Glimpses of Guinea

New pictures

2011-04-14T09:33:00.001-07:00

Some pineapples growing in our yard. We've picked the one that fell over and it's in the fridge waiting to be eaten. Notice how dry the 'yard' is.

Some boys by the fence behind us.

It's cashew season. Elianna with a cashew apple. Notice how the nut grows under the apple. There are a lot of cashew trees on our property.

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All in a week's work

2011-04-14T08:53:00.001-07:00

You all probably know the saying "All in a day's work." Well I'll just apply it to this week.

One thing we've experienced here is many deaths. I've often thought that some of my african friends have experienced far more death in their lives than I have. This past week another baby died. This was the 2 year old daughter of one of the believers here. She was born with a hole in her heart and that set her back developmentally and in many ways. She was a bit younger than our son Ian who was 2 in December but didn't even walk on her own yet. A common belief here is that if a child is born and is 'retarted' or handicapped in some way or another that they are not a real person but a demon or had an evil spirit. They often try to poison the child. People wanted to do this to little Hawa but a missionary lady stepped in and helped her get the medical care that she needed. This was a struggle for the family though because she required regular medical attention at the capital and they often didn't have the money to pay for it. Anyways her parents were planning to take her to the capital for treatment because she was getting sicker but they realized the doctor they needed to see wasn't there. They took her to another village to do 'bush' medicine on her. It was after this that we received the word that she died. In some ways it seems better because we know she's free from pain but in many ways it's very hard. Please pray for this family. Her father is a believer and some think that her mother is but has never been public about it. Pray that they'll be able to be a testimony through this. I was thinking about how I would feel if it was my child and it hit close to home since Hawa was the same age as Ian. I would be devistated. I know they are hurting but when i went to give my condolenses the mom greeted me and asked about my baby, my baby when her baby has just died. I'm so thankful for my kids but have been reminded that they're not mine really they're just on loan.

This week has also been filled with lots of battery work for Pete. We create our own power by using solar panels and storing the power in large batteries for use. We also use a generator to boost the batteries etc. This powers everything we use, fridge, freezer, washing machine but very importantly now our ceiling fans and small fans that we have at our beds at night. Well Pete's probably spent 6+ hours this week or more on our batteries. We found out that one was bad so he unhooked it but the batteries still weren't charging where they should be. We're not sure if it's resolved but should know tonight. I forget how thankful I am for those batteries till they're turned off and there is no power on a 100F+ day! I'm so thankful for Pete and all he knows and has learned about solar power etc. It can be really frustrating for him though if he can't figure out the problem and if it turns out to be a big problem it takes a long long time for new batteries etc to come! (like a couple months) That might not sound like a long time but it can be if you're scrimping on power.

Oh yes and this morning one of our dorm kids found a big cane rat while out walking. Two of them trapped it and they took it to their biology teacher who allowed them to kill it (with a bb gun no less) then the dissected it for class. It's not every day that that happens.

Also this is the time of year when our kids are climbing trees and picking local fruits to enjoy eating. Mangoes are coming into season...life is good!:)

We have another month or so till our first rains. The days are getting really hot and the motivation runs low but we're hanging in there.

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picture catch up

2011-02-06T02:20:00.001-08:00

A hodge podge of the last few months including Elianna getting her hair braided for the first time, the beach, a new baby in the village and Ian riding his tricycle.

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Is it February already?

2011-02-05T02:44:00.001-08:00

I cannot believe that I haven't posted since October. As I take a minute to think back though starting in October and for several months afterwards life was a bit crazy. I know that's no excuse but it does let you know that we haven't been sitting around twiddling our thumbs...does anyone really have time to do that? The end of October brought some of our coworkers leaving very unexpectedly. So that brought extra responsibilities for us and thus we were busier for a few months.

We finished up our first semester of school in December and then we had our annual field conference. It was a really encouraging time. A team from the states came to do a childrens program and the Pastor of some coworkers came to speak to the adults as well as a worship pastor. It was amazing. Normally it's Pete and I leading music, I on the keyboard and singing and Pete singing with me which is ok but we love being in the audience singing. The Pastor really challenged us from the Word. He focused on God being the God of the insignificant. He reminded us that often we miss the work of God because we don't see Him in the insignificant. We often feel that we're insignificant in what we're doing but God uses and loves to use insignificant tools and things we think are unqualified.. Another great reminder was that we don't own anything it's all a gift from our Father including our kids. There were many other great things but those were some that really reached out to me.

