Africa - all in a day's work

Posted on Friday, November 7, 2008 at 10:19

We enjoyed a precious Friday evening worship together last evening. Normally Cindy reads to us one or two chapters from the book They Looked for  City, but last night she wasn’t feeling so great so I offered to read. By the end of the chapter I was totally stuffed up and Jason grabbed the book and read another. We took time to pray for Michael and Syndie, the Axelsons and our church family. Tom shared with us how much we are missed J He said these blogs are like their life-line and that the blogs are read daily…

            Ooops!! I suddenly realized I had not written since Tuesday!! Sorry guys. I am sure Abi has been faithful, though, so you are not all in the dark.

I’ve actually been sick with a nasty cold as are several others, and we have also been very busy. The building is progressing nicely. In fact, I write from my bed in the new place. Steve and the kids and I moved in yesterday because Jason needed to work on the podium and baptistery of the church and we had to move several beds out of that area. It’s cooler in here, however we slept fine. It certainly is quieter. J I am such a light sleeper I hear most of the noise people make and it quite amazes me how many times a night some people have to use the cho. I am such a light sleeper it annoys me when I hear myself snore!

It takes half our time just to survive here. For example yesterday I rose in time to work together with Abi and Chris on breakfast.  Thanks to Jeanne for the Red-River cereal! It’s a nice change from ugi. Abi made banana bread but the oven wasn’t so cooperative and it was burned on the bottom and raw on top. HOW SAD!

By 9 am, thinking ahead about supper I started peeling potatoes. These potatoes are small and wormy.  Sometimes when you peel them and cut out the worm holes there isn’t anything left. I was bent on making potato soup, though, so I washed and peeled potatoes and carrots for a couple of hours. It took about an hour to chop and grate them all by hand. (Boy, I sure love that Bosch food processor at home!!)

Meanwhile, Kristen was busy making salad from cabbage and she made a bean spread for sandwiches to go along with Miriam’s potatoes and greens. When I was done with all the vegetables for the soup, I got the hand crank blender out and Kristen helped me to blend the cashews for the soup. That thing is a workout!!!

Next we sorted beans. If you find a little bean with holes in it, there is sure to be a bug inside.

Kristen served lunch and not a scrap of food was left-over.

In the afternoon, while most people went to VBS Isabelle and my little niece, Twalisa, helped me make lemon tarts for a Sabbath treat. I cherish the fun we had together rolling dough and stirring lemon filling – thanks to boxed pudding I brought from home. I think that the crusts may be on the hard side for various reasons. I doubt if that will bother anyone here very much J  We made them to make Christina’s baptism day a little more special.

Soon I was back to soup making. I had to get Miriam to make me a fire beside her two fires in the cook shack because, nice as the little gas stove mom brought us on Wednesday is, it is very slow and we don’t want to use up all the gas at once – or be late for supper. I cooked one pot of soup at a time while Miriam had the beans boiling and bread baking on the other two fires.

By 6 pm we had the kitchen clean, beets cooked, soup hot, bread cut, dishes done and floor swept in time to eat and start all over with the dishes. Actually, it was Kristen and Dave’s family’s turn for dishes, so I headed for the shower. How good it felt.

Lest I seem pre- occupied with my chores, I will give you an account of the other hard worker’s accomplishments. Vanessa said it was the hardest day, yet, as far as physical labor goes. I think maybe it was because my Mom was around to give orders. LOL!

The kids carried 2” X 4” for a couple of hours, and then they carried bricks for a long time. The boys and Teresa carried water for a solid 2 hours up from the spring to fill the barrels and keep the cement mixing…. Some men were putting up ceiling in the new house and Jason was laying brick. Dad was figuring out Mom’s accounting and some people were scrubbing clothes. Paul and Chris were hanging doors and putting in door handles. The fundi’s (mom’s hired workers) were busy as usual plastering. Of course, VBS had to be organized and held at the school. The kids were way more wild than usual. It took a toll on those trying to keep order.

Untitled Comment

Posted by smmagers on Friday, November 7, 2008 at 11:13 - Link

We have it so easy today! It is neat/hard when we go to other places and see how hard people have to work to get done what we can do here is a little bit of time. It is humbling. We take it all for granted. The neat part is to see how people live and the hard part is we take it for granted. God Bless, mj