We are living in the home of Joseph and Annah. They are the pastor and his wife that we've stayed with before. They are wonderful! They have gone above and beyond the call to make us comfortable. They live in a 4 1/2 room house and have given us two of the bedrooms. It is partially a mud hut and partially a mud hut that has been covered with plaster and concrete. There is a separate mud hut that serves as the kitchen. The roof is made of tin so when it rains it is REALLY loud. No one can talk. Living with them has worked out well. We enjoy their company and when they or we want to be alone, there is space we can go. Joseph is an engaging storyteller so living with him is like having an audio library on hand. He has TONS of thrilling animal stories and stories of the adventures he experienced growing up in the bush. Joseph and Annah have two 12 year old girls living here that needed a place to stay. They are becoming good friends with the girls and Caleb. They also have 3 of their grandchildren here as well. One comes up during the week to go to school while her mother works. Her name is Precious - and she is. They also have Ruth, one of their son's wives here while he is away at school. She has two small children - a boy Msuni who is 2 and is the cutest thing you've ever seen! Also a baby girl, Paranai, 6 months, who is SO sweet. They live in a mud hut just a stone's throw from here.
We purchased a tiny stove last week! So even though I have to turn the propane on to make it work and manually light it with a match, I feel like I can cook better and faster for our family. Cooking over the fire and the 'jico' (basically over hot coals) is extremely time consuming as it takes longer to heat, more effort to keep it hot, and you can only cook one thing at time. We even made cookies the other night.
We have hired a house worker who helps with laundry, dishes, and cooking as well. Her name is Esther. She is the best gift to our family we've had so far.
We start our day and I start boiling water for coffee and chai. Then my quiet time. Then I make breakfast. After, we fill our camping shower with water and set it out in the sun to get hot. Then we move on to school. I leave the dishes for Esther and I let her know what to begin making for lunch. It would be nice to get a refrigerator in the future as this would make meals easier. Because we can't keep things fresh in a fridge, we have to cook every meal from scratch. This is tedious to me already. There are usually several visitors that stop in to say "Hi' to us during the day. We finish school around 3:00 - 4:00 which is when the kids on the 'Hill' get finished and then we go up to spend time there. I have been organizing the office and the clinic so we can figure out where things are at and start moving forward with getting things running more smoothly. Esther starts washing veggies and may get some things started for dinner so when I come back, I can finish making it. Evenings are spent sitting around talking and listening to stories or reading to the kids.
Saturdays we have had meetings and we work and play with the kids on 'the Hill.' Last week, we brought the Wii up to the Children's home and introduced the kids to video games! It was a BLAST! They loved it! They played Mario Kart and were cheering for each other and laughing at each other. It was very, very funny to watch them try to figure out the remotes!
On Sunday we walk to church or travel to a distant church. Rick preaches which he has done every week so far! Then we have sodas with the church leaders. This is one of Caleb’s favorite things of the week. And that just about sums it up…
No comments:
Post a Comment