What's a doshak?

Well, the short answer is: a piece of "furniture" that makes "decorating" a room pretty easy.

The real answer is: pieces of foam covered in fabric, laid end to end, that provide seating for family and guests.

In this culture, it is what people prefer to sit on to eat, watch TV, visit, etc.  Our entry room into our house will have doshaks lining the walls so that when new friends come over, they will feel at home and comfortable.

Having doshaks required a trip to a market.

There are several markets in town, and I like all the ones I have been to.  They remind me of Arua, so it's quite a "familiar" feeling.

This particular job called for an interpreter, so I went with a young lady who has been here a year, and is really getting around well in the language.  She took me to "her guy," and we started the process.

Material first.

As you can tell, choosing material can be a little overwhelming.  Hanging above are rugs or material for curtains, and in the bins below, there is material to make blankets.  

I kind of had in my mind we would look for a greyish color, but when I got there, I saw that these people really favor brown (the color of the sand that blows in their windows and doors).  

So I started to narrow it down between some browns.

 And then Kylie saw this peeking between two bolts of fabric.  It was feeling forgotten because no one here really wants grey.  But we do!

These gentlemen measured out 18 meters of this fabric for us.  And then it was time to find a tailor.

 

Oh wait!  There's a tailor on the other side of these bolts...right next door.

Hello, tailor, in your teeny, tiny room.

 They were busy making curtains for someone, but the nice man in the back allowed us to place our order and leave the fabric with him.  However, he wanted to know what size foam I was going to buy.

Huh?

So...we went to the stall right before the bolts of fabric (we had walked through it on our way in), and we had to choose between 5cm, 7cm, and 9cm of thickness.  

I went with the thickest, because if I'm going to have to sit on the floor for long periods of time, I don't want my hind end hittin' the tile.

We went back to the tailor and told him the size of foam and where I would like the zipper.  He said it would be ready in three days.

My friend has language lessons near that market, so she said she would get pick them up for us.  They were delivered Wednesday, inside out, and Doug and Kylie figured out a way to get them on. 

Now you know what a doshak is, and we have one more thing checked off our list. :)

The Shopping Saga Continues

We finally found the perfect living room set! 

Don't you love our new chandelier?

Just kidding (the chandelier was $27,500)!

Keira told me she was the queen, and she wanted me to take her picture in this furniture store.  

Nice, huh?

Well, we went a little more classy for our bedrooms...particle board.

Yep, it's the standard here.  So when the delivery guys came to set up, this is how my bedroom started.

But it ended up looking like this.  Not bad.  We just can't ever move it or it will wobble apart.

On a side note, I know you can't tell, but let me tell you, those tiles are C.O.L.D!

Here are the other kids' wardrobes that were put together on Sunday.

Kylie's.

Caleb's.

And Karis'.  

Now they all have closets (except Keira).  She's going to share a room with Karis, but I'm a little nervous about her wondering around at night with no power (lights) down those marble stairs, so for now, her mattress is on the floor in our room, and we're still working on a solution for her clothes.

For now, they're in a suitcase on the floor.  *sigh*

Here's a look at my side of town.  I was crossing a foot bridge near our house and decided to snap a picture.  See that mosque in the back left?

It's really beautiful, but this is the only shot I've gotten of it so far.  Out a window, in a moving car last week.

Here's the road under the foot bridge facing the other direction.

Speaking of mosques...interesting cultural tidbit.  Everyone uses his mosque to tell others where he lives.  For example, a person would tell a taxi driver where he lived by naming his mosque, not his street address.

I know you are ready for more toilet stories, but I have to post about another shopping trip first.  If I haven't already said it, shopping in a new city, without knowing the language, is not for the faint of heart.

Shopping...not for the faint of heart

Shopping has been interesting to say the least.  It is overwhelming for me to make so many decisions in such a short amount of time.  

But, thankfully, some decisions are easy.  

For example, some areas of furniture stores I don't even have to walk through.  Thankfully, I have one example to show you because Keira borrowed my phone to take pictures in a store one time, and she caught a furniture set on a photo.  This is a small example, but you get the idea.

