Flooding...Again

This was "traffic control" in our neighborhood.  

As we walked to the grocery store or fruit stand we would see a car

 or two come up to the police, and they always let them pass.  

I was curious how other parts of town were blockading people or allowing car travel.

I wish you knew how crazy busy this street by our house is ALL the time, 

because seeing this was so weird!

We were so thankful that the fruit vendor guys made it through to replenish all our neighborhood fruit stands.

March 16, 2020

And then on the 18th when rain came again, the gutters and drains couldn't handle it, 

and I was once again thankful drivers were not on the roads

The one great thing about my older kids' online education is that school continued the same 

whether there was corona or not. Whether there was a flood or not.

However, Keira's education was another matter.  

Like many in America, the French school wasn't prepared for something like this.

Her teacher had moved into a hotel before Covid because her apartment situation wasn't healthy.

The internet was spotty, and she didn't know how to use zoom or even make a video for the students.

The hotel she was in didn't have a generator, so when she would call the kids 

around lunchtime on Whatsapp to check in, if power went off, the call was dropped. 

(We have our internet hooked up to a battery, for instance, so we don't lose internet 

when power goes off - it would be really difficult for the kids to take online tests, etc 

if we were always losing a connection)

Keira's teacher would text the assignments every day on WhatsApp.

I would translate them in Google translate, 

and then Keira and I would work through them together.

It was quite the system!

The grey building with the white doors in the middle of this picture is where our 

neighborhood generator is.  It makes a lot of noise, and as you can tell from where 

I'm taking the picture, it is right across the street from our house.  But the noise is always 

a blessing to hear when the town power shuts off, and some man across the street starts 

the engine on the generator so we can have power.

I hope that whatever this guy got out of his house for was worth it.

Thankfully for him, a police officer from the blockade crew came down to help him out.

Covid...when it rains it pours.

March 18, 2020

A Night, Day, and a few Months of Crazy

On Friday, March 13, 2020, we were in our weekly Bible study 

when the adults started receiving texts and notifications that the city 

was going to go on lockdown for 24 hours starting the next day.

Not really grasping how crazy the town might be (because it was only going to be 24 hours),

we stayed and visited awhile before we all slowly started leaving the house where we were gathered. 

We got to the grocery store in our neighborhood, and of course craziness ensued.

The pictures don't do it justice, but inside and outside in the streets felt like 

Black Friday at a Wal-mart.

However, unlike America, the most popular item to fly off the shelf 

was not toilet paper. 

 

Water and eggs were the things quickly disappearing.

We also went to the fruit stand, and their crates were quickly emptying.

Doug and Kylie walked about a mile to find us eggs while we waited in the car, 

and then we headed home.

March 13, 2020

That night it rained, and everyone except medical workers were snug in their homes.

The streets were eerily quiet, 

And then a large amount of rain fell that the drains couldn't keep up with.

Thankfully no one was driving because the water slowly kept rising.

March 14, 2020
 

And you probably guessed that 24-hours was not the end of our lockdown.  

At midnight, we were informed we would be starting a 72-hour lockdown.

The government said we could go out and get food, but it had to be done on foot.

I guess it was better for people to get their heads around a little amount of time, because

After the 72-hours, they added 5 more days.  At the end of those 5 days (on March 24th), 

the government said the lockdown would remain until April 1st, and citizens would be arrested 

if they were out for any other reason than getting food on foot or seeking medical care.

On April 1st, they added 10 more days and said that schools would be back by April 16th.

But even in the middle of that 10 days, on April 5th, a 48-hour mandatory lockdown 

(no leaving the house) was mandated.

On April 23rd, for Ramadan, the government said people could move around to see family, but there was an evening curfew.  Still no restaurants, no airport.

Long story short, it was 46 days before I got in a car again. 

On May 11th, everything in the country opened except for the airports.

A surprise at the end of Ramadan (on May 23rd), we had another 72-hour lockdown to keep people from gathering and celebrating.

We squeezed in a graduation party on May 28th before we were locked down again from June 1st-June 6th.

(I'll continue blogging to catch up with all of these dates, but I wanted to chronicle the Covid response by this country's government from March to June in one place.)

Surprise! It's the Last Day of School

On May 9^th, the city had a rare flooding.  It rained and hailed very hard for about an hour, and with nowhere for water to go (mainly because drains are covered in trash), it started coming into houses and rising under cars.

I was in language class in our neighborhood, and this was my view of things.

 My teacher got a call from a friend whose car had stalled and she needed help, and I’m sure she wasn’t the only one who didn’t know how to drive (or not to drive) in high water.

After one hour, the water was pretty much gone in most areas of the city, and Doug and I were able to go out for date night.

 

 
































Keira’s school was flooded on the first floor, and they had to take all the carpet out. 

 

When I went to pick up Keira from school two weeks after the flood on May 20^th, people were stacking chairs outside and hanging more carpets over the balcony.

I went to the door and asked if there had been more problems from the flooding, and the teacher just looked at me and said, “Today was the last day of school.”

Oh!  Nice to know.  Congrats Keira!

I had never been informed, but that didn’t keep us from celebrating.  Milkshakes here we come.

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Different Skin Colors

We came to tell about the flood.

I had sick kids at home, and Florence wasn’t feeling too well, so we asked them to only sing two songs this day.  They repeat the verses over 20 times, so this was still an adequate amount of singing. 

This day was the story of Noah and the flood.  Every picture I showed them of all the water and Noah’s boat being alone on an expanse of sea, they all, simultaneously, went, “Tsk, tsk, tsk.”  That is what they do when they hear bad news or feel sorry for someone.

Their were many questions today, but the two that stuck out were “Why hasn’t God destroyed us because we are so much worse?”  It was a great opportunity to remind them of the covenant God made with Noah, and how God always keeps His promises.  I also reminded them that none of us is righteous enough to be safe from destruction, but God has given us a “Great Rescue Plan” (taken from the Jesus Storybook Bible) in Jesus.

The other question which stuck out, which I knew was coming, was, “If Noah and his sons were the only ones populating the earth, how come now we have people of all different skin colors?”

I know that many of us believe different things, and the truth is, none of us knows for sure.  I knew they wouldn’t quite understand an explanation of melatonin levels (especially where they live so close to the equator), and I didn’t want to add to God’s word, but we had a good discussion.  I don’t want to start a debate here, but I shared my thoughts with them, and it was another good day.