All We Want for Christmas are some teeth!

 
 
 

Home away from home

 
 
 
 

We got to sleep in a real house with a real bathroom. R shared her room with us. The last picture was of the grasshoppers that were at the market. R bought some so I got to add eating one to my list of weird things that I have eaten. It tasted like a stick.

Shopping at the market

 
 
 
 
We took a lunch break from the medical clinic to go to the market. It is hard enough for me to shop in an American grocery store. I believe I would never shop if this is where I would have to shop.

The end of September

 
 
 
 
My fall has gone so quickly that I never got to blog about my trip to Niger. One day when I was there I got to go to Gumbo's house to help cook a meal for a group of L's friends who came to eat lunch with us. It was an experience I will never forget. Her life is so hard. She lives in a little round house but all of her cooking is done outside over an open fire. She has a daughter who helps her alot. The daughter was the one who taught me how to wash the pans out in the yard with the water from the container. G takes care of a precious little boy whose mom died when he was a few days old. G is one of the few women that I observed who truly loves children. I can't imagine living her life but she seems so content.

VA FUN

 
 
 
 

My mini vacation to VA has been two action packed days with the girls. We have played dress up, gone to the park for a picnic and packed for an all afternoon cross country flight. It is always so much fun to visit them. The beautiful leaves and perfect weather made it a wonderful visit.

Wednesday and Thursday

Wednesday was our off day so we only walked around from 8a am to 8 pm. We got to see the city. Since it was Wednesday, Westminister Abby closed at 12 so we didn't get to see in for the third yearin a row.
Today S and I walked an area where I had not been. It is a very commercialized area with lots of construction and noise. Our weather has been really nice. While we were walking we had a rain shower as we were approaching the British Museum. We went inside until the rain let up which wasn't long. We did go to see the display of the gold medals that will be given away at the London Olympics. There were lots of people around but all of them were scurrying around so as of 2:30 we had engaged no one.. We were on our way back to our hotel but decided to cut through the University of London. We came out near a beautiful church building which the group Monday had said had been turned into apartments. The door was open so S and I went in. Part of the building is being used for a chapel. We went in to look around. It was beautiful and huge. The front of the chapel has been partitioned off to make a much smaller area. It is being rented out to a group that is holding services there. While we were there two girls came in. We asked if they were part of the church. They said they were getting their master's degrees and were from Turkey. We talked to them and told them that we would get someone from KCBC to contact them. They had visited another church in the area this morning and were looking for a place to listen to music. We are so thankful for time we spent with them.
Tomorrow we meet the other team to walk in an area that I walked two years ago.

Tuesday

Today we walked for six hours with a short break for lunch. Today I walked with A and K through a very diverse area where I had been on Sunday. There were so many people going quickly every where. I got to experience two inns which did not meet my American definition for inn. Thanks to k for the European definition. They both contained beautiful places of worship that are open during the day. We got yo go in. There was an actual person playing the organ in one of them. Tonight we decided to not go for fish and chips but to go back to one of the areas where we walked for the past two years. We wanted to check on the pastor status at a church that we continue to have on our p list.

Monday

What a blessing it was to walk with the boyz today. We covered the area around KCBC where we were yesterday morning. We had some good conversations and the boyz will be going to some targeted areas tomorrow Then we walked to the area where the University is. We stood in the middle of students from every tribe and tongue today. After our debrief time we headed out for our city pw. We visited St Paul's and the Miillieum Bridge where v & a got their referral for J last year. Some how we lost the river so it took us forever to get to the tower bridge and across to the tube station. We were thankful for the tube to get back home.

Sunday

Today was a wonderfully long day. We worshipped with some of our friends At 1 pm we broke into teams and did our first walk. We talked to several people and saw how very diverse our area is. At 6:30 we were back with our friends for Eden cafe night. I can now say that I enjoyed the Christian rapper.

Camden

Our team made it to Camden. We have done our first walk through Camden Town which is always such an eye opener to all the new people. We did our first group pr*yer walk on Primrose Hill over looking the city just as it was getting dark.

Celebrating Grannie

 
 
 
 
Pleasant Hill Baptist Church and the Mission Center celebrated Grannie on grandparents day. She was given plaques for all of her years of ministry. Four of the eight great granddaughters got to be there. H enjoyed decorating Nana for a pagent while AC enjoyed a game of football with the boys.

Celebrating birthdays

 
 
 
L and M had birthdays at the end of August. My first great nephew was born at the end of September. We celebrated P's birthday at the beginning of October.

First Day of School

 
 
 
 
While I was in VA working, all the girls started school.

Three shakes and kindergarten

I was awakened at 1:07 with a shaking bed. The first aftershock of the day was a 4. something. Being upstairs and asleep, it seemed stonger. The second ,about half that size, came while all the alarm clocks were going off so none of us felt it. It is the second day of school for m & m who are in 8th and 1st grade. My baby granddaughter, e, started kindergarten today. About 11:30 while in the dungeon, the metal shelves started rattling. Later I read that it was another minor aftershock. I will never take it lightly when I hear that a major earthquake area has aftershocks. Those people must be very frightened every time the earth starts shaking.

Aftershock

This is really weird. It is 8 pm and we just felt an aftershock.

Earthquake

Today as Mol and I were working in the dungeon, the building started shaking. I thought it was from a train that runs behind the parking lot. It started shaking a lot and became louder. I took Mol by the hand and started up the steps to find Mad who was on the third floor. At the top of the steps, an employee came running down the aisle yelling that it was an earthquake. That really scared Mol. By the time we found Mad it was over. It was a 5.9 earthquake whose epicenter was about 26 miles from us. It brought back memories of the morning I woke up in GA with my bed shaking from an earthquake. Glad I don't live on the west coast.

Darker than a dungeon

After a gigantic storm last night in Cville, SBS was totally without power all day today. Since we are down to our crunch, the boss decided to let us work. J took a picture of me but all you could see was my head light shining. It was quite an adventure. Hopefully it will be back on tomorrow.

Meatfest plus or minus a few

 

Yesterday was Meatfest. What a fun day.

Family Vacation 2011

 

Welcome to Canada