Maryann's Musings

  Beni (Blessed): one of the children at I.B.B.T    The people that we served during our trip were tremendous. They had incredible stories, an amazing amount of generosity, and were strong in the face of whatever was to come.  When they had only a little they shared with us and when we spoke they listened with all their hearts. There is a beauty to these people that is hard to describe.  The Ife women     Note: This blog is very late due to a prolonged internet failure and life in general. Sorry, guys!  When morning worship was over the lesson began. The mother of twins was having trouble keeping her baby, Joy from crawling away so I got to hold her and play with her. It's such a hard job :-)  Joy definitely earned her name. She giggled, laughed, and cooed when you held her up in the air, talking nonsense about whoever was sitting next to you (literally nonsense, not just an African dialect). She would clap her hands with delight when you sang at h

   Another bright and early day, another up and at it atmosphere, all with one black cloud on the horizon. Well, I wouldn't call it a cloud; I would say more of a challenge, an adventure, and an inconvenience all tied into one. It's like the experience when you first climb to the top of a lake zip-line - it takes your breathe away as you step off the edge, but you love the thrill as you let go and crash into the water. Our challenge was something like that.     Mommy told me at 6 o'clock in the morning that she had devised a plan to fight our clogged drainage system. This plan involved trowels, digging cat holes, and chamber pots ( isn't that wonderful morning conversation? Just what you need to hear right when you get up ) . I was not  too thrilled about the cat holes. Tristan and Aidan dove head first into the necessary arrangements; Tristan in particular delighted in parading his chamber pot around the house before taking it outside (I got MAD when he