I realized that I should say something now that things are getting easier for us here in Kabwe. It is easy to notice when things are going bad; and also easy to ignore it when things are going better.
So, first of all, let me say that my washing machine is hooked up to water! Yay! I am so happy to be able to wash clothes without having to get the boys to haul water for me. I am just about completely caught up with laundry; but I do have a pile of mosquito nets (I hope I can wash them in the machine!) that need washing.
The electricity has also been so much more predictable for the last month. We usually have no electricity for 3 hours on Tuesday evenings and maybe Friday or Saturday evenings too. And then once or twice a week the lights might be out in the mornings as well for 2 or 3 hours. It has been wonderful! We still don't have water when we don't have electricity; but that isn't as hard now since we usually do have electricity and if we don't, we are almost certain that it will be back on in a few hours. We were already used to having no lights for a few nights a week; so this isn't hard for us at all.
We hired a guy to work in the yard 3 times a week. He has come twice so far and he is doing a great job. He just rakes up leaves mostly; there are lots of trees and lots and lots of leaves and I was worried about snakes or spiders. There is no grass to cut or flowers to tend to; but at this point I am just happy to have somebody to clean up the leaves for me!
We also hired a lady to help me in the house 3 times a week. She has been here once and it was soooo hard to have somebody else here (makes me almost sick to my stomach to think of her coming again tomorrow) but boy, we sure did enjoy having the kitchen clean and the floors mopped at the end of the day and I was able to spend the day doing school instead of the cleaning!
Everybody has been healthy except Jasper (hopefully he is better now) who left me a mess on the floor this morning from a really upset tummy.
Right now there are lots of flies which are driving me crazy. Yesterday we saw a rat in the house (yuck) which makes me want to get a cat. I guess it is pretty common here for people to have rats in their houses; but this is the first we have seen in our house. I have a hard enough time to deal with the pet hamsters that the girls are babysitting; let alone a real, live rat.
Oh, and other good news! Our good friends from Lilongwe, James and Lee-Anne with their 3 kids will be in Lusaka on Saturday so we are going there to see them for the day!
So, life is getting easier. While we are in Lusaka we will price a new fridge, freezer (when we get these I can start once a month cooking again) and some bookshelves and dressers/wardrobes. All of these things will help us finish settling in and help keep the house neater and more organized (which I need if I am able to get everything done that I need to each day!). I especially would like to have fewer places for rats to hide!
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Life in Kabwe
It is hard to believe that we have been in Kabwe for almost a month! Time sure is flying by!
We are "enjoying" the summer heat, full force. I think that last year during the hotest part of the year we were at the lake. It was extremely hot but we had the benifit of being able to visit the beach each day if we wanted to. This year we have the extreme heat, but no lake so it might just seem hotter than last year.
Kaleb played the guitar in church this morning! He had fun and the piano player noticed that he has his own way of doing one of the songs, Shout to the Lord. I knew that this was Kaleb's Brazilian roots coming out...that is where we learned that song and I have never heard it played better than it was played in Brazil!
The household chores are taking their toll; we just can't get them all done. This house is much smaller than our other house, but is just harder to keep clean. You can sit in the livingroom and do nothing (we were sick for a few weeks so I know this for sure) and still be covered in dirt by the afternoon (it is so dirty; we have no grass in the yard so the dirt just finds its way into the house; it seems like it could bring a cool breeze with it). After the boys haul 8 big buckets of water from a bathroom (well, it is kind of a bathroom; there is running water; no toilet or shower...) to the outside room where the washing machine is to do just one medium sized load of washing, they don't have a lot of energy to do other chores. We also can easily do 2 loads of laundry a day after we finally catch up with our laundry (after not having a washing machine for 3 weeks I still have piles of towels, sheets, quilts and clothes that need to be washed) which is just a lot of work until we get the water hooked up in there.
We have been sick but now are all better! A few coughs and sniffles are still hanging on, but we are all well enough to go to church and do school.
Jasper is one of the most scary dogs in the neighborhood! He has a big bark and looks pretty fierce so we don't really worry about security here. Some teen boys were seemingly getting ready to use a slingshot on him one day but Joel saw them and chased them away. The problem here is that when people are really scared of your dog they might just throw some poisened meat into the yard to kill him. Sadly, our missionary friends' dog (Jasper's brother) was killed just that way a few months ago. Because of that we actually have Jasper sleep inside since we got here.
I started attending a Tuesday morning ladies bible study again. It is a small group and that is nice. It is also just a short walk from my house so I am away from home less than I was for our bible study in Lilongwe.
