just for kicks!

good things and not so good things

Okay so I am not going to write much because Spencer is wanting to watch something on the computer before we head to bed...or actually before i fall asleep. Anyways this week I have been attending a seminar on children in crisis... particularly the street children. It has been great and I will write more on that later. Okay so here are some of the things that I miss and don't miss:

Things I miss from the US:
family
Mexican restaurants and other restaurants i am familiar with.
carpet
grass
Target and Walmart.. I would actually take a walgreens
bug free rice and flour
paved roads
lunchables for the kids
sweet potatoes
real milk
seeing police in cars and not on the streets with machine guns

Things I don't miss about the US:
the bad news stories on tv
carpet i have to vacuum
bills
selfishness
pumping my own gas
cleaning my own house
having to go to the grocery store for veggies and fruit... her they are on every corner
okay anyways.....

I love living in Africa. Weirdly enough I love the different smells and noises of it here. I love to hear cars honking their horns and the sound of scooters weaving in and out of traffic. Even though I may get frustrated with people walking out in the road I love to watch the people here. Most seem to be happy. Rich or poor or just surviving the day they are enjoying life. Most of the time that is...
Okay Spencer is calling
i love you all very much and always remember... Niit Nitte Moy Garabam
april

opps, my bad!

So I have really have lost track of time lately and haven't blogged. So lets see what have I been up to? Did I tell you about the last package we received in the mail? Well it was great. It had about 15 packages (2 in each) of chocolate pop tarts, 2 huge bottles of yellow mustard, 2 big bags of Reese's pieces, about 15 taco, chili and buffalo wing seasoning packets, 4 cans of rotel and 2 blocks of velveeta cheese. It was a lot of fun opening it. This was from our home church Hermitage Nazarene in Nashville... well technically Old Hickory, TN.
Friday is "Mali" day at the kids school. Mali is a Country close to us here in Senegal. They have 33 different nationalities in their school and they try to celebrate some of them...so Friday is Mali day. The kids get to wear Mali clothes to school...which is a change for them since they have to wear a uniform on the other days. We went yesterday to try to find some Mali clothes. We had some luck after going through the market and getting frustrated. The people in the market really get on my nerves. For now on I am going to pay more money to not have to go there. They get in your face and hassle you until you buy something. Ahhhh... so we now paid way too much for the kids clothes BUT we didn't have the hassle. We found a store that sells African clothes and you can pick out your material and they measure you for what you want. We go back on Thursday to pick it up. Pictures of this way crazy expensive outfit to come. Man what we do for our kids.
Today i am headed off to a seminar on street children. The seminar starts today and ends Saturday. I am really excited about this and will tell you about how it went later.
So yesterday for dinner we had beef that Spencer grilled. It was so good and our guard enjoyed the leftovers. I really wanted some steak sauce but didn't have any so I decided to make some homemade steak sauce. Man was it the bomb! Here are some of the ingredients: balsm. vinegar, ketchup, Dijon mustard, pepper, garlic, and raisins. YUMMY! Our guard commented about it this morning. People like sauce here.
Okay so maybe more later. I need to search for airline tickets and shipping quotes.

I love you guys and remember... NEVER tell your kids they are going to Disney World until the day you actually go... they will run it into the ground... or the sand that is here.

April

a taxi ride

Yesterday I went out to lunch with a new friend. Her name is Sun and she is from Korea. Her son is in Abby's class at school. We went to a Koren restaurant downtown. It was pretty good. Different but good. Okay so I took a taxi because sometimes it is easier to do that than to try to find a parking spot and the place you are going. The taxi drivers here usually know where everything is. So I went out to get a taxi and we (Spencer walked with me to the taxi) turned down 2 taxis because they were charging us way too much. I ended up paying about $5 and probably should have turned this one down because he was a horrible driver. He was moving the steering wheel so much the car was moving back and forth. Not sure if he had a reason for that or not. I got sooooo dizzy.
Anyways, as I was sitting in the taxi I took out a piece of paper and began writing down things that were unusual to me. Since we have been here a year now I think we are overlooking the "different"things going on here. Okay so here it goes:

