The Big Isle

It's time to start buying supplies for the Adult Education Center!  Plus, the girls need new passports and I needed a break from cooking, so we headed out.

 First stop, the Big Island.  Restaurants, air conditioners, pristine beaches free of gawkers, and of course, some hand-line fishing with the kids.

 This is the beach nearby where we stay here, so beautiful

 And the girls are pretty beautiful as well!

Someone tell me, though: where DID Avery learn to pose for pictures?

Tourists

For the first time in almost 7 years, I do not have a baby on my hip.  At least not constantly.  That means, I get to be a tourist!

 This big island is RICH in history, something I happen to be fascinated by.  Our first step (with 3 children walking on their own!) was the House of Wonders...so named because it was the first building with electricity here.  Can you imagine this monster lit up at night, glowing with life and spilling out laughter and glamour?  

 I love that it's called "tropical victorian" in the description above.  I suppose this means all the balconies and windows for catching every sea breeze possible!

 Justin (not so taken with history) took to the streets while we explored the inside.  

 Ascending the grand staircase

 A picture with Sultan Bargash (second to reign here, one who built this building) and his THRONE.  The girls thought the THRONE was exceedingly amazing.

 There were lots and lots of typical museum displays in all the surrounding rooms.  The one above is Dr. Livingstone's medicine box.  Dr. Livingstone was a pioneer medical missionary, scientific explorer (helped drive the discovery of the source of the Nile River) and anti-slavery crusader.

 Can you imagine little be-jeweled Arabic girls twirling on this balcony as they overlooked the ball down below?  We could.  Not that a ball would be typical of this culture, but we pretended.

And the seaward-facing outer balconies.  What an amazing building full of so much history!

Tourism Take 2

Our next stop was the Palace Museum.  Once the palace of the first Sultan, then subsequent ones till it was bombarded in what is now known as the Shortest War in History (40 minutes) when the Sultan tried to re-instate slavery (this was a pivotal location in the slave trade.)

The palace was re-built, and is now a museum dedicated largely to the Sutlan era. 

 Justin did brave this one and was pleased to find a Gatling Gun gracing the entryway of the palace.

 A gift from none other than the Good Old U. S. of A of course.

 What a welcome!

 Up yet another grand staircase we went.

 An inner balcony lined with life-sized paintings of many of the Sultans (there have been 11, the 11th now living in England since the bloody uprising in the 60's) led to the Princess Room.

 Princess Salme, daughter of the original Sultan who moved his reign/family/wealth/palace here to better oversee the slave trade, brother of Bargesh who built the House of Wonders, and author of a book we recently read, had a whole room dedicated to her and her life.

 Here is an outfit typical of what she would have worn.

 Including wooden platform shoes (at least 2 inches high all over) with a mere toe-peg to hold them on!

And the crazy head-dress they wore to cover their foreheads and noses.

 Sometime in her young adult life, she met, fell in love with, and became pregnant by her German businessman neighbor.  This led to her mid-night flight to England where she basically became a modern, European woman.  Sadly, her husband died just after the birth of their third baby and she was left alone in a strange land, unwilling or unable to come home.  Or both.

 Up another flight of stairs and we came to the Sultan's quarters.  This was his sitting area.

 It was full of the most beautiful, intricately carved Ebony furniture from India.

 Here's the Lover's Sofa.  Isn't it clever?  I think I want one!

 And looking down from the Sultan's balcony, we see the graveyard.  The first Sultan is buried there in the enclosure behind the coconut palm tree.  Women were buried this side of the path that runs along the bottom of the picture, but that picture was kind of boring.  They couldn't even be together in death.

 Here's another view looking back at the palace (on the left) with that burial enclosure at the bottom right.  Beautifully tragic, all in one picture.

 The end of the line found us at a new-to-us hotel restaurant (the view of the palace above is from here).  Cold water, yummy food cooked for us, and a comfy couch to relax on.  A great end to a fun, touristy day!

Clowning around

This is our friendly local Peace Corp worker

 And this is his visiting brother, aka, Buttons

 They came to dinner last week and absolutely THRILLED three little souls

 Hunter was the best: jumping, clapping, squealing, falling on the floor in laughter.  

 I thought she was gonna pee her pants. 

 Several times.

  Avery was mostly amazed

 Braelyn was mostly confused 

 Until the balloons appeared.  That got Braelyn going!

 What a sweet time.  We decided that there is truly few things in life (none come to mind but I don't want to be definitive) better than seeing such pure joy on the faces your children.  

