Vacation

Vacation. So, so much fun. It's kinda funny taking a vacation as a missionary; the first time we did, we got a nasty email from a supporter saying they hadn't had a vacation in 5 years and why should we get to take one? So I understand it can be a sensitive subject, but there are a LOT of things about life overseas that don't make sense to someone who's never lived outside America. 

We go to beautiful resort places because that's all that's offered..... regular local people don't stay at hotels, so there are no Best Westerns in this country. But because of the exchange rates, we pay less to stay at a beautiful 4 star resort than we would pay to stay at a Best Western in America. So some of our vacation pictures do kinda look dreamy, but that is one of the (few!) perks of living in a 3rd world country. :)

Back to vacation... this was our first one in several years. Somewhere between the last family trip we took and this one, our babies grew up and turned into real kids who could handle "real" vacation stuff like renting bikes and riding to Starbucks....

And going to a real water park and riding the "scary" rides....

And who had their "own" money that they could use to buy souvenirs. As the boys have ZERO opportunities to spend money in daily life, it was really fun for them to have some cash to actually exchange for toys and trinkets and souvenirs. We learned a LOT about their little money personalities (one a spender, one a saver, and one who carefully considered and then bought only really nice, expensive import toys.... that one had better grow up to be a doctor or lawyer!) 

Brant bought the little boys these hats.... love this picture.

We do not go on vacation for the beaches.... our beaches here are much more beautiful with zero tourists, but we still feel obligated to visit the beach at least once or twice.... especially when your fancy 4 star resort has its own private beach...

We go on vacation for the air conditioning, the shopping and the food.... which I thoroughly, thoroughly enjoyed....

This was a pirate themed restaurant where we ate up in a tree house, Swiss Family Robinson style...

This was an amazing new Texas BBQ joint that definitely exceeded the hype.... it just opened two months ago and is run by a kid from Austin, Texas, who looks like like he dropped out of UT and whose goal in life is to befriend every BBQ-starved ex-pat in the Eastern Hemisphere. :) 

And this was a fancy tea house we had reservations for our last day of the trip. And by "reservations" I mean, I booked the table, and Brant had serious reservations about taking 3 little boys to "high tea" with real china dishes. :) He gave the boys such a talking to before we entered the place and I was a bit scared when I saw the glass goblets and flowers and china.... BUT, it turned out to be such a fun meal! Each boy got his own "child's tea" complete with mini kid friendly sandwiches (PB&J and ham&cheese cut in fancy shapes) and trays of tiny desserts - towers of them! The boys literally squealed and clapped their hands when they saw all the food brought out. And "tea" for the boys turned out to be milkshakes for them and cappuccino for Brant (I was the only one who got real tea!) It was a fun last meal. 

So yes, we just ate the whole vacation, and I think we each gained 10 pounds. (Not an exaggeration, but already falling off with our regular chicken and rice tribal diet.) We also got some really fun things for our house - rugs for the boys' rooms, light fixtures to cover our bare bulbs and a good stock of ham, cheese, nuts and frozen berries (yes, we carried a huge cooler back on the plane!)

So thankful for our vacation!

Chalk another one up to "I never thought this would happen"

The big feast is today…. so last night the drums and dancing started in full force. Hundreds of people. Crazy, crazy loud. We slept with earplugs and Advil. This morning at 5 they were still going strong, so Brant went down to the village to watch and take pictures. I kinda crawled out of bed, watched from the porch a bit and decided to go down and get the experience. I threw on some clothes, not evening taking the time to wash my face or brush my hair, and went outside, where Brant was motioning for me to hurry up. All of the sudden I was surrounded by tribal people in headdresses and drums and painted faces…. singing and chanting and painting ME and putting a headdress on me! It was a TAD crazy, to say the least. 

They painted and dressed every member of our team and danced around our houses, and yes, we woke up the boys to get painted and dressed. They were troopers.  

Enjoying coffee now (all 5 of us!) and the lull before they start killing the pigs, which should be.... um, fun?

You know, really, this is the stuff nightmares are made of.... being woken up and taken outside to a group of loud, scary looking people who surround you and cover you with mud. :) It was a tad bit much for Caleb, who stayed in my arms the whole time, but didn't cry.  

I don't have any pictures of Ezra with his headdress on! Hoping our teammates got a few good pics and will add them later.

