Home on the Range

Saturday night at midnight we made our arrival into North America with one bag and a dog.  The other three bags were some where between Washington DC and Victoria.  We were greeted with much excitement and joy by our families and were covered up in warm clothes before leaving the airport for exposure to the cold Canadian air.  We slept in after having been traveling for 36 hours straight and started Sunday morning with a chill in the air. 

 

We spent a good amount of time Sunday sorting through clothes that had been in boxes for three years or more only to find that Darren's wardrobe was significantly well stocked compared to mine!  Sunday evening we had a nice dinner with my mom and the Bosses and were able to catch-up a bit over a really good club-house sandwich and French fries.

 

Monday morning mom and I went shopping so I could find same pants in order to prevent death by exposure on my part.  Monday afternoon was more essentials shopping with my dad and step-mom and then dinner with them and my sister.   Mmmm, pizza.  So we have eaten well in the last two days, are slowly acclimatizing and realizing how much work we have to do in the next month.  We are scheduled to fly to Florida on the 16th of January to start our year of work in Florida.  I am trying to not be critical at all that I see but Christmas is definitely a hard time to not think back to the poverty we just left in light of all the excess around us here.  I need to keep reminding myself that we are in a different culture and because of that, we need to be just as sensitive and tolerant as we were in the Central African culture.  There is no difference. 

 

Anyway, I plan on writing more when I have time to think and be still for more than a few minutes.  Our dog, Koko, has adjusted well and everybody loves her so she is doing better than we are. 

 

Well, better go....Later

Tearful Goodbyes

After a very difficult week of good-byes, we have arrived in
Yaoundé with our dog Koko in tow, awaiting our flight to
Canada on Friday. It is hard to say where home is now.
When we first set out for CAR one of our main motivations
was to learn the ropes of agricultural missions, to help out
Roy Danforth and to seek further direction for our future
careers. I don’t think it ever occurred to me that I
would want to stay in CAR, nor have my heart captured by the
people of Gamboula.

On the contrary, if I could have found some way to hang on I
would have. I have never felt such heart break in my life
that I can remember. Leaving Canada or ECHO did not feel
like this. I am so thankful for our two years in CAR and I
am looking forward to going back. There is no shortage of
need for missionaries and development practitioners in CAR
and if God allows, I intend to be among those meeting the
need.

Our last week was busy with packing although, I have to
admit that I had very little to do with packing down the
house. Darren, bless his heart, saw how much I was grieving
at having to leave behind such good family and friends that
he gave me the week to do what I needed to do and he took
care of nearly everything else. I have such an awesome
husband. We had a party at Clarisse’s house with all the
Nguebe family in the Gamboula area as well as her sister who
arrived from Bangui after an 8 year absence right in time
for our party. We fed 54 Nguebe’s, and that was only half
the family. Not unlike what a Coupe family reunion would be
like. Next we had a party with our ladies bible study, each
one bringing something to share around the table. Thursday
was a big day at our house as I got my hair braided by
Nadege and Clarisse. It took a total of nearly seven hours
but I am so happy with it and am determined to keep it in
until mid December. Friday, December first is the biggest
national holiday in CAR. The big thing to do on the first
is to be in the parade. Leonard, Nadege and I made uniforms
for all the workers with their names hand embroidered onto
their shirts and complete with ECHO hats. We loaded up the
agroforestry golf cart into the back of the truck and I
drove it at the head of our team in the parade. We got all
kinds of cheers as people were especially enthralled to see
Roy and Darren marching with the workers doing all kinds of
crazy stuff as they tried to march to the beat of the drums.
After the parade festivities were over I headed back down
town with Clarisse and a few other agro workers to take in
some of the fun. Darren went back to the house to pack
before he and Roy headed back to the Mayor’s party. I
hung out with Clarisse until nearly 10:30 that night. We
had a lot of fun but it was also very sad at the same time.
We saw all kinds of people we knew from church absolutely
drunk in the name of the holiday. It seems as though all
the people who would normally never do such a thing
transformed into some one else. Clarisse and I ended the
night in tears on our knees praying for our friends to
remain faithful to their convictions and that no one would
be injured. There were a number of motorbike-taxi accidents
because of excessive speed and drunk driving.

