Climbing on the Ant Hill

January 23, 2013 / Robert Krause / OMNI News

For a little American boy, Africa seems to be an adventure at every turn. It can also be quite overwhelming with so many different holes to crawl in but he has seemed to manage quite well! Abigail has made a name for herself here as well, “mama’s baby” is what the students call her. She may have gotten this name because she is always in Emily’s arms, but I am sure that will change with time!

Both Benjamin and Abigail have done a wonderful job of adapting to their surroundings! Being different from everyone else around you can be overwhelming and something I experienced only after college when I moved to Africa myself. Watching Benjamin run with the other children on the campus warms Emily’s and my heart a great deal. The children and the staff have also been instrumental in our children’s adaptation as they have sought them out to play and have been sensitive to their needs and emotions at times.

Speaking of emotions, I was in my first staff meeting yesterday and was wrapping things up when I saw Emily standing by the door looking quite concerned. I quickly excused myself from the meeting and found out that we had no water at our home. I believe some of you have seen the school campus on facebook where we live. In this picture you can see the water tower where water is held after being pumped from our bore hole.  We have two tanks which probably hold 500 gallons of water each. When Emily said we no longer had any water I jumped into action, like any good husband would (WINK), and called an electrician to check out our pumping systems.

OMNI’s School Campus

After a quick inspection and scaling the tower, something I probably will never do, the electrician touched several wires together and water started flowing freely into the tanks! This was a welcome noise as I knew we would have to go spend the night in a lodge until the problem was remedied otherwise. While we waited for the electrician to fix our water issue Benjamin, Abigail and I began to play on one of the two ant hills that are on the campus of the school.  After several minutes of playing king of the mountain one of the staff came running up to us urging us to get down.

His reason, a large wasps nest was hidden in the side of the abandoned ant hill! He was not so concerned about me but wanted to protect my children! I am continually amazed at the care and concern our staff have for my family and me and our well-being here! We are so blessed and trust that our shared sense of vision for the mission of OMNI will produce wonderful things in the very near future! Stay tuned for stories of chicken purchases, farming endeavors and several building projects!