A walk with the kids and a few other things.

On Sunday night we got to experience our first power outage. We had a lot of fun reading the kid's Bible stories by candlelight. Since the kid's night light was out we put the candle on the floor in their room. It is nice that the floors are all tile. When we woke up in the morning the power was back on and the jar that the candle was in had broken. Thankfully the wax came off of the floor just fine. Here is our family portrait by candle light. It is just before the kids got into bed. Since it is so warm at night they usually only wear their pull ups to bed.



This is the start of our walk that we took yesterday. Paul and I were at the very back of the line. Paul has had some trouble adjusting and he is very clingy. We have even been asked if he is able to walk! So for this walk I told him that I would not carry him. It took a very long time for us to reach the destination because Paul through a huge temper tantrum the whole way. Of course we are stared at on these walks because we look so different but then to have a screaming two-year-old on top of that. We were quite the spectacle. This road is nice for walking on because it is not too busy. However the mind set here is that the pedestrian makes way for the vehicles. So the drivers do not slow down or move over when they see pedestrians ahead. It can be very nerve wracking when we have so many young children with us. They all hold hands with at least one other child. There are not enough hands of adults to go around. On this road the vast majority of vehicles are trikes ( motorcycles with sidecars) and motorcycles.

Our destination was Mama Dit's house. All the caregivers are called Mama and then their name. This is a picture of the chickens that belong to her family. They were right outside her house. There was also a rooster that was tethered by one leg. It had a three foot tether line. Roosters are very prized here.

When we were in the yard there was a man in a tree above us. He was cutting a large branch off of the tree with a machete. Some fruit fell down when he was chopping and all the kids ran under the branch he was chopping to get the fruit. The man did not stop chopping even with the kids under him! The caregivers and I had to run and get the kids to back up. The branch started to come down but was still connected. The kids again rushed the branch to get the fruit. The man kept chopping and suddenly the branch came all the way down! All the kids scattered and by the grace of God only one boy was hit by some leaves and that was all. Below is Dan holding some of the fruit they called tamarin. I don't know if that is the right spelling but that is what it sounds like. It was brown on the inside and sour.

Here is everyone after returning from the walk. I think the only ones that were tired were the adults! The kids played for a while until dinner at 5pm.

Below is a picture of Dan's scrapes. He got so many the first little while here. Then there is a picture of a very proud Paul after he bonked his nose on the slide in house 1. After he was done crying he thought the blood was great. He was so excited for his picture to be taken.

This evening all the bids are supposed to come in for the project. We are not holding our breath though. One of the contractors has not responded to e-mails or texts. He sounds like a good choice but if he won't bid or even respond to us then maybe not?! We are feeling frustrated but hanging in there. I can't believe we have been here for three weeks and the bids are not even in! Our biggest fear is wasting time and the money that was given to us. And yet God is in control and I know that he has a plan for our time here. It is easy to get caught up with only measuring success by results. If nothing else we have been able to accomplish some repairs and pour some much needed love into the kids here. They are well taken care of but there are not enough laps and arms to go around. They need attention so badly.