a motorcyle taxi?

Okay so my first experience with grocery shopping was pretty funny.The actual shopping wasn't funny it was how i got home. Alright so a local Pastor took me to the store. We headed on the bus and arrived at a small store down town where I found some necessities to help for a couple of days. I asked the pastor if the store excepted visa cards and he assured me several times that they did. So I pulled up the the register with my load of stuff and asked if they excepted my card. Nope she said. I was about the wring the guys neck but i realized no matter what question you ask here the answer is always yes. "So do you know if they except cards" YES, "Are the monkeys coming in our yard dangerous?" YES, "Do you speak english" YES "Did it rain yesterday?", YES, are you answering Yes to every question?" YES. Okay so I didn't really ask these questions. So back to the story. So luckly I had a $100 bill that I had in my purse from traveling so was able to us it. Yes you can us USD if the bill is made after 2004 and it is a large bill. So the next crazy thing was there aren't oust bags to use to fill your groceries with. There is a law in Rwanda that there are no plastic bags. So that means everything was being packed into these small (lunch size) brown paper bags. But you can buy these reusable bags too. So I bought 2 and filled my brown bags full of groceries in them. BTW that are no large hefty duty bags to put your home trash in either. So now with 2 large reusable (the kind that are popular in the states now) bags we walked out of the store. Not too excited about catching the bus with these large bags the Pastor started to negotiate with the motorcycle taxis for us. After he got a fair price there I am sitting on the back of the motorcycle in a dress with a large grocery sack on my lap. There were lots of people looking at us. But hey, we got home a whole lot faster than taking the bus. So we are weaving in and out of traffic and I am trying to hang on to the guy and the groceries. We made it home and everything was good. Hummm the life of a missionary... some of you guys are really missing out :)
So right now I am sitting at my desk drinking coffee, eating pineapple (one of 6) a local pastor brought us, listening the the birds chirp outside and thinking how beautiful Rwanda is. It really truly is a beautiful, clean and safe (despite what friends and families may think :) ) place to live.
Okay so pray for us today (although I realize most of you are sleeping) that we continue to adjust to this new culture, get our work visa's so we can get out container delivered and learn a NEW language so we can communicate with the people here better. We would also like for you to pray we can afford a truck.
Okay I love all y'all and remember...don't forget to stop at your local Starbucks, they are selling Rwanda coffee right now.
April

don't pack it in your carry-on... what was I thinking!

I know it has been a year since I last posted. Well, not really but I have heard enough complaints that I am posting now. Just kidding again, I am now just coming to the point that I am ready to share my crazy stories and thoughts with you again. Whoever you are!
Okay so the last couple of months have been a lot of fun and really tiring times. We spent about 45 days in the states and now we are in Rwanda. Okay so here is a short overview of what we did in the states.
1. arrived in Kansas and was greeted by our friends Jason and Jewel Alvis. there they gave us their car and we headed to Arkansas. had our first meal prepared by Jewel (awesome yummy food)
2. arrived in Springdale, Arkansas the next day and stayed with our friends Sara and Justin Guy. Had a blast with them too. (ate at my fav restaurant with some other old friend.. the Vetters, Jim's mom, greg and Cherie and kids, tara and wyatt and kids and of course our craziest friends Justin and Sara
3. arrived in Greenbrier, Arkansas 2 days later (i think) at spencers parents house. began to rest a bit from our long journey
4. spoke at a church the next Sunday in Greenbrier
5. next Sunday drove a few hours to Jonesboro, AR for the AM service and then to McCory, AR for the PM service
6. the next week drove about 6 hours to TN for services in Clarksville and Nashville. stayed with spencers sister Julie and family... while we were there the kids went to Hermitage's vacation bible school for one day.. they had fun
7. drove back to Arkansas for more services and a district assembly (where spencers dad retired)
8. drove to Alabama for a service at Coleman 1st.. stayed in an awesome lake house where the kids jumped in the water without life jackets on (they can't swim but we jumped in after them)... after the AM service the church had a huge slip in slip where abby got in with her dress on... after getting wet they changed clothes and we headed to Florida.
9. stopped for about 30 minutes at about midnight in Lake City and saw some friends Lynn and family (i know you too Brit)
10. arrive in Lakeland, FLordia in the middle of the night at my parents. slept in the next day but got to spend a couple of days with my parents before the busy days in Orlando
10. arrived in Orlando for our General Convention and Assembly and stayed with spencers sisters family in their huge condo they rented. God is good, only stayed in one hotel the whole time in the states.
11. can't exactly remember what all we did in Orlando. we stayed pretty busy EXCEPT some old college friends of mine flew into Orlando and I loved every minute of it. Natasha, Deeee, Veronica and Big Al. Love those girls!
12. kids went to Sea world with my wonderful bro and aunt Leatha... my bro also went with us to Disney... (btw had free tickets!) now that was a fun day
13. went back to my parents for another few days and had a good time... miss my parents already... and my inlaws :)
14. drove to South Carolina and spoke and Midland vally church. arrived there on the 4th so the kids got to see some fireworks
15. drove back to Nashville, TN on that next monday and did a little shopping before we flew out on wednesday.
16. arrived in Kigali 29 hours later and now it is 2 weeks later
okay i will post about our first couple of weeks here next time. as you can imagine i have alot to say and am not saying enough about our time in the states.
we feel very blessed to have been able to go home in the middle of our contract. we loved the states but are glad to be home.

