Category: Other Page 180 of 181
One of the things I love about living in Tanzania are the tailors. It’s difficult to find workable clothing here, but beautiful fabric is plentiful, and so are tailors. The tailor I’ve most recently been using has been way too flaky, so I’ve been looking for another one. I was thrilled to find a young woman last week that’s just a few minutes walk from our house. Her name is Beatrice, and her shop is made out of one half of one of those big shipping containers. She uses an old-fashioned foot-pedal sewing machine. I’ve already had her make me a dress, a skirt, and curtain ties for my kitchen curtains–all for the equivalent of about $12. Made to order; done the next day. Can’t beat that!
This week I got a taste of what my life will look like a few years from now! Christa (grade 7) and Victoria (grade 5) were staying with us while their parents were training new missionaries in another part of Tanzania. At the beginning of the week the car broke down. Which is usually not a big problem because there are lots of taxis here–but things are much trickier now with Grace and her car seat! Then Christa got sick, then Gil got sick. So that meant getting up in the middle of the night to take temperatures (we don’t treat fevers lightly here because of the threat of malaria), taking Christa to the doctor, keeping track of who took which medicine when, figuring out how to get Victoria to and from school without a car…whew! I’m respecting my own mom more and more!
Thankfully, after a couple days we were able to borrow a school car, and everyone recovered by the end of the week. Victoria even got her research report on jaguars done on Thursday night, by candlelight because the power was off! We do enjoy having extra kids around, though–and are already ready to start working on our second adoption! (though we have to wait until Grace’s is finalized).
In the midst of all of this, Grace started walking! She is certainly quite proud of herself.
Friday we returned from our 4 day trip to Amani rainforest with the 5th graders. Four years ago, I took my sixth graders on this trip; now it has become a 5th grade tradition. Gil and I chaperoned last year as well, and this year was just a bit more interesting because Grace came along! A fabulous time was had by all and we were able to spent great time building relationships with the 5th graders.
Grace did fantastic–she was in a good mood the entire time, up until the bus ride home, where she cried for about 4 of the 7 hours! (That was not fun, but you couldn’t really hear her crying above the rest of the noise in the bus!) She was extremely popular among all the 5th graders (as always!) and rode on Daddy’s back for almost all of the hikes.
We did all sorts of wonderful activities–this trip builds so many memories for the kids! My former students (now 10th graders) still talk about “our” trip and have asked me SO many times, “When can we go back?” Playing in a waterfall, visiting a butterfly farm, exploring a tea factory, roasting marshmallows….all a kid’s dreamland!
This particular 5th grade class is an absolute riot! Almost every kid in the class is overly dramatic. Their teacher let them put on a talent show one night, and the performances they came up with had us all cracking up! They would have gone on all night unless we hadn’t dragged them off the stage.
And of course, I can’t end without posting a couple of gorgeous pictures taken by my very talented husband!
You just never know what to expect with the electricity here….thankfully, the power rationing is officially over (Hooray!), but that doesn’t mean that the electricity has stopped making our lives interesting. About a half hour ago, the electricity didn’t go OFF but it did go LOW. Every light in the house is running at about 25% capacity…the fans are barely rotating…I haven’t checked the fridge yet. I’m surprised that the internet is still working. Kind of gives the house an eerie, haunted sort of feel…. I’ve turned most of our important electronics off because this sort of thing is usually followed by power surges, which means that things start exploding. Never a dull moment!
Blessings of this week:
We got an amazing care package sent from MP3 class at FCC. Wow! Made our day. Although, I watched in dismay as my husband gave our daughter a piece of Laffy Taffy and she proceeded to stuff the entire thing in her mouth, and then screamed bloody murder when I fished it out of her mouth. What a mean mommy I am.
Our good friends Tim and Emily stayed with us last night. They live in a village a ways away from here but we love their visits! They have adopted a little guy named Caleb who is a little younger than Grace. We have already arranged their marriage, and Caleb approved by kissing Grace this morning! Grace retaliated by knocking him over.
Gil preached this morning on suffering, and did a fabulous job (as always!) He just keeps on gettin’ better.
Mosquitoes are feasting on me! Better go.
