House work back home

Blog Post About June 2021

While I was moving every three days in America to a different location, Doug was busy with work and construction on the house.

He hired some guys to build up a wall on our roof so that it would be the height of a door. 

That way, he could put a roof and a door on and give us a storage room.

This is the lot next to our house. It also looks through, past another empty lot, to another street.

This is where the builders put their supplies and cement bags.  As a matter of fact, today it's seven months later, and there is still a pile of dirt out there that didn't get used to make cement.

After all the supplies were delivered, they started hauling cement bags up to the roof...through our living area.

The opening on the left is where we walk up stairs to our roof. 

These guys are building up the wall, so that a door can be put in that opening.

Here is their pile of cement they are using.

The slow-down occurred when this crew got Covid. They stopped work for a while, and didn't complete it for three more months, in September. 

And if you read my newsletter, you remember the dabacle with the next crews that were hired to spackel the walls. 

The first crew asked me to feed them breakfast and then serve tea throughout the day. When we saw they weren't working and a foreman working for us finally fired them, they came back later while the second crew was there and made all kinds of threats until the police were called.

When the wall finally got spackeled, then a roof crew came, and then finally a door guy (not quickly, of course).

Around November, we were finally able to see the floor in this room, because...

All of this stuff was finally able to be moved to this new storage area.

ALSO, while the roof was being worked on, Doug hired a guy to put screens on our windows and door (You would have to look many hours to find a screen on a window in this country - the rare).

If you remember our first house where we lived by a chicken butcher, you remember the number of flies we dealt with. Feel free to click on the link to be grossed out.

Now we have screens!!

ALSO, Doug had to order another water truck to come to the house. This was about the time one of the neighbors realized the pipes weren't bringing water to the neighborhood. 

A neighbor contacted the government, and the government arranged for the problem to be fixed. While the street was dug up and pipes replaced, Doug sat outside with all of the men on the street while they watched and ate ice cream :)

Water is a precious gift.

Water (and Breakfast) in a Dry Land

Blog Post about June 2021

Two weeks after Karis' birthday, we were able to take her out for breakfast to celebrate. Breakfast is her favorite meal, but with her trying to finish school and us trying to prepare to leave for America, we were short on available mornings.

June 3, 2021

Usually for a Middle Eastern breakfast here, you just say, "Breakfast for one," or "Breakfast for four," etc.

Unless you order a la carte, you don't get to pick what you get for breakfast (hence the weird olive pizza on the table. It's a fun experience, and every time we go, we always get different things...it's never the same.

Also, it was getting hotter here back in June, and this is the time that the city decided to dig up all the grass on this huge field and prepare for some building project.

Keira and I saw the dust flying every morning on the way to school.

Let me fast-forward momentarily to January 2022. We have already had two floods this month, and the dirt has nothing to hold it to the ground. 

On the first flood, mud ran out onto the highway along with two feet of water, and it was hours before bulldozers could remove all the silt and people could travel again.

We thought with all the dryness and lack of rain, it had created a water issue. Water is usually scarcer in the summer as a rule anyway, but...

It turns out that some pipes were broken in our neighborhood and no one knew it, so for a month, our neighborhood was not getting water sent to our homes.

On June 13th, Doug called a water truck to fill up our tanks on the roof. We had not been able to wash dishes, hands, shower, or flush toilets for a couple of days as we waited unknowingly for water that wouldn't come.

June 13, 2021

The price was very cheap (equivalent of $17).

When Doug ordered another truck a month later, the prices had jumped a bit (~$23). Apparently, more people around the city were having water issues as well. 

It was a blessing that a friend of ours "knew a guy" and got us such good deals, because I think for most people, the prices started at $34 and went up to about $68 for a truck of water.

Supply and demand.

All of our dirty dishes...

Finally got washed!

I wanted to have breakfast with a friend of mine before we left for America, and we decided to try out a new place for breakfast.

This is the "Breakfast for two" at this particular place.

June 14, 2021

And this little thing wasn't running around like a chicken with its head cut off because she knew Caleb and Doug weren't going to America, and they would be staying behind and could care for her. 

However, she does sort of LOOK like a plucked chicken.

Dancing our Way out of Mississippi

Blog Post from Summer 2020

We stayed in Mississippi two weeks, for the entire length of Karis' ballet camp.

A BIG thank you to the Snowden's for hosting us for TWO WEEKS!  You guys have such servant hearts!

We were able to see Karis perform at the end, which was really special.

The day before the performance, we went to visit some more dear friends who had us over for dinner.

We had a fun evening visiting the Crowe's, and once again, Keira found a friend in their youngest daughter.

They invited her to spend the night, but Keira wasn't quite ready; however, I told Keira I would bring her back early the next morning, so she could feed ducks in their backyard with her new friend Bella.

July 24, 2020

Keira was having so much fun doing so many things, so I left her there while Doug and I went to other appointments, and she had quite a day.

Bella took her paddle boarding for the first time.

She held a rabbit.