After conference we enjoyed a really nice Christmas break. We thought about going to the capital but decided not to and just stayed home. We did take our annual beach trip. Our kids love it more every time. There's nothing like staying on the beach and being able to play and swim in the warm waters of the Atlantic, chasing crabs, watching fishing boats, having campfires with hot drinks and smores.

We've been back in school/dorm for about a month now and like usual time is flying by. We had a great month of cool nights and mornings. 60F in the morning when you're used to 75 - 80F feels like it's freezing. For that month we pull out the blankets and sweat shirts. It's warming up now though and the mornings are much warmer.

Well, things are a bit crazy here. I hope to post some pictures but will do it later!

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October's here

2010-10-03T04:28:00.001-07:00

Explanation of pictures

Some recent pictures from the village.

We often give away cardboard boxes, here's one thing they get used for. Baby beds.

A picture of how they make some shortbread type cookies.

The oven - a fire underneath a big pot with the cookies in it and then a piece of roof tin on top with more coals/fire on top of the tin.

The kids like going to the village to find/catch baby chicks - here's aidan with one.

Ian with a huge goose egg that he got.

Our goat had kids this week. Twins and Pete and the kids along with some of the dormers got to watch them being born. There's a girl and a boy. They're just about 4 days old but have already changed quite a bit.

Some english muffins that Faith made. They actually really look like english muffins that you'd buy. They weren't as crunchy but still really good.

Ian with RaHndell, one of the dormers watching him play a game. RaHndell really likes Ian and little kids.

Ian reading with Pete - he loves to read books right now.

We're already 4 days into October. I'm not sure what the weathers like where you are but October always brings a bit of homesickness for me as I think of fall and the fall weather back home. There are things here that remind me of fall. It's the season of squash, not pumpkins but tons of green and white squash in all sizes and shapes. I always buy some to put around the house as fall decorations. The weather is cooler, it's not raining as much. It seems like the days are dry and we get big storms at night. The nights are pretty cool while it's raining. The days are pretty clear with nice blue sky and birds always singing.

We are also finished with the first month of school and are enjoying a 3 day weekend. The time hasn't seemed to fly quite as quickly as last year....we'll see if it continues that way. It's a different year with different students and personalities. In some ways we feel a bit more drained and tired but we're also a year and a bit into being on the field. Life here has a way of making you feel tired all the time. I know for many of you life at home does the same thing. Faith's been able to participate in a Beth Moore Bible Study on the fruit of the Spirit with some other missionary ladies. It's been a real encouragement but a huge challenge to her. Pray for us that we'll be in the Word and strengthening ourselves in our Father and His truth. Sometimes the cares of life can weigh on us...I'm sure it's the same for each of you. I'm not trying to say we're discouraged but there are and have been some challenges lately. Pray that we'll see clearly God's vision for us here and for our mission as there have been and continue to be changes.

Pray for us as we continue to get to know our dormers and their families and interact with them. Pray that we'll be an encouragement in their lives. A praise is that Pete's been able to be involved with a young guy from the village who is a seeker. He may actually already be a believer but is very afraid of his families reaction. He has asked his dad for permission to study the Bible and his dad was not at all in favor of that. Pray for this guy and Pete and others who are involved in his life that they'll know how to encourage him.

Ok, I guess that's all for now.

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June, July and August

2010-09-18T14:09:00.001-07:00

Wow, I didn't realize that I hadn't posted since June. I was sure that I had but maybe I started to and had issues. Anyways...I should put a counter on here to see how many people actually look at the blog. Sometimes I wonder if it's worth it with facebook but I know there are those who don't use facebook.

Well the summer is somewhat of a blur now. At the time it surely wasn't. For nearly 2 weeks in July Elianna was really sick. I think she threw up for 10 days and for at least 6 of those kept very little food down. In the end we think it was amoeba or something like that. She lost a lot of weight but has gained it back and is doing fine.

During that time we found out that school would be delayed a month due to various reasons. It was a relief to us since we had been so preoccupied with Elianna. Another big thing that Pete was busy with in July/August was some theft here at our mission center. It involved some of our guards. It was a sad situation. In the end several guards lost their jobs since no one would confess but we knew it was one of them stealing. Our 'normal' logic and reasoning don't always work here with the culture. That was finished at the end of August.

