What a Difference a Day Makes.

I’m not even sure when it started but I think it’s been about a month now… but we keep running out of water!

We have a cement tank in the ground, my guess is that it’s about 6 feet wide by 10 feet long and probably 10 feet deep. Ideally as the water level goes down, water is pumped in from the city supply to keep our tank full. For the last month or so, this hasn’t been the case. It seems we run out of water at least once a week.

The view from the opening in our tank. 

Keep in mind that we have 20 people living here. That’s 20 people showering, flushing toilets, washing dishes, doing laundry and drinking water… and that doesn’t include the many children that come and go throughout the day. So yes we use quite a bit of water.

The water that comes into our tank isn’t purified or treated or anything glamorous. And when the water flows on a daily basis the water isn’t that dirty, but when you start getting down to the bottom of our cement tank, you start to realize just how dirty the water is. The lower the water level the dirtier the water.

Don’t worry I don’t drink this water, we have a reverse osmosis water filtration system that the Missionaries use for drinking water. However, the children and staff do. When Julia purchased the system, she was advised that our children and staff drink right from the tap, because their bodies have built up immunity to the water. And if they ever drank water at school or a friends house, it would make them sick. 

About a week ago, the water shut off… again. Even after the water shuts off, we still have some water in the tank. We use a small oil jug with holes cut in the side to fill up larger buckets for showering and such. So that day I got a bucket of water. The very next day Nunu wanted to take a bucket shower, but he needed more water than what was left over. So he went and got another bucket.

Joao using an oil jug to get water.

In the bucket it goes.

I was shocked at what he brought back. What a difference a day makes. My bucket was clear water, his was a foggy mess! I suggested that he wait a day and let the dirt settle, but I can neither confirm or deny if he used this water to shower =)

What a difference a day makes!

We decided that since the tank was so empty, it would be a good time to clean it out. Ernesto climbed down into the tank and scooped buckets out… each bucket got darker and darker. I started saving the nasty dark water for flushing our toilets. I think the kids thought I was crazy when I asked them for a bucket of dirt water!

When our tank runs out of water, we have to get water from a local well. The kids usually take on this task for us. Juma G even came back once with the bucket perched on his head. I think they like going because we pay them well for their hard work. Sometimes the neighborhood kids even ask if they can go and they will carry a big bucket together and grin from ear to ear when we let them keep the change.

This last week for the first time, the community well was out of water. It wasn’t a pretty sight… or rather scent. Imagine living in Florida without air conditioning and a bunch of boys who don’t wear deodorant. Last night I had a dream that I went back to the States and one of my friends pulled me aside to tell me that I had really bad B.O.!

Thankfully this morning a little water had come into our tank. Enough to be able to flush our toilet =) This afternoon I went to get another bucket of water and I hear the sound of running water… the tank proceeded to fill up and just like that we have running water!

I think it must be the time of year. I have a feeling we will continue to go a few days each week without water for the next few months. We are planning to build a water tower to house more water and increase our water pressure, but until then, if you could be praying for our water supply, I would really appreciate it!

In a Coke Bottle?!

Those of you who have been reading my blog from the beginning are probably noticing that something is missing lately.

Mice. Where are all the mice stories? The truth is for three or four weeks I don’t even think I saw a mouse and then I got behind on blogging and mice went to the bottom of the list of things I wanted to talk about… but alas here we are!

The day before Nunu and I moved rooms, it hit me that we hadn’t had a mouse in our room since Nunu arrived. It felt like an accomplishment to say the least. But that night I lay in bed listening to some plastic bags moving… no big deal because we got a new fan today and it’s on oscillate… of course the bags are going to be blowing around.

I decided to go to the bathroom one more time before going to bed and asked Nunu if I could turn the light on since I’d been hearing the bags. I flip the switch and glance around the room to find the bag that our glorious fan wasn’t on oscillate, so I started looking at the bags around our room. I look to the garbage bag, nothing. I look at our bag of bags and yell, “the bag moved, it moved!” I start justifying because I’ve accomplished a mouse free room… remember?!

“Maybe it’s a cockaroach or maybe it’s Georgia (the lizard we named), maybe I’m just seeing things!” Nunu got up and went to grab the bag, but I was like wait!! I opened the door and handed him the broom to pick up the bags (the last thing in the world I want is something running up Nunu’s arm!). He goes outside and we call Black, the dog, over. Nunu starts pulling bags out and he turns to say that the bag is empty, but mid-sentence I see the brown fur ball go flying out of the bag. Black takes off and they both run around the corner of the building.