Turtle Bread

A rite of passage in our house is making Turtle Bread. I am not sure how we got started, but between Saxon's "following a recipe" lesson and the first grade reader's "Pam and Lee Bake Bread" story, we have little boys who look forward to the day when they get to learn how to bake Turtle Bread. 

Friday was Ezra's day. He was so proud.

Caleb.... back in 2013. 

And Elijah, when he was a little bitty guy in 2011, with the original Turtle Bread. Where has the time gone?

Water tank surprise

We are going on vacation in April. Long, long overdue vacation. As the pressures have mounted this past week, I have been starting to dream about vacation and good food and rest.... and limitless water....

Yesterday morning our water tanks were overflowing and it was raining.... more water than we could use. So I hopped in the shower for a very rare morning shower (we usually shower at night to wash off all the sweat and dirt before bed!) to wash my hair... and I let the water run and run. Normally showers are a very short affair of get wet, water off, get soapy, water back on, rinse and be done. So an early morning shower with lots of water was a treat. And then I started dreaming of our vacation and nice hotels where we can take long, hot showers any time we want. I started crying. My dreams have been reduced to thinking a shower where you can let the water run is a luxury. That’s what I am looking forward to more than the fancy hotel by the beach.... a real, long shower. 

Brant tried to calm me down and point out that our life here is not awful just because we have to conserve water so carefully. We have a comfortable house and good beds and fulfilling ministry. Water shortage isn’t the end of the world. And he’s right as usual. :) But still having so little water is very stressful and I was greatly looking forward to a few weeks’ break from counting every drop.

This morning a plane came in unexpectedly. Carrying 4 giant water tanks... for us. Our church family back in Austin conspired with our teammates to secretly book a flight and send in water tanks as a surprise. In less than an hour, our water storage capabilities were doubled. I cried and cried. So, so thankful. 

Thankful for their creativity and generosity, yes. But thankful that we have a God Who sees such small details and cares. Thankful that He knew this week how stressful our water shortage has been and for the encouragement that these barrels would be to us today. He knows every drop of water we use and sends every drop from the sky to fill our barrels.... thankful now that He sent us a few more barrels to fill.  

Bit of this and that

 Elijah and his new desk in his room. He loves it. Helps his concentration... a bit. :)

My new headboard. I LOVE IT.

Only took Brant a couple hours. Found the plans online and it was super simple. Totally one of those "not necessary" things, but makes our room look so much more finished. 

 Getting stitches out. 

 14 inches of rain this week and the river looks like this. The villagers said it has never overflowed its banks.... their houses are way closer to the river than ours are, but still we had a few "what do we do it if overflows?" team discussions this week. Let's just pray it doesn't.

Practicing reading with Dad and Dr. Seuss. I love my little red-headed man.

January in review

2015 has started with a bang and I am not sure what happened to this first month of the year. 

 The view from our front porch last Friday afternoon. We have had massive storms every single night the past two weeks. Thanks for praying for rain. Please stop. :) 

I joke. We always need prayers for rain.

Really cool leaf bug the boys found on our front porch. They do exist outside of science books. 

 Necklace art by my banged and bruised middle son.... courtesy of a baseball bat to the head the second week of 2015. Changing the bandages has been awful, but we are thankful so far he is infection free. 

 Nanny and Pop brought gummy mustaches (the things they invent in America these days!) and so of course only old men have mustaches... notice the weathered expression and the "cane" (old plastic piping!) 

And speaking of old men, my red headed baby turned 6 today. I cried. Ez is such a sweet natured kid and my baby. I don't want him to grow up. He selected a "game party" as a welcome alternative to every other tribal birthday party we've had.... all "swimming at the river" parties. :) Ezra LOVES games and is very, very competitive. One of the families on our team is out to town at the moment (visa work) but we had the other family over for an afternoon of board games and cake. 

I had a little panic attack this morning when I pulled out the "cake mix" I had been storing for today and realized it was a brownie mix! I didn't have time or energy (or a decent recipe!) to make a cake from scratch so I added a couple extra eggs and called the brownies "cake." :) It turned out really good and was super fun (and simple!) to decorate with game pieces from around the house. Ezra loved it. 

