Sparking Away

I had done so well at the end of last year and even into the beginning of this, but once we went on our trip to the U.S, I lost steam in my workout engine. I had tons of excuses, work to catch up on, a husband leaving, rain, etc etc. but none of them were really valid. I just lost my momentum and consequently my mojo.

I did some yoga here and there but it wasn't until the beginning of this month that I really got back on track. For me the biggest help is SparkPeople.com. I've written about this website before and it really is an inspiration to me. 

They recently redid their front page design and I love it. It is so nice to look at the Start Page and see my progress:

I find that if I get on the website first thing in the morning--right after my workout, I'm more likely to stay on track all day.

It's not easy tracking my food here because we make things by hand and the ingredients don't have nutrition labels on them, but I do the best I can. Just by thinking about it I find I eat less--I pay more attention to portion control.

Watching my workout progress is very exciting too. Look at how many miles I've walked total (well, at least those I've logged)--nearly 138! My 2011 total is a bit low right now--just only around 15, but I will be remedying that.

Now that I've been walking 5K regularly (with a little break) I felt I was ready for the next step. I joined a five week 5K walk/run training group on SparkPeople. Each week I'll get an email telling me what to do for my 3 training sessions per week. 

To make it even more interesting, I've signed up for a virtual 5K. No, this does not mean I'll sit on my couch and pretend to run a race. What it means is that I have committed to walk/run a 5K race sometime in the second week of July. Everyone who has signed up for this same week is listed and I'll essentially be pitting my best time against them.

See all those people who have signed up so far? At the top I can filter out those who are not doing a 5K walk/run or any who are out of my age group. Or only list women. It's kinda fun. So far there is only one other participant doing a 5K walk/run but she's in a younger age group so even if she beats me I won't have to feel badly about it. LOL

As an aside, can I say that I'm not happy with my current age group. I'm happy with how old I am but I don't want to be lumped in with people who are nearly 10 years older than me. It makes me feel old.

One of the best things about SparkPeople is that you get points just for showing up. This morning I spun the little points wheel and got 10 points just for logging in. Plus I got 8 points for my yoga workout, 9 points for entering the food I ate at breakfast, and 3 points for reading a blog entry on SparkPeople. That's 30 points! And yes, the points are like the points on Drew Carey's Whose Line is It Anyway--totally meaningless. But they make me so happy!

If you're excited about this free website, you can sign up today. If you do, please use my name: Laiah73. I get 25 of those awesome points if you do.

What do you do to motivate yourself to a healthier lifestyle?

Exactly One Year Ago: Whirlwinds and Whirlpools

A Boy Named Denny

Once upon a time there was a little boy named Denny. He was not a happy boy. Many days of hunger and malnourishment had left him swollen from head to toe. He hadn't even learned how to walk yet, though he was well past the normal age, for his legs were weak and spindly.

Before too long, after many meals and lots of love, Denny began to stand up and walk. He still required a lot of assistance. This was partly due to many many months of being carried and partly due to an insecurity.

His mama knew he could do it though, and fashioned a harness out of cloth so that those who looked after him could hook the cloth below his arms and he could see what it felt like to balance on his own and begin to move on his own power without the hand-holding. This went well for a time, but soon Denny got tired. He didn't want to walk on his own. He wanted to be held.

So, one day on the way to the lunch table, Denny had had enough. He plopped himself down on the floor and refused to walk another step. All efforts to encourage, to aid with the harness, were rebuffed. Denny was having none of it.

His mama was sympathetic to his feelings, being well acquainted with the sometimes sin/sometimes virtue of stubbornness. But she also held firm to the adage: he who does not work, does not eat. Denny needed to work for his supper by showing a little effort in the walking department.

Denny was not happy with this pronouncement and proceeded to let everyone in the vicinity know with loud cries and wails. Every few minutes the deal was explained to him again--walk on your own and you get to eat, and every few minutes he cried louder with rebellion. 

An hour passed and a very tired Denny was carried to his bed with the promise that he would have a chance to try again at snack time.

Sadly, snack time began in much the same way, but after another 30 minutes of crying, Denny's mama decided to meet him halfway. His highchair was moved 5 feet closer. He also gave in and consented to walk with the aid of a nanny's hand to his chair. There he ate his lunch and snack together. Not a completely satisfactory ending but an ending nonetheless.

But, what do you imagine happened at the very next meal?

A miracle! Denny got to his feet and walked straight to his chair without a bit of fuss. And every meal since then has had the same result. He is walking all over the place now. 

What a guy!

