Today is hot and sunny and the lake is behaving much like a raging sea. I can’t quite understand it since there isn’t much wind, but the waves are huge! There are storms in the mountains round about us, so I guess they are the cause. There are none of the dugout canoes on the water today, but we have played in the waves for hours. They are so much fun. Most of the kids really enjoy it, but there are a few who are afraid.Bethany loves the water and gets very excited about snorkeling and watching fish, but she isn’t much for these waves. I managed to take her out for awhile but the force of the waves frighten her so much she can’t seem to battle them like Christina and Brianna do. She could feel the undertow and Steve had to drag her back to shore. I am thankful that all these kids are really good swimmers.
We saw the columns of “smoke” coming off the water again today.
Christina is a mess. Her eyes are so burned that she looks scary. She is restricted to the cottage this afternoon. She has her sunglasses, but it doesn’t seem to be enough. Bella is sick throwing up, fever and stuff, Emily is coughing terribly and I had a bug in my ear in the night. I put a little Tea Tree Oil in it to kill whatever and then it burned like crazy. It’s still not quite right, but better than before. Most of us are nursing a sunburn or two.
I made an offer to take care of my nieces this evening so Jason can take Antionette out for supper. She was craving pizza the other day and said that she had not had one since January – no one served pizza to them on their furlough, not even once. Chris and Abi have been eating out at a restaurant run by a European lady near here and said she makes a nice vegetable pizza. It wasn’t too hard to convince Jason to take his wife out to eat.
We all tried fresh cocoa.On our way here we stopped to let the kids relieve themselves behind some trees. I called out to Izzy and asked her what kind of orchard it was. Evidently Jason had told her it was chocolate. People come to the cottages and try to sell us all sort of fruit; watermelon, pineapple, mangoes, coconut, papaya, pommelos, etc… and cocoa. The fruit of the cocoa isn’t much but it is quite sweet and tangy. We like to try new stuff. It’s almost too hot out to eat anything but fruit.
some of the fruit after we had eaten half of it
By the way, Pierre had to shave his mustache to get a good seal on his mask and snorkel. He still has long sideburns, but not as long as before. He certainly looks better to me and yeah, he finally got a kiss, but the girls’ reaction was hilarious. They were sure his nose had grown longer. They said he looked funny. He just can’t win. Jon still calls him Pierre John Stephen all pronounced in French. I am happy for the new look since the last one seemed almost sinister to me. Jon shaved his beard and mustache, too for the same reason as Steve and even Jason has had to keep shaven.
Untitled Comment
Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, December 9, 2008 at 07:32 - Link
Sounds like a ton of fun. Wish we were there. Say hello to the gang for us. We are doing well here and enjoying the Christmas season. Jan should be coming up soon. Isaac will be turning 6 years old in a few days and he is very excited. Caleb has tested at a grade 3 level reading now. I'm happy about that. Jacob has been busy sewing and creating a lot. He loves doing that. He made himself a nice pair of slippers. They are all working on speaches and songs for our Christmas program. They are singing a song about the animals in the stable. And they each have animal costumes to match, made of course by me. I'm glad that's done. I made a quilted wall hanging of the nativity for the center of the front of the church and then also two banners for the sides. They look really nice. I will be going in today, to sing in the Christmas choir and I'm sure that will be fun and then on Thursday I will go to the church and decorate. We have been having a great time coming up with great outreach programs here. I am really excited. I'll have to say that this is a great church and I haven't been in one of those in a very long time. Looking forward to having you all come home so we can chat. Give a special hug to mom for me when you see her. Lots of love to everyone,
Love Julie, Art, and the boys
So good to hear from you.
Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, December 9, 2008 at 09:24 - Link
Hi There,
I have been checking and checking for an entry to see how you are doing. I am so happy that you have good snorkeling. I knew you would love it. Isn't it fun to see fish in clear water Vanessa. You will have to try and find an identification book to figure out what all you are seeing. We have found that it is not that easy to find identification books for the fish in that part of the world. There are some but nothing like is available for the Caribbean.
Enjoy your last week of vacation kids. Ellie is stomping up and down the steps right now memorizing the irregular verbs. Class is today and due to lots of reasons she has only learned half of them before today. She only has six more pages of grammar to do in the next hour, after she has memorized the rest of her list. I guess there is always the car.:-)
We did find a beautiful Christmas tree. It still has no lights but it makes the house smell like Chrismas.
We miss you and can't wait till you get home.
I asked Jeanne how she was doing at church Sabbath, and I think she is missing you a little Bethany, or maybe a lot.
Lots of Love,
Cindy
Well see you soon....
Posted by Jared on Tuesday, December 9, 2008 at 09:53 - Link
I'm looking forward to when you are coming home. I liked your story from Lake Malawi. We are enjoying taking care of your cats. We can not find the black and white cat, but we'll look again today. I like the idea of meeting you at the airport with pizza, but I don't think I could get a ride.
some of the fruit after we had eaten half of it
