Here we are

So after leaving our friends in the sweltering heat, we dragged ourselves across 10 countries, 8 time zones, 5 airports and one too many interrupted naps. We finally made it to the amazing U.S. of A! The weather is blissfully cool (supposed to freeze tonight!), the food is all too yummy (I threw away my fat clothes, I threw away my fat clothes) and the family/friend time is INCREDIBLE.Gramma and Papa came from Colorado for birthdays, Thanksgiving, first day of school (can you believe both big girls get to go?) and lots of quality time.
It's near heaven for us all to have Grams and Mimi and Grandad around the corner and we are just so thankful. These last two years in Africa have been incredible. We learned and loved and grew and thrived. But it was hard and we are so glad that we get to have this time to rest and recover and re-connect and re-focus. Thanks for helping us have this time; we can't wait to see each and everyone of you!

We are Back!

No, Justin did not talk us into trolling back from Africa by boat (although the idea did cross his mind). We actually made it back last week according to schedule. Sorry for taking soooo long to update the blog and let you know that we made it back safely and are all doing wonderful. Thank you for the prayers and we look forward to seeing all of you at some point!

The Race is On

The crazies are laying low today, so Justin agreed to take me on a date! The babysitter comes any minute (another mom friend who has also put her baby to bed by now). The question is, will Justin beat her?

He went out with the team leader here today to deliver two new fishing boats to a nearby, poverty-stricken fishing village. The men are going to rotate turns taking the good boats and engines out farther and faster to improve their catch, and therefore livelihood.

It's too bad his ministry is such a downer for him around here. Poor guy has to fish even when he's working. 7 days to YOU!

Ok, ok, enough fising already...except

Except this was a family fishing trip! After I fried my brain on Kiswahili lessons this week, Justin asked if we wanted to go WITH him on a fising/dolphin watching trip. After anguishing over the idea of 5 hours in a boat with 3 children, I agreed, knowing I'd be sorry if I stayed home.
Turns out I was right! We hooked this monster wahoo within 5 mintues of putting our lines in the water. We went on to hook maybe 9 fish and land...not 9. But it was exciting anyways.

I even got to fight what felt like a marlin, straining all my un-fished muscles, hearing the drag peel out without me gaining an inch! Then Justin switched the lever over (thus tightening the drag) and I soon landed a small bonita.
Braelyn was a handful, but at least she was so out in the wild blue yonder instead of cooped up in the house with me all alone all afternoon.

Really...who could ask for more?

The girls did amazing. They were happy to sit and feel the waves lift us up and over,
watch the sun sparkle on the surface, feel the spray of the sea mist their faces and revel in some daddy time. When it got to be too much,
The rock of the boat lulled them into peaceful sleep.
It was an amazing day after all.

Fishing

On Saturday, Justin got to go fishing with two friends of his down on the southern tip of the island. It is a beautiful small fishing village and they go out with a local fisherman in a small boat in the search for tuna, marlin, sailfish, dorado, wahoo, etc. They also get to enjoy beautiful sunrises coming up out of the Indian Ocean. They usually start off going after wahoo early in the morning and then switching over to tuna when they see the birds show up. If you look closely at the picture, you can see the splash of a tuna after it jumped and to the right another tuna is coming out of the water starting its jump. Justin says that these tuna are about 50-60 pounds each and are in groups in the hundreds. They spend most of the day just chasing around the birds and schools of tuna until they have caught their fill.

On this trip, they were driving towards a school of tuna when two humpback whales started jumping out of the water just in front of them. By the time Justin remembered he had his underwater camera, they had stopped jumping but they followed them in the boat getting close enough to take some pictures when they would come up for a breath. Justin wanted to jump in and swim with them but his local friends thought he was insane and that the whales would swallow him whole
There are also tons of dolphins around this area. Justin's friends were fine with him swimming with the dolphins so he jumped in and got to play and touch a few of them. The local wildlife here is pretty amazing.

It was another fun day on the water for Justin and his friends. We are thankful for the food and the fun that is enjoyed from the waters here. We are thankful for the friendships that have been formed and for the time spend with friends.

Trees

The girls love all the different and cool tress that we have here. There are beautiful trees that are great for climbing and then there are trees that are not so inviting... Sometimes I wonder what in the world these trees are trying to prevent from climbing them. Whatever it is, they are doing a good job at keeping us away from attempting to climb them. These thorns are a good inch to inch and a half long and cover the tree all the way to the top and out on the branches

There are trees that have roots taller than most trees around. The girls can hide, climb and play all around the tree's roots without ever getting close to the actual tree itself that starts some 20 feet up in the air above them. Then there are Baobab trees. When I think of Africa, this is the tree I see in my mind. They are HUGE trees with short limbs. If you look at the picture closely, there are three adults and a child at the bottom left of the tree. The picture does not do the size of this tree justice. It is guessed to be over 600 years old and serves as a landmark for fishermen at sea.
However the favorite tree of our little girls is this one. It is a mangrove tree that has been cut up but is still strongly rooted in the sand right at the waters edge. At low tide the girls climb it and jump in the sand. At high tide they can climb it and dive off into the water. This poor tree has been climbed countless times already by our girls and is sure to be scaled many more before they leave.

