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

Leaving our Home stay and Petauke, May 17

I got up at 5am to get packed and help Esther, but I realized quickly I can’t do a lot of organizing/folding/packing with 4 people asleep in a small hut.

I brushed my teeth, packed what I could and then started waking people for “morning baths.” We had breakfast, took pictures, and then we presented the family with some gifts and Doug read Philippians 1:3-10. Pastor Mwenda read it from his Bible too, in his language for his wife to understand and said he felt very encouraged by us, our visit, and the scripture.

We walked back to bush camp, which had been dismantled, and got such a nice welcome from everyone. We loaded the bus and headed north by 8am.

We arrived at Ibis Gardens around 3pm. It is SO nice. Someone had told me that it wasn’t too nice of a resort, but I’ve lived in Africa long enough to know “nice” when I see it! It is an awesome place for rest after having stayed in many other places.

I unpacked, organized, and started washing clothes in the sink. Kylie and Karis took hot showers while Doug went running, and then it was time for Caleb and me to shower. I had been waiting for this since Arua. It had been a long time since I had had hot water coming out of a shower with much water pressure.

No hot water.

The girls had used it all. Such a let down. Maybe tomorrow.

Ibis Gardens was four days of relaxation, debriefing, and learning about how to learn a language.

On the fifth day, twelve of us got up at 4:30am to catch a 5:30 bus to Livingstone, the home of Victoria Falls. We thought we had arranged a private bus to take us straight to Livingstone, but…this is Africa.

We stopped in Lusaka for 45 minutes and then at least every hour after that, sometimes every 30 minutes to pick up people and drop people off.

And of course, what would a cross-country trip be without a tire blow out? The driver, conductor (the guy who takes the money), and an assistant fixed it pretty quickly.

It took us 9 ½ hours to get to Livingstone. (On the way back, we rode with a different bus company, and it only took 6 hours and 15 minutes!)

In Livingstone, our guesthouse provided us with transportation or gave us numbers of taxi drivers to call.

Home stay – Day 3, May 16

I really need to wash clothes again today (Sunday), but I get a feeling they won't do a lot of extra work on Sunday (and I don't blame them). Esther says we are going to visit her friends in the village, but Caleb had a 2-accident night last night, so I'll check into washing possibilities.

I got up at 5:45 and met Esther outside at 6. She said before I washed dishes, I needed to sweep. Sophia gave me her broom, and I swept the courtyard all the way back to the pigs.

This is not me, but this is the same place, and it shows you another reason why I shouldn't have bothered bathing.

After I finished washing dishes, Sophia took me to where Esther had gone. There was a celebration in the village for a new couple. This couple met while the boy was working in the capital, Lusaka. And tradition for this tribe is for the girl to move to the boy's home and live by his parents. This takes place after a trial period of at least one year lived at her parents' house. Anyway, people brought money to put in a basket set before them as they sat under a large
piece of material. There was dancing and whooping, and everyone looked joyous…except the couple. Go figure.

After breakfast, the members of my family rushed to put on our Sunday clothes. We finished in record time, looked out the door, and their family was just starting baths.

We left for church around 9:40 and got there about 10:15. It was a good 35-minute walk. The church Richard is the pastor of is an HOUR and a HALF bicycle ride away, so he had someone filling in for him, and we walked to a closer one.

Felicia had Miriam tied to her back, and they let Caleb and Elias ride the bike while Richard, Jr, pushed. Ezekiel stayed home with the grand mother to make sure our stuff didn't get stolen.

I just thought this was so precious.

Here's everybody making the trek to church.

The service had beautiful music and one of our 40/40 participants that was staying with another family in that village, delivered the message. The women and children sat on the left and the men sat on the right. Thankfully, my kids managed those hard wooden benches really well for about two hours. It was nothing compared to the benches at the Church of Christ the weekend before. That bench had consisted of two 2x4's that were 3 inches apart. There is NO way to get comfortable on a seat like that, no matter how much padding you've got! Just remember to thank Jesus for your padded pews next time you go to church.

We walked back, and I wish I had a picture for you, but Karis was exhausted, so the ladies helped tie her on my back the way the African women carry their babies. Too funny.

I'll skip lots of stuff (some of it bathroom stories, again), to tell you that the next thing I know, it is 4:00, and Esther is telling me it's bath time again. (Insert another bathroom story here). It was a crazy day, let me tell you.

After bathing, Esther called me into the smoke house and showed me that she wanted me to stack all the dishes in the basket so she would be ready for dinner. What that means is I go outside and get all the clean dishes off the stand and put them in a 2 1/2 foot high wicker basket. THAT is her cupboard for all her dishes. Another thing to be thankful for…shelves!

Another sweet lady from the village came and wanted to meet me. She wanted me to dance with her while Kylie took our picture. She was so much fun!

I shelled corn with Esther, and she started popping it to make a goody bag for us on the bus tomorrow. And her son Ezekiel roasted ground nuts to add to it.

