I held a baby and the stars were amazing; a great day.

Day five started with a wonderful breakfast and promises to finally tour the mission and meet and greet with the children at the orphanage. We were all very excited. I started reading the book Transforming Discipleship. I just read the beginning but it really stresses that ministry is most effective by forming relationships. This gave me a clear mind set on my purpose here. I am supposed to make relationships that hopefully turn into spiritual growth.  Meeting with the babies was very enjoyable and I discovered that I do have some skills in holding and entertaining babies. This was comforting to me since we will spend a lot of time hold, caring and loving on them. After playing with the babies for two hours we walked back to where we were staying and had lunch. After lunch we went into town and visited the market and bought various items. Since it was Saturday many of the shops were closed, but we will have plenty of time to shop during our trip. After shopping I took my first solar shower. It was surprisingly warn after being heated by the sun all day. It was quite nice. After showering we had time to hang out for a while. On the men’s house there is a nice porch, so we sat on the porch together and I got to know the Pharmacy guys better, which is always enjoyable. Dinner tonight was great. We had spaghetti and garlic bread, and for desert we had banana pudding, which was delicious. The food is great here, we are very blessed to have such a great African cook here. Tomorrow we are responsible for making lunch as a group, so I am looking forward to that experience. After dinner the power went out. We all played Nerts with our head lamps on till we got tired of that, and then we went out to view the starts. The stars were amazing. I was able to lay on top of Kaki Jakie (Landrover type vehicle) and gaze at the stars. After we got tired of viewing the stars the group split up. My group played Phase 10. I was destroyed and Ashley won; apparently for the first time in her life. Great. It was intense game with many tears, knives, and dirty looks, but we are still all friends. Tomorrow is our first Sunday experience. I am very much looking forward to it. I’m not quite sure what to expect but I’m sure its going to be great!

Ben