Then there were two

Since taking Miriam back to Jinja for her flight home to Germany, Summer and I have been lone rangering it here in Nabilatuk. It has been good so far. We ran two days of Neem Oil production with ten local women, some of whom knew how to make the oil and some who didn’t. Neem is a local tree, originally from India, but is amazingly useful for livestock, plant and human health; treating skin diseases and wounds in animals, malaria in humans and is a fertiliser for agroforestry purposes. It is a very labour intensive process, so apart from just having fun with these women it was good to have a large team to make the oil over two days. Everything was done by hand; grinding the husks off with stones to extract the inner Neem seeds, then laying them out in the sun to dry more, then grinding those seeds to make an oily powder. This is then mixed with a little warm water to make something resembling a paste mix. The oil is then squeezed out of the “paste mix” with our fists.

We had our first production day on the 17^th of July but our second one was wasn’t until the 27^th as we went to visit Dr Val again who had with her three Vet students from the US on a short term trip. We spent three days with the crew taking blood samples from the cattle and testing for Brucellosis in the area. So much fun!

I got heaps of practice taking blood from both the jugular and tail veins and had a lot of fun with the other students too! It’s crazy how similar Vet students are across the globe J.  We went on Monday and came back on Thursday 26^th for our KACHEP weekly bible study group.  I led it this week on the book of Jonah and we only did chapter one so everyone was left hanging as to what was going to happen to Jonah stuck in the belly of the whale! It was really great to discuss with the group what we can learn and obey from every bible story we hear. We can learn a lot from this story of how important it is to God that the world hears about him. Plus it’s a super exciting story of God’s power.

The following day was our second Neem oil production day and we finished up with two litres which was more than I thought we’d get. Yay!! I also took the opportunity to bible story at the beginning of the day with the story of Martha and Mary. The women in this culture identify so much with Martha. She’s a hard worker; preparing for her guests and her family, while her sister Mary is seen is a lazy character as refusing to help host is just shameful. So Jesus’ words come as a shock to the Karamajong women. Mary listening to Jesus talk is better than making his supper?! The women still understand, however, that it is better to go to church and listen to the word of God than to work, given the choice, but still it is hard for them to understand at first.

Both Summer and I have been sick lately so please pray for us because it is so difficult to continue with any schedule when all you feel like doing is curling up in bed.  We also hope to do some more discipleship with the Neem women, so pray that they be interested in learning more about God.

Thank him for the blessing the KACHEP bible study has been and how good it’s going. Everyone is really opening up, sharing testimonies, the discussion comes easily and everyone is really learning a lot and having fun at the same time. Thanks for your thoughts and prayers, God is keeping us safe and loved here in Nabilatuk. Love Mel

PS: I apologise if I haven’t replied to any emails, internet is not happening at the moment so thanks to mum for taking dictation over the phone and posting this blog!

Melissa Blog