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<\/a>On Wednesday, we went to My Village, since the wedding festivities were supposed to start there that evening.\u00a0 We had heard there was an all-night dance party (reminds me of (1) _____________!).\u00a0 So when we got showers in the evening (since here you get showers twice a day), we didn\u2019t know what clothes to put on.\u00a0 When I asked my host mom, she told me to put on a fancy outfit, but not the one I had sewn specially for the wedding, so that\u2019s what I did, getting ready for the party to begin.\u00a0 However, when it got to be 9 or 10 pm, they said that we should go to bed for a bit and get some rest before it started.\u00a0 So we slept in our clothes for a few hours before they woke us up at midnight, saying it started.\u00a0 We got up and joined the crowd.\u00a0 They had balaphones (like xylophones) and drums, and people dancing to the music.\u00a0 Each of the songs had a different story that it told, though I\u2019m not exactly sure how.\u00a0 But certain people could tell you what the balaphones were saying in each song.\u00a0 Maybe it\u2019s like how we know lyrics to songs even if we just hear the instrumental version?\u00a0 I don\u2019t know, since\u00a0 I couldn\u2019t understand anything the balaphones were saying!\u00a0 I danced to one song, though I know I didn\u2019t do it \u201cright\u201d at all.\u00a0 My bottom doesn\u2019t shake like theirs.\u00a0 And when their guys dance, I think they take 2 or 3 times the number of steps that I\u2019d think would be humanly possible.\u00a0 Incredible!\u00a0 At about 3am I headed off to get some sleep, though they danced on until about 6am.<\/p>\n
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On Thursday we were supposed to leave for a different village about 2:00.\u00a0 Which meant that we left about 4:45.\u00a0 Welcome to Africa.\u00a0 Jen and I and her host mom went together on our two motos (motorcycles).\u00a0 On the way we passed a guy and 2 ladies along the road.\u00a0 They waved us down to ask us to stop.\u00a0 Normally I wouldn\u2019t stop in the middle of nowhere for someone I didn\u2019t know, but Jen noticed that one of the ladies was laying on the ground so wondered if she had just given birth.\u00a0 So we stopped, and Jen was right.\u00a0 She had gone to the doctor that morning and the doctor had sent her home, saying that it wasn\u2019t time yet and to come back in a month if she hadn\u2019t given birth yet.\u00a0 So now, in the evening, she was headed to a different doctor and gave birth in the dirt along the unpaved road.\u00a0 Yikes!\u00a0 I have to admit that it was the first baby I\u2019ve seen still attached to the umbilical cord, and I didn\u2019t even know that an umbilical cord looks all twisted like (2) ____________.\u00a0 The new mom\u2019s placenta hadn\u2019t come out, so we knew we had to get her to the doctor, and after a while some guys in a truck came by and were willing to take her back to the hospital.\u00a0 Pray that all is well and her little baby, born in the dust and dirt on the side of the dirt road in the middle of nowhere, grows up healthy and strong and comes to know about Jesus.<\/p>\n
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After that, since we waited with them for a while, it got dark before we made it to our destination.\u00a0 Now darkness makes it tricky to drive along unpaved roads with lots of hidden bumps, holes, sand, etc.\u00a0 Someone wanted to pass us, and in the middle of letting him pass Jen went over a bump into a hole she didn\u2019t see and went flying off her moto.\u00a0 We were glad that she was wearing her helmet, and even though it was an impressive fall (I should have videotaped that one!), she got up with barely a scratch on her body.\u00a0 Thank you, Jesus!<\/p>\n
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When we got there, we had no idea what to do or where to go, so we were glad that Jen\u2019s host mom was there to show us.\u00a0 After eating and Jen getting a shower (she was a bit dirty from her fall), our host in this new village took us to go see what was happening.\u00a0 And what was happening was interesting, but a bit scary!\u00a0 It reminded me a mixture between a (3) _________ and the (4) ___________.\u00a0 Guys were driving motos like crazy \u2013 super fast and all over.\u00a0 They didn\u2019t hit each other and instead somehow managed to dance around each other, which is why it reminded me of the (4) ___________.\u00a0 But they were driving like crazy, and even looking like they\u2019d hit people standing on the sidelines watching, so I wouldn\u2019t have been surprised if some of them would have ended up like the cars at the end of a (3) ____________!\u00a0 (I was glad that we were standing right outside of a squatty potty, since if they got close we could hurry inside and the walls would at least offer a bit of protection from the crazy driving.)<\/p>\n
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After that we were able to go to bed for a bit before the next all-night dance party from midnight to 6am.<\/p>\n