Thinks she's ONE!

This week Braelyn has decided to show us she can not only grow hair earlier than her sisters, but she can do other things too. She's been thinking about walking for a few weeks, but last night she stood up maybe 15 feet away from me and took 4 halting, wiggling steps toward me!
Then she pointed up in a nearby tree at her absolute favorite thing in all the world (crows, much to Justin's delight) and said, "day-day". The word for bird here is NDEGE, and we have spent hours walking around chasing crows and pointing and squealing and saying, "n-deg-ay". So she's added that to her occasional "dada" and "mamamamama" (usually screamed at the top of her lungs when she's not happy).
At 10 1/2 months, she is a true delight and we rejoice that she is a part of our family. I sure wish she'd sleep better, but I'll take what I get. I can't wait for you all to get to enjoy my girls with me...in person! Miss you, thanks for keeping us in your prayers.

Good Eating

One of the other fun changes in life for us here on the island is the new and wonderful (depending on who you ask) food. In Mombasa we could get chicken and meat anytime we wanted and it was good (by African standards). Here...not so much. We found some frozen chicken which I was a little wary of at first since power is out here for long periods of time. Then I read the package which says the chicken is from Brazil. How in the world does chicken get from Brazil to Zanzibar and still be more cost effective than a chicken from the mainland or somewhere else nearby? (I see a big market for any entrepreneur chicken farmers out there). How many countless times has that chicken been unfrozen and refrozen? Regardless we still eat it because that is the only chicken we have, but we are starting to switch over to "local" food more and more. Local food consists mostly of squid, fish and octopus. I have no idea how the waters here produce the numbers of octopus that the locals consume but there are guys all over the roadside and in the fish market that sell large numbers of them. They are great fun to catch and give me 15 minutes on a reef with a stick and a hook and chances are good we will be eating octopus for dinner. The girls think it is pretty funny to eat the suction cups.


There is also an abundant amount of squid here which the girls have convinced themselves are onion rings when we fry them. Now I should mention that I got the idea from a good friend of mine (Josh) and that I do not condone lying to children. However, one day his son wanted to eat a brownie (which is worth its weight in gold over here) and Josh asked him a series of questions about its appearance and texture which led his son to believe that chocolate brownies are really poop. So now when shown a brownie and asked if he would like to eat it....he would scream and run the other direction. Based on this method, I don't tell the girls that they are actually eating the male reproductive system of a wahoo, but instead allow them to use their own deductive reasoning to decide what exactly it is that they are eating. Thank goodness that 2 and 4 year old deductive reasoning usually turns out to sound much better than what they ARE actually eating.I won't go into how great the fishing is here (its incredible) but we get a good range of fish to choose from depending on the season. So far I have caught yellowfin tuna, wahoo, dorado, sailfish, marlin, barracuda and kingfish just to name a few. The girls LOVE fish, especially when Shannon makes fish tacos with homemade tortilla chips. I must tell you that I am super fortunate with the bountiful waters that surround this island and wonderful girls who will eat just about anything you put in front of them (especially when they believe it is something other than the eyeball of a squid). And of course, I am willing to do my duty as "provider" and go out to catch food for us to eat. It is the least I can do for my wonderful girls.

Ultimate Game of Telephone

At some point in time, some well-meaning Westerner taught some child in Africa the game of Ring Around the Rosie. Centuries later it seems, we have this game in my front yard: Ringa Ringa Roadie, ah bush, ah bush. Ringa Ringa Roadie, ah bush, ah bush. Ringa Ringa Roadie ah, ah, ah, down! We do both versions with the kids.
Meanwhile INSIDE the house, someone has to die. He may be furry and cute and merely 2 inches long, but he made 2 such piles in the house last night, AFTER stealing the cheese from the mouse trap. We aren't going to have door jams left if we don't catch him soon!
This morning my friend Miriam taught Hunter to use the "mbuzi". It means goat and I guess they named it that for it's sharp teeth that tear up whatever is nearby. It's intended use here is to scrape out the coconut from its husk.
Hunter never quite got the rhythm down (grind, grind, grind, turn) but she made me proud. Add coconut grinding to baking bread for sandwiches and chopping everything by hand and cooking everything from scratch (plus cleaning and children) and you can see why they live and work communally here. We are thankful for friends here who are helping us "learn" how to cook, clean and survive here.

Pray with us for her that we can be true lights for Jesus...have something she would want.