Moving into the Jungle

Our friend Joanna hanging out at a "jungle water park" with tribal kids

Following is a copy of an email from one of the missionaries we studied language with.  She is preparing to move into a tribe to begin language and culture study.  Kubili is her co-worker.  We really enjoy her spirit and sense of humor (which is almost required to live in a third world country).  

As for house planning stuff…at times it has all the excitement of beating one’s head against the wall! J  The excitement of being to every store in a 60 mile radius to find something and never succeeding!!!  My favorite “adventures” have been in the area of mistakenly trying to get people to special order the 101 things we are looking for that seem to have mysteriously  vanished out of every store in (region). J  I am looking for these “Onyx” plastic dishes that they have all over this country…but there is no complete set in one design pattern to be found for the life of me. So instead of just accepting that I am going to have world’s most random collection of kitchenware…I get all anal and try “problem-solving”  by thinking…..”if I could just get a store to order what I want……….it would save me a headache and how hard could that be….”  So I attempt to put this plan into action …like ten people are called to try and help the "whitey" with her “too far outside the box” idea…..until finally they have the guy  who can REALLY help me.  So I start all over again…explaining my cool plan….and to my “delight” he says…“Oh yes,  we already ordered just what you are looking for……..we just don’t know when it will arrive…maybe besok (tomorrow)!”  I manage to verify with a straight face that he has miraculously already ordered the design and type of dishes that I am looking for and he insists that yes indeed he has! J  See…now THAT is truly customer service. J  Mind reading and special ordering weeks before I even go shopping in that store…. Apparently I had finally driven my poor little store friends to have to resort to the big fat lie approach. J Kubili and I do laugh and agree that if nothing else it is quite effective.  I mean it shut me up.  What else can I say to that…….well, plenty I could say I guess  but that didn’t fall into rude category like  “Liar, Liar Pants On Fire....:J  And the good news is that we don’t actually believe their blatant customer lies …I won't be wasting any more trips to that store to see if my dishes are in yet. J 

 So after that long diatribe of mine…you can now truly share in some of our “excitement and joy” when you keep sending bushels and bushels of "help" to (region) for building funds. J  And just so ya know the “success” of finding things and buying them is that much more festive!!!!  Like getting the last two LPG tanks yesterday.  I thought Kubili was gonna hug the guy….:) 

So, thanks for your part in making these memories possible! J

If you think of it, please pray for them as it can be quite frustrating at times to try to find things you need.  Beyond that, it will be a challenge as they will have to build a house in the tribe (I would think the other coworkers would help as much as they can, as well as tribal men they can hire to cut the wood for the house, etc), then make it as usable as possible for an office and living area while they start spending time with the people in order to learn their language and why they do the things they do.  I believe they will also be spending time in the gardens with tribal women and will have to learn to eat many of the staples that the tribal people rely on.  Their tribe is mainly accessible at this time by heli so every trip in or out is very expensive.  This is a great undertaking made possibly only by their reliance on the Lord to be their strength!  We greatly appreciate these women!