Two Weeks In

It is hard to believe we are just a few days away from the start of February. Our past few weeks have gone by very quickly. It is quite amusing when we sit and think about how different our life looks these days. Right now, we have Ziploc bags cleaned, rinsed, and hanging on our drapes with clothespins to dry so that they can be reused. One of the many things that is "new" to us. I have come to gain a new appreciation for my dad's upbringing on his family's farm in Arkansas with little access to grocery stores. Or, I should probably say I have a whole new appreciation for my grandmother who raised five kids with few resources available to her! Memaw, I know you'll appreciate the fact that I am reusing my Ziploc bags now. :).

So, in the past two weeks I have learned how to make two different kinds of bread and flour tortillas, hand wash clothes, clean and grind my own beef (with the help of an electric meat grinder), cloth diaper a baby, and make yogurt. I'm sure I forgot some things, but I think you get the picture. Recently, I have been thinking back to the summers I spent as a camp counselor. There have been so many similarities for me to camp life that our new home has almost felt familiar in a way. Lots of spiders, no hot water, feeling dirty or sweaty several times a day, cooling off by the fan, working really hard all day long, drinking lots of water, looking forward to siesta time, and the list goes on and on and on. Who would have ever thought that God would use that time to help prepare me for this??? I am thankful the Lord is continuing to weave my life together in ways I could not have planned or imagined.

This is how our chicken arrived the other night! A sweet local woman cooks and delivers some things door to door. We ordered a few cooked chickens from her. The chickens must be skinny little things around here. When I went to debone my first one I actually thought someone had already cut the breasts out of it. :) I eventually figured out they were there (just tiny) and managed to find enough meat to use in some chicken and bean enchiladas that were pretty yummy.

Although life has been very different, it has also been so good and rewarding. I really enjoy getting to be in my home all day long with my children. I love seeking out one on one time with each of them. One of my favorite parts of the day is when Eli wakes up and crawls in bed with me in the morning after Marc has gone to the hospital. We just talk and talk and talk until we finally hear Hailey. The other day he snuck in bed beside me before I woke up. I opened my eyes to find him staring at me. He held his arm up to mine to compare and said, "Look mommy, we are the same (meaning the same skin color. Ha!)." He obviously has taken note that we are now in the minority in regards to our color. :) He also tells me many mornings how special we both are to God. He is such a sweet boy and I am so very thankful that I get to see more of him now (and sweet Hailey!) throughout the day.

Eli helped me roll out our dough for our French bread the other day. He loves helping in the kitchen.

(You might just notice the crock pot and microwave in the background! Those were wonderful things to find in our house when we arrived. :))

Marc is steadily working towards understanding more on the medical realm. The complexity of the medical needs here along with the language barrier have left him feeling inadequate on many days. He is often not sure how to help many of his patients. Continue to pray that he would find joy and satisfaction in his work even if the outcome is not always good from a medical perspective. The most common diseases that he is seeing and treating currently are malaria, malnutrition, gastroenteritis, and pneumonia. He also sees many more patients who have complaints that he can't put a diagnosis to. There are also a lot of patients in the hospital with tuberculosis and HIV, and a few each day with tetanus. We are so blessed to live in a country where vaccines are readily available to us. We have now seen how serious many of these diseases are. We can prevent many of these infections in our kids and others' kids by choosing adequate vaccination. It is unfortunate that many times in underdeveloped countries vaccinations are not readily available. I will share more this week about a recent trip Marc took with some nurses and doctors into the nearby villages to help vaccinate children.

We love having this screened in porch. It is a huge help having a place that is contained and in the shade to take the kids when they get a little stir crazy inside the house.

A few people have asked what we might find useful during our time here. We really don't expect to receive any items (except from our parents... ha!) because it is quite expensive to ship a flat rate box (around $50-60 for up to 20 pounds I think) and it takes about 3-4 weeks to arrive. However, if you had already planned on sending us a care package here are a few things we brought with us and are finding very helpful. We really appreciate your prayers more than anything. We can tell that you are lifting us up in prayer in so many ways so thank you!