Another Ferry Disaster

Last year at the end of Ramadan (the muslim holy month), thousands of people were traveling home or back to school.  Boats were overloaded.  One of the largest ones, carrying probably over 2000 people, sank to the depths, sending hundreds upon hundreds to their deaths.  The official "saved" count is somewhere around 600. 

It happened again.  A smaller ferry, most likely overcrowded and traveling just days before Ramadan commences (tonight) capsized on Wednesday.  The official passenger count was nearing 300.  We cannot be sure of it's reality.  Less than half that number were rescued. 

What is almost as maddening as the loss of life is the blatant and disgusting cover up of it all.  Reportedly, the ferry capsized due to the weather conditions...wind and waves.  It is hard for me to believe that with the weather we had that morning that it could FLIP A FERRY... unless it was grossly overloaded. 

Secondly, I can't speak yet to the reports on lives lost on this ferry, but I just looked up the Wikipedia results for last year's tragedy and they actually claim the ferry was only carrying the 800 passengers who would fit on the provided benches and seats, and since 600 were rescued, only 200 must have died.  Our teammates had taken that ferry many times.  They attest to the fact that the ferry wouldn't even leave port with less than double the approved number, and at that time of year (the day after "Christmas" here) it would easily have been pushed further until every available floor space was jam packed. 

Our hearts just break over those who have died, again, this year.  We pray that God would use these things to draw people to Himself. 

Below is a picture of a tent being used for "body identification".  Feel free to weep with us and cry out to God not to let these tragedies go on unanswered.  Lord, bring your flock in and return soon!

Midnight Rush

My friend Aziah (Omar's first wife) has been expecting her eighth child.  I've been very excited for her and telling her to call me when the baby comes.  I finally got the call!

Monday afternoon: deliver brownies with unknown labor inducing powers

Monday evening: she goes into labor

Monday midnight 12:50: they call me to come to the hospital

1am: arrive at clinic in town, it's closed at night, call Omar who says to come to the hospital half and hour away.

1:10: call him again to make sure he's already there, he says yes

1:20: arrive in half-hour-away-town, phone rings, Omar asks where I am.  

I say I'm almost at the hospital.  He says, "Ohhhhh, nooooo"

1:40: arrive back in our town and pick them up from their house

2am: arrive back at half-hour-away hospital.

 Aziah puts her things down on the bare mattress, no sheets provided apparently, and she heads into the delivery room to get checked in.  We are sent outside to wait.

 And wait we do.  3:15 rolls around and the sister goes to see what's going on.  There's no problem, but no baby either.  Maybe another hour or two.  Said sister has to work in the morning, so we head home.

 4am: crawl back in bed, exhausted but totally wired

5am: fall asleep

6am: woken by morning activity on road

7am: woken by Braelyn

8am: woken by Omar saying baby has arrived and can we go back?

(above picture is friend Mariam waiting with us outside)

 9am: head back to hospital (for the third time in 9 hours)

10am: see and hold and love this beautiful new life

 They said that if the baby was a girl, they were going to name it Sha-non!  What an honor!!!!  But alas, baby is a boy. Omar now wants Justin to pick out the name so feel free to offer any suggestions. It is tradition here to wait a week or two before naming a child.

 Omar was so funny, hesitant to hold it, then held it just in his outstretched hands, and only for half a minute!  This is his 10th child!  So funny.

 The girls all of course wanted their turns holding the little guy.

Thank you, Lord for this new life.  Bless and protect him as he grows and more than anything, let him know you one day!

The Rest of the Story

The Birthday picked up considerably when we dropped the big 2 off for an evening of fun and headed out for a beach picnic with sicky pants.

Lucky for ALL of us, her fever broke on the drive out and she was actually very pleasant company.

I'm making up for so few pics of me this year, can you tell?

Entertainment for children is pretty hard to come by around here. But we make due with what we have, hence the crab on a leash for Braelyn. See her fearful-yet-excited face peeping out?

Here's the little guy up close.  After Braelyn played with it for a little while, we managed to slip the string off and let him go.

 Brae found a hermit crab a bit later and was following it around, tossing sand on it.  Just then a boy ran past, swooped down and ran off with it!  She plopped down to sulk for quite a while cause he took "my twabby"!

Speaking of that boy... here's a small portion of the rest of the crowd.  I tried to talk to them and then encourage them to go.  It didn't work.  The going.  Oh well, that's life here.

 Low tide afforded us the very cool opportunity to walk out among the beached fishing boats.

 And the mangroves.

 Beautiful sunset to end a beautiful picnic to end a beautiful birthday.