Category: Everyday stuff

A friend of mine is one of the few that has had a good corn
harvest this year. He planted early and
worked really hard. Even the rains
ending early weren’t a problem for him. 

 His field is about 10 miles from his house, and he just has
a bike to bring the corn home, so he was doing it little by little. He built a shelter out of straw and temporarily
put the corn that he’d harvested in there. He needs it to feed his family until next year.

 Then someone’s big pigs huffed and puffed and blew his
shelter in – and ate a lot of his corn. You can’t blame people for not keeping their animals penned up-the soil
is so poor here that they just graze wherever they can find something to
eat. Unfortunately for my friend the
pigs found his corn, even though he didn’t do anything wrong.

 “Don’t store up treasures here on
earth, where moths eat them and rust destroys them, and where thieves break in
and steal. 6.20NLT Matthew 6. Store your
treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not
break in and steal.” 6.21NLT Matthew 6. 

 I think of these verses every time
mold, termites, weevils or mice destroy my stuff. It happens all the time. But I’m not complaining. They can’t get at my stock of canned green beans,
so I’ll have plenty to eat. I’m blessed.

When I was growing up I used to play with a table made out of the bottom of an old foot powered sewing machine at our neighbor’s house.  Back then I thought it was an antique.  Maybe it was an antique at  home, but here it’s what’s used to make the gorgeous, complicated outfits that people wear.

Pretty cool, huh?  Good question, Mark! 

I should really be more specific when I talk about my solar system.  I’m  not talking about space, the final frontier.  What I am talking about is the electricity that I get from my photo voltaics.  Right. Maybe I’ll stick with solar system.  In case you’re interested, here it is.  Yes, it’s dusty, because I have a (healthy) fear of acid, and don’t like to get too close to it.  I’ll have to get over that in order to use my hydrometer, huh? 

My mother told me never to play with matches-and for once, I listened.  I listened so well that I was terrified of matches.  Chemistry lab in high school was misery lighting those bunsen burners.  My lab partner always had to do it for me.  She gave me a box of fireplace matches as a joke so that I could light a match but keep my fingers far from the flame.  I wish I’d brought them with me!

But, now I live here, where I have to light a match every time I turn on my stove.  And, during soggy season May-October, those matches are hard to light.  Sometimes I’d ruin 5 or 6 of them before I could get the stove lit.  So, I started watching how my friends lit matches.  They hold them with their fingers much closer to the end and strike down so that the flame goes right up towards their fingers.  And it works the first time.

So, in a fit of cultural and fire bravery, I decided to try it their way.  It works!  And I haven’t burned myself either!  So now, in addition to my other roles here, I have taken on the challenge of teaching expatriates how to light matches the local way.  I only offer my services after someone has gone through several matches and declared that it’s just too wet to light a match.  Little victories, little ways of blending in here…

These are the mountains I see when I look north of the village where I live.  Nice view for someone used to the flat Midwest!

Although I enjoyed my walk across this river and down the road until the van started again, I am very thankful to own something that can make it across with fewer than 8 people helping.  This isn’t a place I’ll have to drive again, though, usually I’m just stuck in the mud.  But that doesn’t make for as exciting a picture!