What we have been up to

1. Not blogging. This one has been pretty obvious. Sorry, folks. It's not even like I haven't had time - it's been a little more relaxed. (That being said, I always do find myself far busier than my work schedule makes me out to be.) I've just kind of gotten out of the habit. That's bad...

But this cute face will make it ok, right? =

2. Gospel Community in a local refugee community, Salvokop. It's probably more what you think of when you envision Africa, at least to some extent. Most of its inhabitants live in one-room tin shacks. Some of the shacks are quite nice, however. It's amazing how much you can neatly pack into such a small space. Quite a few of our church members live there.

Abi V and I are hopefully going to start a crochet club in Salvokop with some of the ladies. I'm pretty excited - it should be fun!

3. Janelle and I are going to start volunteering at Sunnyside Primary on Wednesday mornings. Randy, one of the 1Hope members who is also a teacher, already works there, pulling kids out who need a little extra attention and reading with them, playing games with them, etc. He took us once to meet the teachers and set things up, and we were supposed to go with him at least once before his family goes back to the States for a few months to set things up for coming back long-term. It looks like there's a school holiday this week though, so I'm not sure how that's going to work out...guess I will be leaning heavily on Janelle, who is going to school to be a teacher! She should know what she is doing! =)

4. I've been able to hang out with the youth group on Friday nights when I'm not working, building relationships with more people from our church.

5. Lots of dinners with people at their houses! It's been fun. We really need to have more people over here before we leave in November...

6. Yesterday, Janelle and I went with Abi and some of the babies to a bunch of doctor's appointments in Joburg. There is an adoption clinic where babies from various children's homes are cleared for adoption. We got to meet people from a number of different baby and children's homes. That was pretty cool.

7. Street evangelism on Mondays, when we're not working. Did any of you read the blog post where I explained that this was one of my worst fears? I prayed that I would be more bold. Then God decided to arrange a chance for it to happen every week. Sometimes I hate it when He answers prayers...You can all pray for me because this is about a hundred miles out of my comfort zone.

It's Super-Small!

8. A trip five or six hours away to Limpopo to our friend's home village. I'm posting a blogpost about this as soon as I can get stuff to upload!

9. Spending time with my African family...you can read all about them in this great blog post from Britt! 

10. Laundry, cooking, grocery shopping, cleaning...you know, the norm!

I'm still here

Sorry, everyone. I keep thinking, "I really need to blog about this or that!" but haven't been getting around to it. We were on an involuntary internet fast for nine days...but I've been here the rest of the time. Planning on writing a post soon!

Lists

These are not necessarily in order. This is just for fun. =)

Ten things I love about being here:

1. Working in orphan care on a regular basis! This has been my passion for several years now.
2. Living in community. Always interesting, often difficult, always worth it.
3. My church.
4. Getting the chance to experience a different culture.
5. The chance to do things I wouldn't get to do at home - call other orphanages and volunteer (still working on that one), ride the train to visit my friend, etc.
6. Keeping house for myself.
7. Learning more about God's grace.
8. Watching babies get adopted.
9. A focus on discipleship in the local church.
10. New friends - becoming family.

Ten things I miss about living at home (not counting foods...)

1. Driving! Although I don't miss the cost of having my own car, I'll gladly pay for gas after seeing how much it costs here...
2. Living in the country. City life has its advantages (the ability to walk places - see #1!) but sometimes I just long for peace and quiet and no construction a few feet from our house.
3. My stuff. I know this is kind of shallow, but I brought maybe 20% of my wardrobe and stayed twice as long as planned - through additional seasons/changes of temperature I hadn't planned for.
4. FAMILY. I live at home with my parents, so you know, I'm kind of used to having them around. My grandma is older, too, and I really miss her.
5. My friends from back home. I have a number of people I hang out with a lot and I really miss them. This includes church family.
6. My piano!
7. The public library. We have lots of books we can borrow here, but it's hard sometimes when you have a specific book you want to borrow.
8. Making money! I certainly haven't enjoyed all my past jobs, but I do enjoy the paycheck that I earned myself. Everyone's been amazingly generous with my support, but I still struggle sometimes with the humbling/unpredictable nature of living on missions support.
9. Running a business/easy access to craft supplies. I did find an amazing yarn store here a month or so ago, so that helps.
10. Walking outside and having it LOOK like home. I was always a little bored with Ohio landscape (I would have preferred to live in the mountains!) but I guess it takes moving away to appreciate the saying, "There's no place like home." I miss farm fields and woods and gorgeous autumn leaves.

