A Week in Africa - Thursday

We have a typical morning, Mat heads out to a shop to get flour, on his way he meets up with a friend who knows some English. Noticing its busier than normal where they are Mat asks if there is a wedding. "Yes." Hamisi answers. Happy to hear, Mat replies "Oh, Wow, who? Who is getting married?" Hamisi gives an accomodating smile, signaling to Mat that he is being polite but doesn't understand. "Ngovi?" Mat asks which means wedding in Kilangi, to which Hamisi replies in English, "No. Dead people." Ah, whoops - funeral, Mat realizes and replies, "Pole (Sorry)."

So, now Mat figures it will probably be inappropriate to proceed to buy flour from the shop around the corner. "Sorry, for the death, could I get a kilo of flour?" Plan B. He takes his bike and heads to a shop a little further away despite the fact that is has started to rain.

Across the field, the women gather to begin preparing food for the wedding.

9:45a - Although the rain has stopped, Mat needs a quiet place to study and creates an office in the Bafu. I start making bread.

I let my bread rise before dividing it into four smaller loaves that will fit in my pressure cooker to "bake" them.

It's not much, but it'll do! (You can see our new kitty Emily in the corner.)

10a - Gideon stops by to charge his laptop. After our three month "techno" fast we decided it would be beneficial to purchase a solar panel to keep our few small devices charged. Gideon joined Mat in his "office" and they both sat in there and talked about ministry, prayer and missions for quite awhile. It seemed like a very encouraging and fueling conversation - although they were quite a site the two of them on little stools squished into our shower house!

Our "charging station". Mat made the shelf above our desk. We primarily use it to charge all of our devices. You can see the battery to the right of the picture. We keep it covered with the blue Maasai cloth to protect from dust and peeping eyes in the windows.

Also worth noting, despite how well Thailie's foot has been healing, she has been hesitant to walk to school like she used to because of it. Today was the first day she decided she didn't need to take the bus but could walk again.

11:30a - Gideon heads out and we have chai and boiled sweet potatoes. (Think regular potatoes with a sweet taste -not the yellow yam like ones we have in the States.)

12:00p - We have a lot of work to do today! We are having our teammate Kim over for dinner to celebrate her birthday. I plan to make Chili, bread and brownies for the occasion (keep in mind everything is always from scratch). Mat has to go to the market to get beans and tomatoes, I start the brownies and the girls discover a new play house.

The girls played out in our shower house where Mat had made his office earlier this morning.

12:20p - I feel a little overwhelmed when Nia pees on the floor just as I drop two eggs and mat comes back.

12:30p - I can tell its definitely rest time so I just feed the girls left over beans to move things along. This is no problem because our girls love beans!

1p - Rest time

Even a tornado needs her sleep! (Yes, we still affectionately call Nia the tornado. She fits it well.)

Mat multitasks - butchers a chicken, creates a tarp shelter, and heats up the coal cooker for my bath water.

Mat's creations: the left blue tarp is our chicken coop and the right is the shelter he made to protect from the sun.

There is a sickness going around affecting Chickens so we butchered one of our roosters. Mat experiments the best way to make a rotisserie.

The wire wasn't working as the chicken kept sliding - I think it is going to stay in place now!

The roasting process...

While Mat is doing his experiments, I shower, bake brownies on the coal cooker and continue making bread.

This is how you bake in the bush! A charcoal cooker on bottom, pot with Brownies, lid/cover and some coals on top.

We have a luxurious shower - a solar shower which saves on gas and a large wash tub to conserve water.

4:30p - Time to start dinner (chili) and prepare for Kim's arrival.

We have a banner that says, "Happy Birthday TEA" so we made colorful letters to cover TEA (Thai's initials) and put "Kim" over it.

What types of things keep your kids entertained?

Silly girls all dissed up for the "Big party".

5:45p - Kim arrives, we have dinner and hang out. We don't typically hang out very late here seeing as the sun sets around 6:30p and its not wise to be out much after dark.

The fancy brownies.

Singing to the Birthday Girl

7p - It's getting dark so Kim heads home and I start bathing the girls.

Clean little snuggle bug ready for jammies.

7:45p - Put the kids to bed

Thailie and Mat read from the Jesus Storybook Bible. She loves wearing a headlamp.

8:15p - It's a beautiful night, Mat and I sit outside our house under the stars, in the amazing night air.