Grace

Grace came to live with us last Wednesday. Her mom passed away in a mission hospital a couple hours away from here. According to the family there was 'something wrong with her stomach'. This is a common issue with taking in babies from the village. There really aren't accurate medical records, or even information given to the families, so we never know what we might be taking on.

The good news is that according to the family, Grace's mother was tested for HIV and did not have the virus. We will, of course, test Grace anyway to be sure.

Overall, Grace's health is fine. She has a touch of colic, which we've been treating with homeopathic chamomile,  and her tear ducts seem to be blocked causing her eyes to water almost constantly. Otherwise, she is a pretty good baby.

As is our policy, when tiny babies come to stay with us, we take them into our home (rather than placing them directly into the nursery) so we can observe them more closely and allow them to bond with me. I can work to get them on a good schedule before sending them fulltime to the nursery. Grace has been spending her nights in the nursery so I can get my rest. We already pay someone to be on duty at that time--no sense in two of us missing our sleep.

Now, with Grace there is a bit of a mystery. We've had mysteries surrounding orphaned children before. There have been mysteries as to what caused the death of their parent(s), or whether the child was even an orphan. Another common mystery we encounter is how old the child or baby really is.

With one of our other little boys, we were told by his grandmother that he was 2 years old but he behaved much older. He even, on one of the rare outings to town, offered to show the nannies the way to his home. Some of our staff members insist that he is older than we were told because they were neighbors with his family and know when he was born. 

You might wonder what would lead a grandmother to lie about the age of her grandchild. Well, we only take in children that are 2 years and younger. If he was actually 3 years old we might not have accepted him. With both his parents dead, his grandmother was most likely desperate. 

Because he has HIV, he is very small...more like a 4 year old than a 6 year old. For this reason, we have stuck with his grandmother's version which makes him 5 years old. No reason to give even more of a complex.

Anyway, back to Grace:

When I asked her grandparents what Grace's birthday was, they first said March 15 and then amended it to April 15. Since she looked, to me, older than 3 weeks old, I asked my translator to ask the family how old she was--thinking that they might find that easier than remembering a date. They went round and round a bit and then the translator turned to me and said, "She'll be one month on May 15". So, I didn't really get a satisfactory answer.

To me, she is more like a seven week old baby (8 weeks as of yesterday). She can hold her head up fairly well. When I place her on her tummy, she lifts her head a couple inches off the blanket and turns her head from side to side. She also tracks items with her eyes. Look at the photo up above, where she is sitting on my lap, she was following every movement of the camera. She also smiles a lot.

Unfortunately, Grace has no teeth to check her age by--and she's not a horse anyway. So, there goes that option.....

We may never solve this mystery, and in a year or even less, a difference of 4 weeks in this baby's age will be nothing at all. But for now, it's a little puzzling. 

With the information you've been given, how would you solve this mystery? How old do you think Grace is?

 

Sundays in My City--Just Dance!

“Life may not be the party that we hoped for…

But while we’re here, we should dance.”

- Author Unknown 

 

Last week, instead of holding our regular staff training meeting, I invited the ladies to take part in a Just Dance tournament. I paired them up as they walked into the room so there wouldn't be any calls of foul play.

They all laughed a lot and had so much fun. 

Beatrice was our winner. The above photo was the only one I could find just now.  (My photos are in a mess right now). We were short one nanny for even teams so I was paired with one of them. I do NOT have photos of that!

After two rounds of dancing we talked briefly about competition and improving on your own score or performance and how that makes the entire group better. 

There can be a feeling in African culture about not wanting to outdo anyone or make yourself look better, and while on the one hand that kind of attitude can promote unity, it can hinder development because no one wants to do better and look like they're just trying to be proud, or as we saw in the recent riots people can even be attacked for being prosperous.

I want to encourage the ladies to each be the best they can be while still working as a team. I'll have to tell you later about our next project which is promoting better work standards and a team effort.

And in the meantime, as we learn how to work together for a better Zambia, we'll dance!

Come See What's New

There are all sorts of new things happening around here.

Today I took a deep breath and decided to change my comments on the blog. I'm now the proud owner of the Disqus commenting system. What does this mean for you? It should be easier for you to log in because you can sign in with your own Disqus account, a Facebook or Twitter account or just as a guest.

Then, when you comment, I'll be able to reply to you--right on the blog (and via email if you add your email address) so we can have a better conversation and everyone can see answers to common questions.

I'm really excited about that!

Then, bolstered by my Disqus success and with the encouragement of my friend, Tina, I did something I have been putting off for months and months. I changed my header!! No longer will I squirm with embarrassment at the sight of my little picture sitting all by itself off to the side.

