Our Melut Thanksgiving

  We had such a unique Thanksgiving this year. We wanted to have the real deal so Isaac rode his bike to a nice ladies house who raises birds and brought home one duck and one chicken. See how he rigged a box onto his handlebars to carry them home? :)

Our little friend Jeremiah did the butchering and gutting and I got all the feathers off.

Here is the finished product. It looks small but at least it was tasty - a nice crispy outside but so moist inside. We're definitely going to have duck again soon.

2 pumpkin pies

 

The buffet line: stuffed duck, mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing, potato rolls, cranberry sauce and sauteed zucchini. Pie for dessert.

Eli ate 2 1/2 heaping plates full.

 

 

We had a wonderful evening with friends and good food. So thankful to be in this amazing place.

 

 

 

The President's Visit to Melut

November 20th was a BIG day in Melut, South Sudan - the President of South Sudan: His Excellency Salva Kiir Mayardit, paid us a visit.

It was a full day of parades, dancing, and for our pale family - many people crowding around us to stare at our strange faces!

The celebrating began the day before the President arrived and the party finally died down the 2nd day after he left! People showed up for the festivities as early as 7 am on Tuesday morning and after waiting expectantly in the hot sun all day, the President arrived around 4:30 pm.

Peopled were all decked out in their best. These shields are made of hippo hide!

I wore my special Dinka beads

Being a very hot day and since the celebration was held in a large open field, we had to be creative to find a shady place to sit and rest. Here the boys decided to crawl under a parked lorry/truck.

Sudanese mommas get creative with ways to hold their babies. This is a bathtub.

While we waited under a tree, Eli showed some children a few of his "magic" tricks. They loved it!

This picture shows that we attracted a crowd everywhere we went. :)

Isaac and his buddy Goich.

Some "spice" to our life this week

This week was a week like any other week with homeschooling, office hours, and classes but some of the fun out-of-the-ordinary things we did were: have a picnic in our back "yard" - yeah, we don't have a lawn mower. :)

The boys invited their buddy German to have dinner with us. I wondered if he'd like our food since we had pumpkin soup and baking powder biscuits and he GULPED it all down and had seconds!

A few balloons in the river adds some new excitement to their regular swim in the afternoon.

Friday Women's Bible Study

Every Friday afternoon at 4 pm we have a ladies Bible study with the student wives. We have been going through the book of John slowly and carefully.

 



Many of them bring their Bibles in their heart language but some are also learning to read the Bible in English.

 



 

This week Joyce led the study from chapter 8, the story of Jesus forgiving the adulterous woman.

 



Our homework from last week's study was to memorize John 7:38 and put it to music. Claire and I sang it in English to the tune of Seek Ye First, 2 ladies sang it in Uduk, 2 ladies sung it in Arabic, and 2 ladies sang it in Dinka. Mary and Rhoda - in the picture above - sang it in Dinka. It was wonderful hearing God's Word being sung in four different languages! 

Our newest visitor: Neil Turner

\This week we've had a lovely visit with our new friend Neil Turner from Australia. He is an agriculture expert and has come to survey our land and give input and ideas about how we might be able to better use our land at GTC for planting and farming.

This morning he enjoyed the scenery from our front yard.

This morning Neil and Eli's project was to measure how tall the old water tower is to see if we might be able to use it in the future.

Eli threw the rope up and over the top rung and then after they'd marked it on the rope they measured it on the ground (see below.)

 

Mr. Neil has been a huge blessing in our home: teaching us new songs, helping with the dishes, and loving on our boys like a Grandfather would. When we live so far from our own family, it's so encouraging when others step in and give that love and attention that a grandparent would.