Hosting

Having a visiting family member from America is an important event in our lives, as a family and a mission. And with Grammy in residence we have become a popular group! On Friday we were treated to a feast at Ndyezika and Juliet's new house, which somehow ballooned to involve both a passel of uncles and cousins from Ndyezika's side, and an equal contingent of CSB teachers and friends of Juliet's. Grammy presented Bibles to the newlyweds, we told stories of our long history together, everyone who had attended a boarding school away from home gave Luke advice, and we ate piles of rice and matoke and cassava and potatoes, sombe and cabbage and gunts and meat, as the light ebbed out of the neat little house and candlelight illuminated our faces. Saturday we enjoyed various team-mates coming by as well as an impromptu lunch on the porch for seven of the young men whom we sponsor with school fees, because they had been released from their school term that day. In the evening Melen and her youngest three kids joined us for dinner with Ashely, Pat and her two "nieces", the daughters of her friend who died of AIDS almost exactly a year ago. Many friends lined up to greet Grammy at church, and tonight we'll be hosted by our neighbors in her honor. It is nice to take a pause in the press of life to just acknowledge the significance of relationship, to look back at the blessings of the many years. We are thankful that my mom's health and energy have held up so far, it is no small feat to thrive in Bundibugyo after two major surgeries in the last year. And though she is getting a heavy dose of grandchild attention and connection, her presence for two weeks perhaps makes the painful reality of the many years of separation more visible.