Looking for an Ordinary Post?

You'll have to look elsewhere.....

We had a very traditional Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday--just like most Americans 'round the world.

It was a wonderful day. I loved every step of the cooking and baking process. We had six visitors (four volunteers & another couple who live nearby) which, in my opinion, makes Thanksgiving what it is--sharing what we have with others. This year we had 2 Germans, 1 Englishman, 1 Indian-Zambian, & 1 Dutch lady. Our sixth visitor is American. 

Then, I got out of traveling to Mansa because I was worn out (& sick again! truth be told) and so Jasmine took my place. She took Ernest with her who was impressed by "so many trucks!".

All of this is fairly ordinary, right? Thanksgiving dinner. Big shopping day on Friday.

OK, so in order to keep my credibility, I'll now blow the lid off ordinary.

As I type this, Tom is not home. 

The reason he's not home is because he is out working in his capacity as an honorary Wildlife Officer. A couple weeks ago, a hippo attacked a boat on the river near Kazembe and six people were killed. So, Tom and five other wildlife officers set out this morning to hunt a hippo. He left at seven this morning practically brimming over with testosterone. I waved him off with a smile and a final warning that me must NOT let himself be killed.

Did you know that hippos are the deadliest animals in Africa? It's true! and very scary.....

This afternoon Tom texted me to say that he was disappointed because they hadn't had a single sighting of hippos the entire day. I sympathized with him outwardly and inwardly did a little dance that he was still safe.

Then he told me they were still out on the water and wouldn't come in until something happened. Man! I was so close....

Finally at 6:30 in the evening I got a text that said they had shot a hippo and now just had to wait for the corpse to rise from the murky depths. I'll leave it to your imagination what causes it to rise. Yuck.

Later this evening, Tom called to say he was going to have to spend the night out on one of the floating islands on the river. He sounded miserable and hungry. Poor guy. Apparently the one peanut butter sandwich and the little packet of peanuts and raisins just wasn't enough to keep him going all day. He was going to scrounge around for some food from the fishermen who live seasonally on those islands.

I'm still praying for his safety. In the morning they'll need to collect the hippo and take it to shore. I hope nothing goes wrong and no other hippos show up. I'm sure Tom is taking plenty of photos and will have lots of material for a blog post later on. I'll link up to it when he does.

So that was my Saturday. How is your weekend progressing?

 

A little OCD, Perhaps?

I am not what could be considered a very organized person. I do love lists. But, I frequently forget to look back at those lists which results in overlooked deadlines and projects. I could blame it on lack of sleep or the chaos that surrounds my life or any myriad of other excuses.....

but the sad truth is that I'm disorganized.

Every week of the year except Thanksgiving, that is!

Then, I pull out all the stops. 

A couple weeks before, I plan our menu.

Several days before, I begin compiling lists of things to do, things to buy. I go shopping the Friday before and pay extra close attention to my shopping list.

About a week before I draw up to-do lists for each day leading up to Thursday starting with Monday.

Monday: Take out the turkey and place in freezer. Did you know our turkeys this year were imported  from South Carolina?? True story!

Tuesday: Make pumpkin puree (out of butternut squash. huh.)

                Make pie crusts 

               Bake cornbread and cut into one inch cubes for dressing/stuffing 

Wednesday: Prepare brine for turkey. Later place turkey in brine.

                      Bake apple pie, 'pumpkin' pie, and pecan pie

                    Chop lump of chocolate that used to be chocolate chips, but melted on the way over from America, and turn it back into chocolate chips to be used in cake next day.

                     Prepare bucket of bread dough and leave to rise overnight in fridge.

                   

Thursday's Menu:

Turkey --of course!

Dressing/Stuffing --what do you call it?

Mashed potatoes

Gravy

Scalloped potatoes --our current volunteer, Christina is bringing this fun addition to our table.

Mixed veggies

Cranberries --I found this rare treat in the store in Lusaka in August! I immediately scooped up three cans!

Rolls

'Pumpkin' Pie

Apple Pie

Pecan Pie --I'm so excited about this because Christina brought pecans and corn syrup with her!

