Catching up- November

The school term ended in the third week of November, leaving us with a six week winter break. Just before that, we decided to celebrate Thanksgiving! We had several Americans, a Canadian, a Tanzanian-American, a German, and a Kenyan born, Canadian-American toddler who lives in Tanzania. : )

One of the Americans in our village told me that Thanksgiving was her favourite holiday, so I thought it would be nice to make it as festive and special as possible. We are able to get a lot of traditional Thanksgiving foods in our village, and I even found cranberry sauce at the imported-foods supermarket in Mwanza! We opted on chicken instead of turkey, because turkey would have been over $100, but it was still delicious and thanksgivingy! We also held the dinner almost two weeks before Thanksgiving in America (and a good month late for Canada), because that was when we were all available, but that doesn't matter!

We ended up having a really lovely evening with wonderful people and wonderful food. Everyone pitched in and brought something. I made gluten free dressing and gluten free pumpkin pie, so that Abram, David and I would be sure to get some. (The pie was completely gone by the end of the evening- everyone had some!) And I roasted the chickens. I also set the table, and took care to make it look simple and elegant. I cut leaves out of coloured paper and had fun trying to come up with fall/harvest decorations. (Meaning, I cut leaves out of coloured paper. And then put a candle and some fresh flowers in the centre of the table.) I was pleased with how it turned out, though. I don't know if anyone cares but me- but I was happy with it.

We fit ten people plus David's high chair around our enormous dining room table! 

Thanksgiving isn't my favourite holiday, but this was my first time hosting it, and I found myself looking forward to it all week, searching for perfect chicken roasting recipes on my phone instead of getting work done, and mentally changing the table layout in my head. I really enjoyed the entire thing, and can't wait to celebrate next year!

Chickens here are really small, so we roasted three!

The lineup

Chatting over pie and tea.

On the actual date of (American) Thanksgiving, Abram lit a fire in our fireplace for the first time (rainy season is cold...ish, especially when you have louver windows that never close), and I made gingerbread cookies. We sat on the couch, listening to Christmas music and staring at the fire. It was a really lovely way to kick off the Christmas season. 

Catching up- October

October was a whirlwind of teaching and day-to-day life (who knew villages could be so busy?), but in the middle of the month, we flew to Dar es Salaam for several days, to attend AIM's annual Tanzania conference. This was a 5 day missions conference for all AIM missionaries working in Tanzania (and a few in Kenya).

I had been looking forward to the conference for several months, because in our village we are fairly isolated from other missionaries, save the two families who live near us. It was time to fill my extroverted social cup!

To be honest, the week was pretty stressful. Abram got really sick the day before we left for Dar. He actually did really well, considering we were traveling across the country with a baby! But once we got to the conference centre, he spent a lot of his time resting and recovering, and unfortunately missed much of the conference. I tried to take care of him and David as much as possible, and at 4 months pregnant this wasn't easy, so it was draining for me, too.

 In addition to this, the conference schedule is extremely full and busy. We were SO blessed and grateful that there was an amazing team of people from the UK who came to help with the children. David was the youngest person at the conference! and everyone on the children's team worked so hard to include him in the children's activities and to care for him during the sessions, so Abram (when he was up to it) and I could attend the adult sessions. This included sermons, workshops, worship, and other activities. It was so nice to get to sit and be "fed" without having someone climbing up, down, up, down, up and down from my lap!

David did really, really well in the children's room, but it was a bit taxing and overstimulating for him, so he also needed a lot of down time every day- something not very easy to come by. The cafeteria where we ate was also very crowded and loud, so I think he was overwhelmed in general. He did so well- but you could tell it was a hard week for him (and consequently, for us).

The conference also included a fun afternoon at the beach. This was David's first time in the ocean! He was a bit scared, but it was really special for us to take him to the water and the sand. The kid LOVES to be outside!

In general, though full and busy, the conference was a huge gift to us. This was my first one, and Abram's...severalth. It's so encouraging and refreshing to hear from other missionaries, see what God is doing throughout East Africa, and for me, to talk to other mamas and be reminded that this has been done before! It's so good to remember we are not alone! We will not see many of these people again until next October. We're already looking forward to it!

Here are a few more pictures from that week.

Game night

All the kids from the kids' programme (I believe David was asleep at this point)

Checking in for his 15th flight.