Now it's already mid September. School started on the 1st. We have 6 dormers. Three girls and three guys. All teenagers. It's going pretty well but is busy and intense. I forgot how much energy it takes at the start. Getting to know new dormers etc. For me it's an increase in meal/food prep. With a couple kids that commute into school and our family/dorm there are 13 every day for lunch and 11 for all other meals. We have 3 very hungry teenage boys among those numbers. Anyways it's busy... with a 20 month old and homeschooling a kindergartner and the dorm. Pete is a huge help but there are times he's not around during busy times. Aidan is in 3rd grade now, it doesn't seem possible. Ian is a fun, lovable 20 month old. He is talking quite a bit and starting to put 2 words together. In the last month he's really gotten into reading books and will come to you with a book and say 'book.' Even thought we read 2 or 3 times a day he would love more!:)

Well that's a brief catchup and I"ll attach some pictures with this.

Pictures:

Faith eating with friends in the village

celebrating the 4th of July with sparklers on a rainy night

Ian pulling a wagon

Pete working on replacing a counter top in the dorm

Our coworker in the village teaching children, both the Word of God and french and math

loving brothers

Propane bottles (used to fuel our stoves) going to get refilled in a taxi ( there were 23 in total) not just for us but all our fellow missionaries as well.

Our kids in long pj's - we went to a hotel for a few days with A/C, we always bring our warm clothes for it.

rainy day fun making playdough

First day of school Aidan 3rd and Elianna Kindergarten

Full tables at lunch with the dorm

family self portrait

Our little guy

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May and early June

2010-06-14T05:26:00.001-07:00

Right now my pattern seems to be posting about once a month. I'll try to do better this summer!:) For those of you on facebook, I do post pictures there a little more regularly.

We finished up school and dorm at the end of 2nd week of May. We were pretty tired at the end and the tiredness hasn't dissapeared over night but we are feeling more refreshed. Aidan finished 2nd grade really well. He had a great year and loves school. He's become quite a reader and has read 6 or 7 chapter books of about 100 pages each since school let out. Of course he loves playing the wii when he gets to.

After the end of school we decided to take a break away to the capital city. For the first few days we stayed at another mission's guest house. We invited one of our school teachers to come with us for a few days. It was fun shopping and eating out! She came back mid week and we moved to a nice hotel with a pool for the remainder of the week. The kids loved the pool and Aidan has really taken off swimming, we loved the A/C although we froze at first, and eating out and not cooking was a real treat. The bummer of the week was that Pete got pretty sick with amoeba, the blessing was that we were close to a Dr. and he got tested and treated right away. Ian was prety fussy but it was a nice break from ministry and routine.

We came back home to regroup and prepare for the summer. We're covering a few extra things for people who are on home assignment until school starts and we have returning coworkers. We're helping with the guest house and guards. We've done these ministries before so they're not completely new. Pete is getting involved in working in a couple of fields. I hope to go work for a day or 2. I think we've been reminded of just how hard our village friends work to just live. Everything is done by hand, clearing the field, burning the field, turning/tilling the field, weeding, harvesting. Pray that the extra time Pete has with these guys will show them the difference of Christ in His life.

We haven't gotten a french teacher but are just working on our own. Aidan's picking up a few more phrases just playing with kids. I'm just doing some extra studying/review on my own and the kids and I have been going through rosetta stone.

Aidan celebrated his 8th birthday. It really doesn't seem possible. He and Elianna are really enjoying their time together but they're quickly learning the fine art of bugging each other. Overall they're great friends. Ian is always running along behind them hoping to keep up. He runs nearly everywhere he goes. He's starting to copy more words and we anticipate him starting to talk more soon. He loves playing outside. I'm going to include a picture of Elianna with a little baby whose mom died, probably of AIDS. He was given to on of our coworkers in the village here, he's 3 months and was 3 kilos when she got him. He has now tested positive for the same disease and is in the hospital. Pray for him, his name is Alseny. Other pictures are from Conakry and Aidan's birthday.

