"No hurry in Africa" doesn't mean no Chaos!
We've had some problems with internet and our old computer no longer being able to connect to Google Chrome. As technology marches on in the Western World, we're stuck back here in Africa! Oh well. Same song, different verse I guess.
Anyway, I'm trying to catch up now. I had a whirlwind trip to Nairobi Kenya where I met up with a couple from our highschool we hadn't seen since 2004, had a killer Chai Latte, and stuffed my brain with too much information in meetings. But it was good, and everyone survived the week here in Malawi. Chad's a great dad, and he did great balancing teaching 4 classes and managing dinner and bedtime and 1 load of laundry (!), but I don't think it's something he wants to do very often!
I got home on Saturday at noon, and we left Sunday morning for Zambia. Several good friends of ours are at the 40/40 training camp 4 hours from here, so we wanted to stop in and visit with them. Do you remember my stories of 40/40 from our orientation 3 years ago??? It just about killed me, with Isaac at 4 months and hauling water to hand-wash cloth diapers every afternoon after walking 3 miles into the bush and feeding and bathing 3 kids at a camp-ground of dust and out-houses. Anyway, I digress. So we drove up into camp, excited to see everyone. And then we found Isaac had an accident in the car and we didn't have any water warming, and Omara and Isaac found the ash-pit and tried to see who could get dirtier, and then everyone got hungry and it wasn't time to eat yet, and then we had to get 4 filthy kids clean and in bed in a canvas tent with everyone able to hear the fit Omara threw, and...by 7pm I was in tears, feeling like I had just teleported back in time and was stuck in the worst month of my life all over again. And we'd done in willingly. What were we thinking????
But the next day while everyone else had to walk those 3 miles, I sat in the sun and hand-washed Isaac's carseat and clothes in my leisure, and drank chai, and went into town for a snack when we got hungry. Much better! And we even survived that night well enough to enjoy a bonfire complete with marshmallows!
We made it home Tuesday afternoon in time for Anya to rush off to her dress-rehearsal for her ballet recital. The power stayed on long enough for me to catch up with 3 loads of laundry--enough to dress the kids in their uniforms today, but not yet enough to empty the dirty clothes baskets! That can wait for another day, now that I'm really home and can settle in again. At least until Friday, when Chad goes off on a 3-day birding safari and I'm home with all 4 kids and no car!!! I insisted he go, in order to recover from his solo week here. But again, what was I thinking????
Anyway, I'm trying to catch up now. I had a whirlwind trip to Nairobi Kenya where I met up with a couple from our highschool we hadn't seen since 2004, had a killer Chai Latte, and stuffed my brain with too much information in meetings. But it was good, and everyone survived the week here in Malawi. Chad's a great dad, and he did great balancing teaching 4 classes and managing dinner and bedtime and 1 load of laundry (!), but I don't think it's something he wants to do very often!
I got home on Saturday at noon, and we left Sunday morning for Zambia. Several good friends of ours are at the 40/40 training camp 4 hours from here, so we wanted to stop in and visit with them. Do you remember my stories of 40/40 from our orientation 3 years ago??? It just about killed me, with Isaac at 4 months and hauling water to hand-wash cloth diapers every afternoon after walking 3 miles into the bush and feeding and bathing 3 kids at a camp-ground of dust and out-houses. Anyway, I digress. So we drove up into camp, excited to see everyone. And then we found Isaac had an accident in the car and we didn't have any water warming, and Omara and Isaac found the ash-pit and tried to see who could get dirtier, and then everyone got hungry and it wasn't time to eat yet, and then we had to get 4 filthy kids clean and in bed in a canvas tent with everyone able to hear the fit Omara threw, and...by 7pm I was in tears, feeling like I had just teleported back in time and was stuck in the worst month of my life all over again. And we'd done in willingly. What were we thinking????
But the next day while everyone else had to walk those 3 miles, I sat in the sun and hand-washed Isaac's carseat and clothes in my leisure, and drank chai, and went into town for a snack when we got hungry. Much better! And we even survived that night well enough to enjoy a bonfire complete with marshmallows!
We made it home Tuesday afternoon in time for Anya to rush off to her dress-rehearsal for her ballet recital. The power stayed on long enough for me to catch up with 3 loads of laundry--enough to dress the kids in their uniforms today, but not yet enough to empty the dirty clothes baskets! That can wait for another day, now that I'm really home and can settle in again. At least until Friday, when Chad goes off on a 3-day birding safari and I'm home with all 4 kids and no car!!! I insisted he go, in order to recover from his solo week here. But again, what was I thinking????
Aww hun, you just have the most eventful times wherever you go. Hope Chad enjoys his break away. You'll be fine.
ReplyDeletealison x