When we finally get around to buying some propane for our stove, grocery store shopping looks like it's going to be fun.  I snapped some pictures today when I felt like no one was looking.

This is one of the bigger grocery stores, which I won't always visit, but it's nice to know it's here ;)

And look at how clever the store owners are...on our way up to the second floor of the grocery store, they put all kinds of chocolate between the two escalators.

This grocery store is actually in a mall.  

Last week, we ate in the food court.  Keira can't read, but guess where she picked to eat?

Even though she was born in Africa, I guess Texas is in her blood somewhere.

Also, in this mall, was the store where we bought our duvet covers and toilets.  

If you get our newsletter, I'm guessing you already saw this picture of Doug trying out the toilet and measuring it for size. 

 

One of our squatty potties has a really large hole, and we had to look high and low to find a toilet with a large enough base to cover it.

These are such glorious photos, I know, but maybe you can tell how much larger the "blue" one is

Now that you've lost your lunch, you can watch us enjoy ours. 

Doug bought these sandwiches off the street today, and we had a nice lunch in the midst of cleaning.

Tomorrow, we're moving all our bags into our new home, and then on Saturday, our beds will be delivered.  Hopefully, I'll be able to get you some more pictures soon.

                                                                                                                                                          

The White House

I have no idea why Keira called our home in College Station the "white house," but she has continued the tradition here.  It must be because of all the white walls inside, because as you can see...

It is most certainly, not white.  Whoever built it, must have decided that the work they did inside was enough, so they stopped.  Notice no railing around the balcony!  Also notice chicken man/landlord's truck on the sidewalk (which is where it is every day), and chicken man, friends, etc. outside to the left of my gate.  Basically, I have my own security guards right there for the price of rent :)

Inside the courtyard, down the right side of my house, it looks like this.

And looking at my two entrances to my house, you see a white box in front of you, which is the outside squatty potty for guests (or whomever wants to use it).

I must say, I haven't been brave enough to clean it yet.  I think it's been used frequently by some neighbors before we moved in, but I did tackle to the two squatty's inside.  Two down; one to go.

Caleb has done a nice job using the squeegie on the patio for the last few days.  Everyone here cleans their's almost every day, so it looks like it's going to be a chore that we do often.  Caleb has already volunteered.  I think playing in the water is fun for him, and I'm sure in his imagination, that squeegie is something like a light saber :)

This is my laundry room.  I'm told that culturally, this is where people would wash their dishes over the drain in the floor.

If you look up from here, you see the water heater.

And if you continue looking up, you see the cracked, plastic covering that allows sweet droplets of rain to enter on a cool day.

I plan to have that fixed :)

Up on the roof of the house, this is one of the views.  I have yet to figure out the directions, but when I do, I'll let you know.

And the side street by my house looks like this at the "slow" time of the day. 

I don't know if I'll be brave enough to pull out my camera when it comes alive, but maybe I can shoot some pics from the roof someday.

A few interesting things that we learned this week, and then I'll close.

We were getting town power the few hours that it was on each day, but when the generator for the block would turn on, we still didn't have power.  It turns out we had to pay the "generator guy" about $7, and then he would put the size AMP fuse we wanted into the power pole.

See the brown box below on the pole?

And did you see those wires??

As my kids would say, "Yikesy Poodle!"

Anyway, sometimes our power will shut off because we have too much running, so someone has to cross the street with a broom pole (or something similar) and flip the switch back up.  It's basically like the breaker box in your home except the whole neighborhood has access to it apparently.  It's pretty funny to drive down the road and see small boys with a squeegie in their hands, reaching up to flip their switch back up.  Seems like an everyday occurrence here.  (I think it's another job for Caleb).

Another "different" thing here is the "ice cream man."  Every day, the ice cream truck comes down our street.

Well, you think it's the ice cream truck.  It's actually a man in a truck playing the cutest "ice cream truck" music, but he's just letting you know to come outside if you need to switch out your propane bottles.

In Uganda, propane bottles were not always easy to find.  In fact, sometimes it was near impossible if the town was low on supply.  Here, they just go up and down the streets handing them out like candy.  I wish I had someone near me to clarify the prices, but I think in Uganda, each bottle was about $50, and here, they are about $10. 