Joel has been doing a lot of traveling and he will leave again soon for another trip. I thought it would be harder having him gone but having my two almost grown sons around really helps. They made sure that the doors were locked up at night and that we always had drinking water (they would haul it from Babu and Bibi's)...two very important things! We don't have a car when Joel is gone, but we are close to friends and I know that if I need anything from the store I can get a ride from somebody.
I would put some pictures of our new house but I don't have any. It is probably just as well. ;-) When we were wanting to go to SeaWorld way back when Anna was 2 (almost 9 years ago!) we went to a timeshare thing to get cheaper tickets (not worth it) and one thing I remember the guy saying is how important location is. Well, this house might have its problems, but the location is great, so that makes up for a lot, I guess. When Joel is away I know that Lyle and Jetta are right across the street (in the Roth house until they return from their furlough; Lyle and Jetta are moving into their new house right next to us in a few weeks). Then just a few doors down are Babu and Bibi and just next to them was Dan and Tina (who left just the other day for 3 months in the US). It is nice having so many good friends so close. When I was sick Bibi and Tina sent food. When Jon fell down and scraped his knee he got a lesson on how to care for it and a bandage from Bibi. Joel loves to sit down and talk politics with Babu and until the Moyer kids left my children were in heaven being close enough to play together every day. Seth and Joshua were great frog catchers (they cought bucket loads and would take them to Bibi's to eat the bugs in her yard), Jon, Seth and Josh like to clean all the tadpoles out of her fishpond as well. Kaleb, Andrew, Alissa, Anna and Nadine love to play capture the flag. Nadine and Anna have become great friends and love to do lots of things that I don't even understand (probably the same types of things I did with my sister and cousin when I was 10!). Alissa, Andrew, Kaleb and Natalie like to play card games and board games and running games. They are all lonely already even though their friends left only 3 days ago.
Wow, for a blog post this has gotten long. I don't get a chance to post much anymore so hopefully this will catch you up on what has been going on here in Kabwe!
We are "enjoying" the summer heat, full force. I think that last year during the hotest part of the year we were at the lake. It was extremely hot but we had the benifit of being able to visit the beach each day if we wanted to. This year we have the extreme heat, but no lake so it might just seem hotter than last year.
Kaleb played the guitar in church this morning! He had fun and the piano player noticed that he has his own way of doing one of the songs, Shout to the Lord. I knew that this was Kaleb's Brazilian roots coming out...that is where we learned that song and I have never heard it played better than it was played in Brazil!
The household chores are taking their toll; we just can't get them all done. This house is much smaller than our other house, but is just harder to keep clean. You can sit in the livingroom and do nothing (we were sick for a few weeks so I know this for sure) and still be covered in dirt by the afternoon (it is so dirty; we have no grass in the yard so the dirt just finds its way into the house; it seems like it could bring a cool breeze with it). After the boys haul 8 big buckets of water from a bathroom (well, it is kind of a bathroom; there is running water; no toilet or shower...) to the outside room where the washing machine is to do just one medium sized load of washing, they don't have a lot of energy to do other chores. We also can easily do 2 loads of laundry a day after we finally catch up with our laundry (after not having a washing machine for 3 weeks I still have piles of towels, sheets, quilts and clothes that need to be washed) which is just a lot of work until we get the water hooked up in there.
We have been sick but now are all better! A few coughs and sniffles are still hanging on, but we are all well enough to go to church and do school.
Jasper is one of the most scary dogs in the neighborhood! He has a big bark and looks pretty fierce so we don't really worry about security here. Some teen boys were seemingly getting ready to use a slingshot on him one day but Joel saw them and chased them away. The problem here is that when people are really scared of your dog they might just throw some poisened meat into the yard to kill him. Sadly, our missionary friends' dog (Jasper's brother) was killed just that way a few months ago. Because of that we actually have Jasper sleep inside since we got here.
I started attending a Tuesday morning ladies bible study again. It is a small group and that is nice. It is also just a short walk from my house so I am away from home less than I was for our bible study in Lilongwe.
Joel has been doing a lot of traveling and he will leave again soon for another trip. I thought it would be harder having him gone but having my two almost grown sons around really helps. They made sure that the doors were locked up at night and that we always had drinking water (they would haul it from Babu and Bibi's)...two very important things! We don't have a car when Joel is gone, but we are close to friends and I know that if I need anything from the store I can get a ride from somebody.
