The Farthest Village

I stagger out of the small truck with nothing much on my mind since the heat had rendered it useless. Smacking my dry lips I reached into my bag for some water. Sweat. Every where coming from every pore. I wiped my sweaty forhead with my sweaty hand and then stared around the village trying to take some of it in. Straw house, children, sand, tree, sand. A man who worked at the dispensery in the village placed out two chairs for us, and although I had been sitting for more than four hours already, I stared longingly at the plastic chair. Finally I wandered away from the group and sat gingerly on the the ledge to make it look less lame that I was sitting. And then I slouched a bit, and a bit more until I was splayed on the chair. Glamour and disposure were far from my mind in this dusty, humid, little village. Hannah, a few yards off, was recording some little kids jumping at a mango tree and then falling over. It was cute, they were both filthy and wearing only pants. The one little boy's pants were so ripped that they concealed nothing at all. After a while some of the village guys wandered over to see the white people that a driven all the distance to see them. They were being sponsered by Hannah's church and so naturally there was pictures and conversation and laughter. I sat complacently. And then they wanted to give us a tour around the village. I groaned inwardly at the thought of walking, even standing! Here I was in a village that not many people in the Western world will ever get to see and I am groaning on a faded, flimsy lawn chair.
Forty minutes later I sit heart racing in the truck bumping along the road. Why the change in mood? Well it could have something to do with the long walk through unmanaged field or hearing the story about the man who's head was almost chopped off by his brother and law. Or because there is a giant black and white spider crawling on me and three people are trying to find it and remove it in the back of the cramped pick-up truck.
Despite my buzz killing mood and dramatic re-accountment of the day it was actually spectacular. Being exposed to such contrast from my own culture was life changing and memorable. I shall never forget it.