Part of me imagines one of those cartoons where once the enemies get around the corner one pays the other one off and they share a cigarette together commenting on how convincing the other one was. But I’m pretty sure that Black went to sleep that night with a full belly!

A few days later, I’m walking across the yard and I see a dead mouse just laying there. I take a step back and start asking around why there is a dead mouse in the yard and it looked a little funny. Nunu was like, “Oh Amido found it in a Coke bottle in our room.” What?!?! He goes on to explain that some of the boys were helping him clean out our room for John & Laura and when they picked up the bottle, there he was sitting in the bottom.

The mouse looked so strange because Amido somehow got him out of a glass coke bottle. I’m not sure that you could fit a nickel inside of one of these bottles but this little mouse figured it out. Welcome to Mozambique.

A few nights later, we arrive in Chubia (to celebrate our wedding with the kids). I was so exhausted by the time we arrived that I couldn’t even eat dinner. I just went into our room to lie down and try and escape from the group for a bit. I was too tired to worry about the bug net, I just put the air (and fan) on and pulled back a corner of the blanket, so I could curl up for a little nap.

It was so strange though, I kept thinking I was seeing movement out of the corner of my eye. I thought once that something popped up from my backpack that was on the bed less than a foot away from me. Nunu came to check on me and brought a bag of bread and put it on the floor, I thought I heard the bag move. He came back again I asked him to leave the bag in the Kitchen, but I kept thinking I was seeing things. But like I said I was so exhausted, while normally I can just sense a mouse in the room, I was so tired that my game was off, I kept telling myself that I just need to sleep and I’m exhausted a seeing things.

I get up to go join the group and poof a mouse runs right in front of me… right under the bed! I was still so tired, I couldn’t conjure a scream… but I’m pretty sure my eyes popped out of my head. And I did one of those run-walks out to the living room. Nunu and John went in to investigate. They found a hole in the bathroom window and I noticed a window up high that was open, so they plugged the holes and closed the window. They searched for the mouse and they were convinced it had gone back out. I on the other hand, was not.

I hung with the group for a bit, but needed to lie back down. This time I pull down the bug net and tuck it firmly under the mattress. I feel so funny that a mouse can’t even keep me out of this room. After another nap, I get up to join the group. Yet again the mouse goes running from the corner right near me, under the bed!

I go out and I tell Nunu the mouse is still in there. In the nicest tone I can muster, I ask him to go into the room and not come out till they have the mouse. He and John go back and I start recruiting reinforcements. I get Pedro, Antonio and Latino to go help.

Laura and I stand at the end of the hall listening. I hear furniture being dragged across the floor and I can tell by all the talking they are trying to decide how to pick up the bed because the mouse is probably hiding in the wicker bed frame (yuck). It’s then that I hear the screaming, jumping and stomping. Which eventually leads to the crashing and breaking of something. Laura and Julie (both visitors) decide they need to get a peek at the action and they squeeze in the room for about a minute. Someone comes out and tells me they need a bucket to trap the mouse with.

Not a minute after I empty out a bucket, does Pedro come walking out of the room holding the mouse by it’s tail! Ah… big YUCK!

Everyone that was in the room walks out as if they just got off a ride at Six Flags… they have a bounce in their step and a smile on their face. I ask John for a recap and he tells me how the mouse was under the bed and when it ran out he tried to trap it with this pottery vase and as soon as he put the vase on the mouse it shattered. It looked like a sturdy vase to me too, but I guess on a concert floor it didn’t have a chance.

He then goes on about how the mouse tried to run out the door but it was shut, so he just kept jumping into the door. I think John said he was like 18 – 24 inches off the ground. I made a joke to John about all the screaming, because I didn’t think Mozambicans were afraid of mice. Johns response was so priceless… “Yeah all the screaming, that was probably all me!”

On Sunday night, we returned home only to find the power was still out. Almost every Sunday the power is out from 6am to 4pm. It was 10pm and all the kids were in bed. I suggested that John bring a bucket of water in their room incase they needed to flush or shower. He got the bucket and came out of the room and was like, “Uhm there is a dead mouse in our bucket.”

We aren’t really sure how it got there, but my best guess is that it fell from an opening where the wall meets the ceiling. Just like the mouse in the Coke bottle, he wasn’t full grown.

The funny thing about all of the mouse sittings is that after each one Nunu turns to me and says, “Ooh this will be a good story for the blog!” 