The conference room during one session

Catching up- September

Whooooooa. Another 10 weeks have gone by since I blogged. Again. I'm sure very few people care. But I do! I'm determined not to give up. I post lots of random stuff on facebook, and people get to see pictures of us, but I like looking back over our blog, because it's more of a summary of major events in our life, you know?

So, while I have internet (hooray!) and David is out playing in the grass (hooray!), I'm going to try to post a few quick updates of the past few months. Here's September.

Two major things happened in September (I think. Who can remember/):
~I started teaching at the bible college- my first time teaching adults. Ever.
~And, David turned one! We survived a year of parenting! Hooray!

I am teaching English to the first year students here at Nassa Teological College. The students have to have a certain amount of English to get accepted, but they usually still need some brushing up (don't we all?), so the first years take a 5-hour, year-long course, currently taught by yours truly. The most challenging part of this is that there was no curriculum, syllabus or even standards for the course. So I did some digging around online (mostly on my phone...or, when we have electricity, I am working on English, and hence no time for blogging...) and looked up other school's suggestions. Then I mashed together an outline of what I wanted to teach them, and went from there.

The first term was a ton of work- covering grammar and writing, vocabulary and reading comprehension, figurative versus literal language, etc. There are a lot of resources online, but most ESL classes are geared towards people who are learning English and are living in the US. So a lot of the context - the stories, examples, figures of speech- don't apply to my students here. In conclusion: planning the class was a LOT of work.

Teaching was actually pretty fun, and I think I'm doing pretty well. My students are amazing, and they all did really well in the first term! I'm very proud of them. And I'm looking forward to teaching them again next term.

Abram taught three courses this last term: Hermeneutics, Isaiah and Hebrews. He taught almost every morning, and in the afternoons, he keeps busy with his dissertation, ministering to people in our village, writing sermons for occasionally preaching on Sundays, and helping with some of the vision and development for the college. Abram also keeps track of our family finances, so he is always, always busy. He's such a hard worker, and still finds time to spend with me and David! I married a good one, you guys. A really fun twist in the plan is that he's been having significant computer problems. This makes it hard to work on school or his dissertation, in case you were wondering.

But none of that is as interesting as baby David eating chocolate cake for the first time.

See what I mean?

David's birthday is on September 25th, and he shares a birthday with Abram's Tanzanian sister, Neema. So on the 26th (a Saturday), we threw a small party for the two of them. This is, in the long run, so unimportant, but I spent a lot of time thinking about how we could celebrate David's birthday in a culturally appropriate way. I wanted to find a balance between North America and Tanzania, and I think we managed it! (Most everyone who was at the party has probably never had their own birthday cake before.)

For those interested, I baked a small, paleo chocolate cake for David (and myself). Almond flour, cocoa powder, honey... I melted chocolate chips and made icing out of butter and honey and decorated with sliced bananas, since those are David's favourite food. It was SO GOOD, you guys. Probably the best cake I've ever had- gooey and creamy and rich and sweet. If you notice a huge amount of cake missing in the pictures, that's because I ate most of it.

Because almond flour is a precious resource, I made a larger, normal cake for Neema and our guests. I don't think it turned out as well- it was really dry- but I think Neema appreciated it!

Our gift to David was custom-made wooden alphabet blocks. He loves them and plays with them every night before bedtime. They were pretty expensive, but we hope they last years and years. We didn't give them to him at the party, but later, when there wasn't a huge audience. (We already have more nice things that a lot of our neighbours, and I'm sure to them, David is quite spoiled. And he is. We have been so blessed.) The other gifts David received were: a card and cash from our next door neighbour, some eggs from another neighbour, and a (live) chicken from Neema's parents (David's Tanzanian grandparents). Pretty fun gifts, for a one-year-old! (The chicken is no longer with us. She was delicious, though.) We also got a book from Abram's parents in Canada (which he loves), and some clothes, toys and books from my family. Thanks, guys! We felt so loved.

This is much longer than I planned- thanks, D, for playing nicely outside- and I'm pleasantly surprised at my pregnant brain's ability to remember anything that happened 3-4 months ago.

Here are a few more pictures of David's birthday party. (Thanks Abram for grabbing some photos!) They uploaded out of order, just for fun.

We are so grateful that he has such a loving community and family here in Tanzania. And in Kenya. And in Canada. And the US. What a loved little boy.

David and his Tanzanian Grandpa (Babu)

Digging into the frosting.

The birthday twins and their cakes.

I didn't think to take a single photo with David during his party. This was afterward. Oh well.