Chocolate Chip Sour Cream Pound Cake

Custard --pourable, to take the place of whipped cream

Can you tell I'm excited?? And now, looking over this list, I'm exhausted! I'd better head to bed!

What are you making this year?

Exactly One Year Ago: Tuesday's This 'n' That --A Funny Story

Exactly Two Years Ago: Did You Miss Me? --One of our scary stories

We Have Water!!

I just have to say it again:

We have water!

Yesterday was another whirlwind day with the pump repair guy arriving at 7:30 ready to get down to business but required to cool his heels for a couple hours as the team of men needed to raise the pump from the borehole (120+ feet down) had not yet arrived.

Just as that team arrived and got to work, the electric company arrived to change out the pole on our transformer. They also decided to ground the transformer!! This is the reason we were hit. Instead of the lightning going to ground after hitting the electric lines, it was free to enter our house. Unfortunately, the electric company insists there were two lightning strikes at the exact same time, so the one that hit our house was not their responsibility. Humph!

Anyway, the transformer is grounded now and the pole has been changed out (it was rotting) so we don't have to worry about the line falling onto our house, and we have a new piece of wood to build playground equipment with. All's well that ends well.

As these two major projects were going on, I concentrated on getting work done in the office and dealing with administration work. 

Tom was dashing in and out trying to supervise the various projects including feeding his baby hawks a few times.

In the afternoon, Tom had just driven out of the gate to try and collect wood for our goat house, when a van load of visitors from a nearby orphanage arrived for a visit. These are very sweet Catholic sisters (not really nuns, but close) who take care of an orphanage an hour's drive from us.

We have visited their place a few times but they haven't been to ours  yet. I was happy they were here but it felt like perhaps they could have chosen a slightly better day. I showed them around the property and then we sat down for a cold drink and cookies. I did my best to not glance at the clock--too much. I was so glad I had set some meat to marinate earlier in the day. Dinner preparations were already started.

When they finally left, I dashed into the kitchen to cook my special rice pilaf and creole chicken. By the time I finished cooking dinner, I was shaking and feeling feverish. I have been battling bronchitis for a few days so I thought perhaps it was kicking into high gear. 

Without even eating the dinner I had worked so hard on, I collapsed in bed. Thank goodness for Christina, our current volunteer who took Naomi for the night. Eight solid hours rarely felt so good.

Today, I've been working at half speed--trying desperately to marshal my strength for Turkey Day. I wouldn't call myself the most organized person--far from it--but I transform for my favorite holiday of the year. More about this tomorrow!

Exactly One Year Ago: Carbohydrate Heaven--still one of my favorite recipes

Exactly Two Years Ago (yesterday): SIMC--It's Raining and Pouring--still very true this year

P.S. I promise that I am really eager to get photos up--I just haven't been taking them with all the confusion--I'm working on a solution.

P.P.S. I've missed reading all of your blogs and popping by to say hello; between power failures, drop-in guests and out of the blue illnesses, it's been hard. Pray for things to calm down and I'll be by just as soon as I can.  

 

Life in the Fast Lane

When it rains, it pours.....

We can go days or even weeks with not much going on at all. Then, all of a sudden everything happens at once.

After our disaster with the lightning last weekend, we finally arranged for the pump installer to come up by bus. Setting off on Saturday afternoon would place him here around 8 AM on Sunday morning.

We have been trying to get dairy goats for our project for months. They've been very hard to locate, bt finally we found them outside Lusaka. Some good friends of ours from Germany had raised funds to set up our goat project and after running around Lusaka for a few days, arranged a vehicle to carry the goats up here, coordinated with the farm to collect the goats and it all worked out on Saturday afternoon. By driving all night they were going to arrive at our place on Sunday morning.

Then, on Saturday,  a missionary family nearby asked if they could come by for a visit as they drove to one of their projects. They would be coming by on Sunday morning.

Whew!

I was up at 5:30 AM to get dressed, put on my face, feed the baby and bake cinnamon rolls.

At 7:30 the goats arrived. Our friends had spent a pretty interesting night riding in a van with four goats in the back. Every time the goats urinated, they shook their tails and sprayed our friends.

They were so glad to get out of the car and the goats were equally happy to have space to run around again. I promise to have a detailed post about this later in the week.

