
Chimosimosi~a useful and important word~means, "the same". While we
dethatched the insaka, children began to gather from the community.
They wanted to help. Sound familiar? And, what good workers they were, for a while anyway. Soon worktime turned into playtime and they began
tossing the thatch in any old direction. Because the mound of straw was
growing, we had to toss it so that it landed on the other side. Due to the
wind and lightness of the straw, the thatch tended to slide more towards
the insaka. I showed them how to make airplanes out of it by bending the
thatch in half. This added more weight on one end and sent it sailing over
the mound. Soon we were having contests to see who could throw it the
furthest.

Before long the children came and whispered, "Come see!" "Is it a
snake?" I asked. "Yes," was the reply. I cautiously walked over
to where they pointed. As I did, out popped Emmanuel, the boy with his arms raised. Everyone began giggling as they saw my
surprise. My startled expression quickly turned into laughter.
Children, chimosimosi, no?
Remember in the previous post I said the thatch was being set
aside for burning? After the pile had grown quite large two women

from the community came and began gathering the grasses. They
make brooms from thatch and sell them to earn money. These
brooms bring between 1-and 2,000 kwacha, or $.20-.40. While we
watched the guys work on the latrine, the women made several
trips back and forth carrying loads of thatch on their heads. I wonder how many brooms this mound of thatch will make? And, there's still another half a roof to dismantle!
After supper Tracy shared AZ's vision for pastoral leadership and

development (PLD) with a power point presentation. We then packed up our belongings and drove home to Makeni.
It was a long day, but a good one. We had worked hard~we'd laughed~and, we were ministered to by the Vacaville team. Thank you, Sean, Kelli, Dave, Marty, Nuvia, Kevin, and Ed, for your labor of love, your encouragement, and the goodies. May the Lord bless you and increase your joy in Him!