I'll try to add some pictures from the last month. Some of the things we've been involved in. Pete helped regrass several roofs. Our houseworker built a 'kitchen', an outdoor building to cook in during rainy season. Oh year, we're into rainy season now and the rains are increasing. Pete took some neat picture of the clouds before a storm one night. Views from the field he worked in. Other pictures are from Conakry and Aidan's birthday. How could I have forgotten, at the beginnig of May Pete and I celebrated our 10th anniversary. I made a special desert and set up a table in our backyard and we had a candlelight desert after the kids went to bed.

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April

2010-04-28T03:37:00.001-07:00

I had great intentions of updating the blog at least weekly but it looks like it's more like monthly! I also wish that I was a motivational writer but I'm not, that may be why I don't update this often! As I sit here and reflect back on the past month many things have happenend. Rainy season is almost upon us. We've had 2 small rains which is pretty surprising since it's not even May yet. They do bring relief from the intense heat. Over the past month the temps have soared into the hundreds F. The highest our thermometer has read was 110F but others have seen as high as 115F. The humidity is high now to so some days are just rough.

In mid march we had our school break for a week. We went to the capital city for a week. It was the first time we had been back since our arrival last June. It was a nice, enjoyable break. We enjoyed eating out and shopping. We also realized again that we really enjoy living in the more of the village setting but do enjoy our visits to the city. Here it's much easier for the kids, they have room to roam, run and play. We're into our last quarter of school, actually we're down to our last 2.5 weeks of the year. In many ways it's really hard to imagine that we're almost done with the school year. It has had ups and downs but we have seen God's faithfulness all along the way. I think this past month has had a lot of down times. Discouragement among our coworkers, lack of personnel for our school for next year, hard times in pressing on in what God has called us to. I'm sure that you all go through those times as well. We do see God working in the midst of these times. Aidan has had a great year of school, he loves school. He also loves climbing trees and can climb really high! The kids love picking whatever fruit is in season. Elianna is holding her own on climbing trees as well. We've been doing preschool this year and she is really getting ready to read. She doing it more on her own than from what I've taught. Aidan and Eli are both great helpers with Ian. Aidan will get up with Ian in the mornings and help him until he needs a diaper change or he can't contain him anymore. Ian is a really fun active little guy. This past month some of our coworkers took us to a nearby river. It's about a 20 min bike ride away. It's a great place to play and swim and play. A couple weeks ago all the dorm kids stayed at the dorm for the weekend and they planned what they would like to do. It was a packed out weekend with such things as sports, pizza, games, staying up late, shopping, eating out, going to the pool, movie, making bagels, going to the river and swimming and boating (we borrowed a dugout canoe), our bagels, bag and keys getting stolen....It was a great weekend with tons of fun. We were exhausted afterwards. Things keep coming to mind. We also enjoyed a beautiful easter sunrise service at a local river with our coworkers. Pete had the privelage of joining in the baptism of several of our coworkers boys. Right now we're working on drying a bunch of mangoes to enjoy when mangoes aren't fresh anymore.

We've had a great year with the dorm kids. Pray for them as 2 of them are going back to their home countries for home assignment. This can be a big unknown for them. We're really excited and know this will be a time that God will use in their lives.

We're hopeful as we look forward to the summer. It will be a break from having kids in the dorm and our 'main' ministry. We'll be filling in some gaps as other coworkers go on furlough etc. We'll be helping with our mission guest home and some other odds and ends. We also have some plans and ideas that we're really excited to see how God uses them. Aidan, Elianna and Faith are planning to work on French. Pray that God will lead us to the right person to be our teacher for the summer, possibly someone from the local church in town. Pete is planning to plant a field in the village with a friend. We're also developing a plan for planting a field to benefit the village as a project. We also hope to be spending more time in the village developing relationships, during the school year we're more bound by a schedule in regards to being in the village. We also have plans to do some projects in the dorm and renovations. Hopefully soon we'll be able to share how God is working through these ideas we have.

Ok, now I'll attach some pictures of the last month. Most of them are self expanatory.

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March

2010-03-14T04:09:00.001-07:00

It never ceases to amaze me how one month just flows into another. I mean it's already the middle of March. I can remember exactly what we were doing a year ago at this time but it seems like an eternity since then also!