Foil sealed packets of chicken or tuna/albacore
Bacon Bits

Jif peanut butter
Hershey's baking cocoa powder

Marshmallows

Wheat thins, triscuits, Goldfish, or Keebler crackers
Pretzels

Cheerios
Taco seasoning packets

Craisins, raisins, or any other dried fruits

Nuts (Walnuts, pecans, almonds, sunflower kernels)

Dried beans that we can't find here (black, pinto, lentil, split pea)

Powdered gatorade drink mix
Crystal Light mix

Jello pudding

Bath time

Even in Africa, our kids love bath time. I was pleasantly surprised when we got here to find a clean white tub in the hall bathroom (We actually have been pleasantly surprised with every aspect of our house. I think God has been lavishing His grace on us over the past few weeks while we have been getting adjusted because some of these uncomfortable aspects that might have bothered me some before seem so unimportant at the moment.)

Hailey is getting quite a "toothy" grin these days now that she has her two top teeth in as well as some new molars. :) 

Our water supply here on the compound comes from a deep well that is supposed to be fairly clean based on the depth of the well. We still drink and brush our teeth with the filtered water spout in the kitchen, but we are thankful for the clean water source since it is impossible to keep our kids from lapping up some bath water while they play. The water comes out of the spout clear, but after we bathe two very dusty children it looks quite dirty at the end of bath time. :)

On one occasion, an uninvited guest manged to make his way into the bath tub and couldn't get back out. There are lizards EVERYWHERE here but this was the first one we had found inside our house.

I hope to get in a two week recap at some point tomorrow! We do feel like we are getting situated on the home front and Marc is gradually acclimating to the hospital life as well. I hope to share more soon.

Tailor Made

While at market last week Dianna and I found some fabric to have a local African outfit made that we can wear to church. It will have a shirt, a skirt, and a piece of fabric to be tied around the head like a bandanna. We also had some sundresses made for Gracie and Hailey out of the same fabrics to match us. It is really inexpensive to have clothes made here. It cost me 3,000 CFAs for mine and Hailey's outfit which comes out to be around $6. He had out outfits made and ready for us in less than two days! 

We ran into some really cute local kids while we were at the tailor shop. The kids seem to really like getting their picture taken. They love having you show their picture back to them on the camera. I really enjoy mingling with the local children. We don't speak the same language but the laughter and smiles seem to be understood regardless.

Stay tuned for a picture of us in our outfits!

Photo catch-up

I have had a difficult time getting pictures to upload (which is quite sad for me since I love to take pictures!) but today is a good day so I figured I should catch you up on a few pictures. I will try to share a post in the next few days with some more of our "happenings" lately. You can read the Kubacz's blog to learn about our recent trip to market as well as a sad and unexpected loss that they are processing through right now.

While peak malaria season has ended, we are still in an area where it is recommended to take prophylactic medication and use mosquito nets over your bed at night. Eli loves his net! He gets so excited to get underneath it at night. The guard rail that we brought for his bed has worked out really well and makes us sleep much better at night knowing he is not going to fall out of bed. :) This picture was taken at the guest house in Niamey.

The swing at the guest house in Niamey

Ready for take-off!

This is the dust haze that is pretty common this time of year. Nothing but desert out here!

Many people have asked about the hospital and where it is situated in Galmi. If you can focus through the haze of dust, this picture shows you everything from an aerial view. The triangle of trees you see in the picture is where the missionary compound is. The airstrip makes up the right arm of the triangle and the only paved road for travel makes up the left arm of the triangle. The hospital is situated on the bottom left of the triangle just before the village begins.

Hope you enjoyed seeing a bit more of our life lately!

A Busy Day

I thought I would walk you through what we did on our first real "work" day here at Galmi. Marc went into the hospital to begin in the outpatient peds area. He will be focusing on pediatrics this month. We had taken a tour of the hospital which was my first real look at the suffering that is very common here. We saw people with diseases like tetanus, HIV, tuberculosis, and malnutrition. The language difference is certainly a barrier and all we could mostly offer was a warm smile with a "sannu" which is the common way to begin a greeting here.