Prayer Request:

- We are going to purchase a piece of land this week or next. Our goal is to get a piece that attaches to our existing land but is along the street front. In the past land has been, all things considered, cheap. But with the oil companies entering the picture street front property has gone up quite a bit in price. So just pray for favor and a fair price.

-  I’m trying to book myself a trip home. Pray for a reasonably priced ticket and that we would have the finances to make the purchase.

As always, thanks for reading. And let Nunu and I know if we can be praying for you!

Another Juma Post... sigh.

Yesterday morning I woke, just like many days. A little out of it, convinced I need just 15 more minutes of sleep… in short not a single bone in my body is that of a “morning person.” Nunu on the other hand hops out of bed and is in the bathroom brushing his teeth. He leaves the room to check and see what the day brings and what everyone is up to. I wake up enough to read and send him on his way. He is going into town to check in on some school things.

I lay in bed reading and get a text message from Julie. She has been throwing up and Adriano went to Tanzania (something to do with his visa), so Julie has called Ida (one of our cooks who is SO great with all the kids) to help her look after Samuel today. But until Ida arrives, she has Sumate watching Samuel. She just wanted me to keep an eye on him too.

I open my door and Samuel is out on the porch asleep in Sumate arms. Safe and sound, he is oblivious to the fact that his mom isn’t feeling good. Just a happy sleeping baby.

I also notice that Juma P. is sitting outside, which is odd because he is supposed to be at school in the morning. He tells me he is hungry but this is beyond normal for him, usually he says this to me 1 hour before dinner, or even just after we ate. I’m never sure if he is actually hungry or just bored and seeing if he can get a piece of bread from me. It’s one of those things that sounds simple… just give him a piece of bread. But I learned on my first trip that it quickly turns into a daily thing and then other kids try to join in too. Yet another one of those strange things that sounds so simple, but it leaves me unsure of how to act.

I leave my door open and start to work on my computer. I check emails and all that stuff that my MiFi (wireless internet) allows me to do. Juma sits about three feet from my door he just stares at me. As my mind is fighting to catch up with my awake body, I realize that this is strange. I realize that I have a banana in my cabinet from dinner last night and I give that to Juma. I ask Sumate why Juma is home from school and find out he has a headache. I feel his body and sure enough he is warm.

In this moment his health issues don’t even faze me. I go into my room to see what kind of head ache medicine I have. I find Extra Strength Tylenol, Aspirin and a Multi-Symptom cold medicine for children. Even though Juma is about 9, he is the size of a 4 year old. So I have to try to figure out what I would give a 4 year old. My thought is to go with the Mulit-symptom because Juma’s nose is running and he was coughing two nights ago. But since Julie is here, I go to get her opinion.

She says I could cut down some of the other medicine but in the end she agrees with the Mulit-symptom is probably the best thing for Juma. As I am on my way out of Julie’s house, Pedro shows up at the door, “Come! Come!” he says. Pedro approaches me like this at least once a week, he is my boy who cries wolf.

I follow him wondering what random thing he is going to show me today, when I look up and see Juma seizing on the porch! I run over, lucky he is laying on a Mozambican bed and Sumate was near him.

I’ve never witnessed a seizure before, but I always imagined them to be a lot more violent. Juma was lying on his side and it looked like he was rocking to a music beat, but rather than just his head his whole body was rocking to the beat. My mind starts racing and I tell Sumate to make sure Juma doesn’t fall off the bed and make sure his head doesn’t hit anything.

I run back and tell Julie and she says we need to get his body temperature down with a cool bath and get him to take the medicine. I ask Izack to get me a bucket of water, but our well is almost empty again, which means we have no running water and he has to pull it out with a bucket. I start taking Juma’s shirt off and sure enough, his little body is so hot. Much hotter than when I felt his head less than 10 minutes before.

I ask some of the boys to find a pair of Juma’s short or underwear, but no one can find anything. That’s when I realize that he has shorts on under his pants (it’s very common for young children to go without underwear here). Latino is helping to get Juma’s pants off and I go into my room and grab a washcloth. Izack returns with a bucket of water and I put the first cloth on Juma’s forehead.

By this time he is crying and his nose is running and he no longer looks like a 9 year old trapped in a 4 year olds body, but rather I am staring into the eye of a confused and scared infant.

Latino gets Juma’s pants off; only to realize that he has sweat pants on under them!! I roll the pant legs up and apply another washcloth to his belly. Latino is speaking to him in Macua for me, even though I speak to Juma in English and he is fluent in Portuguese, I figure the Mother tongue is the best. Latino keeps telling me, “He can’t hear, his ears are closed.”