This past week has been Spring break for us. We took a few days and went to the capital city. Got some work done on our car, specifically the AC fixed. It was nice to drive home with the AC. We went out to eat and to a pool. The big hit was getting fresh fruits and veggies though. We brought back as much as we could. Now our fridge is jammed full of carrots, apples, pineapples, mangoes, green peppers... We can't get some of those things here where we live unless they're in season so we stock up when we can. This is the first time we've had mangoes this year, they'll start to ripen up this way in a month or so. I can't explain the feeling of eating some delicious fruit with yogurt and granola! Anyways, I think you get the idea. Right now we don't have any supply buyers on the field due to some medical issues. We have to do all our shopping and stocking up on supplies. We or rather Pete tries to go once a month and buys meat and other things in a town about an hour away. He went this past week and they had gotten an new shipment of things from the states. There are several expat mining companies here so several stores stock things from the states. We were able to get a few special treats in time for my birthday! This morning we enjoyed fresh blueberry muffins (with frozen blueberries) there was also cheese that we got. Anyways, lest you think all we do is buy, stock and think about food, that's not the case. This just happened to be a bumper week for enjoying special things. We've had a great week as a family. We were able to attach a child seat to my bike for Ian and yesterday we all took a nice bike ride to the river. This afternoon the dorm kids will return and we will begin our last quarter of the year.

Please pray specifically for our mission school next year. We are in (desperate) need of high school teachers. If you are interested or know of anyone who might be send us an email. I'll attach some recent pictures as well.

A summary of the pictures:

Ian with his Guinean soccer shoes, he's on his 2nd pair already!

Valentine cookies

Aidan is now burning the trash and enjoying making fires!

A tea set Eli got from one of our dorm daughters for her birthday.

Making pizza pockets...we had all of our dormers families over for a pizza night...there were 22 adults and 3 babies.

A sword fighter already at the age of 14 months.

Our veggies.

Our climber...he can climb into his booster seat and wants to climb on anything he can. We're not so into it:)

Working on a puzzle ball Eli got from Grammie and Grandpa for her birthday.

Cute Ian.

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Ok, so it's been a while.

2010-02-25T06:12:00.001-08:00

I know we or rather I made this resolution to be more faithful in keeping the blog up to date. In light of that I guess that twice a month isn't too bad? I'm going to attach some pictures from the last few weeks. The big event was Elianna's 5th birthday last week. She got to celebrate for several days. On Wednesday the 17th we had a party in the afternoon with some of her little friends here and because a friend was in from a nearby village. It was a fun time. I enjoy the planning and preparing but don't feel that I do so well at the execution. We made some paper flowers, played ring toss with a fun set that we made and blew bubble snakes, ate cupcakes and ended off with water balloons. Many of the ideas were thanks to the magazine "Family Fun." I have a subscription and someone sends it to me every few months. I really appreciate it because many of the crafts/ideas are basic and don't require fancy things that we can't get here. Elianna also shares her birthday with David one of our dormers and Lizzy one of our teachers. On Friday we celebrated with KFC chicken (homeade) and oven fries and a jello poke cake. Saturday we went to the pool and enjoyed the day with Kayla another one of our dormers and her brother Colton. Sat. morning Pete started to notice a stiff/sore neck. From Sat. - Wed. it was really sore but has been really improving. This week is busy here because our mission is hosting a translation workshop. Most of the missionaries from the villages are here and attending sessions on translating. We're not sitting in on the sessions but do have some extra kids around for snack and playing in the afternoons. Almost forgot the temperatures have been soaring lately. We're heading into the hottest time of year. We saw 107F last week and almost everyday it's over 100F in the afternoons. There are a few really hot hours where motivation can be really low. Enjoy the pictures. As I was attaching pictures I thought of a few more things to add. There's a pix of Ian wearing an outfit that was Aidans:) Also our supply buyers have had to return to the US due to medical concerns so we now have to do all our own buying of supplies. A few weeks ago we bought a 50kg sack of flour and divided it out into buckets. How long would it take you to go through 50 K of flour? We're getting to the end of our. Mainly because I help with a little tortilla business every week that consumes around 8kg of flour.

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Snakes and other things.

