Winding down the fun

We're on the final countdown of our time off the island. It has been wonderful. We've hit several pools, lots of restaurants, a butterfly park, the movies, AND wandered the aisles of the grocery store in aimless bliss.

We've also spent a fair bit of time doing the doctor rounds, check-ups, stored up complaints, etc. the only catch it that it seems to take about 3 attempted visits for us to get things done!

We're so thankful for this time away from "village life", time with wonderful old friends, re-connecting with people and gearing up for the future. I'll be sending out a newsletter hopefully soon with more details, but please continue to be in prayer for our Much Dreamed of Adult Education Center. As of our departure from the little island nearly 2 weeks ago, things had ground to a discouraging halt. Please pray for God's plan to unfold in His time, and for our patience and wisdom as it does. Thanks!

He is Risen Indeed!

I don't have any new pictures uploaded... but we wanted to wish you all the very best Resurrection Day Tomorrow! Right now I am sitting on an outdoor couch watching a brilliant full moon cast its glow over an inlet of the Indian Ocean. The breeze is strong enough to keep the mosquitoes off but not so strong so as to rip down the clothes-pinned sheet/projector screen that the kids are watching a movie on. We've enjoyed these last days of reconnecting with old friends, reveling in air conditioning and restaurants, and celebrating the lead up to tomorrow with every craft and adventure possible.

This morning we you-tubed some Easter music to dress and braid by...let's celebrate together: Did the grass sing? Did the Earth rejoice to feel you again? Over and over in a never-ending sound, did the earth seem to pound HE IS RISEN? Over and over in a never-ending round HE IS RISEN, HALLELUJAH, HALLELUJAH!

Amen and AMEN!

(thanks to: "Was it a Morning Like This?" by Sandy Patti...LOVE that song)

Mombasa you say?

We got the opportunity to get off the island for our first real break since last July and we grabbed it!  Hunter even got to fly co-pilot as we hopped over to the mainland...it was awesome.

Unfortunately, an international plane ticket to get up to Mombasa was upwards of $300 per person...versus $8 per person for a bus ride.  Guess what we chose?  Yup, 4 hours of sweaty, dusty CAREENING up north, including an hour suffering through check outs and check ins and customs and literally walking across a dusty quarter mile of no-man's land as we crossed the border on foot.  It felt very...African.

The girls did spectacular under the circumstances and then we plopped on a noisy sidewalk to await our dear old friends Josh and Maggie to pick us up.

And, it's awesome!  There's now an air-conditioned, escalatored mall here!  And restaurants that serve food in a timely manner!  And, it's neither cooked nor cleaned up by ME!  And the 3 boys?  Also awesome.  The 6 kids have been playing so well together, having trouble deciding how to split up when we have to get in cars.

The last TWO evenings we have spent at a pizza/chicken joint that has a bouncy house on the weekends PLUS a nice guy who did amazing face paint and balloon hats and swords.

If we weren't still grossly sweaty and our soda options weren't still limited to Coke, Sprite and Fanta Orange, I might swear we were in America.

That's the big news for this week!  More later!

Lovin' Island Livin'

Here's some old pics from the last few weeks of just a few of the reasons we love it here.

Shrimp the size of lobsters...

Red Snapper that can hardly be held by our two biggest girls...

Oh, and somethings we don't necessarily love so much...like Praying Mantises, always so well camoflauged, hanging out around the yard.

But back to the good stuff...getting those last drops of goodness...yummmmmy.

It's too hot to blog

It's too hot to take pictures...these are ones Justin has taken while enjoying the cool of the Indian Ocean. It's too hot to wear clothes. It's even too hot to take a cold shower. How? Well, our water comes from a big, black tank that sits up on a tower soaking in the sun all day long. It's the dog days of summer without a/c or an end in the near future. I think around June it stops feeling so hot.

But it's alright. We are healthy and happy and plodding away at learning language and the girls are doing wonderful. They don't seem to notice the heat, coming out dressed in long leggings under skirts and such nonsense. At first I used to go make them change into something cool, but now I let it go. Maybe it will help them stay impervious to the oven-like climate.

Hunter is smart as ever, blasting away at school. Today (with Justin standing in one shady spot on the road and me down at another) she mastered starting AND stopping on her bike. So, she's officially independently mobile! Avery is her usual chattery self. She still has some cute toddler tendencies that just make her chatter irresistibly cute. Braelyn is nearly always understandable. Unfortunately, I now get to hear "Ah-vah hit me. Ah-vah no pay wif me. Ah-vah dink a toe-toe an me wanna toe-toe too!" That's cocoa/chocolate milk in the last one. But just when I think I got it, she throws out a sentence we will never figure out.

Showers of blessings continue, water is running freely, the generator is awesome since the power goes out almost every day, petrol (gas for the car) has run out on the island but we have a small reserve and can still be mobile, friendships are growing, business is moving forward, and God is on HIS throne...AMEN! Please pray for things to move forward with the Adult Education Center. We've been waiting in limbo for several weeks on some things and would love to start moving! Thanks for all your prayers and support.

