This week was an interesting one…it was our first week of three without Ben around.  He flew out on Monday for the US and won’t be back until the 24th.  We had an interesting time getting him on his flight and had to change some of our plans at the last minute!

The weather last week was supposed to get a little crazy.  There was a tropical cyclone (hurricane) that was off the coast of Mozambique and predictions were that the winds and rain were going to hit Swaziland on Sunday and Monday and hit us hard.  They were calling it the worst storm in 30 years!  With this prediction we felt confident that Ben’s original flight out of Matsapha here in Swaziland would be cancelled due to high winds and rain.  Since we didn’t want to risk him missing his first flight we decided to drive to Johannesburg (where his second flight would leave from) on Sunday and spend the night so he could catch his flight on Monday.

We packed up the truck early on Sunday and made the trek south (about a 6-7 hour drive).  We enlisted the help of Joe since Ben was sick and I wasn’t thrilled about driving in Jo-burg.  So thankful he tagged along!  When we got there on Sunday Ben, Mikayla and I hug out at the guesthouse while Joe went and did some shopping.  That evening we went to great restaurant for dinner.  It was a Mozambiquan, Portuguese, Brazilian combination restaurant.  And besides Mikayla acting like a rotten toddler, we had a great dinner.  On Monday, we left Ben at the guesthouse (they ran a shuttle to the airport) and hit up one of the many malls in Jo-burg to do a little shopping.  I wasn’t in the clothes shopping mood, but did manage to snag some tortilla chips, pretzels and blueberries.  Ah…the little things in life that make you so happy!  We made it back safe and sound to Swaziland about 8:00 that evening and all crashed quickly!  Turns out the storm turned at the last minute and we didn’t even get any rain!  Oh well, better safe than sorry I suppose.  Plus I got some tortilla chips out of the deal so all is well!

I feel like we have survived the first week pretty well without Ben.  Mikayla has been really good and besides getting up or calling for me 10 times each night all has been well!  We did have one incident this week when Mikayla pooped in the shower.  When I got onto her she said she only did it because Daisy told her too.  This does not bode well for peer pressure in the future if she is taking commands from a figurine!

We didn’t do much baking this week, but we did manage to try our hand at some homemade Poptart Minis.  They don’t really taste like Poptarts, but they were delicious.  Basically it is just a pie crust that you fill with jam (or in our case Nutella) and then bake until golden brown.  You can see the full recipe here.  Mikayla had fun rolling out the dough and forming her own Poptarts. 

We even had some fun this week playing in a box!

First it was a hat…

Then a car and eventually a bed!

Ben has also been able to post several videos on his blog.  You can check out the link here if you are interested in seeing them. 

I am little behind on blogging this week, but better late than never…right?  We had a busy last week and it is shaping up to be a busy week this week. 

On Saturday of last week (2/11) we lost power during a pretty intense thunder storm.  Power did not return that evening, or the next day and not until late on Monday.  We actually ended up going for over 50 hours without electricity.  Needless to say we didn’t have much that survived the fridge or freezer so we had two big braais and ate meat for every meal (even breakfast).  Things could have been worse, but it is still never fun to go that long without power.

Ben spent most of last weekend and week writing abstracts, workshop proposals and scholarship applications for an AIDS conference in July.  Everything was due on the fifteenth and being out of power for so long made things a little crazy.  He was up until midnight most nights; needless to say he was exhausted by the end of the week and ready for a relaxing weekend (more on that later).

Last week we celebrated Valentine’s Day by making heart shaped sugar cookies for daddy and some of the staff.  We ran into some delays with our power outages, but we made do!  She loved rolling out the dough and using her heart cookie cutter.  She still needs practice on how to best utilize the dough so you don’t roll it out fifty times, but that will come!

Today is Sister Diane’s birthday so on Friday night we cooked a big meal in her honor.  I made focaccia bread, salad, corn on the cob and chocolate muffins.  Ben contributed some grilled shrimp and beer can chicken.  And Joe made some roasted red peppers (who knew they were that easy to make?), pickled onions, and a delicious punch drink (he is quite the cocktail master).  We stuffed ourselves silly and enjoyed each other’s company after a busy and hectic week.