2010-02-01T07:56:00.001-08:00

This week was not uneventful. Early in the week I (Pete) was out locking up the school etc at night and almost rode my bike over a 4-5 foot Night Viper. I called the guard over who quickly disposed of it and then I ran to get a camera for proof of this snake. You can see pictures below. This past weekend we were off to the beach Saturday to celebrate a co-workers son’s birthday. It was a great time together with friends at the beach. Aidan says it is one of his most favorite beaches to go to. He enjoyed looking for crabs and shells and small fish that got trapped in the pools of water when the tide went out. Elianna had a blast playing in the sand and water also. Ian also had a good time playing in the water and sand. Faith and I enjoyed having some downtime just relaxing-Faith in the sun and I in the shade. Also I played some tackle football in the water with 3 other dads and 5 kids. Last week ended on a sad note as a guard from Conakry died. He had been suffering from an illness for a while and passed away leaving a pregnant wife with two kids behind him. The unfortunate thing of it all is that he died going to an eternity separated from God. Although many of us will miss him it is a tragedy that we will not see him again in heaven. Pray for those working to learn languages, translate scripture and teach Gods word to those here who do not know him. Pray for us in our relationships with Guineans that we would model Christ’s love in our lives and that it would be his love that is our motivation for service.

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Our week in review

2010-01-17T03:50:00.001-08:00

We're hoping to make some changes on the blog. Hopefully it will be updated weekly and we'll have input from all of our family members, excluding Ian. Stay tuned... We'll do our best to include pictures as well.

From Eli...

Elianna got her own beads for Christmas and is excited about making jewelry. Aidan and Elianna watched Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

From Aidan...

Aidan was excited when we got packages this week. He and Elianna got flip flops that they could color on with special markers. His fit perfectly but Eli's are a tad bit big. Aidan just got a nice short haircut.

From Pete and Faith

Packages were a bit hit this week. We usually get them roughly once a month. We got 3 packages. We were only expecting one of them so it was a real treat. There were some gifts for the kids from one of our supporting churches and some goodies for all of us. A big bag of jelly bellies and some flavored coffee for Pete and I. We also received a bunch of Christmas cards earlier in the week. It was really nice to see some pictures of friends and family and read the notes and letters.

We had some really cool mornings this week also. One day we saw 54F and in the afternoon it was just shy of 100F. The afternoons are beginning to get hotter and it will only continue for the next few months. Elianna and I went into the village to visit and came home loaded down with gifts, some grapefruits, mandarin oranges and a squash.

You may not realize some of the 'extra' things we do in addition to being dorm parents. Each week we have a Sunday evening service here on our mission center. The missionary men who live here and one from a nearby village take turns teaching/preaching. So at least once a month Pete has to prepare for that. This week some of our coworkers are sick and need to go to the capital for medical attention so Pete is filling in on teaching. Nearly every week we also lead the music/worship for the service as Faith is the only one who plays an instrument. It's been a growing and stretching time but is good as well.

Ian got 2 big goose eggs on his head this week. He is walking really well and getting used to wearing shoes and walking outside. He's pretty good at not putting stones in his mouth but gets very dirty when outside. He hasn't been sleeping well and is waking up almost every night. It makes for some tiring days for Mom and Dad. We're planning to move him in with Aidan and partition our room with a wall and make a small room for Elianna. In time...it won't happen for a little while.

A few months ago our mission center, where we live, was blessed with some new play equipment. A church sent over some things and donated money to get stuff made. It's really nice and our kids and so many other enjoy it. Saturday morning we spent some time playing tag on the equipment with our kids. Our center also has a sports court, a cement fenced in area with a basketball court and option for volleyball and tennis. Recently a lot of the kids have been roller blading. Aidan and Elianna are learning as well. Eli is really determined to get it.

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And more pictures

2010-01-03T07:05:00.001-08:00

A smattering of pictures. Ian's 1st birthday, Christmas, Aidan's 'new' used bike, all I want for Christmas is my 2 front teeth, A box house, Our giant snail, Our post Christmas beach trip, crabs, a birthday greeting on the beach.

