The Wall

I thought I would tell you a little bit about where we are living. It is a mission compound on what used to be the outskirts of town. Now that compound is decidedly in town with people living, working, and playing on all sides. There is nothing but a seven foot high concrete wall to keep out all those people and all that noise. Yes, it is topped with barbed wire, electric fencing, and lit with fluorescent  lighting at night. But it has a less imposing image to me now. There are good and bad things about the wall. I think about it almost every day. Still a month later I am still learning and thinking about that wall, trying to make up my mind about it.

the wall

You may remember our complaining of the early morning calls to prayer and the smoke from countless fires that fills the night air and dogs that constantly howl and bark. Well, something else more pleasant makes it over the walls other than smoke and noise. Toys. Yes, the innumerable children in this neighborhood constantly send their toys over the walls. Often while walking along the walls of the compound you will find balls of every shape and size and always in rough condition just lying on the ground. When I see one I throw it over the wall wherever it happens to be, even though I have no idea if it will land in front of someone's house or in their dinner. The first one I ever threw over created lots of shouting, not necessarily shouting of joy but of surprise. The next time was a much more pleasant sound as the happy yelps of a dozen children were instantly excited that their game was back on. Sometimes no sounds are heard at all and I wonder if anyone will ever find that ball or if it will be lost in a trash heap. It reminds me of that movie The Sandlot except this beast throws the ball back.

The kids also make these things. They are just pen caps on sticks. They throw them over the wall by the dozens. I have no idea what goes through their minds as they do this. 

There are so many pigeons here. I don't know why I have a shot of just one. There are usually a dozen on the roof at a time. They all get to cooing and shuffling around on the roof in the morning and it makes it hard to sleep. 

This is the thorns of a tree along the wall. I pulled this out of my shoe. Most people around here do not have shoes as thick as I do. 

This here is one of the baobab trees on the compound.  It is young, maybe fifteen years old. Back home I had a book with pictures of giant baobab trees on the cover. I always wanted to see one. There are old Baobab trees around but I haven't seen one yet. When I do I will surely get a picture. It is winter here, so all of the leaves have fallen off. Local people use the leaves to make sauce.

This is Baobab fruit. They can be as large as a football. The outer shell is covered in a velvety fuzzy stuff. The inside has large black seeds and white-yellow pulp that has lots of vitamin C and other vitamins and minerals. It actually tastes kind of sweet. 

Here is my lovely wife holding several fruit that we picked up and took to the sowing seeds office. They will use the seeds to plant more baobab trees to get more baobab fruit. 

What do I think of Africa? It's complicated. It's different. It's exciting. It's sad. It's happy. It is what it is.