I realize this medicine isn’t going to happen and resolve to let him sleep and change the washclothes every few minutes. We call his mother to let her know what has happened. I just wanted her to know what had happened and that we were taking care of Juma. Of course she could come, but Latino told her she had to come… communication.

Juma sleeps for about an hour, I sit on the bed with him. At first I wanted to hold him but I instantly felt his body temperature go up and so I slid him down so he could use my leg as a pillow. I had to change the washclothes less and less. He was cooling off and now it’s time to get him to take the grape flavored medicine.

In the last year Juma has been poked and prodded more than most adults are in their entire lifetime. And for that reason I completely understand his aversion to medicine. So I try encouraging him as lovingly as I know how, trying to explain what’s going on and that this will help to cool his body off.

The medicine finally goes down and I can see that he is surprised at how good it taste, as I myself have problems taking medication from the Pharmacy here. They are usually horse pills with no coating and since Juma’s small they are cut in half… yuck!

He falls back to sleep and I think we are in the clear. I stare at this little body that is covered in little marks, scabs that he picked. Like he had the chicken pocks and picked at every single pock. I know that many of these are bug bites, but some he says are a reaction to the Penicillin injections he was getting while he had Phenomena. Juma is so small, how is it that such a little body has had to go through so much. How much more can this little body handle? How many more of these seizures will he have before Doctors can tell us more than, “Watch his sugar intake and don’t let him get to hot.” What is God’s plan in all of this?

Then his mom, Cifa, shows up. I am horrible at reading body language here but to me she appears upset, but it could have been concern. She comes and sits next to us touches Juma and shortly after pulls him off of my lap and cradles him in her arms.

Over and over and through different people, I try to explain that we need to keep his body temperature down. I try to show what I’ve been doing with the washclothes, but it’s obvious she doesn’t understand what I mean. She actually even covers him up with a capalana (piece of fabric). I get it though, it’s cultural. In Mozambique people think their children will get sick if they don’t have on a hat and long sleeves in 70 or even 75 degrees! From what I can tell in Mozambique when you feel sick, you put on more clothes. It explains why Juma had on 2 pairs of pants and how his mother is reacting.

I resolve to flip and rewet the clothes a few more times and then head back to my room. Then I check on him every hour or so, until eventually is see him sitting up and eating. But I also see him putting on a long sleeve shirt, and I’m not sure how to react.

I was thinking Juma was in the clear but around four or five someone tells me that Cifa wants to take Juma to the hospital to have a malaria test done, as they have already told us all they know. Which is, “Watch his sugar intake and don’t let him get to hot.” I go out and feel him and sure enough he is hot again. Cifa puts Juma on her back and ties him in with a capalana, as many mothers do with their young children. I send them on their way with one washcloth tucked in around the collar of Juma’s shirt and the other in his mother’s hand.

I retreat into my room. I’m exhausted. I think more than anything it’s just the emotions that go with a day like today. It’s also tiring feeling helpless and not knowing. All the questions just exhaust me.

Last night I never heard anything about the hospital visit, but today I open my door to a hyper active Juma. As if all the energy he should have used yesterday was stored under his bed and this morning when he woke up he pulled it out and added it to today’s dose of energy. I’ve seriously never seen Juma so hyper. I’ve also never seen such a dramatic 180 over night.

I think the thing that makes this SO hard is that we are alone in this. The doctors here in Pemba basically have no clue what is going on. All we can do is endure and do our best to make Juma comfortable.

I’m planning to make an emergency medical kit especially for Juma, with everything from a pair of short and washcloth to children’s Tylenol. I’m starting to feel like a broken record, but please just be praying for this little body. If you review some of my most recent posts, you’ll get a better idea of his needs, but feel free to ask questions.

Thanks as always for your love and support.

Oh and here is a picture of Juma...

Macarrao Wedding 2.0

The first weekend that John and Laura were in Pemba, we went to this place called Chuiba Palms. It’s a little resort along the Indian Ocean, I think it’s about four homes and a pool. Nunu and I picked this place to celebrate our wedding with the children. The night before our celebration, one of the kids asked when our ceremony would be. We ended up throwing together a little ceremony on the beach that Saturday night.

Anyways, follow this link to see a bunch of pictures from the weekend and a video. 

Link to Pictures!

Link to Video!

A BIG thanks to John Azoni for taking the wedding pictures and making the video.