One month

It is hard to believe that we have only been here in Africa for one month. It truly feels like a lot longer to me. We have had challenging days and I am sure more are to come but we also have those good days too! The Lord has blessed us in many ways and I should be so much more grateful than I am! One of the major things we have been blessed with is some financial gifts that enabled us to buy 2 AC units, one for mine and Brad's bedroom and the other for the girls' bedroom. This makes it much more comfortable to sleep at night! Then last week when we were in the capital, we put out an email to an organization here that let's mostly American citizens communicate with each other and asked if anyone had any Swamp (or evaporative) Coolers for sale, new or used. We got an email back within a couple of hours from a lady that wanted to give us hers for FREE!!! We now are able to sit in our living room/dining room/computer room without sweating to death!

I posted last time that I was intimidated by cooking everything from scratch. Well, that feeling still remains. I have had more failures than successes but at least I am trying (and crying)! The things that I have made that I would actually offer someone other than my immediate family is the peanut brittle, chips from pita bread, yeast rolls, and maple syrup. I tried making lemon bars and scorched them to a crisp (and they were only in the stupid oven that you have to stick your whole arm in to light for 5 minutes!!!) I tried to make cheesy potato soup and it was bland and horrible, Macy and Mara ate it, well,....some of it. Brad has done most of the cooking, mostly because he really enjoys it and could probably make anything he wanted without a recipe. He makes excellent food but I know he won't always be at home to make it too. I really enjoy making sweets but hate making meals and always seem to mess it up somehow. The only good things i have made,meal wise, is if Brad is helping me. If anyone has any simple meals made from simple recipes that do not called for premixed stuff (like bisquick) please
send them to me! I have some excellent cookbooks in the crate but that won't be here for months! Don't get me wrong... We are not going hungry. We have plenty of food, it just mostly has to be prepared. Not like some of the easy stuff back in the states! I have also gotten a lot of good recipes from others but more would be helpful!

Other crazy stuff has happened here also! A lot of it has to do with Brad and the truck. He left the lights on twice overnight and had to get it jumped started. He has also been in one accident, which was not his fault. A guy on a motorcycle ran into our truck and was fine. The police would not let Brad leave until our supervisor got there and could translate for Brad! So Brad got to sit in a crazy police station for a while! Hopefully that will not happen again!

So ..what does a normal day look like for us right now? Well....I set my alarm for 5:45 am and get up to drink a cold cup of coffee and do my quiet time before my girls get up. They have been waking up around 6:30 am since we have been here which I am not too thrilled about. The girls come stumbling into the living room and me or Brad start getting breakfast ready around 7 am. Most days we go and buy eggs from this little "butiki" (store) that is less than a block from our house. They of course are not refridgerated but we have only gotten one bad egg since being here! If Brad is fixing the breakfast I usually go and start the washing machine. It takes it about 10 minutes to fill up with water and so I wait to put the clothes in until it is at least 1/2 way full. I have done at most 3 loads of laundry in one day because everything has to line dry and I don't have that much line to dry my clothes on yet. This morning a new friend actually brought us some metal poles to attach more lines too and I can't wait to get them up! Somedays my laundry smells good but somedays it does not. There is a "trash yard" a few blocks from our house where they constantly burn trash so if the wind is blowing our direct our laundry kind of smells like it. Nice. Now maybe me and my house helper can get all the laundry done in one day! After breakfast I start language learning at 8 am and go for 2 hrs. During this time Brad is watching the girls and doing other projects around the house. Brad and I then switch and he goes until noon. While Brad is finishing up I start getting lunch ready. The girls normally eat french bread (buy it fresh about every day) with Nutella spread on it and Yoplait yogurt. The yogurt taste a little different and is sometimes so thin you have to drink it. The girls love it though and I put sprinkles that I brought with me from the states in it to make it fun! (thanks sis for the great idea!). The girls then take their much needed daily nap and Brad and I try to sit down and study or get other house stuff done or one of us goes and gets things needed (mostly Brad does that part). Brad usually has a couple of guys come by to greet him and sometimes they stay to make the tea they drink here, which is an art in itself and will keep you up all night! After the girls get up from their nap I try to play some with them. We go outside and go on "adventures" around our house and pretend our trees are a massive jungle and that our chickens and all the lizards running around are strange animals! They love it! Around 5 or 6 we start dinner preparations and then start getting ready for bed after dinner. We try and get the girls in bed by 8. I have been reading to them from the Bible and we have already gone thru Ester, Jonah, and are now on Ruth. My girls are really
interested in the girls in the Bible right now! We then sing songs. Mara's favorite song is "The Revelation Song" and Macy likes "Lord Prepare Me to be a Sanctuary" song right now. The girls finally go to bed and I am completely worn out! However, I usually make my way to the kitchen and fill up our water filter bucket for the next day since we have to drink filtered water here. I also fill up the small ice trays we have so we can have ice first thing in the morning, especially for my iced coffee!!!

There is more to write but I want to make sure this posts! Maybe I can get some pictures up soon!