June Blogg
Dear All
Nyota and I took our usual early morning walk just after 6 am and came across family members and friends of Pastor Mukala (one of the translators), armed with a machete and heading for one of two trees which have been home for many weeks to hundreds of caterpillars. The caterpillars holed up in amazingly sturdy cocoons and have dozed quietly now for some time. Apparently today was d-day. The grubs are seemingly delicious and eaten by the Basongye people but not by the local people here. Just as the caterpillars had lethal hairs all over their body, which cause serious itching, so, it turns out, the cocoons are still decidedly unfriendly. Touch one and you’ll itch all day. Furthermore, once a breeze gets up, the cocoons give off some kind of noxious fumes, which also cause itching, so they can only be collected when the atmosphere is completely still. The caterpillars follow one particular tree (the ‘mamba’) of which we have just two. The other one’s in my field. One young man climbed high up to knock the cocoons down and everyone else kept a safe distance. Then with the help of 2 sticks, the harvest was safely placed in a cardboard box and taken to the field to have the outer casing burnt off. The grubs, released from their fortresses, could now be taken home, fried and eaten. Having shared in the experience, I was given some to try. Anni looked horrified when I produced them but we will enjoy a new experience/challenge together when she comes on Monday. I’ll let you know how we go on.
This time of year, schools and colleges are busy with exams. The 6th year school finalists sit their last state exams between 22-25 June. The school on the centre has 23 candidates, taking 3 different options (education, business & administration and tailoring) Quite a few of the young people I know are either sitting the exams for the first or second time, hoping to be able to go on to higher education. I’ve been keeping a watchful eye on a group of six girls who came in as half-boarders in April so that they could concentrate on revision and catch up on courses where they had missed out because of illness earlier in the year. My friend Esther’s youngest sister, Ezer, is one of the group. Esther had to drop out of school for lack of finances after her father died and has made huge sacrifices to ensure the same thing doesn’t happen to her sister. Pray for Ezer, Caleb, Mudilo and all the other pupils that they’ll give a good account of themselves and that the exams themselves will pass off smoothly. There is huge pressure on parents, particularly those who have fallen behind with the payment of fees, as threats are made not to include their children’s names on the list of candidates. With the exams only days away, it doesn’t help the finalists either to know they may be excluded at the last minute!
We’re gathering in grapefruit and oranges today after noticing that quite a few are going missing and they’re coming in by the barrowful. The smell is lovely – sorry I can’t send you any! From the sales we hope to be able to invest some of it back into improving the orchard which is in need of quite of lot of work and any extra will go into the Centre fund which helps pay wages, National Insurance and taxes or the Centre maintenance fund which has huge demands on it. For now, I’m leaving most of the fruit on my verandah so it can continue to ripen in the sun.
A couple of things coming up: next Saturday the Kawama youth group are meeting for a morning of prayer and worship; then the following Saturday they are having an away day at Chemchemi, a Roman Catholic centre a few kilometers out of town, where there is a farm, also a boys’ school and lots of fishponds. (I seem to be into ponds at the moment though not literally, of course!) Pray for the leaders as they try to build stronger relationships with the young people and get alongside them. I’ll be joining them for both events and it looks as though the lot has fallen to Chantal, Judith and me to organize the food and games. We expect around 40 young people to be at Chemchemi and have invited 3 different speakers.
With love to all
Bridget