More later on our journey to "the white house."

Now, I'm officially awake

Sorry about that last post.  I re-read it, and realized how disjointed it sounded.  But after last night's good rest, I think I'm fully out of jet-lag.

Or at least I hope I am.

Backing up, I wanted to show you are final meal in Texas (Mexican food & Dr. Pepper!) and what our luggage looked like at the airport.  I was SO impressed with the skycap!  The skill to put all of our checked bags on one trolley really impressed me (or maybe it just doesn't take much to impress me).

Can you believe that?

Ready travelers

Cute traveler

When we landed in Frankfurt, I forgot to take a picture to compare it to the one at the bottom of this blog of when we had a layover 6 years ago, our first time around.

But I did manage to get a picture of our first meal on the ground.  Exciting, right? 

The reason I took a picture, is because it was a lot less conspicuous doing it around Americans, and I wanted to show you how the people eat every meal here.

Everyone sits on the floor on long pillows on top of a blanket, and then a long roll of plastic is laid down the center between the pillows.  The dinner is eaten on the plastic.  In fact, I was told it is impolite to pick your plate up and hold it in your hand closer to your mouth, which I was very tempted to do.  It's a lot of bending over.

After dinner, you can see what Karis and Kylie have already done (on the left)  You dump whatever is left on your plate onto the plastic.  When everyone is done, dishes and silverware are removed, and the plastic is rolled up with plastic cups (if that's what you use) and leftover food inside, like so...

I hope you get the idea.  I was a little late pulling out my camera.

We've been cleaning our new house for a few days because it has been vacant for a long time and really needed some attention.  However, today, we took a break because the painter came.  He asked for kids to be out of the house, so I left with the kiddos, and Doug remained there cleaning.

We also got a break from cleaning last Friday because it's their Sabbath.  We were invited to go to the VERY large park in town (it could give Central Park in NYC a run for its money in size).  We had a picnic and let the kids play outside.  It was a pretty day. 

This playground set is one of SEVERAL on the park grounds.  I can't wait to visit them all. 

If you look at the boys on top of the blue pole to the right, you can spot Caleb in the green shirt on the left.

And here is our trooper who has had a difficult time with jet-lag...Keira, not me :)

She has been a real trooper and smiled through it all, but to see her fall asleep while she is still chewing food is something to behold.

Hello from the Other Side

Well, I've returned.  Scraped up.  Wiser.  Better.  Thankful.

Since I am now "on the other side," I think my hiatus from the blog world needed to come to an end.  

I also see I'm behind in adding "Keira-isms" (as I call them) to the funny things "my darling three" (now four) say.

But before I recount some of our stateside, I think I'll start in the present with a conversation Keira and I had Monday when we got on the plane.

"Mom, who's driving us?"

She was very concerned, so I reminded her about the book we had read on pilots.

Then she said, "What's our new house called?"

I told her the name of the new country, and she said, "Is it to the left or the right?"

I said, "To the right."

Then she added, "I like flying."  (Of course, we were still on the tarmac).

In the air, she wanted to know, "Where'd all those houses go?"

Getting our last measurement (for a while) in Doc & Doe's closet

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When she awoke in Frankfurt and at our final destination, her first words were, "Is this our new home?"

Just to give you some comparison, Caleb was only 7 months older than Keira when we left for Africa.

I must say, traveling with three older kids who carry their own luggage and manage themselves in the security line is awesome!
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 Keira woke up from 1-3am the first night, and 4:30 to 6am the second night, but I think she's going to get back on schedule tonight.  We didn't let her rest all day.  Tonight at dinner, she was chewing her food, with her eyes closed and her head bobbing back and forth (we have video to prove it).
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Day 1:  Doug, our landlord, and a friend went to the local police to register us.  Upon arriving, they found out that showing passports was not enough, the officials needed to be handed copies of passports and a passport photo of every family member.

Since business is usually conducted in the morning, the registration would have to be completed the next day.

So, we went to look at the house and then went to start buying cleaning supplies, tools, and other odds and ends.  We were still going to different stores when night fell.

