What is the vilest insult a ten-year-old boy can hurl at another ten-year-old boy? If you say `Hey, you stink’ there is usually agreement and the opportunity to talk about the favorite subject, which is gas. Recently, one of our guys had a birthday. In our house on birthdays, we like to go around and state what we like about that person. One guy said `I like that he is handsome to girls.’ With great fury, the accused said `I am not. You are.’ He replied `Only to my mother, and she’s not a real girl.’ Then a theological discussion ensued regarding whether mothers are girls or exactly what they are. The debate ended, somehow like all of them do, discussing the most exciting thing to hit campus so far this year.

The Pinewood Derby has begun. It is really really big here. You get a block of wood about the size of your hand, and you begin to mold a car from it. I have guys in the dorm that can never get out of bed in the morning, but are up before I call them sanding and thinking about great designs that will gain them speed. Little boys, power tools and cars: can life get any better?

Some old friends have reminded me of the award I won in college when I went to an African American bar and won the `Whitest boy on the planet’ for my dancing. Somehow the fact that I have ended up in Africa pales in comparison to the fact that I am one of the helpers in the Pinewood Derby. Wood and I don’t get along; it is ugly to me so I try to hurt it. I once built a birdhouse and the left side came out; I hammered it and the right side came out. So I did the logical thing and hit both sides: the top flew off and I am convinced I got a B in shop class because of the joy I gave to the instructor. The good news is that I have a son JT who is gifted in such things, and my design will include writing on the body that says things like `Thank God Almighty for the wonderful judges.’

Africa never lets you forget you are in Africa. Nan got a call to come down to the hospital to give blood for a baby. As she went to give it, the Kenyan nurse remarked to Nan that most Africans couldn’t give blood; it isn’t rich enough because of their diets.

We had another reminder this week. In the states, we would have a garden because it was fun and because we wanted real tomatoes. In Africa, if your garden doesn’t come in, it is that much less food you eat. So many people here are hungry, because their gardens haven’t come in due to the drought.

It puts such tremendous pressure on folks. There is no free education for children in Africa; if you can’t pay, your children are pulled out of school until you can pay. Do you spend the money on food or education? What a horrible, grievous choice, and the reality for so many people here.

In the church service today, a pastor brought up 5 street boys; ages 8-12. They were abandoned or their parents died of AIDS. So they are left to the streets; there is no government agency to take care of them, and so many of them end on the streets and start sniffing glue to forget their misery. One was the same age as Matthew, who was in my lap, and I couldn’t take my eyes off of him. You can never get away from the tremendous need in Africa: Africa never lets you forget.

YOP

S