Ten things I DON'T miss about home:

1. Having this passion for orphan care and being able to do little about it.
2. Snow. Enough said. Well, ok, I might miss it if I was here over Christmas. Just a little bit.
3. Being alone. Extrovert thing.
4. Eating salad every day. Sorry, Mom. ;)
5. Dog hair.
6. Having so much stuff. Ok. This is a toss-up. I miss my stuff. I don't miss having to clean around it - there's something to be said for minimalism.
7. A sense of aimlessness.
8. Not meeting very many new people.
9. The vacuum cleaner.
10. Uh...I don't know. Can't think of anything else. =)

Ten new foods I've tried here (you will find nothing dramatic in this list):

1. Pap, the staple food, made by grinding corn (different from cornmeal).
2. Boerewors, an Afrikaans sausage.
3. Melkos, or milk food, similar to wallpaper paste but very tasty with cinnamon and sugar.
4. Curry. LOVE IT! Especially a good chicken curry. Indian food is popular here.
5. Samoosas. Think of them like the Indian version of a Hot Pocket.
6. Chakalaka. Some kind of sauce with baked beans and vegetables. I could take it or leave it...
7. Vetkoek (pronounced "fet cook" and meaning "fat cake"). Fried dough. It's very yummy and you can eat it in many different ways.
8. African "soup" - a generic term for any combination of vegetables boiled down to make a thick sauce. I tried to make some last night. It wasn't as good as when Joy makes it.
9. Stewed pumpkin. I prefer it with sugar and spices. Africans cringe when I put it in sweet things. To each their own...
10. African fudge. Entirely different from American fudge, it's SUPPOSED to crystallize. This always happens to me anyway when I try to make candy...it's kind of like eating straight sugar. But delicious sugar.

Ten foods I miss from back home:

1. American Ranch dressing. Craving some delicious MSG.
2. Lucky Charms. Not sure why, because we never buy them anyway. That is going to change, I think.
3. Little Debbie oatmeal creme pies. I tried to make these, but they are just not replicable in all their gooey, underbaked goodness.
4. Baking chips. I did manage to find real chocolate chips in one store. Hallelujah!
5. Kielbasa. Specifically, the Garbage Can Cookout kielbasa that I missed out on recently. I think my mom is freezing some for me. <3
6. Hot Cheezits.
7. Butterfingers.
8. Those little red and white striped peppermints my grandma always has.
9. Salami and pepperoni
10. TACO BELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And the Hot Dog Shoppe.

Ten random foods I've learned how to make from scratch, due to expense/limited availability:

1. Chocolate syrup
2. Apple butter
3. Donuts (sort of - we kind of failed).
4. Croutons
5. Macaroni and cheese (yes, I know this should be easy, but I've always made the boxed kind...)
6. Artisan bread
7. Hummus
8. Granola bars
9. Nacho cheese
10. Caramel dip

Ten things I'm learning while I'm here (these are in various stages of completion, please don't test me!):

1. How to cook almost anything.
2. How to keep a house more or less consistently clean.
3. How to help a baby sleep through the night.
4. How to care for newborns and preemies.
5. How to make deep cross-cultural friendships
6. How to resolve conflict (why is this a never-ending cycle?!)
7. How to grocery shop/sort of kind of plan a menu
8. How much I need God's grace, and how beautiful it is
9. How to honestly admit my sin and not live in guilt/fear - because of that grace
10. How to be more intentional about building relationships with others

Ten random/slightly insignificant/funny things I've learned:

1. How to sweep a carpet with a broom.
2. How to successfully insulate your house with a blanket, some string, and a butter knife.
3. How to operate a washer when one of the steps to starting a load is "kick it really hard until the water starts running."
4. How to use a crock pot to bake bread.
5. How much a baby is capable of vomiting at one time (however much they just drank).
6. How far projectile poop can travel (five feet, at least).
7. How many ants collect on your kitchen counter when you forget to wipe it down during ant season...
8. How to not freak out when a mouse is sleeping in the couch you use as your bed. (Still don't like mice - don't try anything funny.)
9. How much a cat walking on a tin roof sounds like a midnight intruder (we had the security people out and everything...)
10. How to use a booger-sucker.


