I love that usually I don't have to wake up early on Saturday now that my kids are getting old enough to wake up and get breakfast without me. For awhile Joshua would feel the need to let me know that he was awake, but the last few weeks he hasn't done that. Of course this morning I did have to set my alarm for 5:55 because somebody was coming by for a key, but Joel said that Kaleb was already awake so I just went back to sleep. Kaleb being awake that early means that Shadow was feeling pretty playful this morning and the object of his playfullness was probably Kaleb' feet.
I have to teach Sunday School tomorrow for Anna, Joshua and Jonathan's class. That might seem like a pretty easy thing to do; but I have this thing about teaching Sunday School. I am just not so good at it; and I get really nervous. Anyways, I like to be really prepared because Joel is preaching and he could go on for a long time, so I have to have things to keep the kids busy for an hour, I think.
So, today, besides cleaning out the schoolroom which has so many books sitting all over the floor that we can't walk in there (I had to move this years schoolbooks to the livingroom), and cleaning my bedroom (it was really clean and unpacked last Sunday for the first time since we moved into this house) which tends to get used as the place for kids to do their reading or schoolwork when they need some quiet, and of course cooking and catching up on laundry...oh, and helping Kaleb finish up all the schoolwork he didn't get done last week, I need to prepare for teaching the kids tomorrow. If my books (in the schoolroom) were in bookshelves (which we actually don't have) it would be a bit easier to find something to teach.
Well, it is already 8:05! I suppose the 'sleeping in' part of Saturday is over and the 'catching up with all the jobs that I don't have time for during the week' part has started!
Hmmmm....I wonder if I can talk Joel into cooking? I might have to add that to my list of things to do!
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Saturday, January 3, 2009
Shadow
A few weeks ago Jasper hurt his toe; the nail seemed to be split and it was really hurting him. We didn't know what to do but Jamie sent me some information from the internet and we saw some things to watch for. Yesterday his foot seemed to be really hurting him and last night we saw that his toe was really warm, so today we called the local Kabwe vet to see if we could get Jasper in to have his toe checked out.
Before noon we put Jasper in the van and drove off to find the office of the Dr. Geoffery, the vet. The vet had to come in especially for us, and we arrived at the gate at the same time. As we were walking into his office a little kitten was following the Dr. like she owned the place. It was not making it any easier to bring Jasper in, and I wondered why there was a stray cat being welcomed into the office.
It turns out that the stray cat was kept at the clinic on purpose to help keep the rat population down. she had cut her leg and had stitches; but she was a very friendly kitten; the kids were petting her and playing with her.
Jasper, on the other hand, was being quite a handful. We haven't taught him to walk on a leash and we were paying for it today. He was interested in the kitty, and interested in the new building, and the vet, and everything. Once we got into the examining room the doctor calmly told us to lift him up and put him on the table. Well, the table was really, really tall. And Jasper is really, really big. It took both Joel and me to lift Jasper up onto the table. I honestly didn't think it could be done! After some shots for antibiotics and some cleaning of the toenail we were good to go home. Well, we were told to take an old bucket, saw a hole in the end and put it over Jasper's head to keep him from licking his wound. Ummm...I don't think so. We feel bad just making him wear his collar in this hot weather. Can you imagine a big, bulky bucket around your neck? I suppose this is what you use when you don't have those funny, clear, lightweight, plastic thingies that vets use in the states to keep dogs from scratching or whatever. We had to get Jasper off the table which was almost as hard as getting him up on it. He is sooo strong; I think he must be as strong as Jamie's late dog, Jackie, who was so strong that Jamie and I together could not put ear stuff in her ears. Well, Jasper doesn't mind his ears being looked at, but he wasn't crazy about having to sit on a table with a stray cat walking around the room near his kids.
So, Joel asked the vet if we could take the cat home. We need a cat, and Joel thought it was a stray. This is when we found out that it belonged to the vet place; but still the vet seemed happy to find a good home for it. He said it had already been vaccinated, would need to come back on Tuesday with Jasper to get the stitches out (yay; another ride in the van with two animals who are not crazy about each other), and was great at catching rats. Just what the doctor ordered!
We went through a bunch of names and finally decided on Shadow, in honor of Mom's old cat. This Shadow is black and white. I think that she and Jasper will become friends eventually. But at this point, all I care about is that she will kill rats! I am hoping she does anyways!
