A Typical Morning

I've begun to realize that there is no such thing as a typical morning here. My goal is to do school from 8:00-11:00 AM with a 30 minute recess at 9:00.
This morning started a little slow. Last night, we were at a friend's house for Bible Study, and got to bed a little late.
Mama Melanie (the lady who does our laundry) came about 8:00, and we started school about 15 minutes later. After that, many things seemed to happen this morning. Thank goodness Stephen (finally) had a day off!

- Our stove was out of butane, and there were no more tanks in the storage shed. I had to make a couple of phone calls to try to figure out if we could get one. (We couldn't.) Then when our cook and her assistant came, I got to explain it all in French (along with trying to figure out how many people would show up for lunch today- 9 adults and three children.)
- Coyote Jack (our cat) got locked in one of the sheds close to our house, and I had trouble opening the door. Stephen was able to get him out.
-Caleb discovered that he had a huge cockroach in his chair. I'm glad Stephen was here to handle that excitement.
- Two young women showed up looking for "Mama Ginny." I don't think they spoke French, but maybe they were shy. Mama Melanie speaks some French, so she helped me figure out what they wanted. After calling Ginny to come to our house, she realized (with Mama Melanie's help) that they were looking for jobs cleaning, but we had no openings. Ginny went back to praying with patients and I went back to school.
-Our water went off.
-On top of all of that, a NGO is using the chapel for some training. They seem to be taking more breaks than anything else, so they are milling about or sitting under trees all around. (Not that they are bothering us, but it is one more distraction.)


Finally, it was 10:00, and we decided to give up on math, and take a break for our "petite party." I bought Coke and Fanta Orange to celebrate Stephen's first day off in a couple of weeks. We shared it with the three ladies working, and had some time just to talk together.
And then, of course, recess. Maybe the rest of the day will be normal and boring. . . . .

Update

Isabelle picked out this cloth while we were at the market one day. Ciska (our cook) made the outfit for her. She only charged about $4. The wrap type skirt is what women wear here most of the time.

It has been awhile since I posted. We have been doing well lately, just busy. We enjoyed our trip to Brazzaville, but it was a little longer than we had planned due to airline issues. We returned Sunday, March 7, and Stephen went back to work that afternoon & evening.
He started call the next day, and has been on call all but three days since then. (Dr. Harvey had an unexpected but necessary trip to Brazzaville. He should return today, and Stephen will have a bit of a break.)
The rest of us are doing well, just busy catching up on things after being gone, plus the usual- I'll spare you the boring details.e to
It hasn't all been work. We've had some time to play, too. I hope to post some of our recent pictures this weekend. :)
I seem to have caught a cold, and my throat is too scratchy to do all of school today. I'm letting the kids watch a movie, while I try to catch up on a few other things. (like blogging.)

Company Girl Coffee- Visit from the Ambassador

Our excitement this week was a visit from the US ambassador to the Republic of Congo. He met with various officials, had lunch at the Harvey's house, and did a tour of the hospital. After that he (and the group with him) came to our house for a drink and snack before heading back to the plane to Brazzaville.

The picture above shows the group beginning the tour. The picture below is most of the group posing for a picture in front of our chapel.

It was at some point this week that I realized our kids are not having a normal childhood. I don't know why I had not thought about that before. Maybe it is just that we do so many things that seem normal, like school, eating, hanging out together. However, they seem to be enjoying themselves.

What do you do with the laundry when it rains?

You hang it up inside, of course! We have clotheslines in all of the bedrooms, but there was too many clothes. We had them hanging everywhere. After it stopped raining, I put them back outside, brought them in the evening, then put them back out the next morning. Fortunately, there was no rain the second day, and everything dried.

Making Your Home a Haven

This week the focus was on chores. I've been working on building them into our routine. The main bulk of the housekeeping work is done by Melanie, who cleans two days a week and does laundry two days a week.
Things here get dirty very fast. All surfaces have to be washed every week. This includes windows, doors, door frames, shelves, desks, and everything else. The walls even have to be swept. I'm very glad to have Melanie's help or I would never be able to keep up with it myself!
The smaller things the kids and I take care of ourselves. I do some things before they are up in the morning. Then we all have morning clean-up right before breakfast. They pick up toys, books, clothes, and shoes. Sometimes they sweep or put away laundry. I wash breakfast dishes, and make sure the kitchen is clean.
Before lunch and after supper, we have similar pick up times for the kids. I also have them help me bring in the laundry in the evening on laundry days. If it is dry, we will fold it and put it away. Other times, we put it on the indoor lines to dry. The next morning, it goes back outside if still wet, or folded and put away if dry.
When I think a little extra motivation is needed, I will set the timer and we race to see who can finish first. Suddenly, what was a boring task becomes a fun game as we try to be the first one done.
Having everything written on our schedule has helped so much. It helps the kids know what is coming at certain times, and it helps to keep me on track, too.

I didn't have any pictures of us doing chores, but this one was too cute to resist.

We went for a bike ride on Wednesday. Dash did not want to be left behind. At first, he was sitting on my bicycle tire. After I made him get down, he tried to climb in the bike trailer with Isabelle and Caleb.

When we returned from our ride, this is where we found him. I had to take a picture.

I seem to have a talent for closing my eyes in almost every picture. This was the only one that I got of us in our aprons together, though. I made my apron on Monday and Tuesday, and Isabelle's today. Here we are wearing them for the first time, just before we mixed up bread together.

Bike Ride

School Outside

Ian was studying capacity for math, so we decided to test it out. Even Dash wanted to see what was going on.