Saturday, we were honoured by the agroforestry staff at a
going away/Christmas party at our house. The wives of many
of the workers prepared goat, beef and greens (just for me)
and we gathered, wives included!, on our veranda for a
feast. We were so encouraged by the presence of all our
staff and their willingness to have their wives eat with us
(not a normal thing). I specifically asked if they would
mind inviting their wives as I know many of them and wanted
to say good-bye to them as well. Chrysler, one of the two
head guys who I have travelled a lot with and given lots of
counsel too, made such a nice speech and read a beautiful
prayer from Colossians that he asked me to pray on behalf of
the workers. When it came time to pray I couldn’t hold
out any longer and the tears started to flow. I think I
really surprised the guys. I have a reputation of being
pretty tough so I think it was good for them to see my more
vulnerable side. Even Chrysler had tears in his eyes.
Sunday night after a nice meal and Sunday service with the
missionaries I headed down to Clarisse’s house. To my
surprise, all the Nguebe siblings from Gamboula had gathered
there to wait for me. Clarisse, Nadege, Severene, Eloi,
Berenice, Regi (a cousin), Hortence (Mathew’s wife
visiting from Berberati), and a few of the older kids had
gathered in the living room. I arrived around 9:00pm
prepared to stay up all night. Once I got settled in my
spot and the laughing subsided, Eloi brought out a new
cassette player and a blank cassette. They had devised a
plan to record the group of us singing songs onto the
cassette for me to bring back to Canada so I can be reminded
of them. By 12:30 am we had filled up both sides of the
cassette, laughed at each other a lot and had a really good
time ‘breaking up our sadness’. I eventually crawled
into bed at 1:00am only to be up at 4:30am filled with the
dread of sadness I knew would come that day.

Monday morning I was up early finishing up all the things I
had neglected to do the week before. After running around
all morning, saying various good-byes it was time to think
about leaving for the airport. We had a lunch date with Roy
and Aleta but I couldn’t think about food at all. Instead
I took off for the Garden of Eden to have a good cry that
had been building up all morning. By the time I got out of
the garden there were people waiting for me at the garden
entrance to say their goodbyes, Nadege, Mama Maggie, both in
tears in no time. Once we had everything all packed up the
agroforestry staff said they ALL wanted to accompany me down
to the airport. We loaded everyone up in the agroforestry
truck, nearly 20 people, and took our funeral like drive
down the airport. I sat in the front with Eloi, my big
brother, on one side driving, and Clarisse, my big sister,
on the other side. Clarisse and I cried nearly the whole
way there and poor Eloi was doing all he could to hold it
all together. The plane was a little late so we tried to
lighten the mood some sitting under the hot sun. Once the
plane arrived and the guys got to refuelling, different
staff pulled me aside to say their personal goodbyes, their
thanks for various things and my last words of counsel.
There was also a lot of just staring at one another, words
exchanged without being spoken. When it was time to get in
and go the guys formed a long receiving line towards the
plane (African style) and we filed along it giving hugs and
shaking hands. Once the plane started up so did I, the
sound of my tears drowned out by the noise of the engine.
It was so painful to see all my dear friends, men and women
alike left standing there, eyes welling up with silent
tears.

So here we are in Yaoundé, waiting for our flight back to
Victoria tomorrow. If not for the continuing education that
is really going to be very helpful for our return back to
CAR, I am not sure I would have left just yet. Change is a
part of life, I know, but it doesn’t always have to be
easy. I realise even more so now in my departure, that what
I contributed to Gamboula was far more than just planting a
few trees and establishing productive gardens. These things
are good, but the real work happened in the relationships,
the lives I influenced, the hearts that changed. One of my
workers wives came to me on Sunday to thank me for working
so closely with her husband. She said before I came there
was no peace in their house. He would be away with other
women for days at a time, only to come back drunk, rough her
up and leave again. Now, after these last two years, peace
has returned, he sleeps at home, he no longer hits her and
things are slowly improving. Love is starting to appear in
their home. She says it is because of my counselling her
husband and the example of Darren and I’s marriage. What
an honour to be a part of transforming lives. And what an
honour it will be to one day soon return to CAR to be used
by God to transform more lives in his name.

I will write again on Monday when we are home and give you a
glimpse of reverse culture shock and all the things that
makes us look like a couple of people who just left the
jungle for the big city!

Rainy Days

I just got back form my 5:00am morning walk and the rain has started falling again.  It has been a very wet 'end' to the dry season and some say it is the final anger of the rain at having to give way to the dry season.  Whatever it is, it makes for some muddy days in the garden.  Maybe it is just here to help acclimatize me to what we will be returning to in Victoria for Christmas.  There has been a lot of activity since I last wrote, hence the lateness in this letter.

