Yesterday I took a walk outside. I stopped to watch two squirrels playing, chattering, and chasing each other. I went a bit farther to stand under a tree and listen to the babbling creek as it slowly flowed by. Then I made a path walking back and forth through the fallen leaves on the grass. I enjoyed their crunching with each and every step I took. The smell of “fall” hung in the air. My spirit lifted and my heart filled with joy.
I have only experienced fall in the US one other time in the past 7 years. I am so happy to be back here to experience fall and to have a break from the dry, dusty, heat of Turkana, the desert mission field where God sent me.
You make beautiful things, you make beautiful things out of the dust.
You make beautiful things, you make beautiful things out of us.
From the song: Beautiful Things
By: Gungor
From the outside Turkana may look like a place where it is always hot, dry, dusty, windy, dirty, and brown. However, after moving there I soon began to appreciate the subtle changes that brought relief from the strong winds and heat. The random rains that brought cooler temperatures, and the occasional cloudy days were so refreshing. I learned that 30-45 minutes difference in the length of a day can be experienced and enjoyed and how the stars shine so brightly when you are in the bush and there are few lights anywhere that obscure them.
There are seasonal type changes that happen with the trees that bring new growth and blooms with seeds falling to the ground that quickly sprout into new trees. This is especially true for neem trees, which are abundantly planted in compounds and gardens around Turkana. Often those baby neem trees get carefully dug up and replanted other place throughout our compound and shared with others, to fill in spaces and provide more shade. I am so thankful for the neem trees in Turkana, which seem to easily grow with minimal watering in a barren dry land. It is a tree with possibly more than forty medicinal and agricultural uses that the Swahili name for it is simply the word “forty”.
Later in the “season” the neem leaves turn yellow and begin to fall. I always think of that time as “fall” in Turkana no matter when it happens or what the temperature outside is. So many leaves fall off that you can hear them blowing, and they crunch beneath my flip flops as I walk through them. I love raking them up to be used as “God’s blanket” (mulch) to put around all the plants, flowers, and trees to help prevent water evaporation and provide nourishment as the leaves decay. We also use the fresh green neem leaves from pruned branches and I learned that laying the larger branches on the leaves, after I removed them, was helpful in preventing them from blowing away with the next strong wind.
Rains are generally few and far between, but even short rains clean the air and plants of dust. The sky looks bluer and the plants all greener until the dust stirs up again. This year brought more heavy rains and flooding, which caused damage and loss. Yet, at the same time, I have never seen things as green in Turkana, and the animals are all fat and happy, with many areas to graze.
In the midst of a pandemic year, I found beauty in adapting and changing. Change was something that needed to happen in our program and likely it would have been harder without the prompting of the pandemic and lockdowns. I am thankful that our lifestyles in Turkana allowed us to still gather safely to work and learn. I taught sewing as we made masks that were donated to anyone and everyone who needed one. We made a space for a bee yard and set up a hive. To date we still do not have bees there, but we are prepared and have all learned a lot. Last month we discovered a hive had colonized a prior missionary house and I hope to be able to set up a hive near the house, yet far enough away to have a safe place for the bees to live and make the house usable again. I’m praying for someone from that
village to step up and be interested in learning so they can be the bee keeper for that area.
We revived our garden, did more container planting, and have more new ideas about ways to plant better to conserve water. We trimmed weeds and made the compound less habitable for the snakes that seemed to be taking over, while also helping the other flowering trees grow and bloom. It was exciting to see the vegetables we planted sprout and grow. It was also an excellent lesson in patience and dealing with bad situations as floods that repeatedly washed away seeds and plants, and locusts and mites that killed others. My workers were amazed by how much work it takes just to get a few tomatoes. Granted we were not extremely prolific gardeners, but I did enjoy spinach every week and 2
very small tomatoes, and the peppers are hopefully being enjoyed by someone now.
As a veterinarian, animals are my life and I thrive in their presence. I knew my cats and guard dogs had sizeable personalities, but I never realized how personable chickens could be. Once I got chicks I was hooked and in love with them. It has not been easy and we have had disease and loss, but those birds helped get me through the tough times this year. They talk and talk back to me and each other. They peck me when they don’t agree with me wanting to pick them up to examine them or just hug them. The roosters especially strut around all day trying to impress the hens and at the same time taunting my dogs, who I have worked so hard to protect them from. I am thankful I was able to build a coop strong enough to withstand my dogs (so far). Maximus, my alpha guard dog, still stands and watches the chickens while licking his lips and drooling! But I also know he will protect them from other creatures who might try to do them harm.
I have always loved learning about animal behavior from a scientific standpoint. Then last year one of my workers began sharing with me some of the Turkana stories they use to explain animal behaviors and I was enthralled. I kept asking all my workers to tell more and more, until they were tired of thinking of them. I even
wrote a blog about the stories, including a recording of one and a written narration of another, involving chickens and the reason they scratch the ground. I loved learning those stories and thinking about how the Turkana lifestyle and culture has influenced the perspective they have on those behaviors.
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| (matt for extra shade on coop) |
Beauty is in people also and the Turkana are creative. I often remind them of this with the example of how they can follow tracks of animals, whether groups together, lost individual animals, or those with humans who possibly stole them. Often we drive and they say follow the tracks (of a vehicle) and I can’t even see those in the sand! They understand the land and telling time by the sun better than anyone I’ve ever known. They make matts, baskets, trivets, and brooms all from the dried leaves of the desert palm trees. This is something that is not easy to do. I have tried to make them all, with varying degrees of success. It is hard to get the leaves cut as they have many spikes on the stem that must be cut off, then you must dry them (without them molding, as happened to mine), then strip them and prepare them for making whichever item you need. My broom making lesson was probably my biggest failure as I was quickly demoted to only trying the last knots and I am pretty sure the lady teaching me went back and redid all my knots after I left. These items are beautiful and come from something as simple as leaves, provided by God and the knowledge and creativity he bestowed upon those Turkana women, which they share and pass down from generation to generation.
Throughout my time in Turkana God has been teaching me to look for beauty in unexpected places, like the small red flowers that bloom on the thorn plants we walk through to get to many of the homes where we treat animals in the villages. The chance to sit under trees and teach lessons, because their shade was wonderful and there was such a nice breeze blowing. The laughter of children in the midst of a locust. Yes even that.
The day of our last big locust infestation when they covered the sky and all the trees, I stood outside with my guard and neighbors, banging metal bowls and yelling to try to scare them away. It did not work. Eventually we all quieted and all that remained was the sound of the locusts and children laughing as they ran and jumped and played with the locusts which were also all over the ground. They were amazed at something they had never seen before. Oh to be a child and have that kind of joy in such a bad and destructive situation. Again perspective really is everything and all they saw was new and beautiful and fun and at that moment it was likely the most fun they had had in quite a while. Even now I have to admit those locusts are quite beautiful creatures and it was an awesome site to see them swarm in the sky that day.