Speaking of, we recently got an AWESOME package with lots of encouraging notes from kids back home. One of our favorites said, "Thanks for serving our country". It's drawing was of two figures laying down facing each other, bullets flying. You're welcome buddy!

Love and Marriage...or one of the two anyways

Our best local friend's oldest daughter got married on Friday...what an event! It all starts when the most "auspicious" (lucky?) weekend is chosen by someone important. Then everyone picks their time and the weddings roll all weekend.

This one began at 5am (we did not join this part) at the mosque where they were married officially by the Imam. Then the bride returned home and the groom did also...to his home. For the next 7 hours or so, the bride sat in quiet seclusion...on the floor...under a sheet. At some point she began preparations for her presentation at noon.

We gussied ourselves up and walked into town (Justin had taken the car to pick up friends from the airport). This involved 4 very white females dressed in lots of sparkle and make-up walking nearly a mile in the BLAZING heat trying to pretend we were NOT the spectacle we were. Or that we were dying of heat. Or that I was not cheating the system with my scarf tied around my head and knotted in the back because I simply could not bear to wrap my neck and face in that heat. By the way, the bling and make-up is a cultural must here, not my parading of my children.

Nevertheless, we made it a fashionable hour late (we came at 10) to the dancing festivities. By the way, how cute is Braelyn getting? The drums were going strong and the house was packed to the hilt with women. The men were lounging out front. They do NOT dance together. The 70 pound, 90 year old Gramma grabbed my hand in an amazing death grip and tried to pull me into the room to dance. Her hips swaying, um, suggestively, her laugh cackling through the house, she was having a GREAT time. The girls, however, were not. So we escaped and sought out a quiet corner of the house away from the dancing.

It did not stay quiet though! We were soon flocked with children...sitting...staring...touching. Justin soon arrived in his Kofia (hat) and Kanzu (dress...er...whatever) and we were served the traditional wedding fare of cinnamon spiced rice topped with a smidge of vegetable/"beef" stew. This is the youngest brother of the bride above, and the youngest sister below. For now. Mom is pregnant with number 8.

So after lunch, we all (ladies only still...men still sitting and doing nothing) hustled into the living room where Asha (the bride) was led in as though she was a china doll, all dressed in the most intricate, amazing, sparkly get-up, and seated sedately on the couch. It is said that she is supposed to look sad all day. I don't know why. The other women would go, lift up her veil to see her, maybe whisper something to her, maybe just peek.

They were quick to flip back her veil when I pulled out the camera for this shot, though! I was so thankful to see her give some smiles and giggles. The dowry system is still in place and though her Baba (father) assured us that her new husband is young and they know and like each other, that is not always the case. Sandy attended another wedding that afternoon where the bride actually cried the whole time.

You can see the henna ALL over the bride, the awesome make-up, the sparkles. You can also see how bedraggled my girls look nearly 3 hours into this event. Poor Braelyn had a few meltdowns waiting for food and drink and daddy. But we survived just fine and returned home to a house full of love and joy and commitment. Her new husband would arrive around 5 pm to literally grab her and carry her away to his family's home where the festivities would continue all Saturday as well.

Among non-locals we've had some thought-compiling conversations of the state of marriage here. Some realities: a man can divorce his wife for any reason simply by saying "I divorce you" three times. A woman cannot divorce her husband. There is a special word in the language for a woman who has been sent away but no such word for a man. A man can marry up to 4 women AT A TIME. As long as he hasn't married that fourth, he is free to roam and flirt and carouse to his heart's content...he's simply wife-hunting. The wife can't complain lest she be divorced and sent away, maybe without her children.

There is no sanctity in marriage here and it breaks our hearts. There is no understanding of True Love. There is no understanding of why Justin, who can clearly afford it, has not taken a younger wife. Oh, Lord, may we please be an example of true love. May we be a picture of Your love. May we show our friends something desirable, something worth seeking out...YOU.

Date Night on our Little Island

We're always so happy and blessed...and amused when our visitors have offered to babysit while we go on a date. Such a sweet offer, such an appealing thought. But on THIS island, there are no restaurants that we can just go to eat dinner.

So THIS is what a good date night is: feed the girls something light like noodles or rice. Put them to bed...and fry up some jumbo shrimp.

Pop in a DVD bought on the streets of Mombasa. Sit on the couch together, drinking cold Coke and eating fried shrimp, and enjoy.

Oh yeah, and make sure Braelyn has a good DVD in the laptop to keep her occupied. Neither one of us can make it through the day without our nap, but the girl just can't fall asleep at night with one!

In daytime news, the big girls got to go have a play date with Lilee and came home with play-dough. Avery made this cake for Hunter this morning and it was so sweet. It's so fun to watch them all (including B now!) play together and do things for each-other and color pictures for each-other. We made a Fruit of the Spirit tree for the wall and they get to put a sticker on the appropriate fruit when they exercise on of those fruits. It's so cool to see them trying to find ways to be good and kind and joyful. Now for me...