We had a pretty slow week this week, not much to report on. Ben managed to only work 43 hours this week (which is much lower than his average has been). He said he didn’t get everything done that he needed to, but it was nice to work a shorter week.
One of Cabrini’s contract workers donated a truck bed full of bananas to the ministry this week. In the truck load there was probably ten gallons worth that were already over ripe and needed to be used immediately. Ben asked if I wanted some to make banana bread and I said sure. Little did I know that the ten gallons would end up in my hands! Yikes! So on Friday I spent the entire day baking banana bread…14 batches to be exact! We gave a lot of it away, but ended up keeping five or six loaves in our freezer for down the road. Mikayla was a big help when it came to peeling the bananas and stirring up the batter. Needless to say I have no interest in seeing another ripe banana for awhile!
I went to wash dishes the other day and was greeted by these two frog eyes! (Side note – I keep this little hippo I found in a closet when we got here by my window in the kitchen. It makes me think of my friend Dacia each time I see it!)
The most exciting thing that happened this week was we were approved for our TRP’s (work permits) this week! We go into Mbabane on Monday to hopefully get all the paper work signed off and pay our fee of around $800!! That’s right folks, for a two year TRP it is going to cost us around one dollar a day to live here!! Pretty spendy, huh? I guess that is what happens when the government is broke. We are hoping to get the fee waived, but aren’t expecting it. Basically what a TRP means is that we can live in the country for two years without having to cross the border every thirty days like we have been, we can legally stay in the country. We will also be able to open up a bank account and purchase a vehicle (assuming one comes our way).
We put Mikayla’s hair in one long braid this week also (I need to learn to French braid). She is getting so big and talking up a storm! She announced to one of the aunties at the hostel the other day that she was "Swazi"! Sometimes she talks in jibberish and I wonder if she is really speaking Siswati that we just don’t understand!
It is a little hard to tell, but she is "sweeping" the ground with a stick like someone living on a homestead would sweep the dirt in front of their house.
This is a picture of the female Southern Tree Agama I mentioned last week. Her colors are not as bright as the male colors are, but still neat.
Be sure to check out the contest I posted about yesterday! Have a great week.
Tags: Africa, weeks happenings