i love all yall and remember... do NOT put peanut butter or choc. surup in your carry on... it will be taken away from you from the airport security and you may just cry! BOOHOO
April

lost in America

Okay not really lost but getting verrrryyyy sleepy. So i haven't posted in a while and this one isn't going to be very long. We landed in KC been to Arkansas, Tennessee, back to Arkansas, Alabama and now in Florida. We are off to Orlando tomorrow for a while.
Love love begin with family. So excited about seeing the Nazarene family this week. Thinking about going to Disney and shopping for Rwanda.
Pictures later. Just letting you know that we are safe and sound. or how ever it goes
love all yall and remember get as many hot sauce packets from taco bell as you can and bring it to the Africa booth in Orlando.
april

46 miles to the gallon WOW! and gas is soooo cheap!

Hey all! So I am sitting here in Arkansas looking out the window while drinking coffee. Right now I am enjoying air conditioners, grass, no sounds of calling of prayer, washing clothes in a huge washing machine that only takes 20 miutes, clean air and being able to drink water from the faucet. Wow and these are just a few.
I assumed that when I would come back to the states I would eat out all the time and shop like crazy. Well it is weird because I'm not. Now don't get me wrong I am shopping a little and eating out some but not like I thought. All of those cravings for shopping and yummy foods aren't so important now that I am actually here. Maybe the Lord is trying to teach me something. The other day when I went to wal-mart, I was overwellmed by the choices to make. There were soooo many choices... of everything. Amazing and things are only a fraction of the cost. Anyways enough of that.
Okay I have been dealing with this cold ever since I got on the plane in Senegal. WIll it ever go away!!!!!!
So we lost abby's shoes in the airport and one of Luke's broke. Not too bad since that is the extent of our drama of our 28 hours of flying and waiting in airports.
Last Sunday we went to Greenbrier Church. It was an awesome church. The service went well.... well except for the drama that took place about 5 minutes before church started. Okay so this is what happened.
Ofcourse Abby had to use the bathroom. This is what she always has to do when we go somewhere new. So i took her and everything was fine until I went to squirt soap in her hands and instead of it going in her hands it went straight in her eye... and the screaming began.... wow can that girl scream! Anyways so after I got her to calm down a little a nurse came and we took her into the church kitchen. It took 3 of us to hold her down to finish getting the soap out. O-man you could't even see her eyeball. When we opened her eye there was soooo much soap. I guess I would be screaming too. The nurse washed her eye out and she was fine. Of course I was so shaken up and I cried too. Not much though. But it was right before I was suppose to speak. We both recovered and the service went well.
Okay so I better make a list of what I need to get to take back with us. For some reason I can't remember. HA! After all those months of doing with out I can't remember what it was I was missing! God is good!
Please contine to pray for us as we are traviling alot this summer. Pray that we sell our car back in Senegal and raise enough funds to buy another in Rwanda.
Okay more later. I love all yall and remember... diesel cars get awesome fuel milage. We get 46 miles on the gallon!!! Wahoo :)

April

ahhh salsa!

Okay so I guess I will blog some today. Nothing better to do on a very beautiful sunny day here in West Africa. Ha! Just kidding. Well not really it is a beautiful day here... like always. We are gonna miss the sunshine when we move but are really looking forward to rainy days. It has been such a long time since I have smelled the scent of rain - not sure what it was like. Let's see maybe I will inhale and remember......... nope not there.
So anyways I am thinking we should start packing today. Even though the moving company will pack everything I am not sure they will clean all the sand and dust off our things before packing it. SO.... I guess I better start taking the desert off of lamps etc...
Right now Luke is playing with his cars and tractors and Abby is at the table eating salt and vinegar chips... Like mother like daughter. Spencer is still in bed. We have been so tired lately. I think it has something to do with moving internationally again. Moving can be a little stressful. The moving company comes on Wednesday. That is 4 days from now. Wow! It is coming soon. We are keeping the kids in school until next Friday. The longer the better. Plus the last days here will be filled with paying bills and all that fun stuff. Hopefully our car will sell SOON. I think this is what is stressing me out so much. Someone buy our car!!!

Okay off to get the boss out of bed.
Love you guys... remember life is too short.... play (I mean eat salsa) hard!
April

Abby is so sneaky!

