September 10:
Well, we’re in the middle of our second “haus kuk” (temporary outdoor kitchen) weekend. It’s Saturday night and I need to go to bed soon. Just finished taking care of everything that had to be done tonight. James is quite sick so he’s been in bed since about 3 p.m. this afternoon. Sometime just after 2 p.m. he told me he was going to lie down for a nap. He had planned to start the fire at 2:45 so we could cook our dish for the potluck, but when he didn’t get up I figured I could start it and let him rest. I was busy cooking and watching the girls so didn’t get a chance to wake James up until just before 4 p.m. That’s when I found out he was sick. He said he ached all over and had a fever. I took his temp and it was 100.8.

So I went back out to the “haus kuk” and made sure our rice and peanut sauce were ready for the potluck and then went to find Mikayla who had gone to play in the sand box. I found that she had also found some water somewhere and she was totally soaked and had sand ALL over her whole body. I gave her a quick bath to rinse the sand off and then went to the potluck. Friends helped with getting Mikayla fed and then watched both girls while I cleaned up, did dishes, and got all of the stuff from our “haus kuk” packed up and brought in for the night. There are nails on the walls in our room where we can hang bags of food to discourage mice/rats/geckos/etc from getting into them.

Tonight was the “POC’s got Talent” night and we had prepared to sing a parody of “A Whole New World” (A Mission World). James had even put together a slide show that was timed with our music but unfortunately we had to skip it. We were also planning to have Mikayla and Laurel play a piano duet – there’s a keyboard here that has a “demo” feature with The Entertainer by Scott Joplin so we were going to let them sit at the keyboard while that played. Oh well…it would have been fun but as it was, there was no way I was up for taking the girls out alone so we just had an early night (translate: a LONG “going to bed” phase).

After bathtime, Mikayla and Laurel hung out in bed with me and we read stories and they played with each other and both laughed a lot, Mikayla drank her bottle, Laurel chewed on empty bottles (we think she’s going to get her first tooth soon), and eventually they both went to bed.

Then I put a load of diapers in the washing machine to soak overnight. The washing machine here is a twin tub machine which means that you put the load in one side to wash, you have to turn the water faucet on to fill up the tub, then you set it to wash, then you manually set it to drain, then you switch the load over to the other side to spin, then switch it back, turn the faucet on to fill again, manually set it to “wash” so that it will move things around and hopefully get the soap out, then set it to drain, then move the load back to the other side again to spin one last time before taking it out to hang on the line. It’s MUCH better than having to wash everything by hand, but it is definitely not the same as an “automatic washing machine” back home. It takes about 1 hour to do a load of laundry and get it out on the line and that’s if you’re really paying attention and making sure you’re back to do the next step on time. The first time I did a load it took me 3 hours because I kept forgetting…I’m so used to being able to “throw a load in the washer” and not having to think about it again.

After getting the load in the wash I walked over to the kitchen to fill a bottle for Mikayla in case she wakes up in the middle of the night (I don’t want to have to walk over there at 3 a.m.). Then I was able to take a quick shower – in cold water. The only way we can have warm showers is if the water is heated by a fire. So at 6 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. the fire is lit, but if you don’t shower within about 1 hour of when the fire is lit, chances are there won’t be any warm water. Not that it’s that big of a deal to take a cold shower here…I mean, it’s hot enough that I’d almost rather take a cold shower anyway.

Okay, high time I went to bed now. We don’t have internet access on “haus kuk” weekends (part of preparing us for village living with no internet/email access) so I can’t send this until at least Monday.

September 11:
It’s once again bedtime. Today went much better than I had hoped. James was still sick, but late in the afternoon started feeling quite a bit better to where he could be out of bed a bit and was able to eat.

People have been very gracious in helping out in many ways. I didn’t have to cook any meals today. I just contributed ingredients towards meals others were fixing and the girls and I ate with others. Such a blessing!

There was a group of about 15 people going to church in town today and Mandy (who has become a good friend and helps with the girls a LOT) offered to take Mikayla. It was so helpful to know that Mikayla was having fun going for a ride, seeing people, and hanging out while I took care of Laurel and brought things to James and tried to help him as much as possible.

Mandy (and many others) said that Mikayla had a blast at church and that she was very well behaved. To be honest I was surprised to hear she did so well because when we took her to church last week I ended up spending 3/4 of the time outside with her and Laurel.

In the afternoon Mikayla, Laurel, and I joined the group going down to the beach at a resort called Jais Aben (you can see some pictures here: www.jaisabenresort.com).

As far as James’ sickness…we’re hoping it was just a 24 hour flu bug. Another family here had that Thursday/Friday of last week. The nurse thinks that’s what it is but she said that if it cycles back in a few days it’s probably malaria. It’s interesting always having malaria in the back of your mind…but anytime there’s flu like symptoms it could be malaria and the only sure distinction is that malaria always comes back whereas the flu is gone once it’s finished its course.