Life with a snotty baby

March 2nd

New Hope is an interesting place, full of happy and sad stories. Remember Auntie Florence, the friend who is going to get married? Well she has a ten-year old son Brian (her husband died a long time ago) who is a real sweetie. He has latched onto Tim and Joseph, partially because they live next door and partially because he hasn't had a male figure in his life for a while. (and Tim is a way cool boisterous american in his eyes, probably. Tim is also the soccer coach for New Hope.) He is a really good kid, and soft-hearted; He helps his mother and obeys, and has fun and laughs with us in the evenings. He actually reminds me of Phoenix my nephew in some ways.

Anyway, i saw him running at soccer practice yesterday doing laps with the team, and he seemed to be having a hard time running. I asked Tim about it today at breakfast, and he and Joseph told the story of how he had been abused by an aunt or someone he was staying with for a while. He had done something, and she beat him with a stick on his feet, and "dislocated" his foot, and his other foot was deformed during birth.

I had never noticed before, but now i see that he limps when he walks. Tim noticed when he would hide in the bushes when the team had to run laps, because he didn't want the other kids to make fun of him for the way he runs.
So tim got him some cleats instead of sandals to help him run better, which he said has helped.

But what a sad story. Florence said that he is still terrified of the name of the person who beat him; there was a teacher at New Hope who had the same name, and he had to be dragged to school because he refused to go.

I would hate to have something like that; everytime you move, you are reminded of the hatred of another against you.

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I played in a soccer match with the Institute students against the younger New Hope soccer team this afternoon. It was good clean fun, and it felt great to run around a bit. We trounced them 7-2, but they gave us a run for our money considering they were 10-14 year-olds. Some of them made us look like complete fools with their quick feet. Brian (with the hurt feet) played also, and I noticed again how he ran funny, painfully. Speaking of running, most of the kids play barefoot or wearing flip flops. The goalkeeper wears sandals until he makes a save, then he kicks off his right one to punt barefooted. Some of the older ones have cleats, and especially on the older boys team.

One funny thing about the food here I was thinking about today: chicken is a delicacy. Just having meat at all is somewhat luxurious, although less so here in this district because of the many cows. But to have chicken is a real treat here, we're used to beans, matoke, the occasional beef stew sauce, and a Ugandan attempt at spaghetti sauce with ground beef that is more like a sloppy joe with italian seasoning. Tasty, but different. So today at lunch we had chicken, and we all line up expectantly. There is always an annoucement "please only take one piece until everyone has had one" because it is such a rarity and expensive, which is strange, considering the quantity of chickens walking around making noise. So we've been here long enough to get excited about chicken, which is quite different from home. Home was " not chicken again, aw Dad we have that every night!!" And of course the chicken here doesn't have as much meat on it as a tyson hormone-injected headless meat factory chicken, so they have darker and tastier meat. The only thing that is more pricey is pork. I think a piglet is worth like $120

Guesthouse update: big surprise, we didn't finish last week. I was thinking that I could get the guys to pick up the pace; didn't happen. New estimate is wednesday or thursday. It can't be much later than that, the rainy season is very near. It has already startening looking threatening every afternoon pretty much. One of the goals having 2 guys work with me continuously is that they would pick up the skills to be able to carry on after I leave. They have some other building expansions planned in the near future, so Uncle Jay is hoping to hand over the roof contract to them. I'm not sure they're ready for that, but I've been trying to teach them. They know how to use a speed square, and they could probably make a roof hip, but i doubt they make a valley without help. Roof framing is quite different here: the valley is the last thing you make. I'm used to making the valley, then all your jack-rafters go to it. As I've said before, working with green noodle-wood that varies in thickness and width every few inches makes it tough to make a straight and flat roof. It's hard enough with the lumber in the US, this is just silly. But we've managed quite well. Of course, wait till the wood dries (and warps) over the next few years, and then we'll see. The contractors that are setting up the forms for the ceiling are going around, and when they get to the long side, they are going to have a time making a straight form, because the beam goes up and down a good inch and a half in various places over the 30 foot lenth.

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here's Isaiah, who stayed with us for around 24 hours. Ellie didn't sleep much saturday night because he couldn't lie down without crying and choking; he's quite a sick two-month-old.








We get a lot of these beautiful nights here. Hot days, cool nights.





More local fauna.




Hope you all are doing well.