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March 1, 2001
Dear Friends,
While I am trying to focus on learning Tawala, I am also conversing with a few people in English to find out more about the people here. One man named Kari knows English much better than all the rest, and he has been very willing to help me get to know the villagers. The attached pictures are of him and me on a walk up to the waterfall. He said that forty years ago we could never have gone up there because the villagers believed there was a spirit-god in the form of a giant snake who would have destroyed us. Most of them still believe in the snake spirit, but they are willing to go to the waterfall now, because they believe it has moved somewhere else.
Previously they would have gone to the waterfall only after a special fast in order to ask the spirit-god for power, bringing an animal or vegetable sacrifice. Today, if they want power they take their offerings to the neighboring mountain, where they believe a spirit-god still resides in a huge rock. This power is useful, they believe, for anything that requires human ability, such as fights, rugby games, and sorcery. However, if they need luck, such as when they are planting a garden or going fishing, they turn rather to the "little people," spiritual beings which they believe live all around in the rocks and trees. And for problems of every sort, they can always turn to the community sorcerers and witches.
Thankfully, there is also a Christian element in the village that regards these avenues as sinful. Please pray that we will be able to build on that foundation, and that Kari and all his people will know God in all His abundant providence and loving jealousy.
Love, Marcus, with Diane and Hannah Reese
Kari and Marcus
In the river
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