Where's Waldo?

Have you ever felt like you were playing "Where's Waldo?" in real life? That is how I felt today except that instead of wearing a hat and a striped shirt my Waldo was dressed the same as everyone else —which included having a full head covering! Needless to say it was difficult! Ok, and I didn't even know if she was there.

Today I went to the Munaadi, the big twice-a-month market in the next town over. I was hoping to find Mama S my neighbor who apparently left her husband a week ago. As we drove around the village of Sambwa Peter, our leader, hopped out of the car to ask passers-by if they knew where her family was. After following a few false leads and coming up empty handed, I decided to head into the maze of the Munaadi hoping to find her or someone who would know where I could find her.

Need any shoes? Most items are just sold in big piles you dig through.
A lot of it is leftovers from thrift stores which end up out here. It's quite amusing!

These planks of wood under tarp are actually benches for a restaurant!
Women cook food in the center and sell it to the venders and customers of the Munaadi.
Mat stops at one just about every time he is here!

After roaming around for a few minutes I knew we were going to need some help—divine help! The girls and I prayed that God would guide us to where we needed to be and if Mama S was there we would find her. Only a few minutes into our seemingly aimless wandering Thailie began to sing the song of the Israelites— "It's hot! I'm tired! Why are we here anyways? I don't think God is answering our prayer! It feels like we are just wandering around!" *Cue teaching moment* "You know Thailie, sometimes with God we don't always understand what He is doing and it can feel like we are just wandering around" I began to explain, "but then, God answers our prayers and we look back to see that He was working all along!"
So we continued to "wander" and we continued to trust. After a lot of staring eyes and shouts of "wazungu!" (Translation: "white people"—oh, so tactful and not a bit obnoxious!) we saw a familiar face, not Mama S who we were hoping for, but Florencia, our good friend and "house helper". She asked what we were buying and I tried to explain nothing but that we were just looking for our friend. I have no idea how much was understood, but she decided to join our "wandering"—which, to be honest, made it a lot more awkward to roam freely.

We headed into the "produce section" with Florencia. Yeah, that's a
random chicken by the bicycle. Totally normal.

I was tempted to be discouraged, feeling like she was hindering me from turning in random directions, but I shook the notion reminding myself that I was trusting God to get us where we needed to be with or without company. A minute or two later I looked up and said, "Hey! Is that Baba S?" The girls confirmed that of all the people in this crazy place, headed right towards us was our next-door-neighbor, "Mr. Waldo"!
We stopped and greeted him. I asked if Mama S was here or where she was staying —anything I could find out. He said not yet... something about a dress... something about Sambwa... Ugh! This stinkin' language thing! Life would be so much easier if I knew what he was saying and didn't have to play charades just to get my questions answered! After a few minutes of this Florencia motioned that we should keep going, but I still didn't know where to find Mama S. "No!" I thought. "This may be my only chance to figure this out so I am not going to let this language get the best of me!"
I tried again. He still didn't understand but this time Florencia got it! She explained to him and they proceeded to have a conversation in Swahili which included where she was staying! As we walked away I told Florencia to remember everything he said so that she could tell Peter, who could then tell me!
Just think, if God hadn't led us to Florencia I would never have figured out what's going on or where she is staying! Ha! So much for "wandering aimlessly"! (Thailie was very animated retelling every detail of the story to everyone of how God answered our prayer! How great!)
So, after some translation we found out that Baba S is glad that I have been looking for his wife and wants us to visit her. Peter thinks this is a good sign of our friendship with them; that even during these troubles they want us involved.
Well, our "Search for Mama S" will proceed and we trust we will never be truly lost. Yet, as we continue to pray for them we will remember that they are truly and hopelessly lost apart from the light of Christ.

"And Jesus said to them, I am the way, the truth and the life..." John 14:6