- there was a guy sleeping on the sidewalk (happens all the time)
- trash everywhere - apparently it is a cultural thing... whatever! cultural or not it drives me crazy. You can see a very wealthy person get out of their expensive car and throw trash on the ground. ahhh
- you can buy tissue, phone credit, prayer mats, sunglasses, clothes and lots of other stuff and not ever get out of your car... talk about drive up service
- you can not drive down the road without dogging something... there is always something in the road whether it is a block, tire, person or even someones leg (I really have seen someone asleep on the sidewalk and their leg was sticking out onto the road) ... now that was crazy and I don't even think he was... that is a crazy person - just tired I guess!
- there are either wires or spikes on most of the walls surrounding homes or businesses (we have spikes)
- every house has a block wall around it (ours is big with flowers)
- the taxi driver had several pictures of a man in his car (this is probably his marabo -Islamic teacher)
- everyone seems to be cold - they have jackets on like it is going to snow - hum... Africa winter
- there are little boys (ages 4-?) begging for whatever they can get... they are very dirty! Sometimes I wonder what Luke would do with all the freedom... he would be scared for sure
- women carry their children on their backs... even if they have a huge bucket of water or food on their heads
- men are just hanging out - it is a cultural thing... they just sit around and drink tea (i guess they may not have jobs)
- lots of the police carry big gun and do not have a car (there is a big truck that carries them to their working spot) i have heard that if you are doing something wrong they will get a taxi and chase you down that way... i wonder who pays for the taxi?

Okay there is alot different but this was just a 10 minute taxi ride. If you ever want to come over and check it out for your selves come on.

Okay bye for now... I love you all and always remember... the Savior of the world is here! - in Africa, American or where ever you are...

april -

oyeah the picture on the top is a picture of a new start church here in Dakar... notice the shoes outside the door... the people in the church took their shoes off before entering the room

downtown visit and Obama ice cream

Saturday we had a family day. We went downtown and walked around a bit. Didn't buy anything. We tried to bargain with the guy selling the Monopoly game on the street but didn't have any luck. He wanted about $45 for a knock off game. I offered him $4 but he just looked at me. That is what they do when I offer less like that. One day a lady asked Spencer if I understood the money here because my offer was so low. She wanted me to pay about $50 for a necklace and I offered $1. I think we ended up paying about $10. I think I won! Not that I am a competitive person or anything. Although Luke is really starting to care if he loses Mario Cart. He doesn't want to come in last place.

Okay back to the downtown visit. As you can see in the pictures we gave the kids wayyy too much chocolate. They had chocolate pancakes for lunch and the we went for ice cream and they had dark chocolate ice cream . O0well it was alot of fun. O-yeah the store had a flavor called "Obama Cookie" . There were also people selling shirts that said Obama is good.

We had a great day at church. We are going to miss the music here in Dakar. Alot of Sundays I take the nursery. Today we had a child come to church for the first time. He was leaning on the door and fell when it opened. Of course he screamed and his mom came to see what I did. Opps he was fine though.

There is a mosquito that keeps biting my foot so I am going to go and leave this couch. Search for the bug zapper and pop some popcorn.

more tomorrow... maybe :)
i love you all and always remember... Always close your windows when Harmatan winds come.

how dare that tooth fairy!

Alright so it has been a couple of days since my last post. So what have I been up to? Couldn't tell ya! Hum... glad it is Friday. It is coke day for the kids so I guess I better run to the store. I went out earlier today to search for Abby at least one long sleeve shirt that she can wear to school and I finally found one. It is so funny because every time I think... I am going shopping and am going to buy what I need no matter the cost. Then I get there and start protesting the prices. I can not seem to forget about how ridiculous the prices are for simple things like long sleeve white shirts or socks. ahhhh Craziness!

I can't stop thinking about all the things we need to do before we head out. I am getting very anxious about everything. Pray that I can have patience and not get to anxious. ahhhh again!

O-yeah Luke finally lost his other tooth that was loose. Opps this morning we woke up and he was sooo upset because he needs to wait another day for the tooth fairy to come. She forgot! How dare her. I told him I would give him a loan and he could pay me back. Ha! Opps be right back.... I forgot to take the tooth out from under the pillow and Sophia already made the bed ----------
Opps the tooth is GONE. Owell I guess I will just have to tell Luke the tooth fairy comes during the day too. So... I put the money under his pillow. Luke actually gets double the money with this tooth because with his last tooth fairy money he decided he wanted to put it all in the offering plate at church. Sure hope he doesn't find the lost tooth.

our other banana tree has begun producing fruit. Hope to eat some before we move. Our pomegranate tree is full of fruit too.. yummy i am about to go pick one or two.

Okay maybe a little more tomorrow -
i love you all... and remember - always wear your seat belt when flying in a plane...you never know when you will hit the waters in NY.

me

mascara?

