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As predicted, the chicha fuerte day from this past week lead to one of the hardest days of my mission. It was a week full of low lows and high highs to put it simply.
Irgandi
The elders in Irgandi needed help finishing up their hut that they're building so we went over there for an exchange and worked there for a few days. We had to gather bamboo to build the walls, so on tuesday morning we hiked through the jungle until we got to a massive clearing full of groves of bamboo reaching through the canopy of the trees. I've never seen anything like it. We cut down enough to make 200 panels for the walls of the hut, tied them into 5 bundles, and carried them back to the village.
Inna Niagadi
After some good days in Irgandi, we came back to Ukupa where the devil himself was present. In the morning they gave the entire village food, so we took advantage of that to eat some liquified fish and platanos. Around noon they gathered in a massive hut and started to get wasted on fermented sugar cane (chicha fuerte) which they believe to be God's (whatever that means.) When that ran out, they resorted to cheap beer. We tried to distract the kids and take them away from the scene by putting on a movie in the church, but they were handing out candy in the hut, so they all went and saw what was happening. Most of the adults in the village were participating, leaving no supervision for the kids except for us. As it turned into night, some of the kids started to get involved. Drinking or smoking. Before we knew it they were sharing cigarrettes and the beer they found/stole from their plastered parents. We saw a ton of the kids we have grown to love like family smoking or drinking. The parents were too drunk to even realize they were there and when we tried to stop them they would run away. The majority of our recent converts either drank or smoked, and a few got wasted. It was a haunting day to say the least.
Call to Repentance
As the apostles of old once did, we had to call the village to repentance. It was depressing because some of the kids that participated are 9 or 10. It was a great opportunity to show God's love for them and teach them about the miracle of Christ's atonement. We did our best to help everyone understand that all that God wants right now is that they repent and return to following Him. Most of the kids knew what they did was wrong and wanted to make it right. A few decided to be prideful and defend their actions. It's still a work in progress, but a lot of them came to church to take the sacrament.
Magebgandi and Aidirgandi
On sunday after church we were able to visit the villages where we want to build the church and it went great. We had 50 people show up to the first one and we had a great lesson. For the second one it was the first class we've done at the village, but we still we had around 30 people come. We feel really good about it and are excited to keep working there. They are having a huge meeting where all the chiefs are going to get together and see if we can build the church on more islands. They should let us know soon what they said. If they approve it, we'll be able to hold sacrament meetings and baptize in the other villages.
City Trip
We're super excited for this week because on Tuesday we go to Cartí Tupile for P Day, then we get to go to the city for interviews and zone conference. We'll be living a life of luxury.
Well, it was a hard week. Hit one of the worst lows of my mission but hopefully we can help the village bounce back
Elder Nali
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