Lockdown (with Twins)!

Keira and I started having lunch outside.

April 5, 2020

And then we started doing school outside.

April 6, 2020

And others came and went with their books and computers as the sun would allow.

The yard really was a great place to relax and not feel so cooped up.

 

April 13, 2020

There was one week during quarantine that we came home from the 

grocery story with two trays of eggs.  

(Each tray holds 30 eggs...we eat a lot of eggs).

Anyway...these two particular trays were FULL of twins.  

Maybe on a "normal" week, we wouldn't have gotten so excited about it, 

but during quarantine, the excitement was a little higher than normal as you might imagine.

For example, in the picture below, I only cracked 7 eggs!

I know. I know.  Amazing, right?

April 7, 2020

Also, much like in America, each day the government posted numbers for us to see.

I think our country did an excellent job at first with a quick lockdown and keeping numbers low.

Later in the month , after they loosened restrictions so people could 

celebrate the beginning of Ramadan (April 23), the numbers quickly escalated, 

and then trying to get the number of cases back down again was a hard thing to do.

One of the assignments Keira had to do for the French school was write a message 

for their school page in her own language to "Stay at Home."

April 13, 2020

A Surprise Easter Treat

For Easter, our sweet neighbors that let us borrow the convection oven invited 

Keira over for an egg hunt.

The mom was so good to plan ahead and get plastic eggs from America 

(or maybe she had them from years past)

Keira had never remembered going on an egg hunt before because the only one 

she ever took part in was when she was three before we left America.

She had a good time.

We all went over to watch her, and they even took a family photo for us.

April 12, 2020

He is Good (even in lockdown), and yes, He is Risen!

Things I See (Vol 11)

Welcome to "Things I See."  If you want to see the previous installments, you can click on:

 Volume 1 , Volume 2, Volume 3, Volume 4, Volume 5, Volume 6, Volume 7, Volume 8, Volume 9, Volume 10

See anything?

This one building of MANY in the city where people line up daily trying to get visas to get out of the country. It might be for work, a trip, or for permanence, but it just causes me to be thankful for my passport country.

I know you can't see it, but the SAM Office Furniture building is NOT on the street.
(It's over by the green plastic playground equipment)

Twins!

I love that she tried.

At the salon where I get my hair cut, younger boys are hired to hold the hairdryer for the hairdressers, they also hold the foil for the hairdressers on ladies' heads who are getting their hair colored.

I thought this was unique, but maybe this same thing happens in America???  You'll have to let me know.  I'm not that familiar with salons in America.  I can count on one hand how the number of salons I've been to in my life.

This is in our old neighborhood.  

Your eyes are NOT deceiving you.

Yes, that is three lanes of traffic PARKED on our street, and our gate is down on the right where you can see a dark blob of people sitting. 

March 19, 2019

Our side-of-the-road grazers look a little different than they do in South Texas.

"Chevy Runs Deep," but what does SHEVY do?

Ahhh!  Breathe in that beautiful air!

Speaking of air...

It's pretty common for houses here not to be built to code. (*smile)

Doug put rubber on the bottom of all our doors when we moved in because there was at least a half-inch space for dirt and air to come through (and the elements are still successful sometimes).

This is our front door area.  You can see to the right of the door how it's not flush with the wall.

Here it is zoomed in.

March 28, 2019

You wanna know why these small things don't bother me?

The back door to my kitchen in Africa had a ONE INCH space down the right side of the door.

You could literally put your hand through the hole, so Doug filled it with classy trashbags ;)

I've searched and searched for the picture of it, but after going through three years of Africa pictures twice, I still couldn't find it, so you'll have to take my word for it.

Cool Night for...Waffles

One Friday night, a group of us went out for breakfast food at a place called House of Waffles, and it turned out to be quite an interesting night. 

We sat outside on the patio where a lot was going on.

There was a birthday party to our right going on across the patio from us.

Nothing says, "Happy birthday," like some colorful balloons spelling:

"HAPY BIRTHAY!"

On our left, there were two wedding parties taking photos in front of a fountain.

Another "interesting" thing was the meal that was delivered to me.  I wasn't in the mood for waffles, but I wish I had ordered some for two reasons:

1) Because of what I actually got

2) Because the restaurant closed down shortly after, and I never got to try any.

Back to what I ordered:  Eggs with potatoes.

'Nuff said.

Did I mention the restaurant closed down shortly after?

Can't imagine why.

A "good" Friday

On Passover/Good Friday, we had a fun task to do which we were excited about.  

A good friend of mine works for a radio station here in Arua, and every year she decorates eggs to hand out to all her employees.  This year the number was 300 eggs!

They are always so impressed.  Some of the people think she raises "special chickens" that produce these eggs ;)

The task seemed daunting...and then my three kids arrived.

They were knocking them out left and right.

Part of the beginning

It was quite a set-up

Taken from each end of the table...and there were still more elsewhere.

We finished in record time...no surprise.

Then we had a good lunch and decided to go down to look at some of the crafts that were on display at the radio station.

Two men at the station go into the villages to collect crafts kids have made.  It helps show the kids they can do anything they put their mind to, and then it gives them the privilege of being "on display" somewhere.


Here is a SMALL sampling of what we saw.

LOVE the satellite dish :)

Talk about "using what you got..."

Well, the truth is...we didn't make it to the crafts so speedily.

We took a detour so I could show the kids and the two Fusion girls who were with us, the sound booths where all the "action" takes place at the radio.

While we were looking in the window of the studio a man came up and introduced himself and said he needed a child to read something on the radio for him.

Kylie really didn't want to do it, but I knew she could.

We walked in the room, and when he gave her the three pages of announcements to read, she gained some confidence.

She was reading nine different announcements about special service times for children to listen to the Easter message.

The grammar was off a bit in about three of them including the one below (like saying "As the church symbols" vs "As the church symbolizes") , so I helped correct the wording, and she did a great job reading.  She read them over and over until she got them, and I think she had fun.

The best part was listening during the kids' program on Saturday afternoon while we did chores around the house.  I heard her SEVEN different times.  One time, I was out hanging laundry on the line, and I heard her on the radio next door, which was on a different frequency.

Everyone listens to the radio here for their news.  Alice even came in Monday, and said, "I was trying to figure out how someone that sounded like Kylie was on the radio."

Another fun experience.