After dinner, we had tea and coffee, and then we started focusing on our goodbyes, which are a big deal (like greetings) in Africa. Doug and I each made speeches, and then they each made speeches back to us, Esther through interpretation.

This is the room we ate on the floor in for every meal, and where we said our goodbyes.

Doug spent a lot of time with Pastor Mwenda visiting people in lots of villages. They ministered to people, prayed with the sick, and in general, just encouraged people. I think Pastor Mwenda is a very caring man, who loves the people he serves. And he does it ALL without pay. The money they earn from Esther's tomato business is all the income they have.

The bus leaves at 8am in the morning, so I am getting up at 5am so I can fold linens and blankets, pack-up, help with breakfast, and Doug can roll mattresses and take down mosquito nets. We will have a longer walk back because we are a little more tired and carrying a little more stuff. It will take us about 30 minutes to get back to bush camp and the bus.

I was exhausted and fell asleep at 9 (When the sun goes down, and there is no electricity, life pretty much comes to a halt). I thought this was going to be the new permanent me, but right now in Kampala, Uganda it is 1:15am, so I'm guessing I grew out of that quickly…sadly.

Homestay - Day 2, May 15

The Mwenda family consists of:

back row: Ezekiel 13, Richard and Esther Mwenda, holding Miriam 18 mos.

Middle row: Sophia 9, Job 10, Felicia (the orphan niece they took in who is about 9)

Front row: Elias 3, Richard Jr 5,

Esther's mother is not in the picture. The Mwenda's lost their two oldest children, who died when they were young. One from malaria and one from dehydration caused from having diarreah.

We are standing in front of the hut we stayed in.

So with our family of 5, it meant they had 15 mouths to feed. I know we put a financial strain on them, but they were so gracious and went out of their way for us in all things.

An oxcart pulled up at 6am and Doug was asked to drive

Ezekiel did take over once they reached the road.

They went to the groundnut (peanut) field to bring back some of the harvested branches of groundnuts, so we could get them off the stems. They all usually go to the field and work there, but they brought them back to the shade for us today.

I washed last night's dishes, and everyone else started on groundnuts.

That job lasted until lunch, and so I did get a chance to help out later. I had to wash clothes first because of accidents, and I also helped Esther shell some nuts. She showed me how to toss them so the chaff would blow, but it is much harder than it looks. She was really good at it.

Next, I pounded the groundnuts into a fine flour. She was adding the mixture to the cooked pumpkin leaves we were having for lunch. Then, after that, I got to help with the groundnuts.

Lunch was great, but Caleb ate nothing! The Mwenda's were so worried about Caleb not eating, that after lunch, Esther and I shelled some corn from the storage bin, and she made popcorn for him. Everyone shared it, but when it got to the bottom of the bow, Esther stopped everyone from eating and gave it all to Caleb. Sweet lady!

While she popped the second of three pots of popcorn, I hauled water outside to soak the lunch dishes. The water is stored in a big trashcan in the smoke house. The children bring it from the well each morning to store it for the days use.

It took me NINE trips to get all the water out there that I needed. What a way to have to wash dished 3 times a day. At least I have running water at my house in Arua!

While all this work was going on, Caleb was entertainment for most of the kids in the village. Here he is "playing drums" on the bottom of a bucket while the other kids danced.

This one speaks for itself. Such a clown.

And then he finally joined in the dancing, too. His feet aren't even touching the ground in this picture!

Then he decided to take care of Miriam.

And love on her. Sweet boy.

After dishes, an older lady came by that wanted to "visit" with me.

She couldn't speak English, so we sat and smiled at each other. Esther, in the meantime, killed, plucked and gutted a rooster that her husband had gotten from a neighbor that morning. She kept every part of the chicken except the feet, head, and testicles, and I'm surprised she threw the feet and head out, but I was grateful. She even scraped the sand out of the gizzard so she could cook that.

At 3 o'clock again, I was given hot water for the kids' bath, then more for Doug and me. Then I went back in the smoke house to hold the flashlight for Esther. I really should scratch taking a bath because I smell like a smoked ham every night before I go to bed, but that water
is irresistible!

It is so cool in the evenings, I put on long-sleeves, and if you notice, I am wearing the same pink shirt every day and the same long-sleeve shirt every day. No sense in dirtying up a lot of clothes,
right?

Dinner was wonderful and then Pastor Mwenda asked his children to come in the house (Only the two younger ones ate inside with us. The other children ate with the grandmother outside) and asked Doug to share a Bible story with his children.

Another good day and asleep at 8:30pm! AND I am sparing you from another bathroom story. There is only so much bathroom humor people can take (so says my mom).

Home Stay – Here we Come – Day 1

Warning: Some of my home stay writings will be a little longer, but don't feel like you have to read them all. It's mainly for my parents and in-laws, because they are more than naturally curious about what their grandchildren are doing☺

Start of the day:

Before we left for Pastor Mwenda's home, I decided to let Renee look at my toe that had been hurting for three days. She called over another lady who confirmed "jiggers." This lady's husband calls her the "jigger digger," (sounds nice, huh?) so she got hired for the job.