We had two great weeks with Phil Hudson, President of NMSI, Angela Nelson, former ECHO intern and on staff with NMSI, and Twila Schofeld, an illustrator with NMSI.  The girls had lots of projects to work on in Gamboula and we had a lot of opportunity to talk with Phil, gain valuable insights into our ministry as well as having the opportunity to dream about what the possibilities are for the future.  It was a very encouraging visit and we will have fun stories to share with them in the future.

Since their departure I left for a week with Chrysler, the main seminar teacher for Agroforesterie, Eloi, our new agri chauffeur and one of my older Nguebe brothers, and Romeo, one of the agri labourers.  We left on a Monday with the plan to visit 6 agroforesterie cooperatives in the Southern region.  The truck is only a two seater so Chrysler and Romeo rode in the back while I sat in the cab with Eloi.  I know Eloi pretty well and I have travelled with Chrysler before but out in the villages I am not known as 'me' really.  The cooperatives know me, or about me, but most everyone still has pre-conceived ideas about what a white girl can and can't do, where she can sleep and what she can eat.  It has been my goal to slowly if not forcefully break down some of these stereotypes, not for all white girls in general necessarily (I know some who would not sleep where I have) but for myself and the guys with whom I work.  It is hard to be the real me, when you are shrouded with stereotypes of who you should be.  Chrysler said he likes to travel with me because it gives him a kick when he gets back to Gamboula and people ask him what I ate, where I slept, did I use the outhouse?  He loves to see their reaction when he says that I did everything the same as their own wife would have done!  I had an especially hard time in Sosso-Nakombo, as we had arrived shortly after a bandit attack some 30km away.  It was far enough away for my feeling of safety but not for everyone else's.  When they saw I was with the agri team they sprung into action to find me a comfortable place to sleep.  Thus, I was swiftly delivered to two wonderful nuns at the local Catholic mission where I was locked in for the night along with our truck.  I must say, after two very cold nights of fitful sleep, I had a wonderful sleep in the mission house, with running water and warm blankets (yes, I get very cold here as well).  It weighed on my conscience though.  What makes my life that much more valuable that I am safely tucked away in a comfortable house and my colleagues are sleeping on the floor somewhere.  Don't get me wrong, I understand all the cultural nuances, but it still bothered me.  At that moment I counted their lives more valuable as each of them has a wife and children to look after and I don't.

The purpose of our trip was to meet with each cooperative and to visit as many tree gardens as possible.  In Sosso, we walked more than 8km, through some beautiful rainforest and savannah in order to look at 4 tree gardens. It was a long walk but most satisfying.  At one point we had to take off our shoes and walk through 100m of water up to our knees.  I had to fight to get to go on this walk as the village coop members didn't think I could walk that far or through such conditions.  It was Chrysler who finally convinced them I would be fine, after a hard glare from me.  The whole transaction was in Gbaya so I am not sure what all got said but I heard enough to know there was some doubt as to my hardiness.

Five days later we were back in Gamboula and I have been working closely with Medard and Chrysler to get them settled in their jobs before we leave. Chrysler is now responsible for writing reports so I have been advising him on how to do this.  It has been a learning opportunity for me as well so I am thankful for the chance to work with the two of them.  They have really grown in their abilities and in the respect the other workers and missionaries have for them.  We had to let go two employees this last week and that has been difficult but essential for the continuation of the agroforestery ministry.

With only three weeks left we are busy getting things prepared for those taking up the slack behind us.  I am leaving the nutrition project in capable hands but we have a few details yet to iron out.  As I am not known for my patience when it comes to packing up and leaving, I am going to go on one more trip with the agri team next Sunday through Saturday.  That leaves me with only two weeks here to work and get organized/packed.  I will be heading up north to give a seminar to a women's cooperative (finally) and then will continue on with Chrysler and Eloi on their visits with 6 agroforestery cooperatives in the region.  Darren will be busy in Gamboula getting computers sorted out, backed up and ready to turn over to the hospital.

I will be leaving here having accomplished and learned more than I first imagined.  I am excited to write about my up-coming trip as well as the various parties we will be attending.  Between Clarisse and I the tears are already flowing but I am determined to come back for a visit next January to do a control on the various projects while Roy is away on furlough.

