Ears coming out our ears!!!

Ears of maize, that is! The people are harvesting maize and many have given us maize-on-the-cob as gifts. All week we have been eating maize once or twice a day with our meals. On Monday we had so much maize around that we skipped dinner and just roasted our maize on the charcoal and had 3 cobs each! Today Vicki, Abebech, and I and our translator Butros went to village G. for the afternoon and 3 different people gave us a bunch of maize on the way home so that by the time we got home our backpacks were full of maize! We had to laugh each time it was offered but we can't really refuse it. We were also each given a freshly roasted cob to eat as a snack on our walk home through, you guessed it, the maize fields. It's yummy--exactly like corn on the cob but not as sweet as sweet corn and the kernels are a bit chewier. I really enjoy it and am not sick of it yet! The Sudanese roast it as a snack rather than eat it as part of a meal and walking around the village this time of year, you see every child munching on a cob of maize.

It was a really interesting and enjoyable afternoon. I love being out in the villages! Our walk to G. was interesting as Butros told us tales of the war as we made our way along the narrow, winding path through grass and maize towering way above our heads.

We arrived in G. and greeted many families as we made our way through the village. People shout their greetings from all over the village and many were sitting around roasting maize (surprise, surprise!). A few children started crying when they saw Vicki and I, the scary khawajahs, and other children pushed them towards us for a joke, which freaked them out even more. Most of the children shout greetings in M. and laugh with glee when we answer in M. and think we're absolutely hilarious.

We greeted the family--man, wife, children, sisters, mother, etc.--that Vicki has started doing Creation to Christ Bible teaching with. She did the lesson in M., with Butros' help. The family are very keen to learn and were all very attentive.

When we finished we asked them if they knew baby Issa, the little one with Kwashiokor that we wanted to find and visit. Well, turns out the man whose home we were at and Issa's father are brothers, so pretty soon we were sitting outside Issa's family's hut with the whole extended family gathered around, discussing his feeding. Issa himself was looking a little better--Vicki and I both thought the swelling in his legs had gone down a little--but he is still very sick and has a long road ahead of him. It was good to discuss ideas for feeding him in more depth with his parents and to see what progress they were making with the medications we had given them. He had nearly finished one course of medication but for some reason there was half left of the other so we encouraged them to finish that. We were able to give him a Vitamin A supplement, like the children yesterday, and also to give his family a big mosquito net for their children to sleep under since Issa is high risk for malaria with his poor immunity. Finally, we were able to pray with all of them, thanking God for his life and praying for his healing, committing him into God's hands. This is such an amazing opportunity for a witness to the entire village. We will be able to visit them every Thursday and continue his care. Please continue to pray for him.