⎨Wurre⎬Day Eight

My outfit arrived today! 

It is called a wurre - it is a wrap skirt, a top that zips in the back, a head wrap, and the leftover piece of fabric is used as the veil when we leave the property. You pick out your fabric at the market (prices range from $20-$100 depending on the quality of material). You then take it to a tailor and tell them what style you would like. I asked for short sleeves and some detailed stitching high on the waist. It only costs a few dollars to have the tailor sew the outfit. They don't even take your measurements, but somehow it fits almost perfectly!

It rained last night which cooled the temperature down significantly. It only got up to about 33ºC. To take advantage of the "cold" weather (we saw a couple kids with winter coats on), we went for a walk in the community. A few kids started following us, and the crowd got increasingly bigger and bigger as we went along. I felt a bit like the pied piper!

Melanie and I walking with our entourage! 

In the background of these photos you can see some cinder block houses in various stages of development. Some of these houses have been abandoned by the owners until they can come up with more money to finish them. The culture here doesn't have the same mentality about money that we do in North America. If they have money, they spend it. They do not save up money for a rainy day, because if someone in your "network" needs money at any given time, you give it. The house that Treven and Melanie live in was built by a local man to have for his retirement. By building his house early he no longer has to give that money away should someone ask for it.

These girls are carrying some of the leaves that are used to make Haako.

Here's another handmade toy that the boys make out of an old pop bottle. They cut the wheels from the soles of old sandals and use old pens for the axels. 

The wall on the left hand side of the below photo is the front of Treven & Melanie's home. Most homes are surrounded by a wall to prevent thieves. Most people will build their wall before they start to build their homes.

Check out her T-shirt:

It's pretty funny to see what some of the shirts say in English. We saw one the other day that said,

 "I throw peanuts at old ladies."

When we were finished our walk we just sat outside and played with the kids for a bit longer. An older lady came up and asked me if I could take her picture and then I think she invited me to come and visit her at her home; a sign of welcome.

Tomorrow we are going to drive about 3.5 hours (even though it is only 120 km away - the roads aren't the greatest) to a wildlife park. We hope to see some African animals! We will spend the night there and then continue on another 3.5 hours north to another town where some friends of Treven & Melanie work. We'll spend a couple nights there before returning on Monday. We have been told that where we are is hot, but further north is "really hot." So... please pray that we don't die of heatstroke. It rained up there too, so hopefully it will be a bit cooler than the anticipated 46ºC. I'm not sure how much internet access we will have on our little trip but I'll post when I can.

In Him,

Carlin (& Stephen)

Tidbits:

- A balmy 33ºC today. A bit of rain last night cooled things off a bit.

- We had our water cut off today. (Apparently between that and the electricity being shut off, its not that uncommon) At first we thought it was just shut off, but then we found that someone had run into the pipes that go through the water meter. It should be fixed tomorrow morning and we'll have water again!