A Week in Africa - Monday

6:50a - The girls are just starting to wake up. I'm thankful they slept in a little later today. Thailie found my iPad and is playing games so I grabbed Nia, gave her Mat's iPhone and plopped her down next to Thai.

Interesting world we are living in when my kids play on apple devices under a mosquito net in Africa!

7:00a - Mat and the girls head out to feed the chickens.

Mat built our chicken coup - I'm pretty proud. He did a great job!

7:30a - We start getting ready for the day and making breakfast. We have some tomatoes that need to be eaten and tons of eggs so I decide we will have egg tacos for breakfast - which is simply, chapati/tortillas, eggs and tomato. Yum!

Mat checks the eggs with a flashlight to make sure they're not fertilized or half chickens.

Nothing is pre-made here so I make the tortillas from scratch.

8:30a - We do our morning routine of learning a new Fighter Verse and praying for the Rangi and our supporters.

9:00a - I head out to the Bafu (Shower house) to have my quiet time while Mat and the girls clean up after breakfast.

Our shower is across our courtyard - you can see the solar shower we use on the left. We put the mat and stool in there during our prayer times.

10a - We finish getting ready for the day; which today includes wearing makeup because yesterday I told Thai she could dress up for school.

Mat goes out to our garbage pit to empty our indoor toilet used for potty training and middle of the night emergencies and then burns all the garbage. While he is out, some kids bring by yet another turtle. It's so small Mat decides to keep it and Thailie names it "Tiny-Tiny" - it is pretty cute.

Our garbage pit just outside our courtyard.

Thailie with "Tiny-tiny" (the black on her eyes is her wonderful makeup job!)

Unfortunately for Nia, Tiny-tiny pees all over when she picks him up!

Then off to school. Thailie used to walk to school every day, which meant she would go out the gate, walk around the house and come in the front door to school. Well, since she hurt her foot on the bike she can't walk. The solution was that she would have to take the bus. So now everyday before school her bus driver (yep that's me) picks her up, sings a few choruses of "The Wheels on the Bus", and then drops her off at school - Nia loves to ride the bus too!

Check with your local school district to see if we have routes in your area.

10:15a - Thailie does school; working on writing letters, reading and she loves math! Usually during this time Nia is busy taking things off shelves, carrying buckets around, watching the noisey donkeys, trying to climb on tables and playing out in the courtyard.

Nia is still our little tornado!

Nia quickly got the mop to clean up the water she spilled.

11:15a - Snack time. Today we finish off a loaf of bread we bought that our teammate, Rachel, baked. Also during this time my "Potty training timer" (aka iPhone) goes off signaling that it is time to dance and then take Nia potty.

Nia doing her "potty-time" dance.

11:45a - Mat takes his bike out to a big sycamore tree for a little peace and quiet to get some reading and studying done. We head back to class.

The trees here are amazing - note how small his backpack and stool are in comparison.

12:15p - We finish up school, board the bus and head home.

I clean up a bit, do some dishes and start making lunch. We will eat the leftover beans from last night since they won't be good past today with no refrigerator. While I do this, the girls are in the courtyard apparently attempting to feed the chickens dirt...

12:45p - Lunch

1:00p - The Islamic call to prayer sounds in the distance. Rest time begins. I lay Nia down, Thailie looks at books and I read books from our TIMO curriculum - currently Hunger for God by John Piper. Normally I would be doing housework like sweeping or something but I have been battling Mono for a few weeks now so by the afternoon I am wiped out.

2:45p - Rest time is over. Mat is back. Hungry, I make some Ugi (porridge) for Nia and myself. After using the choo I realize it could use a cleaning. This consists of sweeping with a straw broom-like thing, splashing water all over, scrubbing the porcelain with a toilet brush, splashing a little more water everywhere and viola, it's done! (Funny thing is that translated literally, choo means "wet")

Ah, nothing like a fresh clean bathroom...

Tiny-tiny made it's way into the house, Nia picked it up. You can see Thailie is concerned that it will pee all over again.

Thai was right - Tiny-tiny peed all over. Nia to the rescue!

3:15p - I try to work on organizing language stuff so I can have my neighbor help me this week. As I begin to get very overwhelmed I remember we have nothing for dinner and I have to go to the market.

