The Lighter Side – Volume 2

On June 26th we had a partnership meeting and one of the Dr. Swai’s, the tall one, was giving an update on the dispensary that we are trying to support. During his report he started to talk about one of the hospitals in Arusha. He talked about what a nice hospital it is, so nice in fact that “one should like to die there.”

John was asked to write out about 90 questions for a Bible Quiz during youth week. He spent an entire afternoon working on this quiz and later that day we were sitting down for a cup of tea and going through the questions. It is impressive that out of 90 questions, Pastor Shao only vetoed three of them. One of the ones that got vetoed was: What is the animal that Jews are forbidden to eat? Pastor Shao was thoroughly confused by this question. So I looked up the place in Leviticus that swine are outlawed and read to him those particular verses. His response was this: “But we don’t have a Jew at Uswaa.”

Pastor Mmanga really likes to hold people's hands.  However, when I tried to capture the moment, he was not such a willing participant!

A couple of people in our group had grumbling stomachs. Not the “I’m hungry” kind of grumble, the other kind. John’s stomach spoke up while we were visiting one of the orphanages on Tuesday and I looked at him and laughed a bit. He seemed a bit confused as to why I would chuckle about something that he couldn’t control. Later that day we were having tea with some of the neighbors when Scott’s stomach got talkative. Now John was laughing uncontrollably, the face turning red and tears kind of laughing.

While we’re picking on John, let’s turn our attention to the elder Olson. There is a banner from Southwood hanging in the Uswaa dining hall. It is about 10 years old and the pictures reflect this. I guess since John’s been daily looking at these pictures of his dad from 10 years ago, this morning he was prompted to say “when I get home, my dad is going to seem a lot older.”

Finally, my favorite story of all. You know when you need to relax and you close your eyes and can picture yourself on the beach and then all is well? Well this is my story for when I need a good laugh. Now I can just close my eyes and remember it and then the laughter is immediate.

We gave the Southwood group a ride to the airport on Tuesday night. Somehow we were asking Pastor Mmanga if he needed a Red Bull. (He has been known to order this highly caffeinated beverage when we go out for dinner.) He started to explain that one cannot have a Red Bull too often because it is bad for the burning system. Yes. We wondered too. What is the burning system? He said it includes the stomach as well as the small and large intestines. Ah ha, I understand. Then he went on to say that drinking Red Bull is not good for the “saFACKus.” (Only replace that second “a” with a “u”, I just can’t bear to type it.) What? We asked him what he was talking about it. So he repeated it, this time louder. Then again, louder. By this time we were all laughing uncontrollably and he just kept on repeating it. (I know, we’re like junior high kids.) Finally he looked right at me and said “ee –saw-fah-KUS.” I don’t know what synapse finally fired in my brain, but I got it – the “esophagus” – yes, Red Bull definitely burns the esophagus. Perhaps that’s why he calls the digestive system the burning system.

Let me just pick on myself a bit too.  Here's a picture of me trying to demonstrate the hurdles.  If you can look past my tongue hanging out and my pasty white legs you'll see that while I can still clear the hurdles, my form is no longer very pretty.  Don't worry, no children were injured during this demonstration.