She held a bird.

And then, Bella and her mom brought Keira and met us at the ballet gala, which they were going to anyway.

Karis is in the center of both of these pictures.

I tear up every year watching these performances to such beautiful worship songs. 

Ballet is a beautiful way to offer worship to the Lord.

July 24, 2020

Two days after Kylie's surgery, she took her crutches out in the rain so she could watch her sister perform, and we were all blessed by the beautiful Ballet Magnificat performances by their summer intensive participants.

 

On a side note, I just finished a book by one of the ballet instructors at Ballet Magnificat.

He came to the company in 1993 at age 19 from a newly formed Czech Republic. His autobiography was a blessing to read. From our side of the world, we just imagined what was going on behind the Iron Curtain, but he gives a realistic account about how he lived from birth to age 18 and how he found out about a man named Jesus.

The book is "Velvet Meets the Iron Curtain," by Jiri Sebastian Voborsky.

Across the Mississippi

Blog Post about Summer 2020

Karis was ready to go to ballet camp in Mississippi, so we (except Caleb) loaded up for the 7 hour trip.

A couple we have known for a long time allowed us to stay with them as we came and went every day.

Our first stop was the Godwin house, and their kids had a sweet welcome sign for us.

I will tell you some other amazing things that happened at their house in the next post.

July 15, 2020

L (Godwin)'s four younger kids took Keira under their wing, and they had a great time together.

Trampoline park....Mexican food...and a neighborhood friend group coming together to do a "Frozen" skit.

She had so much fun, so they invited her back again for an upcoming birthday party.

While Keira was having the time of her life, Doug and I went to see another dear friend.

I don't know why I have pictures with some and not with others, but that's just how it works sometimes.

We saw the Coggins', J Goff, Pettus', Manuel's, K Adcox, Gregory's, Neese's, Caldwell's, Stovall's, C Woods, Hardin's, Carraway's, N Morgan, W Morgan, Slay's, Moore's, Barber's, Ozier's, Harkins', G Randall, Pearce's, and Crowe's. 

We contacted three others that we visited with over the phone but we couldn't see because they were quarantining for various reasons. 

We had 26 visits, saw 64 people,  and visited for 86 hours during our two weeks in Mississippi.

We love our friends in Mississippi!

When Keira returned a few days later to the Godwin house, this water slide in the back yard had her scared for a good 45 minutes. It wasn't until the sun was setting that she finally decided to give it a try...and loved it!

We saw Doug's former office assistant and my friend J-A, who has added some arrows to her quiver since I last saw her!

July 19, 2020

Then we drove a couple of hours south to visit some friends who had moved since we last saw them. We stayed with them a couple of nights, and we had some great visits and enjoyed walking around their cute town.

They live in Laurel where "Home Town" on HGTV is shot. I have never seen the show, but I saw all the cute houses that have been redone since the show started.

Funny enough, Keira was most excited about seeing an RV. She had never been in one.

Our friend David told her he had one, and she was so anxious to see it, so I videoed her first impressions.

July 16, 2020

There is always something new to see in America.

Meanwhile, back home overseas, this was set up outside a grocery store where I like to shop.

Who knows what they spray on you that will "kill" the Corona virus, but it is actually still set up now, a year later in 2021, and everyone I see walks around it, so I guess it doesn't matter what they spray ;)
 

Spring cleaning and a Slumber Party

Like many of you, lockdown proved to be a great time to clean.

I went through cabinets and shelves, slowly getting rid of things.

Everyone went through their clothes and pulled out what they couldn't wear anymore.

And Doug got the pressure sprayer out and cleaned the outside of the house.

You can see the outline around Keira of how much dust accumulates on our walls.

April 21, 2020

When the balcony upstairs is being cleaned with water, the cleaner may think all the bird poop 

(and yes, a LOT of that is bird poop) and dirt is flowing down the pipe to the street.

Guess again!  It flows down to the porch right by our front door 

(you can see the PVC pipe if you look closely), 

and the cleaner gets to start all over again, spraying it down the steps to go under the gate, 

and THEN out into the street.

Doug also trimmed all the trees and pressure washed our windows 

to make sure we had an unimpeded view of the yard when we were in the kitchen.

Keira also wanted to have a slumber party, 

so Keira got mine and Doug's pillows and blankets 

and put herself in the middle 

and set the whole thing up.

(This wasn't our last sleepover...

when the house got too hot, 

Doug eventually set a tent in the yard for us, 

and the three of us slept outside for two nights 

because it was cooler than sleeping inside 

(but I think that wasn't until June).

April 26, 2020

On April 21, 2020, the government announced new curfew hours: 

For the next month (until May 22...the second to last night of Ramadan), 

curfew was to be from 7pm to 6am, Sunday through Thursday and 24 hours on Fridays and Saturdays.  

Since people sleep a lot during the day during Ramadan, and they are mainly awake during the sundown hours, I think they thought this would help lower the numbers.

I didn't work.

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.)