Ten things I didn't expect about coming here:

1. That I'd want to stay longer, and that I'd be ok with living away from home for longer.
2. That I'd miss insignificant little things (like Ranch dressing) SO much!
3. That my new friends would become my family.
4. That certain cultural aspects that frustrated me so much in the beginning - I could learn to love.
5. That in some ways, I would learn to enjoy living in the city.
6. That I would gain so much weight from my own cooking...
7. That I would start running (see #6).
8. That a lack of independence (driving especially) would rub so much.
9. That it would be so cold in the winter....that I would actually be here for the winter.
10. That I would love it THIS much.

Ten culture shocks:

1. Greeting everyone all the time. There is pretty much a script.
2. The level of respect afforded one's elders.
3. Certain aspects of baby care, like wearing them on your back with just a blanket - that you don't even tie.
4. Cultural expectations regarding food. They give us a lot of grace as Americans, but some of our customs are SO foreign to each other.
5. The first time I saw someone eat mopane worms.
6. The amount of homeless people and beggars that roam the city.
7. Trying to understand people who speak English as a fourth or fifth or sixth language - even if they're really good at it, accents sometimes confuse me.
8. So many different expectations from the many different cultures that I come in contact with regularly.
9. Ironing. Everything.
10. That some of the biggest culture shocks came from the other Americans...feeds my theory that cultural differences aren't that much harder than family differences.

Ten memorable experiences:

1. Pilanesberg National Park.
2. Street witnessing for the first time (well, tagging along behind someone who was doing it...)
3. Going to the South African presidential inauguration with Lerato.
4. Getting new babies, and watching them leave
5. Having more people than beds
6. That time we ate pizza with Akani and Lerato...it was crazy. "Y" stands for "Yummy Salad!"
7. Going to see the Sound of Music live in Joburg
8. Visiting a mental institution where children with developmental disabilities are sent. Heartbreaking.
9. Learning to wear two babies at once in a woven wrap.
10. So many things I remember aren't moments in time, but steady, everyday things that I love...

It STILL never gets easier.

I haven't blogged for a while...sorry folks! I'm trying to keep you all more in the loop about things...

So, our little Buddy only stayed with us for about five days before he had to leave. =( 

He was just a temporary placement, mainly due to some paperwork we have to sort out before we can accept any more longer-term kiddos. I'm not allowed to share the babies' stories in any detail, but I'm really sad about him having to be shuffled around in the system, and hope he finds a forever family soon. =(

It's so hard to watch babies leave and go to places that you don't think are anywhere near the best for them. Of course, God is in control, but as part of the whole "do justly and love mercy" thing, my tendency is to want to fight tooth and nail for these little ones. And then, so often, it's all taken entirely out of your hands and there's nothing you can do.

Nothing but love them well in the short time you have. Somehow that never feels like enough.

She picked him up on the day he had to leave and asked him, "Buddy, do you know you are loved?"

(I think he did.)

He was so sweet. Ok, no toddler is an angel...but he just wanted to be loved. 

So sorry, Buddy. I wish I could have been your forever. I pray you will find it soon.

P.S. There is an important meeting on Monday at the department to talk about screening our manager as the foster mom that we have to have on property. There have been some concerns expressed about screening a non-South African. Please pray it all goes well!

Unexpected delivery

Life has been pretty slow since Princess left on Wednesday - we have only had four babies and there has been a lot more time off. I'm not one to sit still very well...I like to be DOING THINGS. There are plenty of babies waiting  for us, but due to turnover of people working here within the last year, we are waiting for paperwork to go through before we officially accept any more babies. PLEASE pray it goes through very soon! Everything on our end is done - we are just waiting on government officials to do their jobs. It drives me crazy to know there are babies out there waiting! So yes, please pray.

That being said, we were surprised to come home from church late this afternoon and find this unexpected delivery on our doorstep waiting for us to "sign" for him! It's a short-term placement, so it had already been cleared by the proper authorities.

He's almost certainly only going to be here for one or two nights. I would love to keep him longer. 

For the time being, we'll call him "Buddy." He's pretty cute and really curious. He is almost a year and a half old and isn't walking yet. He is making sounds but we don't know what language he understands/is trying to speak.

He did great up until bedtime and then he was all, "Uh, no. Not putting myself to sleep in a strange crib in a strange place." So the other Abi decided he would probably like this better. Yes, definitely an African baby. =) Look at the smile. He visibly relaxed and got all happy as soon as I tied him on me.

He does the African "floppy baby" thing when you put him on your back - that thing our baby home babies never learn to do because we only carry them till the next small one comes along - they just kind of flop on your back and go limp until you've tied them on snugly. It's quite handy, much easier than Princess's unwieldy squirming!

He fell asleep in five or ten minutes. Guess we will see what tomorrow holds for you, little guy.