september newsletter

Hello from Lois half way across the world,

I told Teri the other day I knew for sure we lived on the other side of the world because everything falls out of the cupbaord doors when you open them.  The problem really is they are not Michael Watt made cupboards.  They sag a lot and when you push one door shut another comes open.  Nathaniel and Teri are in line for new cupbaords whenever that happens. Zachariah is supposed to get tile on his bedroom floor and his bathroom.  His room is just cement. Itis really hard to describe the "roads" here.  Being in the mountains on the plateau it is so rocky and during the rainy season ditches are caused and so they fill them up with rocks, the bigger the better, but it is amazing that cars can even drive on them.  Motorcycles(the little kind  with lawn mower power motors) are so much easier to get around with and there are so many of them.  They have to be the world's best traffic dodgers in the world and also adher to the least traffic laws. Teri and I were teaching reading to a couple of kids and the road was unbelievable .  I had some trouble with my back with a pinched nerve so she wouldn't let me go anymore.  I guess I am pretty much experiencing the African culture especially with my episode of the mango worms.  We had asked missionaries about them and most had had 1 or 2.  I don't know why I had so many.  I had about 30 on my arm and side.  The fly bites and lays an egg in the bite.  It itches like crazy and then the egg developes into a worm.  You can see the white worm with a black spot on it moving under the skin.  You can either squeeze them out or put vaseline on and then they stick their head up for air and you pull them out with a tweezer.  The activity of these worms feels like a fire spark that moves around each time the worm  moves.  I didn,t freak out because Betty had told me about when Wally got so many on his back and how awful that was for him to sleep and how the open holes could get so infected.  I went to the Dr. and got antibiotic capsules and creme to prevent infection.  I really was only concerned because there was one right beside my pacemaker and I didn't want to get an infection there.Now all I have are the small scars from each one. My doctor visit was $4.75 .  He told me to come in again in three days and if you have to go again within 3 days the next appointment is free. Of course the hospitol clinics are not quite like in America.  They have all cement floors, the labs are

really very limited.  It's an experience to say the least. The countryside is so amazing.  There are huge boulders piled up, resting on just one little point.  It is hard to understand why they don' f fall off.

We went to a send off for an Evangelist who is going to the Lutheran seminary in Obot Idom.  We got a little lost so we were an hour late and we were some of the first ones there.  It was pouring rain so it took another hour before it started.  It lasted for 3 hours and we left before it was over.  I couldn't understand everything that was going on even if it was in English.  I never did catch on to the jokes etc.
We will use some of Dad's memorial to help the Evangelist with tuition and books.  We thought that would be a really good missionary effort for Nigeria, because he will be a Lutheran pastor here.

Please pray with me that my life may be filled with your will, God, and that I can love others even in another culture with the same love you have for me  I ask the Lord to restore me that faith to believe, to trust that you, o Lord, can restore me to the full life you intended and had planned for me.

"For I know plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for wholeness and not for evil, to give you a future  and a hope..Then you will call upon me and pry to me, and I will hear you..." Jer. 29:11-12

In His name, Lois Watt
 

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Lois Watt.