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the last few weeks in pictures

2010-01-03T06:52:00.001-08:00

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Life takes over

2009-12-31T06:27:00.001-08:00

I know it's been over a month since my last post. It has been busy but sometimes I'm just not motivated to post on the blog. An overcap of the last 6 weeks...We're well into dry season now. Along the roads the trees are dense with red dust. For the last month we've been enjoying some cooler nights and mornings. The afternoons are hot but bearable. Hotter more unbearable weather is yet to come but we won't think about that yet. We finished up our first semester in the dorm. The following week we had our field conference. It was shorter than usual but enjoyable. The next week we celebrated Christmas and enjoyed some fun times with coworkers. At the begining of this week we headed to the beach, about a 2 hour drive from here and spent 2 nights there. It was so enjoyable and relaxing, not to mention the water was so warm. It was a bit challenging with a newly walking one year old who enjoyed eating sand! Oh yes, did I forget to mention that we celebrated Ian's 1st birthday during conference. He is becoming more confident in his walking skills daily and is a lot of fun and a lot of work!

We continue to rest in our Heavenly Father concerning the political situation of Guinea. Yesterday on our way home from the beach we had a very enjoyable visit with some coworkers in a nearby village. Their 2 kids are the same ages as our older 2. It's fun to see the excitement of visiting friends and sharing joys and struggles together.

I guess this is kind of turning into a bit of a reflection which is appropriate since it's New Years Eve. I'll try to post some pictures as well.

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Ian's 11 months old

2009-11-19T12:32:00.001-08:00

I really cannot believe that 11 months have passed since Ian was born. I'm including some recent pictures including a PA liscence plate that I saw on a road grader in our village here in Guinea, West Africa.

A few other notes of interest...A chamelian that Aidan caught. The day after he got it it shed it's skin. There's the picture of the small animal. It's a genet and we could have had 2 for pets, but we passed this time.

See and download the full gallery on posterous

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More dorm weekend pictures

2009-11-04T09:48:00.001-08:00

See and download the full gallery on posterous

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A fun dorm weekend

2009-11-04T03:05:00.001-08:00

Normally most of our dorm kids go home every weekend. They all live within an hours drive away. This past weekend we planned some fun activities and all of them stayed. Friday night they had a youth group event which we're not involved with. Saturday morning Pete and some of the guys got up early and went fishing, with no success. Saturday afternoon we went for a bike ride to a river and had a picnic and swimming. Saturday night we watched a movie with the projector and ate popcorn. Sunday morning we made donuts and had some singing and praying time together. It was a really fun weekend. Enjoy the pictures.

See and download the full gallery on posterous

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Peanuts

2009-10-27T13:43:00.001-07:00

Have you ever seen peanuts like this before? Our Guinean friends are harvesting their crops including peanuts right now. Last week Pete got to go work in a friends field one morning and returned with this bunch of peanuts. I'm so often reminded of how much physical work the Guineans do to make a living. "By the sweat of your brow," comes to mind. We westerners often take so much for granted. Pray for the Guineans we know that they'll have an interest in the Gospel and that there will be a Spiritual harvest.

We're doing pretty well. Last weekend we had a but going around, Pete had a bad migraine and fever and Faith had a 24 hours stomach bug. Our kids and the dorm kids have had colds but overall we've been healthy.

Rainy season is winding down and we're getting some really nice rainy nights. I'll certainly miss them when dry season is here. It's hard to believe that Ian is 10 months old. It doesn't seem possible. He is a happy fun little guy. He pushed up and stood briefly on his own today. He's eating all sorts of things and loves to have fun. The Guineans love him, especially because he's so chubby. Last weekend some of our coworkers from a few hours away were in the guesthouse for the weekend. Their kids are about the same ages as Aidan and Eli and they had a great time together. Daniel helped Aidan make a bow and arrow.

Continue to pray to pray for Guinea as things are politically tense.

See and download the full gallery on posterous

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fall break

2009-10-18T14:51:00.001-07:00

Our internet was down for about a week so that's why we haven't posted anything. It's been a crazy week. We're nearing the end of rainy season and we get some pretty strong thunder/lightening storms. Our freezer and fridge are both down due to being 'struck' or something. Several others freezers were also affected. Anyways...thankfully we can use an empty freezer at our mission guesthouse which is a short walk away. We're just using our fridge as a cooler and freezing ice bottles to put in it once or twice a day. Sure makes me realize how much I appreciate these convieniences. We hope to get parts ordered an maybe DHL them here if we can. Otherwise we'll be waiting a few months for them to arrive on a boat. Thanks for your prayers concerning this.

