, forgive me if I am redundant. One of my biggest passion’s regarding Africa, and especially the vulnerable women and children that we work with, is helping them find a way out of the extreme poverty they are in…instead of relying upon an American donation every month, giving them tools that will empower them to get themselves out of the situation they are in. They are hard-working people; they just don’t have many opportunities or resources. So we heard about a man back east (United States’ east), who feeds his family by raising fish in a 55 gallon drum. He raises catfish, has a faucet on the bottom of his drum that he drains off the scum from the fish, directly onto his garden, which waters and fertilizes the garden, which feeds his family vegetables. Then he takes the scraps from their food, and feeds it to worms, which he then feeds to the fish, which then feeds his family, and the cycle continues…a beautiful picture if you ask me. We wanted to find out if this is feasible in Africa. I don’t know of anyone doing this, but I already have found a way to attach an air pump to solar panels, because obviously electricity is a problem. So today, we went to the National Aqua Research & Development Center. They gave us a tour of their facility; we saw many indigenous fish and were able to ask many questions. The bottom line, they think it is very feasible for us to grow fish in a drum, with proper tank management. So we have many names of contacts for drums, air pumps, and fingerlings (baby fish), and we are going to try and set up a barrel of fish at our house, and work on that project for the next six weeks. Wouldn’t that be exciting if it works? If so, I am going to get a bottom line price to set a group of people up with the fish, and then I’m going to come knocking to as many people as possible to help fund mini fish hatcheries!

The internet set-up man just called and he should be here in 15 minutes. It is 7:20 p.m. on Monday night. I’m hoping it all works out and we should be up and running soon. I’m off for now with my flashlight to search the dark corners of my house for Black Mamba’s. Another chore I will add to my daily list until the hunters in my family can catch and kill a snake! Pray for us, please. P.S. The vegetable soup was met with a fairly warm reception. Hayden summed it up best “Mom, if this were America and you fixed it, it would be the second worst thing you’ve ever cooked, besides the corned beef and cabbage that one time, which was absolutely horrible(it was!)…but since we’re in Africa, it’s pretty okay.” Thank you…I think?

Ciao,
Cheri

Tuesday morning, no internet…TIA. The internet man came, he saw, he left. Apparently, and it sounds like he knew this was going to happen prior to coming, we need a special antenna to get a signal, which he didn’t have, so he will be back at 8:30 a.m. today with the antenna. I suspect that sometime by the end of the day, we will be online. Sleep last night was fleeting. I needed to use the facilities, however, the thought of coming upon an unwanted houseguest in the dark (ie. Black mamba) was more than I could bear, until my need to use the facility was more than I could bear. Then, I used a flashlight, and spent about five minutes sitting on my bed, looking in the dark recesses of the room before getting out of bed. All was well, except by that time, my brain was going…and I can’t always get it to shut off. This morning, I am going with Sam Tushabe and Chase, to identify some properties that are potential sites for the coffee shop. We need a new place, as the place we had planned, fell through while we were in flight. That is not a good thing, but I’m not convinced it was the best location anyway, so I think that this is going to be a situation in which when we look back, we will see that all things worked for good, that is for sure. Sam is meeting with a broker later today, to see what they might rent the sites for, however, if they know a Mzungu is interested, we will get the Mzungu price…not good. Tim is going to wait for the internet man and the special antenna…

It is 2:51 p.m. on Tuesday afternoon and we have internet! TIA! I am going to upload my blogs now.

Ciao,

Cheri