A December Birth Story

Brant woke me up this morning to go HELP AT A BIRTH of a tribal lady.... Max’s wife had been in labor for two days and still hadn’t delivered.  Max’s wife.... I think she was the biggest pregnant lady I had ever seen. April and Jenny and I had joked for WEEKS that she was way, way over due. We thought she was having twins - or triplets, seriously she was that big. And now her husband had come to get us for help. Let's get this straight right now... I am a linguist, not a midwife. My baby birthing experience is limited to my own 3 boys and watching "Call the Midwife" reruns while Brant was building our tribal house.... Anyways, barely awake, I am throwing gloves and disinfectant wipes and my “Where There Is No Doctor” book in a bag with crackers and rehydration drinks. Praying a ton. I met April and Jenny and we prayed and cried and ran down to the hut on the edge of the village, shoving food in our mouths as we ran. As we climbed up the ladder and into the dark room, there lying on a mat of banana leaves was a huge, perfect, dripping wet, baby girl. The lady had JUST delivered the baby. We were totally shocked but thankful that the baby was crying and alert and the mother seemed to be doing well too. There was blood everywhere; the mother was sitting on clean looking banana leaves in a corner of their hut…. dogs were wandering around. Ladies from the village sat around and ate and watched all the goings on. Little kids wandered around kinda like the dogs… at will, in the way, looking for food and whining. The husband literally paced up and down outside the door; at one point he opened the door and shoved in a bunch of fresh banana leaves - we didn’t understand all that was said but it was something to the effect of “I thought you might need these?” “No, take them away! Close the door!” It was so classic new dad, helpless to do anything, that Jenny and April and I almost burst out laughing. Almost.

Back to the baby on the floor - they just left her on the floor! They didn’t do anything! It certainly wasn’t cold outside, so she wasn’t about to freeze and didn’t need a blanket, but it was just kinda weird to see a brand new baby, laying on her placenta, all by herself with no one fussing over her. As soon as April and Jenny and I realized things were going okay, we sat back and became observers…. just watching to see how the tribal ladies “did” childbirth. They helped the mom “bathe” - got her stripped down and dumped a bunch of water on her with a little bit of soap. They got her into clean clothes and threw away the dirty banana leaves. They got her situated by the fire closer to the center of the hut…. all the while the baby just laid their by herself. 

Then they went back for the baby - sprinkled drops of water on her and used a bit of soap and started trying to clean her up a bit. The placenta and mess they just shoved between the slats in the floor… the dogs ran outside for breakfast. They wrapped the baby in a dirty blanket (I cringed) and then handed her to a nearby teenage girl who held the baby - if you can even use the word held - on her lap. No cuddling, no cooing over her. Just literally held the baby like my boys hold a stack of groceries “When can I put this down?” We were quite concerned that they would literally abandon the baby, but after what seemed like forever, the mother called for the baby and they brought her over and the mom held her - really held her - and looked at her and smiled. She tried to nurse the baby and just watched the baby and you could see the satisfaction of a hard labor rewarded with a healthy, beautiful baby. 

As for the twin…. we were quite concerned that baby #2 was coming soon, so I felt the mom’s stomach and April listened for a heartbeat. Something didn’t seem quite right with her stomach (it was way too hard and taut to have only one baby) but she never did go into labor again and seemed to settle down from labor like there was only one baby. So maybe the ladies here just get really big during pregnancy? We don’t know.

Within two hours I was back at home, thankful for a happy ending and a little overwhelmed at the whirlwind early morning. I joined Brant and the boys for breakfast and told them the story of the baby lying on the banana leaves and the mom by the fire and wrapping the baby in a scrap of dirty cloth...

“...just like Baby Jesus” Caleb said. 

Yes. Yes, as I thought about it, a bit shocked by the realization.... Christ came into the world much the same way. Animals wandering around. Clean hay instead of a sterile bassinet to lay in. A tired mom resting by the fire in a dark room while dad tries his best to help. No running water to wash with. No electricity to illuminate the birth of the Light of the World. No doctor to check that everything was fine and germ free. And yet, Mary delivered a perfectly healthy, Perfect Son. The cloth she had to wrap him in would have probably made me cringe.... yet that was God’s plan for His Son and my redemption. It blows my mind.

We live in the this tribe, but we live so differently than the tribal people - water filter, solar panels, flushing toilet. Sometimes I wonder if they will ever be able to listen and hear the Message we have to teach them - our lives are so different. But I am comforted and reminded again, that the God we have to tell them about came into the world the same way they did - simply, without fuss or modern amenities... welcomed by a mom and dad and the animals and the smell of smoke.