The Chickens Are Here And Hopefully Miley Cyrus Will Be Soon

At long last the chickens have arrived and our poultry operation is a go.

After months of restoring the poultry house, putting together the battery cages to keep the chickens contained and then waiting for our order with the poultry company to be filled, Namumu now has 100 layers, already pumping out eggs and pooping up a storm. None of us know anything at all about chicken rearing, but we’re learning from our mistakes and getting the hang of it.

Kanyama is running the show, mostly, feeding them, getting them water and sweeping out the ever-present piles of poop from under the cages. I’m trying to help out here and there, too. I’ve even swept out poop once or twice. It’s terrible. But Jesus washed his disciples feet and told me to humble myself and do the same so I figure cleaning up chicken poop at Namumu is the rough equivalent.

Other than that there’s not too much new around Namumu. The Siavonga weekends have been slow. I realized I’d reached a new low when the social highlight of my most recent weekend was watching “The Hannah Montana Movie” with a group of 12 to 14 year old Namumu girls in their dormitory. Just writing that sent a wave of sadness through my body. I really need to get out more.

It’s funny, though. A few months back, I started telling various Namumu children that not only did I know Miley Cyrus but that we were, in fact, engaged to be married the next time I’m back in the States and that she’d come soon to visit Namumu. I’ve made up really elaborate, detailed stories supporting this lie. Most of the girls know I’m messing around, but now I actually think some believe me, and I’m going to feel like a jerk telling them it’s not true. So, if any of you know Miley Cyrus and could get her to come to Namumu and/or marry me I would appreciate it.

The reading is still going well. We have a big group these days. I have to brag about my girl, Charity. Charity’s reading skills were pretty abysmal as of a few months ago as she struggled through children’s books, but she’s been working hard and has really improved. In fact, these days she’s nearly finished with Robert Louis Stevenson’s “Treasure Island”! Ok, so it’s only an abridged version for young adults, but for her level it’s still impressive. She has a really tough time reading the words “apple barrel” (as in the place where Jim hides and overhears Long John Silver’s sinister plan). She can’t even say it anywhere close to correctly after I say it and tell her to just repeat what I'm saying. So that’s weird. But, other than that, she’s doing great. Let me know if you have any words of encouragement for Charity and I’ll past them along.

Finally, let me say that I tend to avoid recommending books to people, mostly because when people recommend books to me it usually feels like they couldn’t care less about me reading a good book and really just want to sound cool and intellectual, especially if it’s an obscure book or one by a foreign author, and I don’t want to be like that. But I’m going to recommend one here anyway. If you want to get a good feel for life in Africa go read something by Chinua Achebe. He’s the famous Nigerian author who wrote “Things Fall Apart”, among many others. I would say they are relatively easy reads and lay out a number of interesting problems of life in Africa in a way that’s easy to understand. Do yourself a favor and go check him out.