While Marc was in clinic I began my first project of learning how to make yogurt. There is no pasteurized milk here so everything that involves milk is made from powdered milk. I don't care for it much to drink, but it tastes fine cooked in things. I borrowed a bit of yogurt from our neighbors to use as the starter and then got going. I mixed 3 cups of cold water, 3 cups of boiling water, and 3 cups of powdered milk along with the starter and then poured it into jars to set. One tip I got for the current colder season (which still means high of 80s during the day) is to keep it in a crock pot with hot water around it and periodically add boiling water to it. It has to sit for 4-6 hours. Ours set up perfectly and I was delighted! I mix in a little sugar and a spoonful of strawberry jam and it takes very similar to a strawberry yogurt from home. Everyone in our family gobbled this up yesterday. I can make endless amounts of this since powdered milk is readily available so this was a wonderful thing to learn how to make.

After I got the yogurt all situated I switched gears to making my first batch of bread. I had a recipe from my great grandmother that my Memaw gave me as a potential slicing bread for our sandwiches. I had no idea how long to knead but the initial dough turned out well and I put it in bowls to rise. Then we decided to go to the swings to meet up with Dianna and Gracie and some of the other missionary kids that were playing outside. The playground has some baby and bigger swings, a fort with a trapeze bar, a merry go round, and two see saws. It is a place we visit every day and is right in front of the new duplex that is being built that we will move into in a month.

We came back to the house after playing and my yeast dough had doubled in size so I popped two loaves in the oven. The tricky part was getting the oven to stay at the right temperature since there are no number markings on the dial. It is a gas oven (that you have to self light), and it has a thermometer that hangs from the rack inside which is how you register the internal temperature. Anyhow, for my first attempt I had some very tasty but somewhat misshapen bread loaves. I sliced it up for lunch and we all enjoyed some peanut butter sandwiches with fresh pineapple and oranges.

Marc is able to come home from 1-3 every day for lunch if he is not on call and needed at the hospital. This is the siesta time and the clinic closes. His first morning of pediatric clinic was a bit overwhelming for him and he had a hard time even telling me the stories of loss and suffering. At one point in the morning he and another physician went to examine a child in a mother's arms who had been brought in to be seen only to find that the child was already dead. Death, even in young children, is a very real part of life here in Niger. Marc is going to see some very difficult things during our time here so pray for him to be able to cope with it all. We live lives here on the compound that are a stark contrast to the world around us right now even though we still lack some amenities and modern conveniences. It is very humbling to see all that we have been given when others have so little around us.

After lunch the rest of our trunks arrived and I spent much of the afternoon sorting through all our stuff. It was so refreshing for me to see all the food I was able to bring with us. In fact, there were even certain food items that I specifically remember pulling out of trunks because of weight concerns that were somehow all miraculously accounted for as I was unpacking. We have done without most of this stuff for nearly a week now but these things will certainly make our time here easier and more enjoyable. I think I forgot to mention in our last email that Delta waived ALL of our extra baggage fees when we checked in at the Wichita airport which was such a blessing. We had three extra trunks we were planning to pay for including the medical trunk which would have had an extra fee since it was 70 lbs.!

I let the kids play with some of their "new" toys that I had unpacked when they woke up from their nap while I started on our dinner. It is the dusty season here right now and near impossible to keep the floor or their play mat free of dirt. I am so glad I bought this mat off Amazon before we left. It didn't weigh anything and it was easy to put a few squares on the top of each trunk we had. The kids love having a soft place to play on these concrete floors and it wipes off very easily.

Shorty before dinner I heard lots of voices behind the bushes on the side of our house. When I went and looked I found a soccer field on the compound with some local boys playing. I took Eli and Hailey out to watch. I am not sure who was more intrigued by who. :)

Marc had a meeting after work and then was home for dinner around 7:30. We had a tuna casserole for our first meal that I cooked with some green beans. I had brought a few sauce packets out of the tuna helper boxes (left the noodles at home) for easy meal nights. I just used some spaghetti noodles that I bought here and mixed in a little shredded cheddar and we had some good comfort food. Eli ate seconds. I should mention that Eli is becoming a GREAT eater here. He is really getting over many of his food issues. He will now eat oatmeal, peanut butter, bananas, casseroles (he used to hate having all his food mixed together), and rice. He is also very willing to try anything new these days. We make him try 1-2 bites of every food before he can get down and then he can choose if he eats the rest (which he usually does). He is also beginning to like the powdered milk and drank one full glass yesterday. He loves it on his cereal and will usually eat two bowls of cereal (cheerios are a favorite of his to anyone sending a care package!).

