Most Gracious Hosts

The people in the villages were the most gracious hosts. They offered us their best of everything for food and lodging. They have very little by our standards, but what they have, they offered to us. It was very humbling, and I also realized that we could not have survived without their generosity.

The villages varied in size from about 600 to 2000 people. They are farmers that live in town and walk to the farm every day. The smallest village only had about 20 houses, for 600 people. The houses are usually made of sod, with a thatch roof. We tried our hand at making the thatch roof - that's the photo above. The lucky ones have a corrugated metal roof (they call it zinc). They also weave a mat for the ceiling. They do have wooden doors, with a nail in the center for a handle. That reminded me of a hobbit door (from Lord of the Rings). They are also rather short doors and low ceilings. The bath house and toilet (if they have one) are outside. The best bath houses have a gravel floor and bamboo all around, with a cloth door. It's open to the stars. I guess if it's raining, you get a better shower. They use a bucket of water and a pitcher to pour it on. In the cooler weather (less than 80 degrees!), they warmed the water for us over a charcoal fire. That felt nice. I got where I really enjoyed the bath. We were usually very hot and sweaty after walking a long way in the jungle. It felt so good to be clean - at least somewhat clean. Our concept of clean sort of changed! We only brought about 2 changes of clothes, so I had a hiking set and a sleeping set of clothes. After the bath I put on the sleeping set of clothes. I washed my socks and underwear during my bath and hung them to dry. I bought the fast drying nylon stuff for the trip. It worked out pretty well. If it was cool at night, we used the Indonesian sarongs that we had brought, for covers. They have a similar piece of cloth here, called a lapa. I rolled up my extra clothes in a pant leg for a pillow.

I have to say, the worst part of village life is the lack of toilets! I am now an official member of the World Toilet Organization (no joke), and I'm trying to change that. They usually just "go in the bushes", which is rather unsanitary. When the rainy season comes, all of that washes into the streams. Then, lots of people get sick from drinking the creek water. The filters will remove the bacteria and parasites, so that will help a lot.

The food was good, especially after a long hike in the jungle. They always served rice. In fact, they say if you haven't eaten rice during the day, you haven't eaten. Usually, we had some kind of soup with the rice. Stan, the other volunteer, always asked for extra pepper. We call him Indiana Stan. He is really amazing. The soup consisted of "bush meat" or chicken. They have lots of chickens in the villages. The bush meat was what they hunted in the jungle. We really liked the porcupine, but didn't care a lot for monkey meat. Did your mother ever tell you to finish your plate, because there are starving children in Africa? Well, she was right. Malnutrition is very bad here. When we were finished eating, someone always cleaned our plates. And, they eat all parts of the animal - bones, skin, and all.

Well, there is a little insight into village living. They have no electricity or running water. The water is just dipped in a bucket from a stream. But now they have filters to make it safe for drinking! Thanks to all of you for supporting that effort!