Not having much sleep the night before, I was tired.\u00a0 So I didn\u2019t get up until about 3am to go watch the dancing.\u00a0 It was like the dancing the night before, only this time one of the songs was all about the white people (though, again, I couldn\u2019t understand the singing of the balaphones).\u00a0 That meant that Jen and I, as the only white people present, had to get up and dance.\u00a0 And get laughed at again by everyone.\u00a0 By 4am I was tired and went back to bed.<\/p>\n The next morning after our two breakfasts (only that day I think I got three instead of the normal two) and Jen and I wandering around a bit, those of us from My Village got a special dance time, where the balaphones came out just for us to dance to for an hour or so.\u00a0 And the white people song was in the mix again, meaning more dancing and getting laughed at.<\/p>\n After that came the first of two lunches.\u00a0 I think it was at that meal that Jen and I were eating together in the hut we were staying in, and the \u201cto\u201d (pronounced \u201ctoe\u201d) we were eating was so hot that when we picked it up with our fingers (I don\u2019t think I saw any eating utensils the whole trip) one piece of it immediately dropped out of our hands and into the sauce that you\u2019re supposed to dunk it in.\u00a0 Jen commented, \u201cGee, you can\u2019t take us anywhere!\u201d\u00a0 And I agree \u2013 if we\u2019re not \u201ccivilized\u201d enough to eat \u201cto\u201d with our hands in a mud hut with a floor smeared with dried manure to keep the dust down, I\u2019m not sure where we\u2019ll be civilized enough to eat.\u00a0 (Makes me think of (5) __________.)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Oh, I should mention that the water pump they had in this village is getting replaced, so for three months they\u2019ve only had well water to drink, wash dishes with, take showers with, and cook with. \u00a0A pump gets water out from underground so it is cleaner, whereas a well is just a hole in the ground (think a wishing well without walls), where anything can fall in and get the water dirty. \u00a0It was dirty enough that it looked like it came right out of the (6) ___________.\u00a0 I was glad that they had bags of good water for sale for a nickel a piece, so we were able to drink that.<\/p>\n On that day, Friday, after our 2nd<\/sup> lunch, we got showers again (2nd<\/sup> ones of the day) and put on our new matching clothes.\u00a0 As we from My Village were hanging out after getting all spiffed up, I noticed people getting out coins.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t know what they were for, but I went and got some and put them in my camera case so I could be prepared for whatever it was.\u00a0 I asked some friends what was happening, and they said that we were accompanying the bride somewhere, and when she bent over and danced, that you had to throw a nickel on her back.\u00a0 They got me change for my dime, and I waited for the part of the dancing where she\u2019d bend over.<\/p>\n I felt like I was at Chuck \u2018E Cheese, playing the (7) ___________ game \u2013 I was just waiting until the right moment, when I\u2019d attack.\u00a0 It was actually a little complicated, because there was a big crowd, so you had to fight your way to the front to be close enough.\u00a0 That was especially so because like the game (8) __________, it couldn\u2019t bounce off but was supposed to stay in the right spot.\u00a0 At her second bending over, I was successful and she got her nickel, which her friend (like a (9) _____________?) picked up and collected with the other nickels.<\/p>\n This (10) ___________ continued around the village, going from house to house like (11) __________.\u00a0 When we\u2019d get to a house she\u2019d bend over again and the man there would also put money on her back.\u00a0 (But he\u2019d usually put more like a dollar instead of a nickel.\u00a0 Men are rich.)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n When we almost got back to the dance party that had restarted back up, the bride and some of the crowd went into one house where there were two ladies dancing at the door to meet us.\u00a0 Jen was told to go in (we think) and I was told to stay out (we think), so she did and I did.\u00a0 Don\u2019t know why and maybe we just didn\u2019t understand, but that\u2019s what we did.\u00a0 I watched the dance party, and was glad that they didn\u2019t play the white people song, or at least if they did no one told me so I didn\u2019t have to dance.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n After a while we went back to the hut we were staying in, had dinner (and I declined a third shower of the day), chatted for a bit before going to bed to wait for the dancing.\u00a0 But while we were chatting I noticed one lady filling up a bucket to take a bucket shower.\u00a0 Now there is no electricity in any of the villages of Our People, so after dark you need flashlights to be able to see anything.\u00a0 She used a bowl to scoop water out of the big barrel and into a bucket, but with the light from the flashlight shining into the dirty water cascading from the bowl to the bucket, it shone pretty green like a (12) _____________.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a>