Just Another Day in Africa (in cell phone pictures)

The power went out around 2am as we slept soundly in our beds.  The fans slowly trilled to a stop and the air became still and hot.  I woke immediately, now extremely aware of the crickets chirping, the guard dogs walking around, and the other insects making their symphony of the wee hours.  I prayed for God to use his power to restore the power because yesterday when this happened at 7am, Owen woke immediately.  This morning, though, O stayed asleep, though restless, he was still sleeping.

When morning came we un-stuck ourselves from the bedsheets and rose, ready to get out of our stuffy bedroom.  No power (again) meant no toast or oatmeal for breakfast so we improvised with a cereal bar we'd brought from home, some raisins and a fruit/veggie pouch for O.  Bill had some cereal and I had a cliff bar we'd brought.  (You can only get cow's milk here and since dairy & I don't quite get along, I don't do cereal here.)

After breakfast we got dressed and ready to head over to the Loudermilk's house.  Brian & Mandee just got here (the day before us, actually) with their four children (all under 6yrs.).  They, however, are here permanently now.  They've been called to Africa to help the Street family with the House of Hope and are just getting settled in here.  They've got a house but it is not ready to be lived in yet, so they're staying in the guest house of the Street's while they work on theirs.  Anyway, we went over there to move some furniture, take down the curtains and watch the fundi (worker) take down a wall.

Around noon it was time to pick (most of) the kids up from school, so O & I got dropped off at the house while Mary & Mandee went to do that.  I made O some leftover sausage (think bratworst, but way better and less greasy) and made myself a ham sandwich (which O ate about 1/4 of).  After lunch it was time for nap.

When nap time was over we (our family) headed into town with Mary to get some things for the apartment we'll be moving into this weekend.

Then we stopped and picked up the oldest Loudermilk kid from school (he's the only one that attends full-day), dropped him by the house, and went to the apartment to drop off the things we'd bought.  I snapped some pics while we were there, and we checked out the progress on the restaurant side before heading back home.

Once home it O wanted to "see turtles?" (go outside and find the tortoises) so we headed out back.  He found the biggest one and wanted me to take his picture by it.

 And then he forgot to actually look at the camera... so we tried again.

 Don't worry, he's not falling, he was just fidgeting :)

Then he wanted to swing.

Then he found a stick and wanted to draw pictures in the dirt and bang it on the ground. (all boy)

After a little while we came in.  Dinner was scrambled eggs, banana bread and pineapple for O, then it was bath time.  We let him play for a few minutes after bath and the toy he chose was the vacuum (surprise surprise).  He also likes playing with the phone we got for while we're here and asked for that while he was vacuuming.  He was walking around vacuuming and having a conversation on the phone, and I looked up to see this:

I guess he needed to rest his weary legs.  Silly boy.

And then it was bed time.  Bill & I took our showers just as the power (finally) came back on, and before this I was doing some light reading of "Simplified Swahili" while Bill flipped through some books on Kili and Tanzania.

And that's a typical day in Moshi for us.  A little time at home, a little running around, a little more time at home and a quiet evening once the kids are in bed.