Harvesting Rice
I can hear the pounding of the pole in the large mortar just as the sun rises, which would be about 5:30. My neighbor woman must remove the hulls from the rice while it is just the right humidity. Rice, along with maze is a staple here; they grow them both. Just down the dirt road that runs by our place is an enormous field partitioned off to various women for planting rice. The month of June, beginning the dry season, is harvest time. I can see women everyday walk past with enormous sacks of rice on their heads, maybe up to 30 or 40 kgs, many with babies on their backs. Sometimes my children offer to help them carry it to their homes or up the road to catch a chapa. If I am driving during this time of day I will offer to transport them, sometimes very old woman carrying too much on their heads. They are always grateful.
When they get it home they must take a portion and cook it then they spread it out on a capalana (the cloth they use for skirts and many other things) and let it dry in the sun before removing the hulls. As it is drying they must make sure the chickens don’t mess with it and in it.
The harvest was great this year. The rains had come at opportune times and the stocks were loaded. Unfortunately heavy rains also had come at an inopportune time during harvest causing the remaining stocks to lie down in the water and be lost.
Seasons and rhythm are keys to life here and rice is no exception. Watching them pound the hulls off is quite a site. Sometimes 2 women or children will have their poles going for a long time without hitting the other like hands on a drum. After the hulls are mostly off they toss it in a flat basket to let the hulls blow away or shake off the edge. This is another rhythm that takes talent; shaking and tossing just to the edge of the basket, not loosing a grain of rice but just the hulls.
Monday, July 13, 2009
Hornet's nest
I stuck my hand in a hornet’s nest this week but I saw the Lord use it and the bites don’t bother me much. I went at 5:00 AM with 2 very drunk policemen to arrest the man who had badly abused Joaninina. He was shocked and couldn’t even figure out why the police were looking for him. It was this crazy mama doing something to defend this rebellious little orphan. He had most likely given her AIDS and then when he found she was pregnant casted her aside. Then one of his friends raped her. She was 10 at the time.
After going through the long process of her telling the story with him in the chair beside her and having it hand written in the book and then typed on an old typewriter he was locked up.
His uncle came the next day from a city about 50 miles away to ask me what had happened. He was not angry, just respectful and after hearing the story a bit remorseful. I told him that in my country it is not right to do these things and I wasn’t sure if this was acceptable here. He said it wasn’t right what his 21 year old nephew had done; to take a little girl in as a wife and not take care of her. I could see he was ashamed of the boy that bore his own name. He asked me to meet him the next day at the police station where the boy was.
That night I met with some of my older boys who already knew what was happening because they had assisted me when I picked this man up. They suggested letting the family deal with him which I had already considered because of this uncle. The next morning I met Joseph at the station and that’s where the hornet’s nest was. The boy’s boss was there along with some other family members. The boss was a white Portuguese man with obvious animosity toward us. I told him that my intention was to stop the process and trust his family to deal with him. He calmed down as he saw my heart and later offered to help Joaninia in some way. I remembered in Proverbs, it was written, “A soft answer turns away wrath.” I saw it in action today.
The people there at the domestic dispute office are wonderful and they like me but I am sure I confused them a bit when I requested the process to be stopped. They were so kind to help me in everything. The man dealing with it called his superior. She was at the other office in the city so I had to go pick her up and after writing a letter requesting the process to be stopped I drove her back. She was a lovely lady.
After all was said and done I drove the uncle back with us to Manga and dropped him off where he was staying. He tells us he will see us at our church on Sunday. I wondered if he would bring his nephew. Now, that would be strange wouldn’t it?
I suppose some people in my home country wouldn’t understand this compromise but here where children have little value it is unusual to bring this kind of thing to court. The community is something like a big family here and I was a bit afraid of the reaction of it. Women may secretly love me for doing what I did but most people will not understand.
Usually the process of things here takes a long time and frustrates me but this morning I was grateful that the documents I had done earlier this week had not been passed on to others that appoint a court date. The others involved I am sure were more grateful than I.
Matthew 5:25-26 says, “When you are on your way to court with your adversary settle your differences quickly. Otherwise, your accuser may hand you over to the judge, who will hand you over to an officer, and you will be thrown into prison, and if that happens you surely won’t be free again until you have paid the last penny. “
In this case the young man going to prison should have never gotten out for the sake of snuffing out the life a of a baby and little girl by giving her AIDS. Prisons here are not merciful; they are vicious. I hope that the shame he has brought to his family and boss will be enough to keep him from continuing to live like this.
