After Josiah’s nap, often we go out for a walk to buy bread, search for bananas and pick up some roasted peanuts from the roadside stands.  We greet the people in our neighborhood.  They love talking to Josiah, and he loves holding the change (about 15 cents) to give to the “peanut ladies” as we walk.

Taking a walk with our friend, Ali…This is out our front door

starting our walk

Where we get our taxi for school

Getting bread.  They cost about 20 cents a loaf.

No sidewalk, but doesn’t phase Josiah.

One of the local shops, where we can get eggs and vegetables. Eggs are expensive, about 25 cents each and are not refrigerated.

It has been a while since I have posted…only because it is not so easy to describe life here on the islands.  I remember my first trip out to this continent, about 12 years ago, when someone described it as a “world of contradictions:” where on the same street you would find someone talking on their cellphone (this was before everyone had a cell phone) and  find another using the sidewalk as a toilet.

Well, thankfully, some things have improved since then, (more people have cellphones and fewer people are using the sidewalks as toilets)  but there is still a long way to go!

You know you are in Africa when…

-You have yet to see a street sign, traffic lights, or traffic signs..

-You don’t have a street address (just a neighborhood name) and yet people still manage to show up at your door for a visit!

-Your screen door mysteriously shows up with a new rodent sized hole each morning…

We thought the first hole was just an “accident” with the mop…but after we taped it with duct tape and the 2nd one showed up, we figured out it was something chewing its way in each night…

-The electricity shuts off right after the sun goes down 5 times a week.

-You get an electricity and water bill that goes back 3 years, when you just moved in about 3 months ago.

-You feel an overwhelming appreciation for geckos, lizards and spiders (they eat flies and mosquitos).

-You have to put rice in the freezer to kill the bugs.

-You have to put peanut butter (and almost everything else in your pantry) in the refrigerator (to avoid ants).

-The mouse that you trapped ends up being a meal for a shrew. [thankfully, no pictures]

-Holidays are contingent on whether someone sees the moon the night before.

-You buy a generator and it breaks down… (okay it doesn’t have to be Africa for this to happen, but it happened to us, while in Africa! =)

Dale and his electrician friend “repairing” the generator. It works now, but we are not quite sure why it stopped working.

-You have friends named “Doo doo” (see above picture of Dale and his friend Doo Doo–really, no joke) and “Bozo.”

-It’s been 4 months since your daughter has used a car seat…YES, only in Africa!!!  I know!!  I know!!

Abigail is now 10 months old. She can balance herself on her own feet for a couple of seconds; she can hold her own bottle; and is eating table foods!

-You walk into a grocery store and see a wall of chocolate breakfast cereal!  I think it has to do with the French influence…I have never seen such a thing before…incredible.

This is in our newest grocery store…even our kids don’t ask us to buy these types of cereal anymore.  There can be “too much” of a good thing!

-Random shop keepers and taxi drivers ask to marry you.  It’s always good to have in your back pocket that you are already married and have four kids.  Then they stop asking!

Here is our good friend Ali, helping me shop at the market…where I was able to turn down another spontaneous, unsolicited proposal. And Yes, people try to marry off their daughters to my hubby too…

–Lastly, you know you are in Africa when: your friend finally finds chocolate chips at the brand new grocery store and pays the extraordinary price…only to have them all melt together into one glob before she manages to bring it home…

The boys with their good friends playing with legos, what else?

Abigail at our teammate’s baby shower

We all know that communication is key to sharing, to relationships, to work, to medicine…and how do we communicate?  Language… Oh the challenges of language!  Never did I think that I would ever learn French… but here we are speaking French and loving it.  Dale will give his first sermon (ever) in French at the Malagasy chrch this Sunday!  French is the official trade language here, used in schools, universities, hospitals and business.  But, there is a local language that is spoken in the home, among the young and old, that is very different from French.  This is the language that our team is learning. This is what we have been concentrating on since our arrival 4 months ago.  It has been challenging and sometimes exhausting, but as we learn the local language, we also learn about the culture and community…

A typical morning greeting will go something like this:

-How are you?

-Well.

-My health is good.

-Okay, my health is good too.

-How are the children?

-The children are well.

-How is your husband?

-He is well.

-Have you woken up well?

-I have woken up.

-Good morning.

-Thank you!  Good bye!

-Thank you!

(We have are first local language exams today!)

Dale and his language helper.

Grace and her language helper during “language concentration week”

Abigail, already 9 months old! She is pulling to stand, holding her own bottle, and feeding herself finger foods!! (She is wearing a shirt that her Uncle Josh got for her at the “patent office” from home)

Josiah reaching for a piece of cake during EED… last Friday.

Our little crew. Currently they are on vacation for two weeks from school. Dale and Mark have been doing remarkably well in their French school. Mark got an “A” for memorizing a poem (in French) and Dale has already memorized 2 poems (in French)!