From the heart of Africa, Angela

 

 

The In-law

Last week we found ourselves in Berberati again, helping ICDI's Agriculture project get off the ground.  Elise, Clarisse's sister, is the cook of one of the missionary families with ICDI.  We typically are not invited to eat with the missionaries for the evening meal and I usually end up visiting with Elise and her family in the evening and Darren generally spends time fixing people's computers or eating out with Roy at some schwiya stand (grilled beef).  This particular week, however, Darren agreed to come with me and visit the family.  Clarisse has three siblings in Berberati: Remy, the oldest of the twelve and also the head of personnel at ICDI, Mattieu, the second oldest son, who splits his time between Berberati and his diamond mines in Nola, and Elise.  Typically, I start by visiting Remy's house as it is closest to the mission.  From there, someone in the family, usually Calvin, the youngest (20), leads me on to Elise's house and from Elise's, Mattieu's.  I generally make it home by 9:00. 

 

In past visits I have typically eaten with Elise and it is whatever the family happens to be having.  I am included as part of the family, as if I was Elise's own sister, with a little extra special treatment (for instance, she wouldn't serve me water from the village, only from the mission).  We may only eat gozo and greens in a sauce, or gozo and caterpillars, as we did three weeks ago, big fresh ones!  Yum.  Earlier on the day in question, Elise was telling me about how Central Africans relate to their in-laws.  Essentially, you are expected to respect your in-laws above your own family.  Anything they ask of you, you do without question.  Thus, it was an extra special treat when we arrived at Elise's for supper to find that she had gone beyond the normal in order to show respect for her brother in-law, Darren.  We were served gozo, meat, greens and sauce and she had prepared donuts and tea for dessert.  Darren was quite honoured after I explained the significance to him. 

 

I have known for a while that Darren is respected by Clarisse's family.  Only Clarisse and Elise ever call Darren by his name.  Most everyone else calls him Monsieur Darren out of respect.  I am called Angela by everyone, except by the children who call me by the appropriate title of Omba (Aunt) Ma Kete or Ma Kota (little mother or big mother) depending on the case.  The other big honour we received this week was by Remy, who introduced me to his friends as his younger sister, then went on to give proof of this relationship.  Given that I am his Gambe (younger sister) this makes Darren his Beau Frere (brother in-law).  So rather than use Darren's name, he only calls Darren 'Beau', in the true Central African custom.  I am thankful and honoured beyond words to be part of this family and I am torn at having to say good-bye.  However, I know my position in the family and according to custom, when I return I will be accorded the same place in the family.

 

Clarisse's aunt, Mama Maggi, has been very ill for sometime without knowing the cause of her illness.  She is a kind hearted woman who was left by her husband when she could not conceive children.  She is a mid-wife and a pharmacist and has raised Clarisse and many other children, most of whom are orphans.  She left two weeks ago to visit her family and mother in nearby Cameroon, but fell gravely ill.  Clarisse was worried sick and wanted her to return to Gamboula but her uncle refused to send her back.  After her two weeks of sick time from her job at the hospital were up we decided to take drastic measures and I rented the hospital ambulance to go and bring back Mama.  Needless to say, the family was not happy to see us, and they were mad that Clarisse had brought the 'white lady with her' to force their hand into agreeing to let Mama Maggi come home with us.  Though it wasn't at all a friendly visit, we returned safely without too much border trouble with Mama.  She has undergone tests all day at the hospital and it is suspected that she has gastric tuberculosis.  Please pray with us for healing for this dear woman.

 

We have made some very important changes in the personnel of the agroforestry program, especially following Constant's accident.  He is on a two-year probation in which any incident, even the pettiest argument, could land him back in jail indefinitely.  We have removed him as the head of the program (a position he probably never should have had) and have put him in charge of the nursery.  Chrysler is now in charge of communications, conducting follow-up with the agroforestry groups and giving seminars.  Medard remains accountant and head of personnel and we are in search of a new head of the centre.  I have been very busy working with both Chrysler and Medard, coming up with report sheets, job descriptions and the like.  We are trying to put together a workable system that will help them do their jobs efficiently and that will facilitate reporting to Roy when he is out of the country.  It has been good to work with these two men, to strategize and empower them in their gifting.  I can't think of a more satisfying job! 

 

Our friends and president of NMSI arrive this Saturday for nearly two weeks of work and travel.  Time is running short but we are trying to make the best of it, to leave work here in a good position to continue on in our absence.

All things are possible...

