Worms, worms, worms...

De-worming

We have de-wormed! What??? It is recommended that missionaries living in West Africa de-worm every 6 months. Thankfully the process is simple. Dan and I each take one pill of Vermox and the kids each drink one small bottle of Zentel. Good thing Alexis only had to drink one bottle because she didn't like the taste of it at all. On the other hand, Lucas would have taken hers too if we would've let him! What kind of worms are we talking about? Well, the kind that live in your stomach, for example. They cause all kinds of nice things I won't mention but I'm sure you can imagine. Thankfully, we haven't had to experience this and our de-worming was merely a precaution.

Fly Swatters & Mosquitos

So, I was sitting on Lucas' bed writing this blog in my mind when whzzzzzzzzz - ANOTHER mosquito flew by my ear. Aargh! Good thing we have a fly swatter! We didn't think to bring one to Africa so we consider it the best gift given to us by another missionary family. They understood the need for each family to own one!

So, let's talk mosquitos. We rarely find any in Alexis' room but there are always some in Lucas' room. Each night before we put him to bed we check the whole room and yes, they do hide in the toys but mostly on the walls and curtains. We check his room again before we go to sleep a couple of hours later. Last night we missed one so we moved a sleeping Lucas to the living room and went on mosquito patrol. Good thing we did because we got four of 'em! Then we found 2 in our room so you can quickly see how much our fly swatter gets used!

The good news is that during the dry season (right now) we have only 3 main flying bugs that invade our house and the mosquitos are the only ones we keep an eye on. The flies would rather have our food and the heart-shaped ones just stay on the walls. During the rainy season we add 2 more fun ones. Then we have mango flies which can give a person mango worms (not fun-you get rid of the possibility of mango worms by ironing ALL your clothes and yes, that includes socks and underwear). We also have these really weird slow-flying black bugs. I don't know what they do but they are certainly the least fun to look at.

Well, I was going to say on a positive note that I hadn't seen a cockroach in a long time but I got one in the bathroom last night. Rats! Oh, wait...that was just an expression! Thank goodness we don't have those too!

Park Day & Magic Land

Park Day & Magicland

The park pictures are from a playground that is next to the field where Dan plays softball. We later visited Magic Land (an amusement park here in Dakar) with another missionary couple and their son's family who came to visit from the U.S. Lucas loved having 3 more boys to play with! When we were all done at Magicland, Lucas pulled me aside and said, "Mom, they're white!" I just smiled and asked if he like playing with kids who spoke the same language. He nodded with a grin on his face. The kids had such a fun day!

Life as Lucas sees it!

Hi! This is Lucas. I like living in Africa and wanted to share about some things I do here.

I help Henriette, our househelper, take out the trash. Usually the garbage truck comes 2 times a week. The truck honks really loud for a long time and then we know it's time to take out our trash. We have to hurry not to miss it. I help carry the trash if there's a small bag otherwise I just walk with Henriette and have fun saying hello to people.

Sometimes I get to go down the street to a little store to buy a long stick of bread for supper. My daddy goes with me but I get to buy the bread by myself. I like it because I get to carry the money. I buy the bread from a man named Mohammed and sometimes he gives me a sucker as a treat.

My favorite foods to eat here are rice and boiled eggs. Our househelper makes a traditional Senegalese meal every Tuesday for us. The meal always includes rice, chicken or beef, and often has sliced boiled eggs on top.

My daddy joined a softball team here in our city and I love to watch him play. I like to wear a blue shirt like my dad. There is a cool playground for Alexis and I to play on near the baseball field where daddy plays. It's right by the ocean. My mommy buys us Cracker Jack and we like to eat it while we watch daddy play. I always bring my hat, glove, bat, and ball. I have 2 gloves. One for each hand because I am left-handed.

There is LOTS of traffic. Sometimes we sit in our car and don't move for a long time. Lots of people walk or ride in a taxi or bus. One time it took us 3 hours to get home (we were 20 minutes from our apartment) so mommy let us get out of our car seats and stand up inside the car.

My mommy and daddy shop at a store called Le Caddie. Usually my mommy goes into buy the food while Alexis and I play in the car with daddy. Every week my mom takes us on a walk to go to different store to buy a loaf of bread. My mommy also buys fruit from a guy who comes by our house. We like to eat green apples, bananas and oranges. Sometimes the fruit guy will give us a small orange as a gift.

Africa is hot. Sometimes when we don't have electricity mommy will let me sleep on the floor where it is cooler. Many of the people here speak French. I can count to 10 and say hello to people but I get frustrated when I hear my mommy and daddy say a lot of words I don't know. Our family prays for our neighbors. My parents say they have never heard about Jesus before but we can help them learn who He is.

Reserve De Bandia

Reserve De Bandia

We did it! There are 2 main tourist attractions here in Dakar and we have now visited the 2nd - The wild game Reserve De Bandia! (The first was Goree Island.) It took us about 90 minutes to drive out there and then we hired a tour guide who rode around in our truck for another 90 minutes. The guides have a heads-up on where the animals can be found each day. We rolled our windows down and enjoyed searching for animals. It's a large game park with 1,500 animals and we just drove until we spotted an animal and then followed it. Although we've seen these animals before at various zoos, it's different to be 15 feet away and looking out your window at them.

There are also a few random pictures of cultural things here that still surprise us. (More blogs on that to come.) There are some pictures of the kids at a park very near our house. That was a great experience for us and we'd like to go back often as a way of meeting kids and parents. Oh, and we did finally find bread, hamburger and chicken!

Adventures in Africa

Living in Africa constantly teaches us new things. This weekend Alexis was sick and needed something like Pedialyte which is found in the U.S. Well, we got to experience making our own oral rehydrating solution (water, sugar & salt) and trying to get her to drink it. We took Alexis to the doctor this morning and received an antibiotic for her but it looked a whole lot different than we expected! It was a bottle with white powder in it. We had to add a certain amount of water, mix it and then give her the right number of mL (milliliters) with a syringe. What a learning experience!
We also had a challenging grocery shopping experience. I sent Dan to the store for bread and hamburger meat. Hah! He had no idea what he was in for! He went to four boulangeries (bread stores) and there was no bread to be found. What this means is that there was NO BREAD. I mean there’s no one who will go to the back of the store and find you a loaf that has been saved and not put out on the shelf yet. There is simply no bread so you eat something else. Our househelper today confirmed that she has not been able to find bread for 3 days. There was no hamburger meat Saturday and there still isn’t any today. The store we use is also out of chicken so we will have to be creative with the meals we can make. (I could probably go to the market and buy a live chicken but you won’t find me doing that anytime soon!) It’s amazing how we’ve learned to make do when things simply aren’t available. I am thankful that I have not heard one complaint from anyone in the family. We are learning to be content with what we have and that’s so cool.

Our 8th Anniversary and a Merry Christmas!

Christmas 2008-Part 2

On December 23, we celebrated our 8th anniversary with a date night to a fabulous restaurant called The Black Pearl. We'd heard they had a wonderful chocolate dessert and we had to check it out. We each ordered a Heart Fountain of Chocolate and it was just delicious! We enjoyed a warm Christmas (about 80 degrees). Lucas and Alexis loved that we opened presents on Christmas Eve because we opened more presents with our families on Skype on Christmas Day. We truly had a wonderful first Christmas here in West Africa! The day after Christmas we visited a small zoo here in our neighborhood. It was a very interesting experience...You can get VERY close to the animals. However, Lucas didn't like it when the gorillas threw rocks at him or dirt at Daddy and Alexis. It cost our family less than $2 for a few hours of memorable entertainment so it was worth it!