I would put some pictures of our new house but I don't have any. It is probably just as well. ;-) When we were wanting to go to SeaWorld way back when Anna was 2 (almost 9 years ago!) we went to a timeshare thing to get cheaper tickets (not worth it) and one thing I remember the guy saying is how important location is. Well, this house might have its problems, but the location is great, so that makes up for a lot, I guess. When Joel is away I know that Lyle and Jetta are right across the street (in the Roth house until they return from their furlough; Lyle and Jetta are moving into their new house right next to us in a few weeks). Then just a few doors down are Babu and Bibi and just next to them was Dan and Tina (who left just the other day for 3 months in the US). It is nice having so many good friends so close. When I was sick Bibi and Tina sent food. When Jon fell down and scraped his knee he got a lesson on how to care for it and a bandage from Bibi. Joel loves to sit down and talk politics with Babu and until the Moyer kids left my children were in heaven being close enough to play together every day. Seth and Joshua were great frog catchers (they cought bucket loads and would take them to Bibi's to eat the bugs in her yard), Jon, Seth and Josh like to clean all the tadpoles out of her fishpond as well. Kaleb, Andrew, Alissa, Anna and Nadine love to play capture the flag. Nadine and Anna have become great friends and love to do lots of things that I don't even understand (probably the same types of things I did with my sister and cousin when I was 10!). Alissa, Andrew, Kaleb and Natalie like to play card games and board games and running games. They are all lonely already even though their friends left only 3 days ago.
Wow, for a blog post this has gotten long. I don't get a chance to post much anymore so hopefully this will catch you up on what has been going on here in Kabwe!
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Zambia
Goodbye Lilongwe!
Saying goodbye at our last homeschoolers meeting in Lilongwe
Well, we have arrived in Zambia. It was a long trip (13 hours) but it was happily uneventful. The kids did great, Jasper did great...we had no throwing up after the first few hours.
We are in the process of getting settled in our new house here in Kabwe. We are trying to figure out when the power cuts are so I know when to cook and when we will have water. Right now the two main things that will make me happy are to have my washing machine hooked up and to get the big water tank hooked up that will allow us to have water even when the power is out! Well, if the big snake Joel saw outside stays outside, those things are all I need to make me happy.
Thanks everybody for praying for this move and please keep on praying! It is a big adjustment for our entire family.
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Field trips
One of the fun things that our homeschooling group has done for the past six months is to attend field trips. We have gone on 4 field trips I think and my friend Lee-Anne gave me some pictures from the last two.
Kids visiting a nearby farm.
Kids very interested in learning about putting print on t-shirts (or pretty much anything else!).
A wonderful group...we will miss them all!
Kids visiting a nearby farm.
Kids very interested in learning about putting print on t-shirts (or pretty much anything else!).
A wonderful group...we will miss them all!
The last week
Today was the first day of our last week here in Lilongwe. I had Bible Study this morning. The first time I attended that bible study was just a few days after we arrived in Malawi; we were staying at Lee-Anne's house and she took me with her.
Later on in the afternoon we went to our last soccer class. There were only 7 kids there today but I think that they had lots of fun. They had a little soccer game and it was a tie score, which is a great way to end, if you ask me (and especially when Anna is on one team and J and J on the other).
Tomorrow we will have a cleaning/packing day all day long since our dentist appointment was moved to Thursday morning. Then Wednesday night the kids will go to their last youth group meeting. Thursday afternoon we have our last homeschooling group meeting. There are eye appointments for Friday morning and on Saturday I will go to my last bible study at Anita's house (our pastor's wife). Then Sunday (last church service and Kaleb's last time to play guitar during the worship service) and Monday (last volleyball for Kaleb) and then Tuesday we leave.
Time is passing! It is hard to believe that next week at this time we will be in Kabwe (if the trip goes smoothly).
Later on in the afternoon we went to our last soccer class. There were only 7 kids there today but I think that they had lots of fun. They had a little soccer game and it was a tie score, which is a great way to end, if you ask me (and especially when Anna is on one team and J and J on the other).
Tomorrow we will have a cleaning/packing day all day long since our dentist appointment was moved to Thursday morning. Then Wednesday night the kids will go to their last youth group meeting. Thursday afternoon we have our last homeschooling group meeting. There are eye appointments for Friday morning and on Saturday I will go to my last bible study at Anita's house (our pastor's wife). Then Sunday (last church service and Kaleb's last time to play guitar during the worship service) and Monday (last volleyball for Kaleb) and then Tuesday we leave.
Time is passing! It is hard to believe that next week at this time we will be in Kabwe (if the trip goes smoothly).
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
soccer
Jon in action
Soccer class
Joshua trying to take the ball away from Anna
Every Tuesday we have Soccer Day...the best day of the year!
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
No Fair!
You know, when you are a missionary you get really used to saying goodbye. It doesn't get easier really; but you do get more used to it. I have tried to have a sort of hard shell around my heart sometimes so I don't keep leaving pieces of it laying around in the places we leave.
