Messages
from
Niger
Vonk's Nigerien Log
August 24, 2007
The other afternoon I heard rolling thunder in the distance. I went
outside the classroom to look, it was thundering, but what caught my
attention were the floating clouds and their color. I watched the orange
clouds billow across the sky. As I stood there hoping for rain for this
desert country, I noticed a woman approaching and I watched her go to
the well and let down her bucket. She paused to reposition her baby
on her back, pulled up the water, set the bucket on the side of the
well, and then eased the bucket of water on her head. As she walked
away from the well, baby on her back, water on her head, her hands fully
free, she walked with the grace of a fashion model on a runway. …and
I thought, “This is Africa .”
Wednesday the cable to the inter-net connection at the guest house was
repaired. Although, we were only able to send a few lines, it was great
to read our emails and the check the news. We do appreciate those short
emails (when/if we get them!) and your prayers. By Thursday the connection
was off again: now I’m typing this in WORD document and will try
to paste it in an email whenever we can.
We are living the old saying, “Early to bed, early to rise….”
It is keeping us healthy, we are spiritually wealthy…. I don’t
know about the wise. Life has become rather routine: not at all boring!!
But we could use some grandchildren hugs.
We did have a good hard rain with lots of wind and thunder and lightning.
It made for a grand discussion in class the next morning. The fear of
lightning and thunder is great, and they found it interesting that lightning
was helpful in adding nitrogen to the earth. We took a neat picture
of a herd of camels in the desert, sitting in water! Incongruent! It
just doesn’t look real.
Greetings to all,
Love, Ted and Eleanor