Singing happy birthday- D was clapping along.

Being efficient. This eating style was a hit and people still talk about it.

Another family photo taken after the party.

He ate every single banana slice off first, before digging into the cake.

Neema, David, Baba and Ashby

Carrying out the cakes. (Like I said, the pics uploaded out of order.)

Besties and road trips and babies, oh my.

It's been MONTHS since I've blogged, and let me just tell you, when the power is only on from midnight till 5 am, getting online becomes...difficult. July, August and September have been basically powerless, and it's extremely frustrating (though the past few days, we've had electricity about half the time- woohoo!)


The big news first: I'm pregnant again! Baby is due in March, David will be 18 months old. the baby will probably be born in Kenya again, I'm hoping for a girl but who knows, and yes, I'm excited and nervous and tired and busy. Thank you. : ) (Also, morning sickness has been wayyyy better this time around, THANK YOU LORD FOR YOUR MERCIES.)

Technology is pretty amazing, isn't it?

The past few months have been eventful, needless to say!

In July, one of my best friends from Oregon came to visit us for four whole weeks! Abram, David and I all loved having Lindsay with us for so long. I mean, really:

Don't they just look so in love?

Lindsay spent about two weeks with us here in the village. It was lovely- school was out, so everything was a bit more laid-back, and we spent time drinking coffee, reading, talking, playing with David, trying to convince him to take naps, going for walks, drinking coffee and reading. Linds got a bit of a taste of what our lives are like here- I believe the first day she was here, we had twenty something people knock on our door. (Our record is thirty something.) She had fun picking up more Swahili, trying to learn people's names, and trying to help people pronounce hers! For me, it was a huge blessing, because not only did I have a good friend around, but I had someone to help tag-team with David, dishes, cooking, etc.

The first week of August, the four of us packed up our things and drove to Nairobi for a two week visit, so that we could visit Visible Grace, go shopping, visit friends, find out I was pregnant, get an ultrasound, and do other fun city things.

Off we go!

The 10-12 hour trip, always adventurous, ended up being pretty rough, because David came down with a flu and threw up no less than seven times that day. You guys, I don't even know how it's possible, but vomit was like puddled under his car seat. (Not under him. Under the seat.) It was really sad and really rough- I hate seeing him sick and not knowing what to do! Thankfully, after he threw up he was pretty wiped out, and spent most of the trip sleeping. He didn't seem too upset, but I sure was. After ruling out malaria, we were afraid it might be carsickness (something that doesn't work for our traveling family), but thank GOD, David hasn't had any problems since, including the trip home. By the time we got to Nairobi that night, David and I were out of clean clothes- not a fun start to any vacation! Oh well- now I can add 'change clothes in an outhouse' to my list of life experiences.

The highlight of our time in Nairobi, as always, was visiting the looney tunes at Visible Grace. The kids are growing like weeds, learning more English (and more shenanigans), helping around the house, and doing well in school. Steve, Judy, the Kenyan staff, and the Kenyan board members are doing incredible work, and God is so good to bring everything together like this, and get me out of the way so that Africans can lead this thing, and I'm tearing up just thinking about it.

The only downside is that the kids don't really like Steve or Abram very much:

I mean, really. 

Steve is somewhere under that pile of children.

Sorry. Sometimes I feel like I have to be sarcastic, or I will explode.

It was really fun for Lindsay to visit the kids, as well. Linds came in 2011, when we broke ground on the house, and again in 2013, when we had our housewarming party and were just getting this party started. The kids adore her, and it's great for everyone- in America and in Kenya- to have someone consistently visiting and maintaining a relationship with VG and the kids.

David's a big hit around the house, too:

And the youngest of the kids tell Steve and Judy, "I'm not the youngest anymore- David is!"

Between visits to the house, we had a good time enjoying life in Nairobi. Abram and I were also blessed to go on not only one but TWO dates- Lindsay babysat one night and another friend the other. One date was just because, the other was to celebrate (early) our second anniversary!

I know we look like we're camping, but under my sweater, jacket, scarf and leggings, I'm wearing a pretty dress, as well as the bracelet Abram gave me on our anniversary last year.

In the middle of August, we had to send Lindsay home. We loved spending time with her and are so blessed by her love for our family! We miss you, Linds! 

Lunch on our last day together- a friend watched D, so we got to eat food without it being thrown in our lap!