We have been eating a little later at all of our meals which has been working out well. Breakfast is usually around 8:30 (the kids have been sleeping in because they have been going to bed later), lunch is around 1, and dinner is around 7. We have been getting to bed way too late as we been settling in but hopefully that will get better once most of our stuff is put away.

Well, I'm sure there are lots of things you are curious about with our lives here, and I hope to answer those questions as time goes on! We did figure out that a solution to not having a hot water heater (thanks to Dianna) was to boil a few pots of water and add them to the bath. Showers are still only cold water but at least we can have warm baths. Hailey was beginning to disagree with the cold water baths so she is much happier now. Eli still loves them cold. :)

Wishing you all a great day from Niger!

We Have Arrived! (and have internet)

We are in Galmi! I thought for now I would just copy and paste a recent email that I sent our parents to update everyone else who is curious about what we have been up to for the past few days. This is a long email but the kids are about to wake up so I don't have time right now to summarize it. :) We had quite a chaotic start to our trip when we found out that our initial flight from Wichita to Atlanta was delayed. They had to bump us up two hours to a different flight to Minneapolis so we could make our connection in Paris to Niamey (otherwise we were going to have to stay a night in Paris). Marc called me at home while I was packing our carry-ons Wednesday morning and told me that we had to make a new flight that was leaving in less than an hour. As you will read, by God's grace, we made that flight and all the rest of our connections as well. We initially thought we would have internet access when we arrived in the capital of Niger, but it seemed to be down everywhere we tried to get access. We did manage to have a local missionary send a brief email out to our parents letting them know we had made it safely. I will try to put up a few pictures tomorrow. We have some fun ones from our little plane ride from Niamey to Galmi with SIM Air! Our internet here seems to be working fairly well currently and we hope that continues.

Hi to our family from Galmi,

Last time we saw most of you we were flying through the airport trying to catch our flight. We were really delayed at the TSA check-point with our liquids. We did not declare them before they went through the scanner (because we couldn't even remember at that point where they are were) so they wanted to test EVERYTHING. Marc knew that we didn't have time so he let them throw away the kids' four apple juice boxes (which would have been of no use to us anyways if they poked holes in all of them) and a tub of peanut butter that they wouldn't allow. They also didn't like our six packages of baby wipes but fortunately let us keep those. The kids and I had run ahead to the gate to see if they would hold the plane, and then Marc eventually arrived about 1 minute after they had shut the door and told us we couldn't board. We took our seats and waited to be rebooked. After about five minutes the airline personnel told us if we still wanted on the flight that we could get on (I think they realized it would be easier to board us than to locate and unload all eleven of our trunks!) and we boarded the plane. 

We made it through Minneapolis fine and got onto our flight for Paris. The kids did exceptionally well on the flight to Paris which was our longest (I think around 10 hours). They both went to sleep close to their normal bed times and woke up just in time to land in Paris. We had lost 7 hours at that point so they were a little tired and grouchy once we got there, but we thought we would have plenty of time to get them situated and fed before getting on the next plane. Unfortunately, after we landed we taxied for nearly half an hour before getting to our gate. We then had to walk (for what seemed like forever), take an elevator and two escalators with 2 kids, 4 carry-ons, and several small bags to get to what we thought was our next gate. Once we arrived we realized we were not at our next gate but at a bus pick-up to take us to the next terminal. At the next terminal we had to go through a security checkpoint which also took a very long time (long line and 3 of our bags searched) before we finally arrived at our gate as they were boarding the plane. When we handed the lady with Air France our boarding pass she asked for our "special papers". We had no clue what she was talking about. She said we had purchased our flight at a reduced rate because we were with a non-governmental organization (NGO) and that we needed to produce a paper to verify that in order to board the plane. This was all very difficult to even understand since she spoke very little English. Her manager came over and Marc gave every piece of paper he owned and she cleared us to get on the plane after seeing his medical credentialing. The Kubacz's did not get asked this at all so I have no idea what it was all about. This was why we had no free time in Paris to contact anyone. 