Okay so my daughter is so sneaky. She is getting the older girls at school to buy her snacks. The girls just love her and she gets to decide everyday which one is her mom... I think based on my her snacks and carrying her around school. Yes I have talked with her about it. She told me at first they were suppose to buy her toys but now just snacks. Plus she also sneaks out of the park area for her age to see these girls. O-yeah she also sneaked out of afterschool gymnastics to play with them. Oooo I got her for that one.

Anyways we are on the count down until we leave for the states. Well kinda, right now i am tired so not sure what the days are left.

So Spencer got stopped by a police the other day. Yes dad he got a ticket! The ticket was for something expiring on the car. Go figure... this seems to always happen to us. There are so many different steps here to actually get your car legal to drive we must have skipped one. SO the po po decided not to take the car after our pastor and his wife came to the rescue.
This morning Spencer and I went down to the police station to pay our ticket.. they guys just told us that he would spank us next time and didn't make us pay anything. wahoo! SO we got back in our car and headed to the place to pay the expired thingy ma bop. it was a total of about $5 --- $6 if you include the $1 we spent on the guy watching our car at the police station. It was so funny. I think the guy was used to getting a smaller tip b/c when Spencer gave him his 500 cfa.. which is about 1 dollar on a good exchage rate day... he was trying not to smile. Then as he walked away he pulled the coin back out of his pocket and looked at it again. It was funny.
Oyeah i forgot to tell you... today at the police station (mom you can skip this part) I was walking along and there was this guy brushing his teeth. Well kinda some people here us this stick to clean their teeth with. Not sure what it is called but apparently Mohammad used to clean his teeth with this kind of stick. Anyways so he started to say something to me and the pieces of his stick came rushing out of his mouth onto me. I was like... gross you just spit on me. he just looked and kept talking. Yuck!! I guess you would have had to been there. Trust me YUCK!

Okay all for now... plleaasseee pray that our car will sell. We really do not want to move with this burden...

Okay love all yall and always remember... Hakuna matata - No worries in Swahili (one of the Rwanda languages) ahhhh more lanugages to learn.

our crazy schedule!

So here is an update on what and where we are doing this summer. We will be packing up our house on the 20th of this month. May! Yay :) After they company comes and loads everything up we then move down the road to a guest house. This guest house is really cool because there are a couple of kids that live on the property and there is a couple of basketball goals and a tire swing. The kids will enjoy themselves there. We have decided to go ahead and keep the kids in school until the 22nd. This will give us time to tie up loose ends of our house and stay in Dakar.

Our plane leaves Dakar at 9:50 pm so that means we have to be at the airport at 7:50. Our plane gets to Brussels at 5:30 am the next day. This flight is 5 hours and 40 minutes. Wow what a trip. I hope the kids can sleep on the plane good. Then we leave Brussels at 11:05 am and arrive in Chicago at 12:50 pm. This flight is 8 hours and 45 minutes. Leave Chicago at 3:34 pm and arrive in Kansas City at 5:10 pm. This flight is 1 hour 25 minutes.
Our friends Jason and Jewel Alvis is hosting us the night we get there. They are crazy because they are actually moving to Korea the next day! But we really look forward to seeing them and their cute little kids.

Okay here are some other dates:
May 31 AM - Greenbrier, AR
June 7th AM - Clarksville, TN - Park Lane
June 7th PM - Nashville, TN - Nashville First
June 11th AM - Greenbrier, AR - AR District Assembly NMI Luncheon
June 14th AM - Jonsboro, AR - Jonesboro Forest Home
June 14th PM - OPEN
June 21st AM - Cullman, AL - Cullman
June 21st PM - Gardendale, AL - Gardendale
June 22nd we will head down to Orlando for our General Assembly and Conventions. This happens every 4 years in the Church of the Nazarene. We are still not sure if we will head straight to Lakeland or to Orlando. Probably stop in Lakeland for the night and then head to Orlando on the 23rd. Yay I get to see my parents! We have to get there a day earlier because of the booth we are needing to get ready. Come and see us in the exhibit hall! FEF booth in the Africa Region.
June 28th AM - ALL the Nations Service in Orlando (we are not speaking :) )
June 28th PM - Lakeland, FL - Lake Gibson
July 1st PM - Lakeland, FL - Highland Park
July 5th AM - Midland Valley

Wow what a schedule. God is so good! We are excited to be at every church that is planned and really look forward to seeing family and friends. Yay! Here we come!

July 8th we leave for Rwanda from Nashville, TN. Our layover is in Brussels again so it is almost the same flight as far as time goes. We will arrive in Kigali, Rwanda on July 9th at 6:45 PM.

Okay any questions? No... good! See ya soon and remember... God is good... all the time!

April

PS - the picture is our car here in Dakar.... PLEASE pray with us that we can sell it! We are really needing the money from it to help with our needed 4X4 in Kigali!!!!!