As for Joaninia, she is learning to become a little girl here. I am watching her blossom and have great joy in helping others. I bumble my way through many things here but I trust the Lord is helping me to do the right things. Defending her was the right thing to do, for her sake. I saw a vision of a great hand plunging into a heap of stinky garbage and come out with a diamond. This is my Joaninia, she is a precious diamond. She is beginning to live now.
After going through the long process of her telling the story with him in the chair beside her and having it hand written in the book and then typed on an old typewriter he was locked up.
His uncle came the next day from a city about 50 miles away to ask me what had happened. He was not angry, just respectful and after hearing the story a bit remorseful. I told him that in my country it is not right to do these things and I wasn’t sure if this was acceptable here. He said it wasn’t right what his 21 year old nephew had done; to take a little girl in as a wife and not take care of her. I could see he was ashamed of the boy that bore his own name. He asked me to meet him the next day at the police station where the boy was.
That night I met with some of my older boys who already knew what was happening because they had assisted me when I picked this man up. They suggested letting the family deal with him which I had already considered because of this uncle. The next morning I met Joseph at the station and that’s where the hornet’s nest was. The boy’s boss was there along with some other family members. The boss was a white Portuguese man with obvious animosity toward us. I told him that my intention was to stop the process and trust his family to deal with him. He calmed down as he saw my heart and later offered to help Joaninia in some way. I remembered in Proverbs, it was written, “A soft answer turns away wrath.” I saw it in action today.
The people there at the domestic dispute office are wonderful and they like me but I am sure I confused them a bit when I requested the process to be stopped. They were so kind to help me in everything. The man dealing with it called his superior. She was at the other office in the city so I had to go pick her up and after writing a letter requesting the process to be stopped I drove her back. She was a lovely lady.
After all was said and done I drove the uncle back with us to Manga and dropped him off where he was staying. He tells us he will see us at our church on Sunday. I wondered if he would bring his nephew. Now, that would be strange wouldn’t it?
I suppose some people in my home country wouldn’t understand this compromise but here where children have little value it is unusual to bring this kind of thing to court. The community is something like a big family here and I was a bit afraid of the reaction of it. Women may secretly love me for doing what I did but most people will not understand.
Usually the process of things here takes a long time and frustrates me but this morning I was grateful that the documents I had done earlier this week had not been passed on to others that appoint a court date. The others involved I am sure were more grateful than I.
Matthew 5:25-26 says, “When you are on your way to court with your adversary settle your differences quickly. Otherwise, your accuser may hand you over to the judge, who will hand you over to an officer, and you will be thrown into prison, and if that happens you surely won’t be free again until you have paid the last penny. “
In this case the young man going to prison should have never gotten out for the sake of snuffing out the life a of a baby and little girl by giving her AIDS. Prisons here are not merciful; they are vicious. I hope that the shame he has brought to his family and boss will be enough to keep him from continuing to live like this.
As for Joaninia, she is learning to become a little girl here. I am watching her blossom and have great joy in helping others. I bumble my way through many things here but I trust the Lord is helping me to do the right things. Defending her was the right thing to do, for her sake. I saw a vision of a great hand plunging into a heap of stinky garbage and come out with a diamond. This is my Joaninia, she is a precious diamond. She is beginning to live now.
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Life at the Girls Home
I haven’t laughed that hard in a long time. The girls were sharing their dreams and then it somehow went into how the village people respond to them being a bit special. They are called the Kedesh girls. Kedesh is the orphanage that is strictly boys just across the path from our place. I suppose it is ok for John to get credit for all my hard work as long as it is good credit. Really I can see so much of God’s protection and their feeling cared for by the boys of Kedesh as well as their own brothers at HoB.
Some men talk about how they would like to have one of my girls but they are always in a group and they are not able to talk with just one. One young man tried to get Julia to help him with his English lessons while Deonicio, who is very good with English was right there. He hounded the guy until he left Julia alone. Sometimes the men will do a hissing sound to get their attention. If our boys are around they either rebuke them or act like it is them that they are hissing at. They have some fun with it while our girls keep on walking.
