The most exciting thing to happen this week was we finally purchased a vehicle. It is the Suzuki I mentioned in a previous post. Ben went into town on Wednesday and brought it home. The windows still do no operate so we will have to take it back in when the parts arrive. But for now we at least have our own transportation! Of course we haven’t driven anywhere yet, but it is there if we need it!
We also made plans to host a mini Thanksgiving dinner next Saturday. The sisters will be coming and possibly our friend Joey from the Peace Corps. We haven’t found a turkey or ham yet, but are hoping to find something this week. If all else fails there is a farm on the way into town that sells live turkeys and Ben said he would slaughter one for us. So we shall see! It will be memorable either way. Mikayla is enjoying studying about turkeys and Thanksgiving in school (which will be updated next week when we finish our Letter T study).
We were also approached by Sister Barbara this week asking if we would keep the twins again for a bit over the children’s summer break (December and January). It would be off and on for the seven weeks the kids are not in school and back at their homesteads. Of course we said yes. There are also two other opportunities for us to keep high-risk children, but the details are still up in the air. I guess you could say we are becoming the "foster parents" for Cabrini, which we are totally okay with! There are a whole lot of orphans and vulnerable children in our area that have some support from extended family, but need special attention for a short period of time. At Cabrini we call this respite care and it seems to be a good combination of needs, skills, and availability.
Power outages have been ridiculous this week. On Friday and Saturday we only had power for about four hours combined. Crazy! Things could be worse, but it is getting a little annoying. Especially when humidity levels are 80% and it is 90 degrees outside like it was one night this week. Needless to say we have had a couple nights in the last week where it was just too hot/humid to sleep! We actually lost some food in the fridge because the outages were so long and it also means we will have to cook up most of the meat from our freezer today. I foresee a braii (BBQ in our future). That is the first time that has happened to us. Not much fun, but like I said things could be worse.
On Friday night we discovered we had a bat in the house. Mikayla and I hunkered down in her room while Ben tried to capture and release it. He never did catch it but since we didn’t see it anymore we decided that it had flown out on its own. About an hour later the power went out (again) and we decided to make some popcorn and watch a Friends episode or two before calling it a night. While Ben was making the popcorn I noticed Mikayla’s artwork moving on the wall, which was weird because there was no wind or fans going. Then all of a sudden out flew the bat again. And let me just say that this bat was fast! He was swooping back and forth it was hard to even track him with our eyes. Eventually Ben was able to knock him down with our comforter (and yes it did get a good washing the next day and we slept with just sheets that night) and then grab him and release him outside. It made for an exciting and interesting few minutes.
Creepy bat!
I was commissioned this week to make some biscuits (cookies) for one of the child care staff. Instead of her paying me I offered her a trade of making Mikayla a dress for a bag of cookies. So excited to see it when she is finished. I am sure it won’t be a Dacia original, but it is great to know someone here who can sew!
World’s cutest baker helping mommy make cookies and banana bread!
On Saturday Ben drove 6+ hours (one way) to pick up Bongani from the hospital in Pretoria. He is one of our health care staff members who was recently diagnosed with cancer. Since no where in Swaziland offers any kind of cancer treatments he has to travel to Pretoria, South Africa. When he first went to the hospital about a week ago he was in really rough condition, but Ben said he looked much better yesterday and did great on the ride home. He will return in a couple weeks for another round of chemotherapy. We are hopeful that this treatment will help. So far it looks like he is responding well.
Today we travel to Manzini to Mr. Ceuhlo’s house for his wife’s birthday. He is a contract worker and friend of the organization. He is actually the one who got all the food donated and cooked for the Feast of Mother Cabrini and also the man who had all the bananas donated a few weeks ago when I made all the banana bread! He is a great chef so we are looking forward to some yummy eats.
Tags: Africa, weeks happenings