We then spent this past weekend at our friends Peter, Callista and Aviva’s house.  They treated us to the usual relaxing atmosphere and fellowship and even took us along to some friends houses.  We went to a braai on Saturday afternoon to celebrate a birthday and then that evening we went to Eric and Nicole’s house for some amazing Thai food where we once again stuffed ourselves silly.  Eric made some Tom Yum soup that was out of this world along with several other thai dishes!  We enjoyed the relaxing time and were sad to see the weekend pass by so quickly.

On Sunday we met up with some of the other Cabrini staff members in Matsapha for a four day strategic planning session.  Ben will be in meetings until Thursday evening and Mikayla and I are enjoying some AC!  We went to a small game park today (Mililwane) and hope to do some swimming (although the pools don’t look too promising).  We do have decent Internet here if anyone wants to try to Skype with us.  Just let us know.  Here are a few pictures from the game park.

I love this picture for some reason.  These three guys were just all nuzzled up next to each other. 

On Friday we leave for St. Lucia, South Africa to celebrate my birthday.  Side note – this is not the St. Lucia most people in the states know of, so look it up if you are confused.  This area is known for their hippo, crocodile and bird populations.  They have some beach areas, although I am not sure they are like the traditional beach you think of.  If nothing else we are going to enjoy some family time before Ben leaves the next week for three weeks in the States.  If nothing else, we can sleep in and play a little Settler’s of Catan!

Mikayla enjoying her painting activity sent by Susan at Cabrini College.  Thanks Susan – she completed the whole box in one sitting!

As promised here is a quick snapshot of the Feast of Mother Cabrini that was held last Saturday.  Ben is working on putting together a video montage from video clips we took and putting it on the Cabrini website.  As soon as he does I will be sure to let you know so you can check that out as well.  Like I mentioned last week, everyone had a great time!

Some of the staff working hard before mass to get lunch ready.  I was so proud of the staff and all that they sacrificed to make this event grand.  Behind the ladies is the hostel’s kitchen.  The big pots are built into a fire pit that they use each day when cooking for the kids.

Entrance of children – all the children walked into the service following a statue of Mother Cabrini.

The bishop entering the service.  After the service was over Mikayla definitely went up to him and asked him what his name was!

Everything was a celebration.  Even the way the Word of God entered before scripture reading.  This group of girls (and a few others not pictured) danced their way down the aisle while singing to present.

Some of the staff dressed in traditional clothing for the event.

The men cooking the meat up – now this was a real brai!

Sharon, the director of the hostel, wrote a beautiful poem about Cabrini that the kids recited.

These girls are some of Mikayla’s favorites from the hostel.  They sang and did some traditional dancing throughout the performances. 

The Cabrini choir – beautiful voices.

The guy second from the left is Themba.  He is a driver for Cabrini and this is his band performing as the closing event.  They sang and danced and really worked up the crowd.  They were amazing.

Meet Novuselelo – this is the twins older sister.

Here are some of the guests watching the group sing and dance.  Most of the kids are kids from the hostel.  The even also took place in the boys dormitory.  In the back you can see mosquito nets hanging from the ceiling.  For events like this they push all the beds back against the back wall leaving a large open area.

This is a terrible picture, but please ignore that.  This is Sr. Diane dancing with the Statue of Mother Cabrini!

We had a couple of visitors over for dinners this week.  The first was Joey, our friend working with Peace Corps.  He came over on Sunday for some chicken and dumplings, green beans and an apple braid (you can read about it here).  It was nice to catch up because we hadn’t seen him in a couple of weeks.  Then on Wednesday we had a family from one of the organizations Cabrini works closely with (PACT) over for dinner.  The family is getting ready to move to Tanzania, so this was a good bye dinner.  Todd (the husband) is actually the person who hooked us up with Cabrini.  When we first came to Swaziland over a year ago, we met with him to check out PACT.  While there, he mentioned we should go and see the sisters – thinking that we would be a good fit.  We did, and the rest is history!  He has a lovely family and it was great to just sit back and relax for the evening.  The sisters provided the food and we made chocolate cake for dessert. 