Okay so I have started this reading through the New Testament in a Year. It has started out wonderful. Today I was reading about people in the Bible asking Jesus to heal them. They were asking in a way that they were not questioning if He could do it but asking in a way as if they knew if they could just touch Him they would be healed instantly. What faith these people had. I wonder why it is I wait to be healed or wait to ask for things. Is it my faith or just plain laziness. Today I want to spend more time in prayer. I am going to ask for healing and miracles in my life. I want to have such strong faith that I see miracles everywhere.

My prayer is this for you... may the Lord touch you today in a way that you KNOW He is there. That you know your faith has grown more.

I love everyone of you and remember... you are suppose to change your mascara every 3 months....
me

yall are funny

okay i have had lots of responses to my last post. The responses were about how well we eat over here. The T-bone steak and coconut shrimp did it in I guess. O-yeah and the $42 in chips and hot sauce... like I said before a girl has to do what a girl has to do. You learn to get what you can when you see it. By the way I have never seen T-bone steaks here before I bought them. I will tell you all about it. Well since we can't go our to Chilli's or Outback or even Cracker Barrel we have decided to splurge every once in a while. Well actually God has blessed us tremendously here. I guess I also owe it to Target and Wal-mart. There aren't any clearance aisles to blame my spending on :)
O- how I can't wait to go to Target.
Okay bye for now since this is my second post of the day.
O-yeah Abby threw up 2 times tonight. Yuck! I am sure she will be fine tomorrow.

I love you all and remember... always move out of the way when your child startes to throw up!

the octopus

After we picked the kids up from school yesterday we went to a couple of stores. It was Friday and the kids get to drink coke for dinner. So our first stop was what we call the bull store. We call this because it is located close to a big sign that is the shape of a bull. Anyways every one but me stayed in the car so i can get my hot sauce that I was looking for . This store has some good hot sauce... it reminds me of Red Hot from the states. So I went in just to buy that and came out with $42 worth of hot sauce, plain tortilla chips and tortillas. I am covering the screen while I type. Ha! The lady at the register just smiled. Luke went on and on about how much I spent on chips. I told him I did what I had to do :) When you see something on the shelves that you like your take it and take it all! It could be months before those chips come back on that huge cargo ship. So I bought all they had!

Okay the second stop was the Casino... our supermarket. We went in just to buy shrimp and bought coconut, bread, T-bone steaks (which is gonna be dinner tonight), vimto (the kids choise of drink) and ... I know there was something else but can't remember right now. So when i started cleaning the shrimp I realized there was a small octopus in the bag. The kids were so excited. Luke wanted to make some sort of "creation" for it and then cook it. Since I was already frying the shrimp (coconut shrimp) I just dipped it in the batter (without coconut) and fried it. By the way i fried it in my new deep fryer. It is so cool. Anyways it was yummy and we had an awesome dinner.

Today Abby and I are going to a birthday party for a girl in her class at school. Not really sure where she is from. Maybe France.

Okay write more later.
I love all of yall and remember... always make sure the octopus is dead before you start playing with it.

april

PUMMPED UP!

Okay not with high - heeled shoes... that would be really hard here in the sand. I am sooo excited because we have our dates for our transition and.... we are headed to Kigali, Rwanda via the STATES! Waahoo. I can't wait to eat a quesadilla salad from Chills with some Dr. Pepper. So far the plans are to leave Senegal the first week in June and head to Rwanda the first week in July. Wahoo again:)

Anyways today is a holiday. The Islam New Year. We didn't realize the kids were out of school today until last night about 8. I called a girls mother from Luke's class and she confirmed no school. I tell you what Senegal celebrates every holiday know to man. Seriously! Luckly the grocery store was still open. Abby and I went to the Casino which is where we shop for food. Well we buy our veggies and fruit at the veggie stands. Anyways we bought 2 fish called Thoif, milk, chicken, beef, olives, canned corn, peas and greenbeans, french fries, chips, eggs, tp, coffee and a very cool deep fryer. We made french fries in it today and it was yummy. So good! I am thinking of going to the market tomorrow and buying zucchini to make some fried zucchini and onion rings tomorrow. The other day I rode my bike to the market.... maybe I will do that again.
I am enjoying riding my bike here. Although the wind is really hard right now.

We praise God every night for the blessings we are given. As the kids pray at night they say things like: thank you for our comfortable beds, our fans, running water, our eletricity staying on today, Cheick, Sophia, school and many other things. I am so thankful that Luke and Abby are able to experience life outside the US. I know that things are hard in the US right now as far as the financial world but as long as you have things like... a roof over your head and running water, someone to care over you... you are blessed. It is hard somedays to see little kids running around wanting food and longing for someone to talk with them. I wish I could take everyone in.