Tomorrow is Sunday and the kids are all singing in church. Well, Andrew is not singing because he isn't crazy about his voice at the moment. And Anna is only going to pretend to sing since she just came down with a very bad cold the last few days and can barely talk, let alone sing, today. We will see how it goes!
Before noon we put Jasper in the van and drove off to find the office of the Dr. Geoffery, the vet. The vet had to come in especially for us, and we arrived at the gate at the same time. As we were walking into his office a little kitten was following the Dr. like she owned the place. It was not making it any easier to bring Jasper in, and I wondered why there was a stray cat being welcomed into the office.
It turns out that the stray cat was kept at the clinic on purpose to help keep the rat population down. she had cut her leg and had stitches; but she was a very friendly kitten; the kids were petting her and playing with her.
Jasper, on the other hand, was being quite a handful. We haven't taught him to walk on a leash and we were paying for it today. He was interested in the kitty, and interested in the new building, and the vet, and everything. Once we got into the examining room the doctor calmly told us to lift him up and put him on the table. Well, the table was really, really tall. And Jasper is really, really big. It took both Joel and me to lift Jasper up onto the table. I honestly didn't think it could be done! After some shots for antibiotics and some cleaning of the toenail we were good to go home. Well, we were told to take an old bucket, saw a hole in the end and put it over Jasper's head to keep him from licking his wound. Ummm...I don't think so. We feel bad just making him wear his collar in this hot weather. Can you imagine a big, bulky bucket around your neck? I suppose this is what you use when you don't have those funny, clear, lightweight, plastic thingies that vets use in the states to keep dogs from scratching or whatever. We had to get Jasper off the table which was almost as hard as getting him up on it. He is sooo strong; I think he must be as strong as Jamie's late dog, Jackie, who was so strong that Jamie and I together could not put ear stuff in her ears. Well, Jasper doesn't mind his ears being looked at, but he wasn't crazy about having to sit on a table with a stray cat walking around the room near his kids.
So, Joel asked the vet if we could take the cat home. We need a cat, and Joel thought it was a stray. This is when we found out that it belonged to the vet place; but still the vet seemed happy to find a good home for it. He said it had already been vaccinated, would need to come back on Tuesday with Jasper to get the stitches out (yay; another ride in the van with two animals who are not crazy about each other), and was great at catching rats. Just what the doctor ordered!
We went through a bunch of names and finally decided on Shadow, in honor of Mom's old cat. This Shadow is black and white. I think that she and Jasper will become friends eventually. But at this point, all I care about is that she will kill rats! I am hoping she does anyways!
Tomorrow is Sunday and the kids are all singing in church. Well, Andrew is not singing because he isn't crazy about his voice at the moment. And Anna is only going to pretend to sing since she just came down with a very bad cold the last few days and can barely talk, let alone sing, today. We will see how it goes!
Thursday, January 1, 2009
Rats!
We have been missionaries for 18 years now. Over the years I have developed a sort of history with rats. In fact, at this very moment I writing about rats on my blog to avoid going into my kitchen where I am almost sure there is a big rat in hiding, waiting to jump out at me if I open the door.
Ok, back to my history of rats. Growing up I lived in an old farmhouse that had mice. I didn't enjoy hearing mice crawling around in the walls or seeing the occasional mouse scoot across the floor. The worse thing was seeing the cat just sitting, looking at the wall, waiting patiently for that mouse to come out so he can grab it. I didn't enjoy this but I wasn't super scared of it. Still, I would give an appropriate reaction of jumping up on the chair and screaming a bit.
When we went to Indonesia we lived with a local pastor for 3 months or so. They had a beautiful house with open sewers which meant that they lived in a beautiful house with lots of rats. You would be eating supper and see the rats crawling around in the kitchen on the pots and pans. You would have the rats run right by you a you sat at the table. They would come into the bathroom; and even get into your bedroom. I had to learn see this without my normal jump on the chair and scream reaction. Hard to do; but probably good for my self control. Anyways, eventually we moved to our own house and we only had one rat I think; maybe two. One came in our bathroom through a drain pipe; and maybe there was one in the kitchen. But that was it. So, not that bad.
