One Random Day in the Life

Not that you're interested, but I chronicled part of a random day here, and I thought I might share.

There are different things about every day, but of course, there are also similarities.

When we first wake, there is no power, and when it was more "winter-ish," there was no light.  Breakfast was made by lantern-light.  

There has generally been power from 7am to 8am since the middle of January, and then it goes off until late afternoon.  This picture was taken around 8:15, after the kids have gone to school.  We are very fortunate because we have windows in our house.  So many people have to use lanterns even after 8 am.

This is the view outside my kitchen window.

If the blinds are closed, this is my "view."

Usually, we're pretty good about washing dishes from dinner the night before so they are ready to put up the next morning, like this.

 But sometimes,  I wake, and I'm met with a mess from a lazy night.
 


Since I only have one sink, I put all the dirties in the red basin and boil water on the stove.



Very soon, it's all done...till lunch.


We usually have pretty good power at night.  It shuts off until midnight, but until then, I can usually get all the wash done for the day and hang it on our rack and on the stairs.  This is what I see the next morning.  And yes, we still have "crunchy" towels, just like we did in Africa.

I get everything folded into piles, ready for the kids to pick up after school.  The trunks are my "pantry."  These are where I keep goodies that are sent from America, multiples of an item, or salsa and pickles that I make.

 Now, the rack will sit empty all day until the power comes on again at night.

And, I wait until the kids dutifully fill it up again by throwing their clothes down from the second floor.



Throwing their clothes down must be a lot of fun because I never have to remind them to do it.



I also vacuum in the late afternoon when there is power.  For some reason, someone tiled this house with WHITE tile, so every speck of anything or hair from anybody's head, is noticeable to the downcast eye.

If we have had city power the night before (versus generator power), that means our hot water heater was working and a hot shower can be had the next morning.  But getting prepared for a shower is quite a shock to the system when your house feels like 50 degrees or colder.  We also try to take "military showers."  They need to be short, and while we're soaping up, we turn the water off, so that the rest of the family will have enough hot water, as well.

*cold*

This picture was taken in January, when I used to hang a lantern on the door of the shower.



It gave me pretty good light, but I realized with water running over my eyes, I keep my eyes closed most of the time anyway, so I stopped taking a lantern with me.



Next, I try to pick out an outfit and put on make-up in my room by lantern or iphone light.  Even with the door open, it doesn't get a lot of light in there.  Recently, I've been taking my make-up into the living room and applying it there.  I stuck myself in the eye several times in my room trying to hold an iphone light in one hand and apply mascara with the other.

Since our afternoons get busy with kids coming home, their activities, and our language tutor coming to the house, I usually go to the vegetable stand in the morning and start prepping for dinner.

My door to the vegetable stand and the outside world.

Looks like we had a dust storm, and somebody needrd to hose down the front porch area.  

I believe after I took this picture, Doug cleaned the porch.  I'm sure the neighborhood ladies get a kick out of seeing him do "women's work," but again, we want to be different, and this is one way we can show how to humble ourselves and be a servant to others.

When I return from buying vegetables, I homeschool Keira until lunch.  After lunch, when I'm ready to go for visits, most everything in my neighborhood is shut down for naptime, so visits have to wait until later.  Most everything in this culture happens late at night, anyway.  

For example:

The girls finish their dance classes around 10pm.  

Caleb gets home from soccer around 8pm.  

Doug gets home from teaching around 8:30pm.

Dentist appointments here START around 9pm.

Late night dinners are a regular at our house.  It makes for short nights, but we are getting used to it.

I left a ton out, but you kind of get an idea of a no-nonsense day.

Happy random day to you, too.

From Death to New Life

My friend Pasca is such a blessing to me.  She loves the Word of God, but her job has prevented her from studying with me.  I visited her at work, but she worked 7 days a week, with no time off, and no time for Bible study.

Last month, the company she worked for shut down, and now she doesn’t have a job, BUT she has time to study the Word of God with me.  When we started studying, she was 34 weeks pregnant, so I knew my time was limited before the baby came.

These are some pictures of her a couple of weeks ago.  One of them is with the Maama Kit I gave her plus some feminine items.  She was so excited to pose for the pictures.

Let me back up and tell you a story about Pasca. 

On November 13, 2011, when she was three months pregnant, she was struck by lightning, along with 5 other people while they were attending a burial.

In her pain, she felt herself rise above her body.  She could see everyone below, including her body.  She called out to Jesus, and the next thing she knew she was being taken to the hospital.  She had a black mark down her back where the lightning had left its mark, but when she got to the hospital, it was gone.

The doctors said she was fine, and they discharged her the next day.  I don’t know if she died when that lightning struck, but I do know it is a miracle of God that she is okay.  One of the 6 people did die.

Back to the present, she and I have been going through the book of Hebrews.  We only had three chapters left, and I was going for chapter 11 last Saturday, but when I reached her house, some man told me she was at the hospital in labor.

Well, the truth was that she started laboring on Thursday, but she waited until Saturday morning to go to the hospital.  When I found out, I went immediately to the labor and delivery ward to see her.

There are about 15 curtains in the room, and there were women behind everyone of them laboring.  Pasca was among the 7 on the floor still laboring.  She got up off the cement to come over to me, where I was standing with all the aunties, sisters, and grandmothers.  She said, “I think I’ll be done by tonight.” 

Who talks like that when they are in labor?  

Funny lady.

She also told me that five minutes after I left the labor and delivery ward, instead of 7 women on the floor, there were at least 40.

(That leads me to a side note and a truth one of the university boys who is here now researched and shared with me.  Uganda is either second or third in the world in babies born per capita.)

Pasca sort of verified it when she said that over the time that she spent at the hospital that weekend, over 60 babies were born, with one fatality.

On Monday (her 5^th day of labor), Pasca was STILL at the hospital.  She reached 6cm and never went any farther, so they discharged her saying the babies being born were probably causing her stress, and she should go home and finish labor.

After being discharged, she sat outside the hospital “taking” tea, and pains started becoming worse than ever.  She went to talk to the nurse.  She was checked, and it seems she was back down to 4cm.  She asked the doctor to operate, sensing something was wrong. 

The doctor said he would be back in one hour to operate, but her never showed his face again.

They re-admitted her, and she finally climbed to 8cm around 6 pm.  At 8pm, the baby was coming. The midwife helping her had already clocked out of work, but was kind enough to stay with her…thankfully.  The baby couldn’t come out because the umbilical cord was wrapped around her neck three times, and there was no give.  She kept being pulled back in because the cord was too short.

The midwife took both hands, grabbed the head, and unwrapped the cord and pulled her baby girl out! 

Pasca finished the night there, came home at 11am on Tues, and when I walked to her house 5 hours later, I walked up to her outside, bent over, washing clothes!!

She was so joyous (as always), and told me what a blessing the Maama Kit had been.  Two women came to the hospital ready to deliver and since they didn’t have gloves, the nurses wouldn’t help them.  Since Pasca had the three gloves from the kit, she was glad to offer some of the other gloves her previous employer had given her. 

She also said babies were coming so fast all weekend, and there were only 2 nurses on duty.  Once, when three ladies started delivering at the same time, they could only help two, and the third had to deliver on the floor with relatives assisting.  And I’m sure that’s not the only time a relative had to assist during the weekend (or at any other time of the year)!

Meet Shawna Faith and her mother!

 And here are all the neighbors (along with two of Pasca's three sons) who were so excited about the new baby, they stayed inside with us the whole time we talked.

Thanks, Jesus, for this LIFE story.