I felt so bad not having a running shower to offer to our friends, but comforted myself with the fact that our pump guy would be arriving within the hour and all would soon be well.

Well, not quite.

It turned out that our pump guy had lied to us and was not actually on the way. He promised that he would be soon getting on the bus though and assured us he will be here Monday morning. We'll see......

The morning was still busy as we fed the drivers of the rental car and sent them back on their way to Lusaka, sat down with our friends to eat cinnamon rolls and catch up, and supervised our handyman with settling the goats in. 

By 10 AM I was very very tired--or that could have been the sugar crash....

Then, our missionary friends had car trouble and arrived a bit later in the afternoon than we expected. This meant that I got a nap! Life is good!

Our visit was wonderful and so refreshing. It feels so good to touch base with fellow workers for the cause of Zambia.

Hopefully by this time tomorrow I'll have good news about our water situation.

I found this picture on the camera the other day. Apparently Troy is developing his artistic side with photography.

Exactly One Year Ago: My Life Flashed! A simple walk nearly turned tragic....

Exactly Two Years Ago: Fab Friday Foto--see where Troy gets his talent.

Sleeping Pretty

I thought I'd take a break from the gloom and doom reporting and tell you about my bedroom makeover--you know, the one I was working on when all the drama started.

First, a little background: Our property was an motel which had been abandoned, when the owner died, before it was completed and then the family came and stripped it of roofs and doors and basically everything that could be carried away. Really all that was left was brick walls. It all needed a ton of renovation and construction.

When we moved into this house we set up our office in what we believe was supposed to be a bathroom, and our bedroom in what was probably supposed to be the office in what was most likely a reception building. Anyway, the layout was such that anyone needing to get to the office had to walk through our bedroom. Since it was a private office it wasn't a really big deal but it did mean that when the kids would play computer games withe their dad at night they would walk in and out of our bedroom--often while I was trying to sleep. It wasn't really conducive to good sleep.

So, I moved things around and we set up our bed in the office. For sleeping purposes it was much better. But, we had never gotten around to painting it beyond the flat primer white coat over the bare cement wall. Too add to the dreariness, Tom had, during the office days, filled the walls with photos, reminders, notices, etc.--all fixed onto the wall with sticky-tack (is that what you call reusable adhesive stuff?) and it had never come off the wall. 

As I drifted off to sleep each night, my view was a grey-white wall with dirty little lumps covering it.

Finally, we decided that three years was too long to live with that. 

We walked into the paint store in Mansa determined to come out with a pretty color for our walls. Only thing--the one and only paint store in Mansa has almost no colors. Our choices were severely limited. We knew we wanted a dark color--going against popular thinking with a small room--we wanted a cozy space. Finally we found a brownish-pink color that looked promising. 

As it went on the wall, I panicked a little. It looked so dark and not quite as pretty as the color card had promised. Even with my misgivings about the color, Tom and I had a really fun day painting side by side. We had friends over who volunteered to come help, but I declined--I was enjoying our special couple time. :)

When everything was all set back up, I was pleasantly surprised to find out the color matches our bedding perfectly! I think it looks so inviting now! 

Please forgive the water marks (or something) on the picture. This is Tom's camera.

 We still need to find some artwork for the walls, install a light on the wall above the light, move Jesus to a better location, and get some matching black bedside lamps.--I already bought some from a friend of mine who is moving back to the States. I just need to pick them up.

All in all, it was a wonderful day together with lovely results.

Exactly One Year Ago: It Wasn't Me! --This story still makes me chuckle.

Exactly Two Years Ago: Mayflies and..... --A timeless post. This is exactly what is outside my window at this very moment.

The Latest News

I'm finally hitting publish on this blog that should have gone out yesterday evening. The reason it didn't? I'm sure you can all say it with me by now..."We had no power!"  Oh well, better late than never....

Little Naomi is learning how to share at a very early age. She's doing so well at it too. Wanna guess how I know.....OK, I'll tell you.....she shared her lovely head cold with me.

The poor baby has been so stuffed up for the past few days. It's so pitiful to see a tiny baby that can't breathe properly--especially when they're trying to drink from a bottle.