In the Philippines I don't remember ever having rats in our house. It might have been that the rats were allergic to the chicken poop messes that were all over the driveway; or they didn't like the huge spiders or lizards in the house.
In Brazil we lived in both Curitiba and Recife. In Curitiba we did have a rat that came to visit us right when my sister came to visit us. The rat came in a broken back door and actually got very close to Jamie at night while she slept (if the rat poo messes were any clue). The next day Joel was moved out to the couch with the rat and Jamie moved into my room. Poor Jamie had thought that there was a little dog outside trying to get in that broken back door. Nope...it was a rat that actually ate through a peanut butter container she had brought us from the US!!! Very bad rat!
In Recife we didn't have rats in our apartment but we could look out back and see them playing in the garbage heap.
Back in Curitiba again we had another rat problem that lasted for several weeks (happily one of those weeks was when I was in the US). Finally we figured out where he was coming from and they were able to block up the opening and that was the end of the in the house rat problem. We still had lots of rats on the garbage pile (the place we kept the garbage until they removed it daily to the road) by the fence near our house.
Ok, in Malawi we heard about people having lots of rats. I heard scary stories about people having rats climbing up their curtains and running across their livingrooms! ACK! The worse we had was a squirrel in the house at the lake and a dead rat found outside our door in the yard in Lilongwe. I assumed we were just living in a rat free house; but I did know that we hadn't lived in that house in the middle of the rainy season yet and that is when the rats come out and look for a high and dry place to live.
Ok, so now we are in our house in Kabwe. I already shared how we had "a" rat. Sigh. Well, turns out our friends were right; where there is one rat there are plenty more hiding. We can actually hear the rat parties up in the ceiling; they have a soccer ball up there I think that they kick around. Joel closed up one of the holes and we went at least a week without seeing any rats; but the last few days a rat has been hiding out in my kitchen. He then got brave enough to move into the dining room. Then one day I saw him flash out of the livingroom into the diningroom and Jasper did his duty and scared him into the kitchen for me.
Ok, yesterday was my birthday. I had a great day and the ending plan was a movie I wanted to see. I made popcorn and even had a coke for the special occasion. I was sitting in the livingroom watching my movie when a huge rat (think small cat size; not kitten size; but small regular cat size) came running out from under MY CHAIR!!! He started circling the livingroom! He ran from my chair to the couch; behind the TV stand; over by the door but the door was too near my chair and my screaching must have made him scared to go there; so back behind the TV stand; back behind the couch; and then finally out the livingroom door to the diningroom when the kids came running at my screams; and scared him back into the livingroom to do it all again! When the boys heard it was a rat that came running armed with sticks and other tools that might be needed and had a great time chasing it around the livingroom, through the diningroom and into the kitchen (where it has a hole and disappeared). Joshua is my true friend and he closed the kitchen door and put a heavy towel on the bottom to keep the rat from bothering me again. :-)
So, here I am. It is the next morning now. And the kitchen door is still closed; the towel is still there. And I am not going to open that door. I didn't have to cook yesterday because it was my birthday. I might not cook today because I think that I will never again enter my kitchen until the rainy season is over and the rats move to their winter homes outside!
Ok, back to my history of rats. Growing up I lived in an old farmhouse that had mice. I didn't enjoy hearing mice crawling around in the walls or seeing the occasional mouse scoot across the floor. The worse thing was seeing the cat just sitting, looking at the wall, waiting patiently for that mouse to come out so he can grab it. I didn't enjoy this but I wasn't super scared of it. Still, I would give an appropriate reaction of jumping up on the chair and screaming a bit.
When we went to Indonesia we lived with a local pastor for 3 months or so. They had a beautiful house with open sewers which meant that they lived in a beautiful house with lots of rats. You would be eating supper and see the rats crawling around in the kitchen on the pots and pans. You would have the rats run right by you a you sat at the table. They would come into the bathroom; and even get into your bedroom. I had to learn see this without my normal jump on the chair and scream reaction. Hard to do; but probably good for my self control. Anyways, eventually we moved to our own house and we only had one rat I think; maybe two. One came in our bathroom through a drain pipe; and maybe there was one in the kitchen. But that was it. So, not that bad.