Day 2:  Doug, our landlord, and friend went back to the local police with all of the papers and photos, and they informed him that they needed to see his family in person.

The kids and I were shopping with a friend for brooms, squee-gee's, garbage cans, etc. so we quickly checked out and went to the police station.  We filed upstairs into a room where we were never looked at once, and after some papers were filled out, we were told we could leave and go on our way.

After lunch with some fellow teachers from the language center, we went back to the house to clean, starting with the roof.

We filled up one trashcan easily, so the rest had to be thrown over the side of the roof, into our courtyard.  

Broken tile.
Dirty underwear.
Empty water bottles.
Hay.
Wire.
Gunk.
You get the idea.

When we went downstairs to clean it up, we filled four garbage sacks full!  We also filled another trash bag cleaning up the litter in our house and on the street around our house, for which we are now responsible.

 
 The girls worked inside, cleaning the kitchen with a neighborhood friend; Caleb and two boys from the neighborhood, hosed down and squee-geed the courtyard.

I cleaned the "laundry room;" Doug swept inside and out; Kylie later scraped paint off the stairs, and the other girls cleaned walls while the boys went to play soccer.

Caleb said, "Mom, we're done.  They said we're going to go play in the street now."

"Uh!  What?"

"Mom, please!"

Thankfully, they finally agreed to go to one of the boys' courtyards and kick the ball around there.  *whew*

This is the view from my kitchen, into the living area (called "the hall")

An upstairs bedroom

Some dangerously hard-looking stairs

One of the three squatty potties (one's outside).  We're going to buy a Western toilet to go over this.

I'll try to send more pictures as I get them.  I forgot to get a picture of the front of the house; however, I did get a picture of the best part.

Taken from inside my courtyard, looking over the wall.

We live next door to a chicken slaughter business.  

I can get chicken and eggs at anytime.

And the owner is my landlord.

Looks like our property will be well-protected; however, I'll let you know when summer comes, what it smells like outside.

This is what "hello from the other side" looks like today.

It's the Smallest Things

It's the smallest things that take me back.  Today it was a fly.

I was cooking breakfast, and a fly buzzed around my head.  My mind quickly went back to Uganda.  Flies were such a common part of my kitchen and life there, but this small fly today made me realize that I haven't seen a fly indoors in a long time.

Sometimes, on the rare chance I hear a rooster or goat, I am also reminded of my home back in Uganda.  It can be the wide roads and shoulders, the variety of choices at the grocery store, the ice in my glass, the availability of Dr. Pepper, my lack of car horn use, a clean smell, or wearing sweaters in air conditioning.  They all still catch me off-guard a little sometimes.  The smallest things will take me back in an instant.

And of course, there are things that never happen here, but I remember them as part of daily life there.

There is no one sweeping my grass/dirt at 6:30 in the morning.

I can't smell what the neighbors are cooking unless they are grilling out.

No one stares at me when I go out.

No one yells "Mundu" or "Mzungu" when I am seen walking around.

It's VERY quiet here; plus, my windows are shut.
Can you believe that my neighbors don't know when I'm going to the bathroom?
And there is no one patrolling around my house at night on foot.

I haven't filtered water in almost a year, and I've been brushing my teeth with sink water.

Not once have I had to check solar before doing a load of laundry.

And I don't have to buy meat and cheese three months at a time (although I could).

If you haven't figured out, we are still in America.  Father's plans are different than ours, and I'm so glad, because His are better.  We anxiously await what He has in store for us.

We've had quite a few adventures, but I never thought to share them because they're America-type things that you're used to.

We had originally been living in my hometown, with my parents, but as we saw our time on this continent was being extended, we knew we needed to find another place to live.  Through the workings of Our Creator, we are now living in another town we love, but the drawbacks were we had to leave our church, friends, and the kids' schools behind.  The kids weren't quite up to enrolling in a new school, so I started home-schooling again.  We're now finding our rhythm with school while having a baby around.

None of this is our plan, but we are confident in the One who is working "all things for good."

God speaks in a still, small voice, and He imparts amazing wisdom to us.

It's the smallest things that move and change us, and for me, today, it was a fly.