We've all been taking turns holding her as she's been extra fussy.

Timmy is wearing a skull and crossbones head scarf (do-rag?) because we still don't have water and all have yucky hair now.

Update:
We received the control box from Lusaka, and Tom installed it, but it kept tripping the fuse. This probably means that the pump itself was also fried by the lightning.
The pump company in Lusaka will be sending a man with a new pump who can install it, but this will only happen over the weekend. Until then, it's going to be sponge baths all the way. Once the pump (and accompanying bits and pieces) arrives, we'll have to hire a bunch of people to pull the pump out of the ground. It's 150 feet down so it's gonna be a big job!

**********

I realized today that I haven't directed you to Tom's blog recently. He has written a few posts about his work with local wildlife and our farming.

                   Predator--Tom gave one of these a bath today! Crazy!

                   Planting Season

                  Strangers in the Night

                  Save the ducks

You should really read Meg's blog too. She has a countdown on there showing when she'll be returning to Africa. I love it!
She wrote about two of our kids at  My Little Doctor and I Hope You Dance

Exactly Two Years Ago: Miscellaneous Musings I love going back over my old blogs--I had forgotten the incredible story at the end of this post.

Africa Wins This Round

BUT, it was not a Total Knock Out.

This past weekend has been....I'd like to say interesting.....but way more difficult than that.

Saturday, Tom and I were working on a painting project and everyone else was hanging out on the porch watching lightning far across the savannah. The power had been going on and off all day, and at that moment it was off. 

As Tom and I painted away in our bedroom, all of a sudden there was a terrible bang that was so loud we could feel the concussion in our chests. There was also a huge flash of light. We figured out pretty quickly that the transformer on our corner had been blown by lightning. Several of the breakers in the house had also blown. Because the power was out we had no idea if any damage had been done to equipment.

When power was restored we did a quick equipment check and it seemed everything had survived....or so we thought. 

Later that night Tom tried to start the electric pump that pulls water up to our tanks from the borehole (well). It didn't work. When he took the cover off the control box, this is what he saw:

That black stuff is all from the lightning

Thanks to a friend in Lusaka a new control box is on its way up to us on the bus. Unfortunately, we won't know until it gets here whether the pump itself was also damaged. Three years ago when we were hit by lightning and the control box exploded (literally!) the pump was also hit. The pump is nearly 150 feet underground. Aside from the expense of having to replace it, it is a huge deal to pull it up and install a new one.

In the meantime, we are hiring teenagers to go to the neighborhood hand pump and draw water out for us. They fill three 55 gallon drums each day for washing dishes and laundry as well as drinking and cooking. Showers are having to wait for now.

And the drama continued:

The next day, I woke up with a terrible headache and dizziness which I attributed to the fresh paint fumes. Later in the day though our room was filled with a sulfur smell. We thought at first it was rotten grass from a rat's nest we had found in our wall when painting. We cleared it out and closed up the hole, but still the smell persisted.

 Then, Tom had a brainstorm and went into the small room which borders our bedroom. This is where we keep the 12 volt batteries that power our house during blackouts. Two of them were really hot and bubbling. Apparently the lightning strike affected them as well. Thankfully the other 4 batteries are fine, but we will now have less of a back up during power cuts.

That evening, Tom tried to get online on his computer to do some research, but could not connect to the internet. Strangely, his computer kept shutting down on him as well. It looks like Tom's desktop computer was also hit. We don't know that it was even plugged in at the time, but lightning is a weird and terrible adversary that does awful things. We'll need to take the computer down to Lusaka on our next trip to get whatever is wrong repaired.

So, to sum it up, we have three known casualties of the lightning strike, and the pump is an unknown at the moment. 

Please pray for the pump to be perfectly fine. We need water! Pray that the control box that was sent up contains all the necessary electronics and that Tom will be able to replace it easily.

 Also, please pray for supply of the extra funds that are needed to replace and/or repair the damaged equipment. 

Whew, never a dull moment here in Africa!

Exactly One Year Ago: Kickball!

Exactly Two Years Ago: Random Ramblings--including my adventure with a rumbly tumbly.