She soaked my foot and then dug around with a straight pin. To the best of my knowledge, jiggers are a type of flea that gets under the nail, digs deep sometimes, and lays eggs. Sounds awesome, right?

She found two black things, which could have been fleas, but she couldn't locate the egg sac. Thankfully, we think, one didn't get laid, so after much prodding, they bandaged me up and we finally headed out for our home stay.

Pastor Richard Mwenda

met us and we carried nearly everything on our backs or on his bike. Kevin (our director) did have to bring a couple of things later in the truck. It was only about a 20 minute walk to his house.

Soon after meeting his wife, Esther, we both realized I had met her earlier in the week when she washed my clothes! She wanted me to rest first of all, but when I saw her go to wash dishes, I walked over, and she handed the job to me. I was thrilled she would let me.

You can see the dish washing station behind the guys.

Every time I started a new job, Esther wanted Kylie to take a picture.

After that, I helped Doug, Kylie and Karis shell corn for an hour or more. In the middle, we stopped for a snack of sweet potatoes.

We finished shelling the corn, and then I went to help Esther wash her clothes. She showed me a really dirty shirt and told me it's what she was wearing when she cleaned our hut. She doesn't speak much English, but I finally understood because the shirt had an orange powder mix all over it, and I realized she had re-painted the inside of the hut for us. It was very nice and clean. We fit three twin mattresses in there, pushed together, with a little walking room around two edges.

This picture was taken our last morning when I had already started stripping sheets from under my sleeping children. I'm such a nice mom, huh?

Next was lunch. We sat down, and Caleb's first words were, "Where are the spoons?" and I wanted to say, "Where is your cultural training?" We ate with our right hands for three days, and by the end, Caleb wasn't quite so covered in his food.

The staple food in Zambia is nshima. It's like a really thick grits

that sticks together like not-so-creamy mashed potatoes. You pick up some nshima, make a small pocket with it in your one hand and then reach down to pick something else in it. In this case, it was beans. And since, Caleb didn't try nshima, he was trying to eat handfuls of beans, and it wasn't pretty.

The kids played so well today with all the Zambian children, and you would not have been able to tell that they couldn't speak each others' language.

After lunch, I set up house in the hut. After giving the lunch dishes a chance to soak (over an hour), I washed the dishes, and then she told me it was time for my kids to bathe.

It was 3pm.

She just doesn't know how much dirt can find Caleb's body from 3pm until bedtime.

It was a WONDERFULLY hot bath. She took boiling water and put it in a basin, and then added cold water until it was…still boiling hot.

After this night, I did the kids' bath water. The four of us had to stand in the shower house this first night for over 20 minutes just waiting for the water to get cool enough to put on their bodies.

These Zambians really have tough, calloused skin. All of the participants of home stays say they witnessed the Zambian women picking up hot coals that had fallen out of the fire, and replacing
them with their hands. Nshima is also served at well over 100 degrees, and it doesn't even phase them to pick it up.

Anyway, back to showering. I had already decided that Caleb was the only one getting his hair washed during our whole home stay (that's one of the reasons why I look so lovely in the pictures). I got one basin for three kids, and I wasn't sure we would have enough water to wash shampoo out of the girls' hair. I would scoop out water with a cup, wet each child, they would soap up, and then I would cup the water over them repeatedly until they washed all the soap off.

Doug and I shared a basin as well. No hair washing for me. Doug went next, and while he was holding on to the inner wall, washing his feet, it collapsed. All of us outside, just heard the bricks falling to the ground. He still doesn't know his own strength ☺ It would have made a great story if it had been an outer wall, and he had come tumbling out in his birthday suit. I think I'll tell it that way, anyway!

Good thing I didn't wash my hair. It was time to cook nshima. The coals weren't getting hot enough outside,

so she moved the cooking to the cooking hut.

When she wanted me to follow her, she said, "I hope you have no weak eyes."

Well, apparently, I do. The smoke in the hut was crazy! And on top of that, I'm not NEAR strong enough to stir nshima. Wow! That stuff is crazy-hard to stir!

I moved to the back of the hut, where the chickens were nestled down and where the smoke was less, and since I was too weak to stir, I held the flashlight for her.

Friends came and went all day long and either Esther or Felicia (the niece she adopted when her sister died) went all day long, back and forth to the road. Esther sells tomatoes and only goes up there if someone is waiting.

Many kids were around all day. 10-15 at any given moment, and they all played with my kids. And when we shelled corn, so did many other kids that didn't even live at this house.

Karis fell asleep while we were cooking nshima, so we put her down before dinner. Everything was great, and dinner was very quiet. We prayed together and found out that Doug needs to be ready to leave for the fields at 6am.

It is 8pm as I write this journal in my hut, and I would think it was 1am if I didn't have a watch.

Tired!

But a good tired.