Category: Other Page 160 of 181

I awoke this morning at 4 am to an enormous clap of thunder. I seriously thought we were having an earthquake and just about jumped out of my skin. (People who are not native to California don’t realize how loud earthquakes actually are).

Then the downpour started. But downpours are common, though not really at this time of year. So after the adrenalin let off, I went back to sleep. The power had also gone off, so I slept in later than usual, knowing that I wouldn’t be able to do anything in the dark.

By the time we all got up around 6:15, it had been pouring for hours. Pouring like a spilled bucket. Hard, hard rain. Our yard was already more full of rain than we had ever seen it. We also heard a pounding sound in the distance but ignored it.

At about 6:30, I hear a knocking at our gate. I run out in the rain, and it’s our neighbor-to-the-left. He says, “I just want you to know, the neighbors in back of you are pounding a hole in your wall. Their yard is flooded and they are trying to get the water out. They wanted to put a hole in our wall but we wouldn’t let them.”

Hence the pounding we were hearing. (Note: Yards in Africa are surrounded by concrete walls).

So I start running to the back of our yard, screaming for Gil the entire time. The neighbors in back of us had already succeeded in pounding one hole in the wall connecting our yard with theirs, and were in the midst of pounding another one. Water was pouring into our yard.

“No!” I started screaming. “Stop! You’ll flood our yard too!”

By this time, Gil had joined me in the yelling. He grabbed our ladder and tried to get up on it, but the mud was so thick that it kept sinking in. Finally he managed to get high enough to see over the wall. He yelled and screamed but they wouldn’t stop. By the time they were done, they had put three holes in our wall and our yard was filling up fast.

“They are waist deep in water, Amy,” he told me. “They are desperate.”

By this point we had seen the road outside our house, which was a rushing river instead of a road. And the outside wall of the neighbors-to-the-right of us had completely collapsed. A tree had fallen into the road as well. It looked like a war zone. I ran back inside and called our principal, telling him Gil was not going to make it to school this morning.

So then we started a frenzied attempt to get the water out of our yard. We knew that if we didn’t, our wall would collapse as well. Or the water would come into the house. Neither of which were very good options.

So Gil started hacking holes in our concrete wall that faces the road. The water started draining out but pooling on the other side of the wall. So then he dug a series of ditches to get the water to drain off the property.

All of this was done in the pouring rain. Thankfully, this is Africa and it wasn’t cold. While all this was happening, I was trying to appease my hungry and frightened children in a very dark house. I gave Grace a box of cornflakes and she and Josiah finished it off (by eating and by playing with them) by the time we were all back inside.

At one point I decided to try to go over to our neighbors-to-the-right (who had the collapsed wall) and see if I could help out. I only succeeded in gashing up my foot rather badly and then hobbled home. Eventually the neighbors-to-the-back, who had made the holes in our wall and drained their yard into ours came over and apologized profusely. We forgave them but I’m not sure what our landlord will do!

So now it is noon. Gil finally left for school (I’m assuming he made it unless the car is stuck in the mud somewhere), the power finally came back on, my blood is cleaned up from all over the floor, my foot is all wrapped up, and the kids are napping. The rain has stopped and the frogs are all singing happy songs. Sigh. I am exhausted! But besides a few holes in our wall, we are no worse for wear. I know I have nothing to complain about, knowing that many houses in this city were flooded this morning, or worse.

For now, I am off to make cookies for the neighbors.

Update on Wednesday evening:

I did bring cookies to the neighbors, and in doing so realized that we really should be very grateful for how our house was spared. It seems as if there was a sort of flash flood that came through our neighborhood early this morning. Many of the houses near us lost walls and had their houses flooded. Our neighbors-to-the-right not only lost their front wall, but their back wall as well. The lady described it as a “tidal wave” that came through their yard from the back, knocking over the back wall, all the way through their house and then knocking over the front wall. The house on the right side of them had the same damage done. Yet our house emerged unscathed. Thank you, Lord, for your undeserved grace!

The following pictures were taken a couple hours after it stopped raining. So they don’t really do justice to what it actually looked like at the worst.

The neighbors-at-the-back, the ones who put the holes in our wall.

The view from a hole.

One of the holes in our yard.

Part of our yard

Right outside our gate, looking towards the neighbors-to-the-right

Neighbors-to-the-right

The drainage ditch in front of our house that probably saved us from further destruction. Imagine this ditch filled to the brim, and the road looking like a river.

The road to the right

Do you think we should get it copyrighted?

See, this is what you do. When the power goes out, but you have students over and you want to play a game, you just take the Settlers game and build it around the candle! We called it the “volcano.”

So….do you think there will be a market for it?

Hmmm. Maybe not.

Okay, okay, so I know it’s been a while since I have blogged (as some of you have so politely reminded me).

The truth is, there hasn’t been anything terribly interesting to write about. And creative topics haven’t been coming to me. Is that called a blogger’s block?

So. I will write about my non-interesting week so that you can see that life in Africa isn’t always an adventure. And despite what I said in my last post, maybe sometimes it is even boring.

We’ve been on vacation this week. For me, that doesn’t mean much except that I don’t teach my sixth grade Bible class (which is only 4 hours a week anyway). More significantly, it means that Gil is home.

Often we try to get away during our school breaks. But this time, with prices going up all over place, we decided we didn’t have the money, we weren’t ready to leave Josiah overnight, and there just aren’t too many toddler-friendly places around here anyway.

So. Then our not-so-exciting break turned even more un-exciting when Gil got sick Saturday-Sunday-Monday and Grace and Josiah got sick Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday, including the oh-so-wonderful Wednesday when Grace cried pretty much the whole day due to an ear ache.

So we visited the doctor and got meds. Lots of them. “Mommy,” Grace told me that night after getting totally doped up, “I have nose drops and ear drops…and mouth drops!” (referring to the cough syrup). What can I say? My dad is a pharmacist. I believe in medicine.

But there were some highlights along the way.

Tuesday we went to the pool.

Nope! She’s not drowning. She’s swimming!

And the happy little guy. Who actually isn’t that happy while I am writing this because he still doesn’t feel good. But he was happy in the pool.

Yesterday Gil did a photo shoot for two girls who are very special to us.
And their parents are doing very important work assisting Bible translation.

Victoria, grade 7

Christa, grade 9. (I know you are reading this, Christa! Do you like my choice?)

Today we went to Tanzania’s one-and-only mall to get Grace’s ears pierced, since every Tanzanian little girl has her ears pierced. But we discovered that the jewelry store is closed on Fridays because the owners are Muslim (Fridays for Muslims are kind of like Sundays for Christians). So then we had to explain to Grace that, no, she wasn’t going to get to wear her earrings today after all. She was sad. Probably because she didn’t really realize that “getting your ears pierced” actually involves piercing.

We also got to host our mission team meeting on Monday night, have some teens over for dinner on Tuesday night, and last night, Gil and I went to go see a free movie about the Red Cross during the “European Film Festival.”

And today, while doing some grocery shopping and noticing that the price of disposable diapers has increased AGAIN, I decided, THAT’S IT!, I’m going to cloth. (Though I have made that decision before and changed my mind…so we’ll see).

So now, at this moment, while waiting for pictures to download, I am researching cloth diapers. I do already have some, and Grace uses them at night, but they are the old-fashioned kind which you have to fold and pin. I didn’t realize until recently the amazing cloth diaper diversity that is out there! Any suggestions from anyone? I’m a little overwhelmed with all the choices….

There you have it. A vacation week in the life of an American couple living in Africa with two small children. Whether you really wanted to know all those details or not.