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...

Cloves and Honey

Our teeney weenie obscure island just happens to be the world's largest producer of cloves (you know, that spice you use once a year). This is what they look like while they are still on the tree. It is estimated that 75%-80% of the world's cloves are grown here.

You would think that this would make the people rich here, however, the government controls all the cloves. It is illegal for anyone to sell cloves except to the government itself. People will pick them and dry them and then the government buys all the cloves for a fraction of the price of what they are worth and then they sell them in the global market. It's so bad that there's actually a Black Market for cloves! Police checkpoints have gone up all over the island checking all the busses and trucks for hidden cloves. There is more military on the island during clove season than during elections, riots and/or any other security reason combined.

This is what they look like before they are dried. (up) And after. (down)

During clove season the streets are lined with mats like these with people all trying to dry their cloves. It is wonderful as you walk or drive around...the entire island smells like Christmas.

One of the specialty items you can find on the island is Clove Honey. The population of clove trees is so pure and huge in some areas that the bees will fly far and wide and ONLY find clove trees. This makes their honey take on a very unique, spiced taste. We might be the only place in the world with that capability.

Justin went with his friend Omar to his farm to help pick cloves. There (and everywhere he goes) he kept his eyes open for natural bee hives. The local way is to break open the hive and run. Later, return and grab as much honey as you can and run again. Most of the honey we find is watered down because it's just so hard to get any quantity!

Another problem to solve! Justin took his ideas and research back to the workshop and has been building Top Bar Bee Hives. It allows the locals to cultivate and harvest the honey much more effectively and safely!

His plan is to build hundreds of these babies to give to the locals who are already in the business. And we hope to continue to enjoy this liquid bronze, spiced Clove Honey. Want some?

Another week

Today Sandy and I took off for an hour or two of no-kid time. It was wonderful; to talk and talk and talk with our only interruptors being ourselves is quite unusual. We thankfully get to do this every other Friday.

The men and kids joined us later to swim till they could swim no more (well, that never really happens, does it?) and then home we headed. We arrived home at a late but alright 6:30, and I rushed to the kitchen to pop the home-made and left rising bread in the oven. Oh but wait, I forgot to add yeast in the dough.

Would you believe that the fastest course of action was to literally re-do the bread and let it rise and then bake? So it's 8:15, we finally have eaten and we are preparing for bed. By preparing I mean that Justin is sitting on the couch with his 3 little girls watching (at TOP volume may I add) Star Wars Episode 2. He's decided to introduce them to the finer things in life. And I blog.

These are some random pictures of some of our friends. This is Omar and his second wife Mariam. They have 4 kids together. He has 6 kids with Aziah, plus her older 2 girls she had when they married, and now another on the way. It makes me tired to just type all that. They are our dearest friends here and have been invaluable in our settling in. Please pray for them as we seek to be light and salt.

This is sweet little Mariam, the fourth I know. She is staying with her grandma of the same name who already cares for her 2 year old cousin of the same name while her mom had a new baby and is recovering. She is such a delight! She laughs all the time, her smile beaming, her language comprehensible to me. Yep, I'm tracking with a 3 year old.

In adult education news, Justin is finishing up writing a grant for supplies, computers, etc. The only problem is that we don't have a building for said supplies! He is looking at land, but it would take maybe a year to get that settled and something built. Just then, a nice house right down the road goes up for rent/sale. Our minds are whirling with possibilities and ideas and dreams. Please pray for us to wait on and listen to God's plan. Please pray for us as we seek to do GOOD for this place and these people...including the ultimate GOOD. Thanks and we love you!

A Rough Sounding Week

And yet, not so bad. For several days leading up to Valentine's Day, our water inflow was reduced to a trickle, enough to keep up if we were careful. Then Wednesday morning, we awoke to an empty tank. We usually only get piped water every few days, but we've never RUN OUT before. We got some buckets of water from the neighbor's and got through the day, hopeful for water soon.

Only it never came. Something bad happened to our old pump station and a new one is being built. That is all we know. Soon, they say. So I have gone tribal. Every day we're driving down the road (I know, very un-tribal) to collect buckets and jugs and basins of water from a spicket. I carry them on my head back to the car...nice, huh? I've been doing dishes in buckets around my feet in the yard. I've learned to bathe all 3 girls with about one gallon of water. On bad days, I've learned to bathe myself in the run-off of that. And the kicker? It's kind of cool. I feel a certain sense of pride in front of, if not sister-hood with the ladies who stop to stare at the pale skinned woman trying to balance water on her head, with both hands helping.

We've also had an unusual spike in power outages, to perfectly coincide with the sudden cessation of the blissful Kaskazi Winds. Hot season is blasting, but it's fun to know we're on the downslope. And while most news has been on the bad side, we got some awesome red snapper for dinner last night!

What else...oh, yes, school. I've had a new batch of 12-14 year olds join up and shed a whole new light on the sad state of the schools here. I was trying to teach a 14 year old (yes, these kids all GO to school every day) the sounds of the letters of the Alphabet. I chose his name to write down as the example word for his first initial. He stared blankly. His NAME. The one he CAN write when given time and concentration, but which he could not recognize.

The classrooms are packed here. If the kid fails to learn to read in Kindergarten, or whenever it is they attempt to teach them this skill, then this kid will never learn...and will struggle to learn any material the rest of of his or her life. Secondly, teachers are supposed to teach in English (I can certify that THAT isn't happening well since the English teacher can't speak English), exams are given in English starting in 8th-ish grade, and if the student does not pass their final exams in 10th grade, they go home done. This year, out of probably 100 kids in the 10th grade, THREE passed in our town. THREE. Justin heard word that there were many, many schools where NO-ONE passed.

Hence our continuing NEED to get an adult education center up and running. Teacher training is absolutely critical and desperately needed. Please be praying for me as I make my teensy dent in illiteracy, and pray for the characters involved in the process that everyone will move things along swiftly. And while we work to make practical life better for these islanders, pray that we can touch their souls.

Nearly Walking on the Water

Justin got the exciting opportunity to experience God's hand reaching out to sea when his boat literally sank on Tuesday.

He and 4 other men had gone to the next Water Desalination Machine location...a tiny island maybe an hour's boat ride off of our island. The island is so small, they cannot dig freshwater wells, they just hit salt water. Consequently, they rely on hand-carved wooden sailboats to go get water from the port city on our island. Every day of the year. Hopefully.

There are about 500 people who live on this island; mostly fishermen and their families who farm what they can. Justin went to finalize the best location for the newmachine, plus look at finishing the half-built school.

On the way back, the boat must have hit something and a golf-ball sized hole opened up in the bottom of the boat! Justin and the guy working on the school waterproofed their things and called for help, while others began bailing as fast as they could. Realizing they were far away from land, they made a plan with 2 of the local guys who did NOT know how to swim to TRUST Justin and the other guy who did and let them swim them to safety without panicking. The other local was on his own I guess.

Just then, on the horizon, a small fishing boat was seen! They flagged down the other boat which arrived just as the boat they were on filled completely up with water.

Now, my husband is the best swimmer I know. He can swim with all 3 of my children on his back. But this is a different story, and we thank God that it's one with a GOOD ending!