AFRICA

It has taken a while for me to write this update because of the entire moving process overseas. I has been smooth for the most part with a few little and big bumps here or there!

We left the states on October 4th and had 3 different airplane connections we had to make. We started out at the Chattanooga airport (which is very small) and the Lord blessed us so much there!! I did get discouraged at one point because they said we needed a VISA just to fly through the Brussels airport and it took them about 1.5 hrs to figure the correct answer out. I thought we might not be able to leave that day because of that. However, after we found out we did not need a visa to get through Brussels the airport people that waited on us did not charge us one dollar for the extra baggage we had with us. We were expecting to pay at least $600 dollars in extra baggage and then we did not have to!!! Yay!!!!

On all the flights the girls did great!!!! It was Mara’s first time flying and she really enjoyed looking out the window and the clouds and ground! There was only one bad flight and it was only bad because it lasted 10 hours more than what we were originally told. It was supposed to be a 4-5 hour flight, a direct flight. However, the airline decided to make it a 3 stop airplane flight where we sat on the plane for hours while other people got off and new people got on in 3 African countries! If you ever decide to come and see us, please let me know and I will let you know the airplane company that did this because I don’t recommend them! Hopefully we will not have to use them again!

When we got off of the plane all of our luggage made it! All twelve pieces!!! We were super excited and were met by most of the people that work for our company in our country! It was such a warm welcome!!! God bless them!! We ate and fellowshipped for a couple of hours and then it was time for our first night in Africa as a family!

I woke up in the middle of the night with the worst vertigo I have ever experienced! Brad had to help me out of bed, walk me down the hall, and help me lean over the toilet so I could throw up and not fall over. It was horrible. This continued for the next two days causing me to become dehydrated and weak. We finally got in touch with our medical consultants and they suggested I try some medicine that is available here for vertigo (comparable to Meclizine in the states). It helped some and I also began taking the Phenergan and Zofran I had brought with me from the states. I started eating and drinking again without becoming nauseated and started regaining strength. It was finally concluded that an ear infection I had been fighting in the stated was back causing the vertigo. I took some super-duper antibiotics and steroids and feel myself again!!! Having to throw up in HOT Africa is not very comfortable! Praise the Lord I am feeling better! Continue to pray that is does not come back.

While I was sick Brad was a trooper! He had to manage the girls, with the help of others, and buy the things we needed that are not available in the town we live in (like a lot of food products). We were finally able to drive to our town (about a 3 hour drive) and see our new home! It was not quite ready to sleep in the first night so we stayed with the family we are working with here that night. That first week in the house was a whirl wind! Workers were coming to install fans, make electrical repairs, treat cabinets in kitchens so termites won’t destroy them, and anything else you can think of! It took most of the first week and ½ to get all of our stuff unpacked and put up where we like it to be.

The girls were scared at first to sleep in their own bedroom. For the most part they were scared because the doors have to stay closed at night to keep the cool air from escaping into the hallway. The same goes for Brad’s and mine bedroom door. So we kept the girls in our bedroom where they slept on twin size mattresses on the floor for the first entire week. They are now somewhat happily sleeping in their new bedroom. It takes them longer to fall asleep and I have to stay in there with them for a while and sing songs with them to get them to calm down enough to sleep.

Macy and Mara have made “friends” in the neighborhood we live in already. Every morning there are a number of children ringing our doorbell or knocking on our gate yelling “Macy” in their little African accents!! Since Macy is our little social butterfly it did not surprise me that she would already have kids wanting to play with her. Mara lets the children pick her up and tote her around but usually does not say too much to them. Macy still gets frustrated because she tries to speak to them in English and of course they do not understand. She holds their hands and has introduced them to the Frisbee and plays with them outside our gate (never without our supervision though). We have observed a lot of rough play amongst the children, lots of hard slapping and hitting take place. I do not want my girls to be the victim of this playing so it will take a few years (probably) for me to ever let them out of my sight. Sometimes I think maybe never. ☺

The girls don’t know yet but we just purchased them a dog. It is 13 hours away and another family who works for our company is getting one of its siblings. They have to drive and get them in a few weeks! The girls will be so excited!!!! I believe it will be a long hair black lab that will be fully vaccinated!!! Yay! We also have 3 chickens now, 2 of which Macy has named Marian and Robin in honor of the movie Robin Hood.

Brad has also made the girls two swings. At first they were located outside our gate in the trees that line the wall in front of our house (they provide a lot of shade for our courtyard too!). However every morning when we wake up or when we go outside our gate there are at least 5 to 10 children playing on the swings. They are really loud in the mornings and tended to wake the girls up. Since then the swings have been moved inside our courtyard and one of them is hanging from our own Mango tree!!! We let the other kids come inside the courtyard to play with the girls so that they still have a chance to swing too! The girls have also enjoyed playing in a little hut that Brad constructed out or cinder blocks and tree branches! I purchased 2 small wooden chairs for the girls to drag inside and out that they sit in under the hut branches.

Brad and I spend most of the day trying to get just a couple of things done. Our main focus (besides the Word of God) is language learning. Our company required 40 hrs a week of language learning. Brad and I each sit with a language teacher for 2 hours each day, five days a week. Then we have to review and practice the language to make up the remaining hours needed to make 40. This can consist of listening to music in our new language, going to the market and listening/purchasing things/ greeting people, and talking to our house help and guard. Basically we do whatever we can to immerse ourselves in the language so we can learn fast.

My house help, whom you can refer to as Allie, helps out a lot so far. She washes my dishes (which is a lot since everything here is made from scratch), sweeps and washes the tile floors daily, straightens up the bedrooms and makes up the beds if I have not already done it (and even if I have she goes behind me and makes it look like sheets on a clean hotel bed!!!). She also does random stuff like helping Brad catch the chickens if they get loose! Our guard comes at dusk and keeps watch over our house until 6:30 am. They make things a lot easier for me and Brad!

The most difficult thing for me so far is the cooking. I am by far no Betty Crocker and fear I will never be. Brad is a wonderful cook but is the kind of cook that does not go by recipes. I am very much a “J” on Meyers Briggs test and must have organization and a specific recipe to go by. Therefore, I have been writing down step by step how to make the things that Brad prepares and have also been getting recipes from other workers! It will take time I know but hopefully one day I will feel comfortable in the kitchen and not burn myself or cut myself on accident while in it!

The most difficult thing for Brad so far has been the heat. Bless his heart he sweats so much. Both of us have lost weight probably just from sweating! It has been cooler the past two days but still it is hot. With the AC on in our bedroom at night it may get down in the mid 80s if standing right below the AC unit. If you are across the bedroom by the other wall and take the temperature it is at least 95 degrees. It also reads 100 degrees in our hallway most of the time. Our house is literally a clay oven and it is cooler to sit outside than in. We have to get thatched mats placed on our roof which will help with the heat inside our house. This is a must in my mind because we have not even made it to hot season yet. The family we work with says that it gets so hot in hot season that you stand in the shower with your pajamas on and go to bed soaking wet, clothes in all!!! Can you imagine? I can’t yet but will soon enough find out come late March!!! Macy keeps asking me when the snow will come. Never, I say.

I am sure there is more I could say but I want to see if this will even download onto the internet!!! Love and blessing to all who read and have been faithfully praying for us!!!