Now I have a real header. Of course, it's not perfect. I understand that. Remember, my graphics guy is away. He's promised to help when he gets back. But, it's much better! Right? 

If you are reading this in an email or reader, you'll have to click on the title of this post to be directed to my blog.

And now, on to the biggest new thing of all!

Well, not really big, but it's big news......

Let me introduce to you:

Grace!

I'll tell you all about her on Monday. It's gonna be interesting. Now, head on over to comments and leave me a nice one on my spiffy new system.

Keeping Married Love Alive

This post is rated PG-13. 

Tom and I last year after I returned from the States

 Tom and I have been a team for a long time. Either God gave us the perfect gifts and abilities to balance each other out or we developed those abilities to fill a vacuum or a mixture of both. 

When we're apart for these months every year, it can be challenging to not only keep up with our work on either side of the Atlantic, but also to keep our love alive.

On the work side: Tom is great  with graphics, photography and layout. When writing our update letters over the years, it has always been his responsibility to choose photos and art, layout our pages and make everything visually perfect. He does a wonderful job. It falls to me to do the words and text because.....let's face it....I love to talk. :)

One year, (and this was ages ago) Tom was in the States and I was holding down the fort, much like right now, only this was before Skype and twitter and Facebook and all this delightful technology. It came time to put out our monthly newsletter, so Tom did the layout and put in all the pictures and text boxes and then emailed it to me. I was supposed to then add the text and mail it out. 

On the keeping love alive part: In many of those text boxes scattered around the pages, were racy little messages to me. Tom had been quite creative in letting me know exactly how he felt about me and what he was looking forward to upon his return. 

I giggled, changed the text to match the pictures and update our family in friends about our adventures in Africa, saved a copy and mailed it out.

A few years (and annual separations) went by and nothing more was thought of that little document. Nothing, that is, until a fellow missionary here in Zambia asked us for advice on newsletter writing and Tom sent him a few examples from our archives. Almost immediately, this very nice man wrote us back saying, "I'm fairly sure you didn't mean to include one of those files". and he named the file. We opened it up and sure enough, Tom had sent the draft copy, that one with all the very adult, very racy, meant-for-my-eyes only, notes. Oops!

Now with Skype, Facebook, Twitter and all the rest, our communication is hardly hampered at all. We get to discuss things nearly every day and in great detail. It's such a blessing.

Occasionally though, we'll be in the middle of an 'adult' conversation and one of our children (on either side of the Atlantic) will walk in to the room and peek at our computers and all of a sudden our chat window has to look like this:

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Keeping married love alive is such an adventure!

Happy Little Helpers

Thanks to a grant, we've been doing some improvements in our washing and staff kitchen areas. After finally completing the floor in our wash room, the next project was to build a dishwashing table. Our kitchen has a very small sink and it was constantly overflowing with dishes from the many, many meals served each day here. This made cooking a bit tricky when it came time to drain noodles or potatoes or wash vegetables.

Now with a separate dishwashing station in our wash room which is situated just off both the kitchen and dining room, the dishes can be washed without tying up the kitchen.

Another benefit is that the kids can now start helping with dishwashing. Before we didn't let them help because the kitchen is such a dangerous place.

Here you can see the whole table. 

The first child uses a spatula to remove food scraps from the plates and bowls. These scraps can be used to feed the ducks, a pig (if we ever get one), or our compost pile.

Please ignore the cement spattered wall. That is on the list to be done.

The next child rinses the bowls, plates and silverware in plain water. This ensures that any leftover bits of food are removed.

The next bucket has soapy water so the dishes can finally be washed properly. This is also the first stop for dirty cups so they don't end up covered in food bits and grease.

After the dishes are washed, they are placed in the last bucket which contains rinsing water. If many children are sick, we'll add a bit of bleach to this water.

A nanny stands at the end of this washing line job to make sure the dishes have gotten clean; otherwise she places them back into the wash bucket.

The kids love helping out with dishes and we have to rotate them otherwise they fight over whose turn it is.

While four of the older kids are busily washing dishes, the others are in the dining room cleaning that area. 

One wipes the table....

Another straightens the chairs.....

And some of the girls fold the cloth napkins for the next meal.

All of this is repeated five times a day.

This is the perfect age to get the kids started on chores when they are enthusiastic about helping out. By the time they realise that chores are a bore, it will be second nature. It's all in the master plan! *Cackling maniacally*

Want to know how you can become part of the plan of raising up leaders for Zambia?

#1 Click on this link or the donate button at the top of the blog page. 

#2 Choose to give a one time gift or monthly support--let us know in the memo section or an email what you'd like to do.

#3 Know you've made a difference in a child's life.