Our kids did amazing through the next flight as well. Hailey slept the majority of the time and Eli watched videos on the TV on the back of the chair and loved that. His DVD player battery was long gone by this flight because we loaned it out to a 3 year old girl on our last flight who was laying of the floor screaming at 3am. We had no melt downs from either child during any of our travel time. We arrived in Niamey on time and were elated to see that every piece of our luggage was also there. After getting through customs we were greeted by some of the local SIM missionaries that live in the capital. They managed to get all 17 of our trunks, all of our carry-ons, and all of us into vehicles and off to the guest house. Their was another local missionary family who had a warm meal waiting on us when we arrived. We had Shepherd's pie, salad, and bread for our first home cooked meal in Africa and it tasted delicious after only eating airplane food and Goldfish crackers for over 24 hours. We all had some difficulty sleeping the two nights we stayed in the guest house in Niamey. The four of us were in one room and usually awake and unable to sleep from about midnight until 3 or 4 in the morning. We were eager to get to Galmi.

On Saturday we took our small plane ride from Niamey to Galmi. Eli was super excited when he got to see and touch the small airplane in the hanger. He couldn't wait to get on it. I think Marc was most nervous about this leg of our trip, but we had an experienced pilot with SIM Air and we all thoroughly enjoyed our flight. The views are so much better from a smaller plane (even when you can only see desert!). Once we touched down on the Galmi Hospital airport (which is dirt by the way) we were greeted by quite a large crowd of missionaries and their kids. Eli immediately seemed to be at home with all the kids. He is having a blast. 

The people here have been SO welcoming. We have been invited over for dinner the past two nights and have two more meals on our schedule before we will be on our own. We are starting to stock up our kitchen goods, and I am planning to make my first loaves of bread in the next day or two. I will also be learning how to make my own yogurt from milk powder. We had some at a neighbor's house the other day with fresh pineapple and papapya and homemade granola on top and it was delicious. We are going to eat well here. While chicken is expensive, it is somewhat available and there is ample supply of ground beef. Eli is going to be a much better eater when we return. He has been playing hard and getting much hungrier and more willing to try new things. Today at lunch he was eating tuna fish salad by the spoonful and wanted more when his bowl was empty! He would never have even come close to that stuff a week ago. He is also beginning to like peanut butter which is huge change for him. We all slept much better last night being in our apartment here in Galmi. They actually have a really nice duplex being built that is about a month shy of being ready. We will move into one side and the Kubacz's into the other once it finishes. The biggest adjustment for me so far has been not having a water heater! We had hot water in Niamey, and some of the apartments here have one, but ours does not. The kids don't seem to mind at all. I'm sure when the days get hotter it won't bother me either.

We miss you all but hope you can rest assured that we are doing really well. We are excited about what our time here will hold. The kids are doing so much better than I ever could have anticipated (and slept all night last night) but you can continue to pray for all of us as we transition to a new culture. We walked outside the hospital compound today into the village and it was a fun experience. I will be going to market on Wednesday with some of the other ladies to get our produce for the next week. I hope to get some pictures posted on the blog maybe later today. Talk to you soon!