We have been finding a lot of these little geckos in our house this week.  I am not sure if it is the warmer weather that is attracting them or the fact that we had opened one of our windows that doesn’t have a screen!  I don’t mind them too much.  But the minute they end up in my bed is a different story.  Mikayla loves to look at them and try to catch them, this week she succeeded (with a little help from daddy).

People aren’t kidding when they say they make creatures big in Africa.  Check out this guy, a huge beetle looking creature.

Just a little perspective on how big he actually was.  HUGE!!

On Saturday we celebrated Mother Cabrini with a Feast of Mother Cabrini.  This is an annual event, but this year we were celebrating the 40th year of Cabrini in Swaziland.  We had a special mass, complete with singing, dancing and readings from the kids, and a huge feast and party afterwards.  Complete with dancing sisters!!  I plan to do a large post on that this week, so I will save the juicy details until later.  But I will mention that we have a dancing fool for a daughter!  I don’t think she stopped moving once the music started!  Not sure where that comes from.

 Dancing with her friend Bayanza.

And just because I can, check out this beautiful girl!  I found her laying on the couch like this – can we say Senior pose?  Also look at her beautiful curls!

This week Simo went to see a physical therapist about his leg.  He was diagnosed with developmental milestone delays due to malnutrition (which we already knew).  He will see a therapist twice a week starting mid-September.  Hopefully that will help him catch up to his sister in movement. 

The twins’ Gogo (grandmother) came to visit this week.  They seemed to know who she was immediately and sat and played with her for almost an hour.  It was good to see them interacting with family members because we don’t want to lose that connection. 

Mikayla hosted a tea party at our house on Sunday afternoon.  Sister Diane and Katie (a volunteer) both came and partook in some tea (but really coffee because we didn’t have any tea) and biscuits (cookies).  The kids enjoyed themselves and I think the adults did too.

We also built a fort this week.  Nosipho and Mikayla liked to just crawl in and out of the fort more than they did sitting in it.  Simo enjoyed his time in the fort looking at books.  Mikayla even requested to sleep in the fort!  She didn’t in the end, but has been asking for her fort back ever since. 

Mikayla and I went on our first homestead visit this week.  She rode in true Swazi fashion in the back of a buckie (pickup) on another worker’s lap.  I sat up front in the cab with both twins.  She seemed to really enjoy herself and was only moderately upset about not riding in her car seat.  I would never have thought to go somewhere in America without her car seat, but here people look at you funny when you bring a car seat.  The family we went to visit wasn’t actually there on the first try but we tried again the next day.

I made breadsticks the other night.  They turned out great and were super easy.  They were no Olive Garden breadsticks, but they tasted pretty good with our spaghetti.  We must have liked them pretty good because out of twelve we only ended up with 1.5 as leftovers!!

We are having twins!  Not really, but kind of, let me explain.  This week we were approached by the sisters to see if we would be willing to house a set of twins who just came to the hostile during winter break.  They are 20 months old, severely malnourished and at the developmental level of an 8-10 month old.  They aren’t crawling or walking, hardly make any noises and I have only seen them make one facial expression…a blank stare.  Every once in awhile one of them might start to break a smile.  From August 12-September 13 the schools take a winter break which means the kids at the hostile return to their homesteads (we run a different child care model than most.  We are not an orphanage so the kids still maintain ties with their families and homesteads).  The twins we will be taking in just arrived at the hostile three weeks ago and we want to continue progress that has been made while they have been in our care.  This will be a huge transition for everyone in our family, but we are all on board.  Mikayla is even excited about the babies coming to stay with us for awhile!  We will see how that goes once they arrive.  I am not sure of all the details yet, but I do know that this is happening!  I am looking forward to working with them one-on-one (or maybe two-on-one or three-on-one depending on how you look at it) and seeing them grow and develop in the few short weeks they will be living with us!