There is something empowering about electricity…the hum of a refrigerator, the whirling of a fan just puts an extra spring in one’s step!  Even little Josiah yells “yay !” when a light is turned on.  Yes!  We have power!

Dale read in the local paper that the government agreed to receive (and hopefully pay for) the fuel ship which was to arrive around 6pm yesterday.  Before that, some leadership had decided to boycott the current tanker because they felt like they were being forced to renegotiate their contract.  Unfortunately, that left the island without fuel for the last 5 days…finally, a reserve supply went out to the power company from the government…and now we have power!

Of course, it will likely go off at it’s normal random times, but we have seen it and done that before.  We are thankful for whatever we have!!

For the last few days, our electricity has been more off than on.  There is a gut wrenching feeling when you hear the fan wind down and the lights click off…Usually, it seems random, but this week, there is a fuel shortage…so, lately we have had electricity for only a couple hours a day or minutes a day…no lights, no fans, no internet, no refrigerator… and today we heard that the ship with all the awaited fuel will not arrive until next Wednesday!  (8 days from today) Is that true?  We also heard another rumor that the ship is close by but the government has not payed for the fuel.  Cars are left empty at closed gas stations and the streets have less and less traffic on them.

I am reminded of Phl 4: 11-13

But first, I think about all the circumstances in the past that I thought was hard…i.e., internship…and even then I had electricity and running water!  Surely, this is different!  No, Paul said “for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.”  Really?  Whatever the circumstances?  And how did he do it?  He continues, “I can do all this through him who gives me strength.”

Hmm…Where does my electricity or power come from? Is it contingent on the shipment of fuel?  I realize that Paul didn’t do what he did by himself, using his own strength…he tapped into our Father’s power…and so can I!

Unfortunately not much progress has been made on our island’s garbage situation. In the past, before our arrival, we heard that the city was dumping their garbage on an old airstrip outside of town.  However, the nearby habitants started blocking off the roads that led to the airstrip and the city had to stop dumping… Since then a private company was contracted to collect the garbage from the central markets and hold them in containers until they can be dumped.  Over three months have passed and there is still no solution in sight.  Now there is more than 41 containers filled with garbage!  Each week, we and the rest of the city are faced with the dilemma as to ‘what to do with our garbage.’  Outside of our city, most of the villagers seem to either burn their garbage or dump it in the ocean!  For now, our with our teammates, we try to find a pile of garbage that we can add our bags too, in hopes that it would be collected… and dumped… where?…when?…who knows?

At the market, garbage piles up fast!

Garbage is constantly encountered (and doesn’t stay in the ocean…)

But amongst the rubbish, one can still see the lush plants, the beautiful creation, and the potential…

Both Abigail and Josiah are making good recoveries from their recent illnesses.  We thank our Father above and everyone’s thoughts and petitions!  We still don’t know what Abigail’s illness was…(we have our hypotheses, but we will have to wait on further diagnostic testing-which we may do someday, just out of curiosity…) but her fever and strange rash is fading and we are grateful!  Now that our house is no longer an inpatient ward, we can get back to the daily adjustments and navigations of living here.

So one of the other ongoing challenges of moving to the Islands has been shopping for food and cooking meals.  Which is especially hard because, we have three boys who love to eat!  I would remind myself that I really did cook meals for my family everyday and liked doing it!  But, it feels like a lifetime ago… Imagine no longer having your kitchen panty, your grocery stores or a vehicle…Imagine that almost all of your regular standby recipes are no longer relevant…because the ingredients or appliances are just not here.  And, sometimes when things are available here, it’s just not that easy to get.   Other times, you get lucky and find beef at the store!

Here is the main market that can be very busy and crowded. You can find all your fresh (local) produce here as well as household items.

Meat and fresh fish can also be bought here in the market, but we can’t get passed the flies and lack of refrigeration. There are a few small grocery stores that have a frozen meat section where you can get chicken legs and ground beef patties.

Some of our standbys that we can still make here are: pasta, pizza, chicken, and rice stir fry.  Some of the new things that our house help has helped us with are: chicken with coconut sauce, chicken with tomato based sauce, fried fish, fried green bananas, and fried sweet potatoes.  After that, there is always french bread.  We are blessed to have a bakery not too far from our house…

This past week Dale got official tours of both the government hospital and the Catholic medical clinic.  However, it seems that we don’t have to go far from home to find our first few patients on the Islands…

Our youngest son, Josiah has been the toughest to keep mosquitos off of…so naturally, even while on weekly malaria prophylaxis, permethrin impregnated clothing and mosquito repellent sprayed on him daily, he would be the first to get Malaria. It is most dangerous in children under the age of 5.

Malaria rapid test kit! Josiah’s showed that he was positive for p. falciparum.  (Need to get some more test kits from Kenya…)

We started him on treatment as soon as possible, but Josiah was febrile periodically for two nights then had a relentless fever for the next 24 hours along with protracted vomiting, fatigue, malaise and dehydration. Those of you who get our newsletters, emails and talked to our Father about him –we thank you!!!  A full day after his last dose of malaria treatment, he turned the corner and now appears that he has made a full recovery!  He is back to his busy 3 year old self!  PTL!

