Just Sittin' on the Front Porch Gnawin' on Sugar Cane

I had kept myself pretty busy the past few days. It was my first week teaching pre-k and the kids...well...they were kids to be sure. So there was no time to think or feel really anything more than "Is it break time yet?" It was as I laid down to rest that I was overcome by the homesickness that had been lurking deep within all the while. I had known it was there. I knew as soon as I stopped long enough to really acknowledge the feelings I would be crushed. And I was. Thank God, He is a God who saves.

As I lay there I wondered if this ache would ever go away or if I would always long for home or if this place would ever become that word to me. It is not that I was missing my physical home so much as the familiar faces that haunt the rooms and shops and streets. I found myself wishing that everyone I knew and loved would have a sudden calling to serve orphans in Africa. As I lay there deep in the throws of my pity party, my roommate walked in, "Come. I have brought sugar cane. You eat with us." So I went. And I ate.

The kids were all around and their laughter and excitement at such an unexpected treat filled the dusky evening sky. I laid my head against the cool green pillar watching them eat and soaking in the sound. Sharron (one of my girls) took my cane and said "Here I start for you." With her teeth she peeled back the tough green layer of the outer stock to expose the soft white sweet sugar. "Now you just bite" she directed me. So I bit. 

Sweetness filled my mouth as fresh laughter filled the space around me. I opened my eyes to see the kids waiting in expectation for my reaction to my first taste of sugar cane. Apparently I had done better than expected. We sat and we ate and we ate and we laughed all the while my aching ceased and a peace came that I will never forget. It was a peace that ushered in a hope. A hope that told me "Yes Ashley, this will one day be like home."

You know you are living in the African bush if...

You are suddenly awoken from a nap by the sound of African kids yelling something in their native tongue while throwing really big rocks at a snake. Which by the way was either on his way to or from your house. Lovely.

Just so everyone knows....

Hell has frozen over. The fat lady has sung. Pigs can now fly. I am now a MATH TEACHER.

Seeing a Lizard on the wall and wanting to rebuke it in Jesus’ name.

This is not ridiculous or frivolous right? I mean technically satan was a serpent and before God cursed him he had legs. So he would have looked somewhat like a lizard. So our deductive reasoning skills tell us that a lizard is basically like a cousin of satan. So i was really rebuking satan which is not ridiculous or frivolous at all.

Fisheyes and G-nut paste

You know until about a month ago I believed that the little balls in Tapioca Pudding were fish eggs. I don't know why I believed this probably because my dad told me once and my dad never tells stories. Ever. Whatever the reason I really believed those little weird balls were fish eggs. Because of my strong convictions I refused to eat Tapicoa Pudding which really isn't that big of a deal because I am pretty sure that Tapioca Pudding is used to be rejected. I mean with all the pudding flavors who really thinks "Man forget doubble chocolate fudge with real dark choclate mousse topping pudding. I want me some fo that yellowish white pudding with questionable ball like things floating in it!" Oh yeah that's the stuff!" But now that I have actually experienced a puddling like substance with actual fish (no I did not leave out the word parts) I think I would take my fake fish egg pudding any day.

G-nut paste is basically warmed up peanut butter. Casava is basically like the inside of a baked potato. Minnows are basically tiny fish that are used as bait when fishing. So eating G-nut paste with Casava is like eating a baked potato with warm peanut butter which actually isn't all that bad. Until you realize that today the G-nut paste ahs a companion. I was just sitting there enjoying my paste when I notice something hard; then a lot of little hard somethings floating around. I figured "Hey maybe I am eating the special termites they eat. That's a delicacy. Right?" But as I "fished" (haha) around I realized that it was nto termites at all...but something much much worse.

That's when BAM! Out of nowhere a little yellow eye with a little black center was staring back at me. Two thoughts went across my mind "Why is my food staring at me?" and "WHAT THE CRAP MY FOOD IS STARING AT ME!" As I calmly (which is a strictly relative term) explained to the cook -who by the way speaks about 5 words of english- that I usually don't eat food that can watch me as I eat it, she proceeded to take out the entire bag of little fish to show me that "It's okay. It's just little fish that normally in America you would buy at a bait shop but here we eat it with warm peanut butter over baked potatoes"

The moral of this story" Little darling kids with huge smiles and equally big hearts make eating warm peanut butter with tiny fishes over a baked potato toally worth it. That and an eight month suppy of Tapicoa Pudding.