In the Philippines I don't remember ever having rats in our house. It might have been that the rats were allergic to the chicken poop messes that were all over the driveway; or they didn't like the huge spiders or lizards in the house.
In Brazil we lived in both Curitiba and Recife. In Curitiba we did have a rat that came to visit us right when my sister came to visit us. The rat came in a broken back door and actually got very close to Jamie at night while she slept (if the rat poo messes were any clue). The next day Joel was moved out to the couch with the rat and Jamie moved into my room. Poor Jamie had thought that there was a little dog outside trying to get in that broken back door. Nope...it was a rat that actually ate through a peanut butter container she had brought us from the US!!! Very bad rat!
In Recife we didn't have rats in our apartment but we could look out back and see them playing in the garbage heap.
Back in Curitiba again we had another rat problem that lasted for several weeks (happily one of those weeks was when I was in the US). Finally we figured out where he was coming from and they were able to block up the opening and that was the end of the in the house rat problem. We still had lots of rats on the garbage pile (the place we kept the garbage until they removed it daily to the road) by the fence near our house.
Ok, in Malawi we heard about people having lots of rats. I heard scary stories about people having rats climbing up their curtains and running across their livingrooms! ACK! The worse we had was a squirrel in the house at the lake and a dead rat found outside our door in the yard in Lilongwe. I assumed we were just living in a rat free house; but I did know that we hadn't lived in that house in the middle of the rainy season yet and that is when the rats come out and look for a high and dry place to live.
Ok, so now we are in our house in Kabwe. I already shared how we had "a" rat. Sigh. Well, turns out our friends were right; where there is one rat there are plenty more hiding. We can actually hear the rat parties up in the ceiling; they have a soccer ball up there I think that they kick around. Joel closed up one of the holes and we went at least a week without seeing any rats; but the last few days a rat has been hiding out in my kitchen. He then got brave enough to move into the dining room. Then one day I saw him flash out of the livingroom into the diningroom and Jasper did his duty and scared him into the kitchen for me.
Ok, yesterday was my birthday. I had a great day and the ending plan was a movie I wanted to see. I made popcorn and even had a coke for the special occasion. I was sitting in the livingroom watching my movie when a huge rat (think small cat size; not kitten size; but small regular cat size) came running out from under MY CHAIR!!! He started circling the livingroom! He ran from my chair to the couch; behind the TV stand; over by the door but the door was too near my chair and my screaching must have made him scared to go there; so back behind the TV stand; back behind the couch; and then finally out the livingroom door to the diningroom when the kids came running at my screams; and scared him back into the livingroom to do it all again! When the boys heard it was a rat that came running armed with sticks and other tools that might be needed and had a great time chasing it around the livingroom, through the diningroom and into the kitchen (where it has a hole and disappeared). Joshua is my true friend and he closed the kitchen door and put a heavy towel on the bottom to keep the rat from bothering me again. :-)
So, here I am. It is the next morning now. And the kitchen door is still closed; the towel is still there. And I am not going to open that door. I didn't have to cook yesterday because it was my birthday. I might not cook today because I think that I will never again enter my kitchen until the rainy season is over and the rats move to their winter homes outside!
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Rats don't flush well
Well, we found the rat in the toilet. I don't know exactly what Joel did with him, but it might have had something to do with killing it and then flushing it. A few days later we noticed a really bad smell from the bathroom (that is the bathroom that I don't use anyways for other reasons; but now that there has been a rat in the toilet I really wouldn't use it) and I am thinking that the rat didn't flush well. Joel said he would take care of the problem and I haven't noticed the smell today. I am not going to ask him what he did to solve the problem. Maybe it went away because I ignored it long enough?
They tell us that there are more rats and I am kidding myself to think that this is the one and only rat in this house. So, we need to get some stuff to kill them. And we need to get a cat. I am thinking we need 3 or 4 cats or whatever it takes to KNOW that there aren't any rats in the house but Joel thinks that one is enough. We'll see.
They tell us that there are more rats and I am kidding myself to think that this is the one and only rat in this house. So, we need to get some stuff to kill them. And we need to get a cat. I am thinking we need 3 or 4 cats or whatever it takes to KNOW that there aren't any rats in the house but Joel thinks that one is enough. We'll see.
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Getting easier!
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!
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!
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.
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