Josiah taking a nap while recovering from Malaria.

Yesterday morning, as Josiah was taking a nap (above), however, our house help friend, Anita sliced the palm of her hand at the base of her thumb.  Yes, it was deep.  I rushed to get big Dale and thankfully we had all the necessary supplies (thanks to physician friend in Quebec) to numb her up and suture her wound.

Anita smiling as her anesthesia is working nicely. Apparently here at the government hospital, they don’t use local anesthesia! YIKES!

Finally after what seems like already a full week:

Today, Abigial has had her third day of fevers.  It appears to be viral, but since she is only 8 months old we tested her the day before and yesterday for malaria.  (Some team members have graciously shared their home test kits.)  She was negative for p. falciparum each time.  And this afternoon broke out in a macular papular rash.  The rest of her exam seems normal and when she is not febrile is acting like her normal self…but she is still having fevers.  Sigh.  Would you talk to the Father about her too?  Thank you again again.  We know that He is sovereign and worthy.

We all know that when exercising, stretching is just as important as running or weight lifting…but, let’s be honest, stretching is slow, sometimes painful, takes patience, and discipline.  Needless to say, moving our family to Africa has been stretching!  But with stretching, comes flexibility, and with flexibility, healthier, stronger muscles, that are less inclined to be injured…

Here in Africa, one must be flexible.

[I am reminded of the toy figure Gumby (made out of clay).  While I (Grace) was a pediatrics intern in the Navy, my program director would point to the toy figure on his desk when he wanted to emphasize how “flexible” we must be: “like Gumby…” he would say.  As a Navy family, we quickly learned how to be flexible as we lived in 5 different states within 7 years.  However, if anyone wants to learn how to really be flexible, join us here on the Islands!]

Even more than the daily rain while trying to dry clothes on a line, or the frequent  power and water outages, or the unexpected visitor while your toddler is having a breakdown…the day before yesterday was a lesson in flexibility.  You may have heard in the news in recent weeks, along with the anniversary of 9/11 there has been some backlash surrounding a recent movie trailer.  Seeing that it was a Friday, where on this side of the world, the men all go to their place of worship to gather, we were told that there was going to be some organized protests.  Here on the Islands, the people on the whole are quite warm and welcoming, and even during their times of public expression, things rarely get out of hand, nevertheless last Friday we were advised to stay out of the street and remain at home from 12 to 4pm.  This week, however, we were called by our team leader to be sequestered at another team member’s house just outside of the city.  A (trustworthy) national military friend was not taking any chances of violence.  He wanted us out of the city, in one house, so that he could send soldiers to protect us.

This seemed a little out of the ordinary, but not knowing what would happen, after a few minutes of processing the phone call at 11:45 am, we left our house a little after 12 noon and got to our friend’s house at 12:15pm.  For the next 6 hours, about 10 armed soldiers duly stood in front of the house.  The occasional truck with people chanting drove by.  A crowd of children and adults walked by holding signs.  We stayed inside, ate, talked and sang… another Friday came and went.  It wasn’t how we expected to spend our Friday, but we are being stretched and learning to be flexible.  I wonder what this Friday will be like…

Abigail helping with the laundry!

Mark and a baby lizard that was living in our bedroom

Coming to Africa, is almost like stepping back into time (a hundred years ago)… Each night we take baths in tubs where we pour in heated water from the kitchen.  Laundry is hung outside on the line.  We buy fresh bread (without preservatives) from the bakery and fresh vegetables from the market… Sounds simple…quaint even…

Until, I am reminded that a hundred years ago, when things seemed “simple” there also wasn’t a sanitation department, running water, or reliable electricity… And then, I wouldn’t call Africa simple any more…

We live in an area of the city where we don’t need to draw water from a cistern and can get running water in our kitchen…until the water stops working (for no known reason and for an unknown length of time) and then we realize that perhaps those that have deep cisterns are the “lucky” ones indeed!

One of the most challenging and perhaps least fixable, most frustrating things (as Westerners we love to fix things…) is the garbage or lack of waste management.  Here, there is garbage everywhere!  In front of our house, in the streets, on the beach…everywhere.  Please don’t ask us what we do with our garbage, because we are still trying to figure it out!

On a happier note, school is going well for the kids!  Josiah potty trained himself on the first day of school!  Little Dale finally got all his books that he needed and Mark’s friend (team member from Scotland) was able to join his class!

Mark and Daniel lining up for class

Dale lining up for class

Our much appreciated hot water heater for baths! (and the occasional cup of tea)

Abigail is now 8 months old!!

Bat flying over our courtyard…one of many!! These are daytime fruit bats!  Some can reach 4 feet in wing span.

Josiah calls them the “yellow headed” bats…Can you spot him upside down in this tree behind our house?

Teamday cake for Josiah!