oh no!

I was just going to upload a bunch of new pictures while I had good internet but I realized that I edited them all on my computer last week...which also DIED last week!

SOOOOO FRUSTRATING!!!!!!!

Ok.  My venting is over. 

So plan B for photos. (not sure what that is yet...)  :)

For a brief moment I have good internet...

Lucy and I are taking advantage of an opportunity for decent internet access.  Alex and at Beth are babysitting for a Missionary Retreat at a hotel/beach resort.  It also happens to be next door to our house. 

It's funny that we forget this place is here.  Life in Africa can swallow a person up and sometimes the daily tasks of just living take so much focus that the old kind of enjoyment we used to experience is forgotten.

But today we had to walk Beth and Alex over here.  So we decided to stick around (you know, to be sure they were alright...hahaha). 

The view is beautiful.  And although the beach is just a few steps away from the beach we live close to, it seems as though at this beach it is easier to forget about the rest of this city when you look out across the waves.

Oh, and there's air conditioning.  That is dreamy. 

It reminds me of Jake's praise during house church on Sunday.  He said that Africa has made him realize what he took for granted in America.  He said he is so much more grateful now for the things he has in America.  We live with so little here, which is not to pat ourselves on the back, but to push us to the realization of what really are "needs" and what really are "wants."  Instead of living in the prideful flesh of saying "we live with so little here" we say thank you Jesus that you are teaching us here.

For instance, without a vehicle we haven't purchased beds.  The house we are renting was a guest house prior to us moving there.  We are renting the current furniture temporarily until we can get a few small furniture items.

Thus, our beds are 3" foam on plywood.  The first few nights I struggled to sleep. Although we were purely exhausted I still woke up throughout the night with restless discomfort.  For a couple of weeks my hip bones felt bruised during the day and my back ached. 

But now I sleep like a rock. 

Occasionally, when I first lay down, I remember what my bed at the farm feels like.  Even though it was a hand me down from somewhere I now have a romanticized feeling about it whenever I picture it.

But something so small like a bed...we've taken for granted.  When we are really put to the test we realize what our true needs are. 

Can a 3" foam really be called a bed and give rest to the weary?  Yes.  Especially when I look outside my window and see such deeper problems in this country than my bed.  It is a reminder of what we take for granted and how misconstrued our wants and needs had become.

It is a depth of thankfulness we've never experienced before. 

Especially for a place to rest our heads...and faster internet.

Jerry

One of the cool things about living where we live is that instead of being walled off by a cement block fence we have an African version of chain link that allows for us to still be able to see everything that goes on outside our compound and live life with our neighbors.

I love it this way.  We didn’t plan it but God chose this for us and it’s one of those times when we look back and see how he provided what we didn’t know we wanted.

I love it this way because the community well is right outside our gate.  It’s the social hub where children gather morning and early evening to collect water.

We’ve spent many hours at the pump getting to know our neighbors, especially the kids.  I love the kids.  We’ve tried to memorize each and every one of their names and learn where they live and what they are about. 

One kid in particular, Jerry, has always been so friendly.  “Hi brother Eric!” “Ma Pam!” “LUCY!” “Alice” (they say Alex in a special way) and so forth.  He comes from the palm bushes where people are squatting.

Last week was different.  Jerry was quiet. His eyes showed a story but his voice was silent.  We asked him if everything was OK. 

He shook his head yes.

This went on for several days. 

Finally, I stopped him on the other side of the walking bridge and talked with him.  I asked him again why he was so quiet. 

He didn’t say anything.  He just shook his head as to say yes when I asked if he was ok, just like before.

I noticed he had something curled up in the bottom of his oversized shirt.  Leaves of some sort.

What they were for? I inquired.

By this time one of the teenage boys from the neighborhood, Emmanuel, stopped to talk with us.  Often times the older boys will help me communicate with the littler ones because the words we use sometimes have different meanings than Liberian English and the younger kids don’t understand. 

Emmanuel said the leaves were for infection.  Malaria?  He was guessing.

Jerry shook his head no. 

I questioned Jerry a little more. 

One thing I’ve learned about the Africans I’ve met is they will answer my questions but won’t add to the information.  If I ask if they have the same mother (assuming they have the same father) they won’t divulge that they also have different fathers. Thus, I ask questions until I can get to the root of things.

Finally, after several questions about Malaria, whether or not he felt ok, if he was safe at home, etc, Jerry showed us a festering sore on his leg.

I looked at it, bulging out of his skin, crusted over in filth and infected scabs.  I took a deep breath and convinced him to come home with me.  He was crossing the bridge anyway to go boil the leaves to treat his infected leg.