...including the reparation of a lightning damaged satellite phone in the heart of Africa.  With huge thanks to Jim Hocking, director of the NGO ICDI, who graciously agreed to take our phone with him to Bangui, he knew just the place to take it, and presto!, we have a working sat phone again.  All this and it only cost us the equivalent of $25.  He said that as soon as the guy heard what happened to the phone he knew just what part was busted, and amazingly of all, he had the piece needed and the right type of screw driver to take it apart.  This proves many people wrong from around here who thought it impossible that Central Africans could fix a thing such as this, but in my thinking, where else in the world could you fix a satellite phone.  They are more common here than many other places due to the fact that other modes of communication are nearly non-existent and there are probably a lot of dumb ex-pats out here who leave their phones plugged in during a thunderstorm, when every one else knows better not to. 

 

We are both well, though I must admit that time is passing far too quickly for me.  Each day that passes it seems that my relationships with my colleagues grow stronger, and the bond between Clarisse and I and her family grows deeper.  There now resides a constant ache in my heart at the thought of our inevitable departure and I find myself wanting to spend more and more time away from the mission, visiting with family or chatting and planning work with my colleagues.  Last Saturday afternoon, Clarisse, Eloi (her older brother, a chauffeur) and I rented a motorbike and took it with all three of us on it to Kentzou, Cameroon to visit her mom and dad and Clarisse and Eloi's kids who are there at school.  I felt like the creamy filling of an Oreo cookie, sandwiched between two chocolate cookies.  It was a great visit, Eloi is a good driver, and the military checkpoints were a breeze to pass through once I told them I was a missionary in Gamboula.  They normally ask for money but once I got to talking with them they let us alone.  I think they were all stunned to see me on a motor bike with two Central Africans and it made their day enough that they didn't ask for anything more. 

 

Tomorrow we are heading for Berberati again to help Josh and ICDI with their new demonstration farm.  We are planning on fencing it in over the next three days so that goats will not enter the trial plots and eat up all the beans they have already planted.  I hope to write more in depth once I get back.  I have plenty of thoughts to share as I reflect back over our time here, and look ahead at what is to come.  Writing helps me sort it all out. 

 

Hapata!

The road home

 

It is with true sadness and a heavy heart that we come to the time of speaking about our return home.  All good things must come to their end, or at least find themselves amongst change.  Our original commitment to the work here and to our donors was to spend two years in Central Africa.  We will be returning home just shy of our two years in order to be present for the ninetieth birthday of Darren's grandmother in Victoria.  Thus we will be leaving Gamboula in early December and we will be spending Christmas with our families in Victoria.  It is a rare treat for us to spend Christmas with our families, and as our lives take us on ever far-reaching paths we imagine being home will become ever more rare. 

 

When we first decided to come to Gamboula it was with the expressed interest of learning as much as we could about agricultural development and missions from those who have been doing it successfully for a long period of time.  We have not been disappointed.  In fact we have learned more than I thought possible and have been given the opportunity to try out our own ideas, to express our opinions and to ask a lot of questions.  I could not have imagined a better place to try out our wings, so to speak.  Far from just sitting back and soaking in all that is around us, we have strived to really 'do something' while we have been here and as we have discovered more deeply each of our spiritual gifts, we have seen ourselves plunged into all manner of work.  Darren has found a real desire to help missionaries and nationals with their technology needs which is evidenced by the time he spends giving computer lessons and fixing computers.  Some days our house has looked more like the back room of an outdated Future Shop!  He has managed to restore 10 year old laptops back to working order with no help from the Internet.  I have seen more and more where my interests lie and where my gifts are best utilized.  I still love to work with fruit trees but even more, I love to work with people working with fruit trees.  My heart is for the relationships built while working with people in the area of food security.  I have enjoyed getting to know each of our workers, knowing their stories, meeting their wives and children, helping them work out different things in their lives, praying with and for them and generally helping them excel in their area of service to the Lord.  I can find no better satisfaction.  It is true that many days I return home from work saddened by the stories told, grieved over the sin in people's lives and other days overjoyed with the victory achieved in other's lives.  Without the help of my dear husband and my dear friend Clarisse, I might not be so quick to love my job, as their listening ears have helped me process a lot of what falls on my ears during the day.  I enjoy managing people and projects and look forward to what happens next. 

 

So, what does happen next?  Given all that we have discovered about ourselves here, we can undeniably say that we see ourselves in a long term career of service in foreign lands.  However, before this becomes reality, we both feel that a little more preparation remains.  While we are both committed to life long learning, Darren has a little more left in the university realm of things.  So here is the plan (subject to change, of course).

 

December - Return to Victoria for time with friends and family around the Christmas tree.