Okay more tomorrow... I love you all and remember... always use a sharp knife when fileting a fish.

april

a winter day in dakar

So today we once again wore clothes suitable for warm weather. the high was in the mid 90's. So are you jealous or loving your cold weather. i would actually like to have a little cooler weather myself. Anyways so Luke wore shorts to church and Abby wore a sleeveless dress. After church we ate at a Brazilian restaurant. It was yyyuuuummy! We had lots of meat and lots of side items. Plus the best thing about this resturant is that they give missionaries a discount and the kids eat free. So we ate an awesome lunch for about $23. O-yeah they also had a swing set pretty close to our table. Man - the US should catch up on that.
As most of you all know we have been in Senegal for 1 year now. Wow time flies when your having... hum so how has it really been? It has been fun. Hard at times but good. God has been so good to us this year and we are only expecting greater things to come. Praise God for calling us here... or Rwanda whenever that will be :) Okay until tomorrow.... after I take my flour back to the store...bugs in it - blaaaa!

remember i love you and... don't forget to spay and neuter your pets.

the other house

Okay here are some pictures of the other side. As you can tell we need to do some work on the house. Bathroom work and paint... If you are interested in helping by crossing the ocean in a huge jet with a paint roller and some tools just let us know and we will work it out! This would probably be before June so start praying now :)

O-yeah the bottom picture is KICS - Kigali International Community School. This is where the kids will probably go to school. The school is sharing it's property with a church. It is a Christian school with American curriculum. No french though.. boohoo!

our house in Kigali

Okay everyone tell me what you think. We have housing options in Kigali. The missionary property has 2 houses that are joined together that are totally different. Here are the details:
House one -
This house is bigger. It has 3 bedrooms that are bigger than the other house with an extra room for the office. The office has a door that goes outside. This house has a more separate dinning area with a door that separates the kitchen from the rest of the house. The living room is a good size room. This house is the first house you see as you come into the compound. There are 2 good size bathrooms with one in the master bath. The porch on this house is smaller than the other house and is just open on one side
House two -
This is a smaller house but with a vaulted ceiling and has some sort of wood decoration that looks cool. This house has 3 smaller bedrooms. The area where the washer and dryer is big enough for the office and also has a door that goes outside. If we lived in this house the office would be in the other house which is just right next door. The kitchen in the house has an open feel and you can see the kitchen dining room and living room at the same time. It also has a bar with bar stool in the kitchen. The living room has a fireplace which would be good since there is no heat in the house. There are 2 bathrooms. The master bathroom does not have a door to the bedroom, it is in the hall. The other bathroom is just down the hall. These are smaller than the bathrooms in the other house. The porch on this house is really big and open on 2 sides.

For some reason this blog will only hold this many pictures so I will post again. The pictures in this blog are pictures of the smaller but open feel house. The house two.

The property is huge with hills. There is a basketball goal with a paved area. There is also a covered area for the vehicle. The yard if I remember right has citron (lemon), avocado, guava, and papaya trees. There is also an area with lots of bamboo.

Okay I will post some more pictures of the other house and yard.

dinner and sparklers

Last night we had a lot of fun. One of our pastors and his family came over for dinner and sparklers. Some of the food we had was little sausages, chips and a layered dip, lamb on the grill, crab salad, smoked salmon, dips and lots of other yummy stuff. The kids had a great time playing with the girls and then after dinner we lit the sparklers and threw those snap pop things. Even though our sparklers are only about 3 inches long it was fun.
At the new year there were fireworks all over town. It was a cool sight from our terrace. You could see fireworks from every direction. I am so glad the kids didn't wake up from it.
So we decided not to go to the church service last night because it started at 10pm and our kids would be CRAZY if they stayed up that late. There is no tellin how long that service lasted.
Today we might go for a bike ride since there will be less traffic on the roads. Yes it is a holiday here and everything is closed. We celebrate every holiday you can imagine. It is nice sometimes. We are thinking about going to a park this week. Who knows. I am probably going to order some long sleeve clothes online today. It is starting to get cool here and since we had no idea it would get cool, we have very few clothes to stay warm at night. It is mainly cool at night and in the mornings.
Okay i am in need of some more coffee so this is all for now.
love you lots and remember I was here first!... in this new year :) ha... i crack myself up
april