The stories include men calling them and following them and what they hear them saying as well as those protecting them. Papa has actually marched out to rebuke those men at times. One time when he was walking from school with some of the girls a man grabbed an arm of one of the girls. After Papa was finished with him I would be surprised if he ever touched another girl. Most girls in Moz actually like attention from men. If my girls do they are hiding it very well. Some have actually come home in tears after being harassed. Usually, though there will be a Kedesh, or HoB boy there to defend them. What a blessing they are! Moz is not a place where girls are respected; they are usually taken advantage of at an early age. It is the way of life here.
While the girls are sharing Joaninia is hanging on my shoulder playing with my hair. I don’t know what was going through her head. She was not protected; she was taken advantage of at an early age. She refused to walk in the protection of the group. A little rebellion goes a long way here. Tomorrow I will take her to the AIDS clinic and get her connected with the program there. Before I do, though, I will go with the police to get the man who abused her and bring him to jail. This is something I had not planned to do because it’s too messy here to do such things but a couple of weeks ago this man was harassing her about having his baby and it dying. He considered her suffering a joke. I got angry. Should he be free to continue doing such things? I felt it was right to go after him and bring justice to the orphan.
I did what some people may consider foolish and others heroic this morning. I drove to the police station at 5:00 AM and picked up 2 very drunk policemen and sent one of my girls and one of my boys with them to get the man who had bragged in the open market near us about having made Joaninia pregnant and her baby dying. He didn’t brag, though, about giving her diseases; one of them being AIDS.
It was troubling to me but my boys said that I did the right thing. I returned to my bed and asked for something in the Bible to justify what I had done. The word “defend” came to mind and I found in Isaiah chapter 1 verse 17 and 23: Lear n to do good, seek justice, rebuke the oppressor, defend the fatherless, plead for the widow. Your princes are rebellious and companions of thieves; everyone loves bribes, and follows after rewards. They do not defend the fatherless, nor does the cause of the widow come before them.
I did the right thing.
Some men talk about how they would like to have one of my girls but they are always in a group and they are not able to talk with just one. One young man tried to get Julia to help him with his English lessons while Deonicio, who is very good with English was right there. He hounded the guy until he left Julia alone. Sometimes the men will do a hissing sound to get their attention. If our boys are around they either rebuke them or act like it is them that they are hissing at. They have some fun with it while our girls keep on walking.
The stories include men calling them and following them and what they hear them saying as well as those protecting them. Papa has actually marched out to rebuke those men at times. One time when he was walking from school with some of the girls a man grabbed an arm of one of the girls. After Papa was finished with him I would be surprised if he ever touched another girl. Most girls in Moz actually like attention from men. If my girls do they are hiding it very well. Some have actually come home in tears after being harassed. Usually, though there will be a Kedesh, or HoB boy there to defend them. What a blessing they are! Moz is not a place where girls are respected; they are usually taken advantage of at an early age. It is the way of life here.
While the girls are sharing Joaninia is hanging on my shoulder playing with my hair. I don’t know what was going through her head. She was not protected; she was taken advantage of at an early age. She refused to walk in the protection of the group. A little rebellion goes a long way here. Tomorrow I will take her to the AIDS clinic and get her connected with the program there. Before I do, though, I will go with the police to get the man who abused her and bring him to jail. This is something I had not planned to do because it’s too messy here to do such things but a couple of weeks ago this man was harassing her about having his baby and it dying. He considered her suffering a joke. I got angry. Should he be free to continue doing such things? I felt it was right to go after him and bring justice to the orphan.
I did what some people may consider foolish and others heroic this morning. I drove to the police station at 5:00 AM and picked up 2 very drunk policemen and sent one of my girls and one of my boys with them to get the man who had bragged in the open market near us about having made Joaninia pregnant and her baby dying. He didn’t brag, though, about giving her diseases; one of them being AIDS.
It was troubling to me but my boys said that I did the right thing. I returned to my bed and asked for something in the Bible to justify what I had done. The word “defend” came to mind and I found in Isaiah chapter 1 verse 17 and 23: Lear n to do good, seek justice, rebuke the oppressor, defend the fatherless, plead for the widow. Your princes are rebellious and companions of thieves; everyone loves bribes, and follows after rewards. They do not defend the fatherless, nor does the cause of the widow come before them.
I did the right thing.
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