Stephanie

Departure Day

It is crazy to think that this day has finally arrived! I have been collecting items for this trip for almost a year now (I got tuna fish packets for a steal this time last year!) and we have been packing for nearly a week off and on. My mom and sister surprised us and came up for the day on Sunday to help which was SO appreciated. We ended up a little heavier than we would have liked (we are taking three extra trunks- one with medical supplies and two with extra food, diapers, and toys), but we think these items will come in handy to us and others over the next few months. We have eleven trunks total today that we will be hauling to the airport along with four carry-on pieces. We are thankful to have both of our parents here to see us off and to help us get checked in at the airport. I am pretty sure I have never traveled with this much luggage before. :) Along with all our "stuff," we are also taking hearts and minds that are very excited and ready to see all that God is going to teach our family in the coming months. We hope to see how God is working throughout the world drawing people to Himself through Jesus, and how he chooses to use ordinary people like us to help show others how great His love is for them. We are also eager to grow closer to God through the hardships and challenges that await us. We know that we are guaranteed some trials and difficult days, but we also trust that God will be right there with us walking us through those moments as individuals and as a family. I hope you are excited to take this journey with us! We are praying that God will use our story to teach each of you something along the way as well. Next stop.... Niger, West Africa!

Last Stop: Ashland, Kansas

We are finishing up the last leg in our few weeks away from home. Marc has been covering the ER in Ashland for the past 4 days and we came along for the fun. This is actually our second trip out to this tiny, tiny town. You can read about our first trip here. There is now a permanent doctor here so Marc was just covering for him for a few days over the holiday. It has been windy and cold so we have spent most of our time inside our apartment. We are staying in an apartment in the assisted living community. It has two bedrooms and a kitchen and has been a great set-up for our family over the past few days. I packed all our food and have even cooked up a few yummy dinners. :)

We did attempt to brave the cold and wind for one very quick trip to the park.

We ordered a pizza from a local pizza pub on New Year's Eve (the only restaurant open all weekend). Eli helped me make some cookies after dinner, and then Marc and I finished the night off by watching Captain America (the pizza place also rents movies; it's great to find "all in one" places in a small town like this. :))

Hailey is teething so bad right now. Both of our kids have had only one or two teeth by their first birthday and then gotten a ton in all at the same time shortly after. Hailey currently has EIGHT teeth cutting through and four of them are molars. She has been a little fussy and irritable (and loud at times) and I was afraid that we might be bothering our elderly neighbor. So, I baked up some cookies and took Eli over last night to offer up our peace offering (which he proceeded to drop on the floor shortly before she opened the door; most people still follow the 5 second rule, right??). 

It amazes me how God can place us in someone's life at just the right moment. This sweet lady found out yesterday that her daughter has been given less than a week to live in her battle against cancer. In the past two years she has also lost a son, a husband, and a sister. I think she really enjoyed our company (who wouldn't be entertained by a 2 1/2 year old pretending that the chairs in the room were cars and that a walking cane was the gas hose to fill up the cars??). We hope to stop in and see her again before we leave. Will you pray for this woman that she might still see how deep God's love is for her even through all this pain?

Florida with the Millers

Happy New Year! I almost got all my 2011 posts in time, but I am extending myself a bit of grace with our recent travels. My grandparents will be celebrating 60 years of marriage in February and they wanted to take our entire family to Florida in honor of the occasion. Marc and I honestly did not know if we could feasibly fit this trip in considering everything else we have going on right now (I am typing this from Ashland, Kansas where Marc is working until Tuesday and then we return to Wichita to start packing for our departure to Africa!) but my dad helped us get a three-way flight that made it possible for us to make it. We were so glad it all worked out! Even though our time there was short, the warmer weather and ocean breeze were refreshing, and it was great getting to catch up with some family that we don't see often enough.

Nana and Papa D were really excited to get to see Eli and Hailey.

A balcony view

 My dad was getting a little time in the sun in his jeans since the high was only 60. :)

All 33 of us went out to eat at the Back Porch in Destin one night to celebrate Memaw and Poppy's marriage. My aunt had a cake made and our waitress (yes, we had only one waitress for our entire group!) took a picture of us all together at the end of the night. It was wonderful to see everyone all together.

It was fun getting to see Brandon and Stacey (and Stacey's little baby bump!)

 I adore my Memaw and Poppy.

The picture on their cake was screen printed on. It was from their wedding 60 years ago.

A kiss from my favorite little boy at dinner.

 We caught the two love birds on our last day at the beach enjoying the sand and waves.

Happy 60th Anniversary Memaw and Poppy!