Mrs. Wezley Espinoza???

Yes, thats right, I am now engaged! yes thank you, I take all of your congrats with a bow... only thing is, it was kinda by accident! Its one of those things that tends to happen to me, just to make me feel foolish. This is what happened...

I got back to the house this evening and ate supper, and I had a question I wanted to ask Pastor Mtenzi. He is a man from Tanzania who is here with the mission. He and his wife Jenny are always making fun of Keith and me about us not having a wife yet, so I go up to him and tell him that I think that I may have accidently proposed to a girl at the river, he and Keith find this funny thinking that I'm just joking, oh how wrong they were :p! So I've been painting this HUGE wooden boat on the river that we are going to use to visit the small villages that we cant get to by road. I go there by myself and stay there all day by myself which has proven to be a bit hard considering that I don't know any of their languages! but thats not the point. All day there are large groups of people gathered around me because 1) most of them have never seen a Wazungu (a white man) and 2) if they have seen one they have never seen one work. so needless to say I'm rather popular for once in my life! Well today as with yesterday there were many watotos (children) gathered around me making fun of me; asking me for food and money; and trying to help me paint so I would have to pay them (cuz' natrualy all white guys are SUPER rich!) It was actually really funny, there was this one young man who came to me yesterday who actually spoke some english, he came to me and made small talk, then he got to the point, "Mr. I'm hungry, give me some money," I wasn't angry by no means... I was board out of my mind though so I thought i would have some fun " why do you think I have any money?" I asked him, to which he simply responded "your bag is full of money!" the funny thing was he said it like it was the most obvious truth in the world. of course the white man just walks around with a big bag of cash, duh! you mean you didnt know that??? so I handed him my bag and told him to look through it and whatever money he finds is his! well his eyes just lit up like you wouldnt believe! he quickly searches through my bag and is utterly disappointed to find that there is no money in it. I ask him what made him think that I had money? he just looks at me and so I tell him "you guys are all so funny, you see my skin and you think muzungu = money! not all white men are rich," then I told him if he comes to the states that I'll give money because then I would have some... hope he never takes me up on the offer... anyway, back to the misses. so today there was this girl who came who knew a few english words and was testing them out on me, so after a while of kinda talking to her I got into my bag and showed her a English-French dictionary that I had (note the "had") when I handed it to her so she could look at it she seemed very happy, and she was looking at it very intentively, I thought it was kinda odd but thought nothing about it. Well, a few minutes later there suddenly appeared a whole bunch of middle aged ladies! they gathered around me and started doing what I assume was there idea of a "cat call" and came all smiling and shaking my hand telling me that they would cook for me and would clean my house and this and that, a few of them grabbed my and and tried walking away with me. well I started to suspect that I made a mistake at this point... also the girl was staying real close to me. I started thinking about it and I reasoned "come on Wezley, you just showed her a dictionary, they can't POSSIBLY think anything of it!" then it happened... the dad came! I had met him before but he was rather uninterested in me for the most part, but oh boy how that had changed now! he started asking me all kinds of questions about myself like making sure that I was going to be in the Congo for a long time, what I did in America, how old I was among many other things that I can't remember at the moment. But yes after about 10 minutes of this he seemed satisfied that the fact that I was American was good enough for him, since nothing else could have seemed all that impressive! So he leaves, shortly after the girl leaves after telling me good bye (not giving me my book back and taking it as a gift) after I got done with the story Pastor Mtenzi starts to laugh! he says "Bwana Wezley (thats Mr Wezley) congratulations! your engaged to an African girl." Oh dear oh dear oh dear. so basically when I go back tomorrow I'm praying that she dosnt come to see me and just takes the intentional "gift" as a memento.

Anyway on other news, our Lay-training is ending this Friday and our first Prophecy seminar is starting this Sabbath evening. so keep that in prayers. I taught some for the classes through a translator which was a lot of fun and a huge learning experience for me. well will sign off for now since its time to go home. God bless and pray I don't get back to the states with a little misses!
-Wezley

Leap frog with a wha?!

I woke one morning with the most unpleasant thoughts going through my head, “leap frog with a unicorn? Nono, that doesn’t describe it, hot poker to the eyeball? Nope still not it, bamboo shards up the fingernails!” Well closer but still none of these things described the great feeling of unrest that I was experiencing! The one thing that has made me thing “I can’t do this! I can’t stay 6 months in the Congo!” what is this thing you might be asking yourselves, is it the mosquitoes? Is it the immense heat and humidity? Is it the racism towards white people? The food? The bugs? Lack of electricity and running water for long periods of time? Nope none of these things bother me in the least,. So what is it that is driving me insane to the point of tears? Well, it’s something that we have in the states, its something that we’ve all experienced I’m sure. To me it’s the most irritating sound in the world. Close your eyes and imagine being in a grocery store, and suddenly you hear it, “ MOOOOOOMMMMMYYYYYY I WANT THE CCAAAAAANNNNDDDYYYY!!!!!!” yes… the sound of a whiney child. We’ve all been the witness to the casualties of a “temper tantrum” and we’ve all seen the poor soul who is completely and utterly embarrassed by there child’s chosen way of expressing themselves, yet they allow it none the less. Now I consider myself to be an extremely patient individual, there is VERY little that can bother me and erk me, but yes this is it. This is probably the one thing that makes me think that the thought of being hung upside down by my big toes and dunked into a pool of starving piranhas sounds pleasant. And yes, God in his wisdom that I cant comprehend has put me to live with two of them. I wake up to the sound of the deathly screech of “MMMOOOOOMMMMAAAAA!!!!” almost every morning, I am always in danger of a whiney and pouty child that can explode at any minute. Now you may be thinking “oh Wezley suck it up and stop being such a baby, that’s what kids do, they cry, you obviously haven’t spent time with children.” But oh how that isn’t true. I have spent a VERY large amount of time with kids. I know that this may be what is “normal” but just because its normal does that mean its exceptable? In countries where canabalism is “normal” is it also exceptable? Can we really imagine the patriarch Abraham raising Isaac to be a tantrum baby? Much more can we imaging Jesus to have been a tantrum baby? I find it very doubtful. Why? Because there are always those pleasant exceptions to the whiney child rule, ah yes the infatesimaly few who are just so pleasant to be around, who when they want something there parents have taught them to come up and ask for it instead of throwing a fit to get its parents attention! Ah yes the pleasant few indeed. But fear not, if any of you are close to the blessing that God has given us of having a child. I have a sulution! Infants cry, that’s unavoindable, there helpless and don’t have any other way of communicating. But as soon as the child can verbalize words, there is no reason to continue to allow the constant crying for every little thing it wants! So my solution is simply this, if its not hurt simply agnore the crying. easy as pie, instruct it to come and ask you for the thing that it desires, if it continues the tantrum continue to not acknowledge them. Simple! I could all but guarantee that this would help if not solve this problem! But since I don’t think that most people are going to be willing to do this on there children I think that I will have to wait until I find that poor soul who I covince to marry me. I am finding myself quoting “trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understandings, in all your ways acknowledge HIM and he will set your paths straight.” God has given me a very unexpectant chanlange here in Africa, but I will continue to trust that HE has a greater purpose for this more then just annoying me. May God continue to bless you all through out this week.

In His service

-Wezley