One of the hardest goodbyes in our recent history was saying goodbye in Brazil. We didn't know that we weren't returning when we left on our furlough but it was still so hard to leave our dear, dear friends there. When we knew we weren't going back and Joel and I returned to get our things and say goodbye my friends and I decided that there would be no tears this time. I just polished of my old "heart shell" and was able to say goodbye without crying...until the car pulled out of sight of the seminary...I just broke down and couldn't stop the sobs from shaking me.
Another really painful goodbye for our family was saying goodbye to my family when we left the US to come to Malawi last year. It is always hard to say goodbye to my family...whether we are leaving the US, or they have visited us and we are dropping them off at the airport. But this time was of course especially hard because not only were we leaving all of our old time family people like Grandma and Grandpa and Aunt Jamie, but a very special new person in our lives...little Michael who entered our family and our hearts during our last furlough. It has been a year and we know that Michael is already a whole year older, but we all get excited when new photos are sent or we hear news of what Michael is doing or saying now. And to be honest, after spending a year and a half living with my sister my kids are having a hard time adjusting to life without their fun Aunt Jamie. Alissa is kicking herself that she didn't discover her love of math until after we left and now she is missing out on some fun math discussions with her aunt that she is never going to have with her poor math challenged mom. And we are really sad that we missed all the fun summer things with Grandma and Grandpa...like garden planting and the big corn freezing day!
Well, all that to say, it just isn't fair that after only one year here in Malawi we have to say goodbye again already. Who would have ever guessed that we could have made such great friends in such a short time. It has never happened to us before so quickly! Now we have just 3 more weeks before we leave Lilongwe to move to Zambia and it is getting hard to think about. Tonight Joshua and Jonathan were pretty quiet when they realized that they only have 2 more soccer classes before we leave. While they love playing soccer, it is mostly the fun of being with their friends that they enjoy most on Tuesdays (their favorite day of the year, they tell me). I am going to miss Tuesdays too! First my bible study with some great ladies who have been so friendly to me over the past year and then soccer class where the moms of the kids enjoy our talking and walking time as much as the kids enjoy their soccer I think! I am going to miss that fellowship a lot!
As we count down to the date of our departure I know that I will make sure the hard shell around my heart is firmly in place again. I hate goodbyes!
One of the hardest goodbyes in our recent history was saying goodbye in Brazil. We didn't know that we weren't returning when we left on our furlough but it was still so hard to leave our dear, dear friends there. When we knew we weren't going back and Joel and I returned to get our things and say goodbye my friends and I decided that there would be no tears this time. I just polished of my old "heart shell" and was able to say goodbye without crying...until the car pulled out of sight of the seminary...I just broke down and couldn't stop the sobs from shaking me.
Another really painful goodbye for our family was saying goodbye to my family when we left the US to come to Malawi last year. It is always hard to say goodbye to my family...whether we are leaving the US, or they have visited us and we are dropping them off at the airport. But this time was of course especially hard because not only were we leaving all of our old time family people like Grandma and Grandpa and Aunt Jamie, but a very special new person in our lives...little Michael who entered our family and our hearts during our last furlough. It has been a year and we know that Michael is already a whole year older, but we all get excited when new photos are sent or we hear news of what Michael is doing or saying now. And to be honest, after spending a year and a half living with my sister my kids are having a hard time adjusting to life without their fun Aunt Jamie. Alissa is kicking herself that she didn't discover her love of math until after we left and now she is missing out on some fun math discussions with her aunt that she is never going to have with her poor math challenged mom. And we are really sad that we missed all the fun summer things with Grandma and Grandpa...like garden planting and the big corn freezing day!
Well, all that to say, it just isn't fair that after only one year here in Malawi we have to say goodbye again already. Who would have ever guessed that we could have made such great friends in such a short time. It has never happened to us before so quickly! Now we have just 3 more weeks before we leave Lilongwe to move to Zambia and it is getting hard to think about. Tonight Joshua and Jonathan were pretty quiet when they realized that they only have 2 more soccer classes before we leave. While they love playing soccer, it is mostly the fun of being with their friends that they enjoy most on Tuesdays (their favorite day of the year, they tell me). I am going to miss Tuesdays too! First my bible study with some great ladies who have been so friendly to me over the past year and then soccer class where the moms of the kids enjoy our talking and walking time as much as the kids enjoy their soccer I think! I am going to miss that fellowship a lot!
As we count down to the date of our departure I know that I will make sure the hard shell around my heart is firmly in place again. I hate goodbyes!
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