a billion stars

Hi peeps,

Let's see. I honestly have no idea where to start. I really should blog more, I just forget, or then I'm too tired and then forget, or I remember but just don't know which stories to pick and choose to write. I've spent quite a bit of time in the field recently. I usually love being in the field. They are full of random, weird, fun, educational moments. So, the past weeks, we have been looking for berkards (water reservoirs) to rehabilitate. They look like this when they don't work anymore.

They should hold water for several months- but due to shifting in the earth and sometimes just a bad construction job as well, they get cracks and do not hold water for any time anymore. Our priority is to find those communities that are truly in need and maybe have less berkards and are thus suffering more because their berkards aren't working. The idea of berkards is actually very interesting. They are only found in Somalia/Somaliland from what I have been told and since the rains are so sparse, it's a good way to keep water.

We are also rehabilitating shallow wells, but I'm pretty sure that everyone knows what a shallow well looks like (if not, imagine a hole with sitcks on top of it). - yeah that was random.

The past couple of weeks has been full of field days and overnights in the middle of well, no where that I know! We go to villages and I'm always amazed at how accepting they are. We've done lots of travelling recently, looking. There is always advice of where to go and for what reasons from different people. Also, we are covering 2 regions, which covers quite a bit of space! Especially because many villages are so far apart! Last week, we went to one place that easily became one of my favourite places. They gave me my first taste of camel's milk.

This was me saying, "I really hope this doesn't make me sick". And it didn't! It was actually quite good. Just thick. And definitely not pasteurized. I am always surprised by how welcoming communities in the field (usually) are. (yeah, you have those one or two that just make you want to hit something). They see so many people come, assess and most of the time- probably don't come back or do anything. They still welcome you with, as they often say, "open hearts". Yet, even though I know they most likely don't understand the whole "NGO process" of proposals or logframes or activites/outputs, budgets,it doesn't matter. For those two hours you are there. That's where you are. Playing with their babies (when I'm not making them cry), trying not to screw up on cultural differences, drinking their milk, tea, and getting sick off of their rice. It was a good several days in the field last week. It's quite funny because by 7 o clock, you feel like it's 10. There's nothing to do without electricity or internet. And it's just you, your headlamp, the guards chatting away outside (oh, and the driver who non-chalantly asks you to be his 2nd wife and when you turn him down- it's totally ok) and the stars. Let me tell you something, there's nothing like an African sky.

I think it's in those moments of talking with staff- laughing when you realise that although thousands of miles separate us, you have two different people on two different continents are both wishing on a shooting star- because that's just what you do. We understand that it's through asking questions that we come to understanding of a place that honestly, most people probably don't try to understand. A nice memory in your mind of when you find your similarities instead of differences. When looking up at pure Beauty, you're reminded of all that is Beautiful. Not just people, but also humanity, ideas, laughter, and friendship. Because just maybe, it's those days that get you through the days when it's more difficult to find the Beauty in things that seem to go wrong or badly. Maybe it's those moments, memories, thoughts, and times when you're reminded that "There is something beautiful about a billion stars held steady by a God who knows what He is doing" (Blue Like Jazz) for those moments when it doesn't seem so.

Goodnight all,
Patty