Ants in the pants!

Besides bats in the shower and in the tent as well as TONS of spiders that would literally spin a web between your legs if you stood still too long (and when we set our backpacks down, they'd would instantly be covered with 20 spiders, no exaggeration), there were these HUGE driver ants that grab hold of your flesh with their sharp pinchers and dont let go! One day we hiked down to our work site at the beach and there were driver ants all over the big pile of grass we were planting. Someone had to be brave enough to try to get some grass w/o getting bit, so Jonas made the first run for it and made it back out alive with a huge armful of grass. After that was all planted, Anissa decided it wasnt fair to risk a child getting bit, so she made the 2nd run and also made it safely back out with a pile of grass. So then she was feeling quite confident and volunteered to "take one for the team" and make another run "into the war zone" to get the  goods. Her 2nd attempt was disastrous! Now what u need to know when reading the title of this post, is that here in Africa they call pants "trousers" and they call underwear "pants". Culturally, you don't expose yourself except for below the knees. Women have to wear skirts except when doing manual labor or playing sports (they consider female thighs, the most sensual part of the body.....it is more acceptable to expose your breasts than it is to expose your thighs). We have to wash our own "pants" by hand because it would be inappropriate for any of the staff to see or touch our underwear. You also need to know that the bites from driver ants are not little stings like our red ants back home....these guys dig into your skin! So yes, before she knew it, she had ants all the way up and down both legs, and even in her underwear! All at once there was a huge biting sensation all over the lower half of her body (what she learned later is that they wait until they cover their prey, then send out a hormone to signal each other to bite at the exact same time).  You can imagine the scene that followed. Joey only wishes he had it on video! Both shoes & socks went flying (her white socks were solid black from being completely covered with ants) and down went the trousers, as she yelled out "Sorry about the rules!" The pants managed to stay mostly on, but in that moment of complete panic & pain, one doesn't care who sees what! She still has a bruise in the shape of a handprint from smacking her thighs & butt cheeks so hard! So it was quite an entertaining morning for the team, staff, and a few passer-bys who had quite a story to take back to the village about the crazy mzungu (white) lady jumping around in her pants, screaming & flailing, wildly smacking herself!

Wikipedia: Also known as Safari Ants, Driver Ants are found in the forests of central and eastern Africa. They are approximately twice the size of a hornet. Such is the strength of the ant's jaws that they are used as natural, emergencysutures. Various East African indigenous tribal peoples, when suffering from a gash in the bush, will use the soldiers to stitch the wound by getting the ants to bite on both sides of the gash, then breaking off the body. This use of ants as makeshiftsurgical staples creates a seal that can hold for days at a time.

Sugar Cane

This is how it grows...

Gotta have really strong teeth to get to the sweet stuff! (Hopefully the dentist isn't seeing this post!)

Driving thru a sugar cane field on the way to Musana Camp....

Bats!

Our time at camp involved a few bats in the shower area, just ask Eric Craig how it feels to dry off with a towel that has a bat on it! This little guy even ended up  in our tent! It is amazing how fast a little bat can crawl on the ground and end up crawling into your tent through a tiny crack in the doorway. 

The sparks Family

Our friends, the directors of Musana Camps, who have been there since the very first bush wacking, land clearing, and brick laying of the camp's humble beginnings.

Malachi practicing directing an orchestra just like Grandpa Hilker! ;)

Sweet Eva...

Breakfast at the Sparks' house...

Andrea cooked delicious breakfasts & dinners for our team! She has such a servant's heart!

Their amazing staff....

Alea fell in love with Emma (short for Emmanuel), the cook Sarah's son.

THANK YOU Calary Community Church and Jonas' friends!

While we were at Musana, we cleaned out their sports closet, reorganized the tubs & shelves to make room for all the new items that were donated by our church.

It was fun to also see donated items from the camp shower that we had at Calvary Comm Church in 2011 as well as the ropes course equipment donated by Calvary's kids church! 

Our church has sure filled up Musana's game/sports closet!!! 

Another huge thank you to the friends at Jonas' birthday party (from Lake Geneva) who gave money for him to buy dodge balls & a slack line for the kids who come to camp! Joey already used the dodge balls during our game time with the village children! 

The Sparks are very grateful for all the donations and everyone's generosity! Syd was really excited about his tub full of gluten-free food!!! (Sorry we didn't get a picture from that).

Milking at Musana

Here is a sweet little calf that was born while we were there. Some of us walked the 20 min uphill to see it and had to try our hand at milking....

Oops, Jonas missed the bucket! 

Waterfall Hike

We hiked through the jungle to stand under a waterfall....

Leave it to Jonas to find a crab at the waterfall...

It was an exciting & refreshing afternoon!

Update

Even though our blog has us still at Musana (Camp) we are currently at Kasana (Children's Center). Both names mean "light" in Luganda and both places are part of New Hope Uganda (they are over a 5 hr drive apart from each other). After Musana, our team flew back to WI, we spent 4 days back at Pastor Micah & Grace's in Kampala. Then we hooked up with a team from the Dakotas to come out here to Kasana for our last 2 weeks, where we sponsor our 10 "kids" (the 5 oldest ones are actually young men & women). We are little by little getting our blog caught up (praise God for free wifi!) NOTE: somehow some posts got published out of order (UCF & the cultural show are right in the middle of camp)...sorry about the confusion and thanks for sticking with us and following this blog! Most importantly, thank you for your prayer support! Sorry we don't have time for much journaling on this blog, but we figure "a picture is worth a thousand words". Plus there's no way to put our experience into words that could even begin to summarize the emotional aspect of our trip. Even the few pictures we are posting, can't capture the depth of all that we have seen, heard, smelled, felt. Those of you who have been on mission trips understand. We encourage all of the rest of you to go on a short term mission trip....anywhere! Just get out of your comfort zone, see the big wide world that exists beyond the American bubble, live among another people group, look poverty in the eye, have your heart broken into a thousand pieces, then have it completely melt from the smiles and laughter, then swell to the point of bursting as a small hand grasps yours! See God move in mighty ways, be a part of His work, come back a person changed forever! 

Walk down to the fishing village

Hiking through the sugar cane and pineapple gardens to get to the village down on the beach (you can see it from the top of the camp site).

Chiquita Lady....

Can you read Jonas' mind.....?

You guessed it!

The village school...

(The 2 teachers on our team, Joey & Vicki)

Doing laundry...

They fish at night with lanterns to catch millions of these little fish (like sardines)...

Then lay them out on the rocks to dry in the sun, then take them to market.

This lady's full time job is to watch the fish all day, turning them with her broom (above) and chasing birds away. 

They also catch fish like Talapia, that the camp will buy from them to have fresh fish (and support local business)...

Ally & Anissa carried these all the way up the hill one day for dinner! YUM!!!

We got to see alot of the kids that had come to our outreach day!

All the village kids waved & watched us go...

*lump in the throat*