3:45p - Mat is reading, the girls want to come with me to the market and Nia has been crying pretty much since she woke up so I decide to just take them. I grab some money and tie it into the corner of my kanga, wrap my kanga around my waist, my scarf around my head, throw Nia on my back and we are set!

We greet a few neighbors as we head to the road. Despite my discouragement with language I realized I was able to understand and respond to our neighbor in Kilangi. The following conversation went like this:

(in Kilangi)

Me: greeting of respect

Her: acceptance of respect, how are you?

Me: We are well

Her: How are the children?

Me: They are well

Her: How do you find the weather

Me: It is how you see it (that's just the way you respond to that one)

Her: Where are you going?

Me: To the market

Her: What are you getting? Tomatoes? Potatos? Onion?

Me: Yes, tomatoes, not potatoes, no onions I have onion.

Her: Ok, see you later

Me: later!

It felt very encouraging to communicate and not stumble or be confused in a simple conversation.

I decided to take the road instead of the back way. There are some great women along the back way that i love to stop and chat with but today I just didn't have the time or the energy. It turned out to be a good thing because just across the road was a little stand with everything I needed, plus some guru (that sugary stuff we eat with peanuts). Turned out to be a quick trip!

4:30p - One of our teammates, Rachel from the DRC stops by to pray. I had totally forgot that we were planning to meet! Whoops. While she is coming in, some kids stop by to sell us eggs but we have to send them away because we have no change.

Rachel and I sit in the courtyard on Rangi stools.

It was very refreshing to have a prayer time with a prayer partner. There were some things that have been on my heart and mind lately and it was such a relief to be encouraged through prayer. As we met I have to admit I was given a heavy dose of perspective. One of Rachel's prayer requests was for her family still living in Goma, Congo as the M23 rebels have taken over the city demanding negotiations with the government. Rachel has seen what it is like when the rebels invade. She was there when they took over once before, so she knows what her family could be going through and it is very troubling.

Since we are the only place that we know of in Busi to get Internet, we googled the latest news on the rebel attacks so that Rachel could be updated.

While Rachel and I are praying Mat buys 33 eggs!

This is how we get Internet! We only get reception if we put our phone out on our water tank then turn it into a hotspot.

Rachel finds out the rebels have tentatively left Goma but are awaiting negotiations.

5:45p - FedEx delivers! Just a few minutes after Rachel leaves, Jared comes by with our package. Back in October, our family and friends had compiled many special things to send us while we were in Nairobi, but Kenya didn't accept liquids so this package had to be sent separately. We had it shipped to the TIMO headquarters 6 hours away and now the people who picked it up for us were in Pahi setting up an internet tower for the Tanner's Girls School - Jared welcomed them as they passed through Busi so they handed the package off to him.

Jared with our package strapped to his bike. Their house is a 35ish minute walk from ours.

I'm so excited the last of three packages has finally arrived!

The girls' favorite part was the bubble wrap. They unrolled it on the floor and ran up and down the hall popping bubbles the whole way.

While here Jared made use of our quaint internet cafe to check his email and I begin to prepare dinner - Cabbage and Ugali. Just about any vegetable you prepare here you make the same: fry onion, add garlic (if you have any since its not local) add tomato then finally whatever vegetable - cook until flavors are blended and vegetables are tender.

Jared downloads email to his iPod.

Would you buy cabbage that looked like this from the store? Eh, it's perfectly fine.

Delicious end result!

6:45p - We eat (should have taken a picture as Ugali is typically eaten with your hands). Thai and Nia clear the table. I chase Nia around and get her ready for bed.

7:45pm - I put Nia down to bed while Mat and Thai play their nightly UNO game - Thai beats daddy again. She announces her victory, "I just went, 'Uno!' BAM! 'Uno' BAM!" Each time she says bam she motions slapping down her last card to take the win - this girl likes to win! I think she's got a bit of her Papa Jon in her.

Late night UNO

8:45p - With both kids sleeping, Mat and I start our study.

10p - Time for bed. We pull our back door shut for the night, climb under the mosquito net and fall asleep with the cool night air blowing in through the window.