At the house I quickly gathered supplies and found Alex, who is our first aid expert.  She tenderly disinfected Jerry’s wound and dressed the area.  Jerry gave a story about falling into a fire and burning his leg.  His 2^nd degree burn (according to Where There is No Doctor) happened over a week ago and he was carrying the secret pain that long.

I gave Jerry a banana and a cold drink of water.

As we finished up I asked Jerry if anyone would be vexed with him at his house for coming here.  He said his sister would be angry with him.  It was more of a jealous anger.

I decided to walk Jerry home and explain the situation to his family and ask their permission to continue treating Jerry. 

Because our security team has voiced concern with the area where Jerry lives, I took the day guard with me. 

As we walked back there under the shade of palm trees I could smell the weed, or “grass” as they call it, wafting into the air.  The rumor of drugs confirmed.

We saw a small cleared area with 3 thatch walled houses.  An older man sat in the middle of the area holding a tiny baby.  It was Jerry’s father, holding a grandchild of his.

I introduced myself and explained to him how Jerry had been so friendly to us and then his demeanor changed this week.  I told him how we cared for Jerry and wanted to be sure he was safe.  I explained what we uncovered and how we could help.

Apparently his father didn’t know about the burn and scolded him for not being open about it. 

I asked his father to be sure Jerry was safe and if we could continue treating him.

His father shared how much he appreciated our help and that his children are my children and vice versa.  Whew.  I was nervous and afraid for a bit that he was angry with us.

In the end we’ve been able to see Jerry several times already to clean his sore and re-bandage it. 

Today I asked Jerry if he could read, knowing he isn’t in school.  He’s 7 so it is still early for reading here. 

He said he couldn’t so our family is praying we will be able to teach him to read and have an opportunity to learn from books even if he can’t go to school for now. 

It’s so funny.  Since the first time we treated Jerry’s wound, several other children have come to Alice for their sores to be cleaned and for band-aids.  Yesterday, one little boy came so we could fix his bug bite.  J  So cute.

I’ve learned the whole purpose for living in a neighborhood or community, wherever you live, is so you know people.  Knowing your neighbors and truly caring about them opens the doors to also know when something is wrong. 

We are so thankful that Jesus gave us the opportunity to love Jerry this week.  

****** UPDATE:  I wrote this post a few days ago but limited internet access prevented me from posting it. Jerry's leg is healing very well and he started reading lessons.  Before we left the US God gave me the idea that we would teach kids to read in our home.  When Jerry came today and I was working with him and he was really into learning.  I was so very grateful that the things God laid on my heart were coming to fruition.  I can't even express how much I enjoyed sitting next to that little boy today and watching him try so hard.  Sometimes I wonder if this is how Jesus feels when he walks beside us.

We're Not MIA!

Don’t worry.  We haven’t gone missing in Africa!  J

On New Year’s Eve we finally moved out of our one room at the guest house and into a rental house sandwiched between a fresh water lagoon and the ocean.  We were so, so relieved and anticipating life to “even out” and routine to set in.

Two days after we moved in we had a construction crew show up to replace some broken tiles.  This turned into three weeks and every tile in the house torn out and re-set!  At one point we were back to living in just a small space surrounded fully by a foot of sand under toe.  In Africa, they layer sand and then cement before setting the tiles. 

One night as I stepped over a mountain of sand dumped in the living room for the next days’ work I was startled by a crab running out in front of me.  Oh my.

At the same time Eric had a crew outside building a fence around our house and securing our area. 

We were on cultural overload, surrounded by 20+ Liberians all day for 3 weeks without a house to go into.  We were exiled to the yard where we tried to stay busy. 

It was a challenging few weeks.  In the end the new floors are much better and our house is finally beginning to feel like a home. 

School is in full swing again and we’re working double time to catch up on the missed weeks.  The kids are loving this part…ha!

I’ll try to post some pictures soon.  Right now the only internet access we have is a USB stick, which is SLOW.  Alex’s glorious photographs will have to wait.

We also don’t have running water…yet.  We are working on that.  Digging a well is a new experience for us.  But so is carrying 15 – 20 buckets of water a day and taking bucket showers.  Really, it was just an adjustment and now it’s just how it is.  We’re used to some of the crazy hard things. 

Eric and I joked last night about how there was a dead fly on my plate and I just ate on the other side.  No big deal. 

And the lines of termites on the walls…those were gross when we moved in but now no big deal.

Or the mice. Those are still gross.  But then the kids reminded me we had mice at the farm.  And in Olathe.  So why is that such a big deal??

Life here is really hard sometimes, and yet this is where we seem to come alive.  Never before have we felt so smack dab in the middle of God’s will.