Abram and I had planned to leave Nairobi a day or two after Lindsay left for the States. The day before we were going to leave, our car started making ominous clunking noises. We are so, so grateful we took it to the mechanic, and didn't end up stranded on the road somewhere between Nairobi and Tanzania! We ended up being in Nairobi for a total of four weeks, instead of two. The extended stay and the car repairs ended up being really hard on our budget -and our savings- but we are grateful that God provided places to stay, and we are grateful we now have a well functioning car. Between pregnancy and a busy baby, I am not interested in buses anymore. Though we did take the bus a few times in Nairobi, and with Abram's help, it's not bad. Just tiring.

Anyway- we are grateful to get to visit a few other friends in the interim, including a couple families who live in the slums, who we have known for years. We are so blessed and humbled to know these people, who are incredibly hard working and resourceful and kind.

I love this one: from left to right, Abraham, David, and Abram and David!

We also took David and our friend Katherine to my favourite place in the world- the giraffe centre. I am very sad to report that David was terrified and hated it and cried and now I can't be his mommy anymore, because what kind of son doesn't love giraffes?

He finally calmed down- his baba helped him to be brave.

Scoping each other out.

We got home to our village in early September, and jumped into an extremely busy month, which I will try to blog about later (hopefully!) In the meantime, here are more pictures of Davidy that didn't fit anywhere else:

This kid really, really loves dogs.

Malaria and other maladies

The first draft of this post was like 'whiny whinety whine whine whiiiine', so, I deleted it.

Here's the summary: David's been sick (for weeks) and Abram and I have been sick, and we're all exhausted- like, really exhausted- and every non-essential thing in my life has been thrown out the window, leaving my to-do list looking something like this:

Keep David alive
Brush my teeth
Make dinner maybe

And in the midst of battling malaria AND bronchitis, Davidy decided to cut two teeth

They're there. I promise. You try taking a picture of the inside of a grumpy baby's mouth!

making this the easiest/hardest teething session ever, as in, we didn't even notice (or if we did, we attributed it to his not feeling well already).

Davidy continues to be a delight, even when he's sick. He will cough his little brains out, throw up on you, then give you a smile that will break your heart, and crawl off to play somewhere.

He's crawling now, and learned to pull himself up, cruise around furniture, and climb up our (two) steps- all in just a few days' time. He's starting to get better (thanks to our new pediatrician, one round of malaria meds and two rounds of antibiotics) and loves eating fruit, veggies, and pureed chicken. He's still very outgoing and loves being held, although when he's not feeling well, he really prefers Mama.

Just your typical Sunday at church.

Abram has been extremely busy, because in addition to teaching and doing interviews for his paper, he's been sick himself, and has been caring for me and David as much as possible. He's working really hard, and I am loving attending his Genesis class (when I'm able) and watching him at work. He's such a good teacher, and I honestly don't think I know anyone who is as passionate about the Old Testament as he is.

Also he's one of the most hands-on fathers I've ever met or married.

I am not exaggerating about my to-do lists lately, but under 'normal' circumstances, I have enough to keep me busy- even when Davidy is healthy!- with Visible Grace stuff, helping teach English here in TZ, trying to stay in touch with family, and hosting dinners, prayer meetings, and birthday parties here in our home.

Sometimes David comes with me to help with NTC's English class.

At the beginning of May, David and I flew over to Dar-es-Salaam to attend an AIM women's retreat. It was lovely to spend time with some friends we had made last year (when we lived in Dar last summer) and to soak up some girly time. The retreat fell on Mother's Day weekend, and for my first (ish) Mother's Day, my friends watched David while I took a long, hot shower and read my Bible. What more could a girl ask for?! 

David slept through craft time at the retreat. Also, he looks fake. But he's not. 

David got to play in real grass for the first time- and he loved it!

We were blessed with a chance to go to the Serengeti again a few weeks ago with some friends of friends who were visiting. A safari is always a great diversion from our real lives, and we feel grateful to live so near to all this wildlife, and for having a car and being able to drive others around!

I hope I never never never grow tired of these guys.

The school year is rapidly coming to a close, with graduation only a few weeks away! After that, we are looking forward to hosting our good friend Lindsay, and then taking her up to Nairobi to visit our kiddos at Visible Grace!

One day soon I hope to find time (hahaHA) to blog more than a quick, 'here's another picture of David, did I mention I like giraffes?' update. I have so many thoughts and feelings, and I know you're dying to hear them, internet. Till then, here are some more pictures of David. Again.