January - We will be returning to Fort Myers, Florida where we will debrief with our mission, NMSI, and then Darren will start an IT (Information Technology) apprenticeship at ECHO while I help manage the Tropical Fruit nursery at ECHO.

August - Darren returns to British Columbia to start classes at either UVIC or UBC towards a degree in Computer Science. 

December - I return to Victoria after finishing up at ECHO and attending their annual conference.  This is when I start job hunting like crazy to support my student husband! 

I am also planning on doing my MA degree at Royal Roads University via distant education, starting either May 2007 or May 2008.  It is a program called Human Security and Peacebuilding and is designed for those with previous work experience in insecure countries.  It is a two year program and includes a six-month internship overseas, which I would like to find a placement for in Central Africa.  This little plan takes us to about 2010 at which point we will be seeking opportunities to return to a career overseas.

 

This e-mail is for the curious.  A more formal letter will be sent out to all our donors in October.  The nutrition garden at the Gamboula hospital has been an incredible success and I do not want to see such an important and successful work fall apart due to lack of funding.  Two or three hundred dollars a month would put the project in good shape and due to my flexible school schedule, I would like to be able to return to CAR once a year for follow-up visits and to consult on the work here in Gamboula as well as with ICDI in Berberati, possibly leading short teams from NMSI.  All this is to say that we still have need of our donors and the work here will go on even in our temporary, if not elongated, absence.  Our hearts have been so captured by this land that to leave without a thought of returning is nearly impossible for me. 

 

We welcome your questions, your comments and your prayers.  Even the best laid plans are doomed to fail if they are not the plans of our Father. 

 

On a totally different subject, please put to prayer a meeting we will be having tomorrow with all of the Agroforesterie staff and the elders and pastor of our church.  We will be discussing problems that have surfaced between staff following the truck accident.  There is a lot of finger pointing going on to do with voodoo and such and there is no unity between the head of the program and the staff.  We all need wisdom and patience going into a meeting like this, especially when it comes to accusations of voodoo which is so unreal to us and so very real to our African counterparts.

Lightning sucks when it strikes you!

I have always been fascinated by lightning.  It was a rare thing for us growing up in Victoria and so was always exciting when a stormy night came along with thunder and lightning.  We would stay up at night just to listen to it, cuddled up on the floor in the living room, me, mom and Sarah.  When we moved to Florida it was commonplace for everyone else, but it still caught my attention.  I would sit in our screened in porch and watch the lightning light up the distance.  Not being all that familiar with lightning I hadn't yet earned a healthy respect for it until we heard reports of farm workers dying from lightning strikes nearby.  I was once caught out in a storm on the farm and had to take shelter for an hour with my rabbits in their hut for fear of being struck on my way home.  Lightning is a truly amazing thing, all that energy all balled up and then thrown out of the heavens in one distinct, frightening path of light that can destroy things instantly.  Like satellite phones for example.

 

We have our share of lightning here in the Central African tropics and this being rainy season we see it every week.  It never ceases to amaze me, and I listen for it the same way we used to listen for the train whistle everyday when we were kids, when we would run out to meet the nightly train passing by our house.  After receiving warnings from Roy about the destruction lightning can cause inside homes here, travelling through electrical lines, we quickly learned that when a storm is approaching we need unplug everything, computers, radios and phones, including the phone antenna, which sits on the roof of our house.  Last night we heard a storm far off in the distance and we went to bed before it snuck up on us in Gamboula.  We woke up to a loud CRACK and instantly Darren jumped out of bed to unplug everything, but too late.  The lightning struck the short-wave radio antenna in a building 50 metres from our house.  The energy was so great to have travelled through the electrical circuitry of the station tripping circuits at the hospital and agroforesterie and travelling up into our satellite phone.  Darren knew instantly that our thousand dollar piece of marvellous technology had taken a direct hit and we mourned the loss all night in a fitful sleep.  It isn't completely dead as it will still make phone calls but some part of it is damaged to the point that it will no longer make data calls, in other words, send e-mail, nor will it charge the battery on AC power.  Fortunately we have wonderfully generous neighbours who are willing to let us use their phone system and we are trying to get our phone credit transferred to their number.  We will try sending the phone back to the states for repairs but have little hope it will make it back here before our term is over. 

 

While I remain fascinated by lightning, even as I sit here this afternoon typing in the middle of a rain storm, I can now hear the anger in the voice of the thunder calling out its vengeance on unsuspecting citizens of earth who may be unlucky enough to meet the wrath of its force.  It is otherwise an amazing and beautiful thing, but it really sucks when it strikes you!