Over a week ago we had a week of fall break. Originally we planned a trip to Conakry, the capital city for some shopping and for Ian to get some shots. Unfortunately we weren't able to go but spent a nice quiet week at home. I always have a to do list that's way too long but we did get some things done as well as some relaxing. The kids love to go to the, marigo, the river to swim. We all went down one day and had fun. I also took some time to go on a nice long bike ride with the kids which was good since only a few days later Eliannas tire popped. We probably won't be able to get another tire/tube the right size. For now she and Aidan are sharing a bike. It's working out pretty well.

Here's a couple pictures from fall break. There's also a picture of our dorm kids. They did an oral report for history on different regions of Africa. They are all dressed in outfits from those regions. Also a picture of some fresh produce that we got when some friends went to Conakry. Of course we can't forget the important stuff...Ian is 10 months old today. He has a cold as do several in our family/dorm. He's doing well though...he now claps his hands and can feed himself using the pincer grasp. He said mama last week and is able to crawl very well and walk around furniture. He's also getting adept as crawling/worming out under our couches from the living room barricade we sometimes put him in.

See and download the full gallery on posterous

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What a week

2009-09-28T13:45:00.001-07:00

This has been a very sad week for the Landuma village here. In the span of about a week there have been three deaths. One woman was on her way out to the fields to work and was bit by a snake and died. Another man was one of our guards who is a middle aged man, he passed away after being very sick for several months and just yesterday another woman died. Pete was able to go to 2 of the funerals. What can i say but hopelessness. Today after the third death for the sacrifices at the funeral they were making bigger sacrifices, perhaps trying to appease the spirits so that no one else dies? These people are Muslim outwardly but still hold to animism. Pray for them, pray that they will see their need for a God of grace. Pray for the missionaries and the few believers that are here. Pray for us that we will free up those in language study and translation and that more will come to know of Him.

The pictures are of some boys that have been coming by lately to play and they always grab Ian. When you have a baby, especially a white baby everyone wants to hold him. A believer from another village that we work in came last week and brought us some of the first of his peanut crop, what an honor. Lastly is our laundry lady who washes clothes for the dorm kids. She has/is listening to Bible lessons on tape with some other women but we don't know where her heart is. Pray with us for these people.

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testing

2009-09-24T07:12:00.001-07:00

I'm trying something new with posterous, hoping to be able to update my blogger blog through them.

We'll see how it goes. Here are some recent pictures of us grinding grain so we can have wheat flour and on a hike to fine a river to swim in.

Enjoy.

See and download the full gallery on posterous

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Catching up again...

2009-09-20T09:05:00.000-07:00

It always seems like I'm catching up on here. At times I have difficulty uploading pictures and generally don't do a good job at keeping the blog updated. I'm currently exploring some options that may help me to do that better.

We're settling into a fairly good routine in the dorm. Time is flying as we only have 2 weeks left until fall break. A quick review of our days goes like this... up to get breakfast ready for 7:15, school starts at 8am for Aidan and the dorm kids.
Aidan is attending the mission school here and is in 2nd grade.
Once the kids are off to school, we're getting laundry started. I do our own laundry but have a worker that washes clothes for the dorm kids. I do help her a bit. Usually laundry takes about an hour of my time daily on and off, because it all gets hung to dry after it's washed, which is a bit more complicated than just tossing it in the machine.
Three mornings a week I have a worker that comes to clean the dorm for us, she sweeps and mops all the rooms and cleans the bathrooms. She works from 8:30-12. She doesn't require any help from me. After laundry I'm usually onto lunch prep. We eat our main/big meal at lunch except for maybe once a week. Depending on the day it takes more or less. I try to bake bread, make granola and yogurt on the weekends to speed things up during the week. The school kids come home at 10:25 for a snack break so I have something ready for them. Then it's back to lunch prep. There are 10 of us for lunch daily. The kids finish school at 12:15 and it's usually 12:25 before we eat. Remember I do have Ian (who's 9 months old now and Elianna at home in the mornings). Pete is usually around but normally spends mornings working on some of his other responsibilities in his office, he oversees some workers and does some administrative stuff for the team of missionaries on the center. He helps out with laundry/lunch if needed. After lunch i feel like crashing and sometimes do. We have a chores system where everyone washes there own dishes after a meal but a team of kids is on dishes for the day, they dry and put away the dishes and wash any other meal dishes.

Usually the afternoons are not as crazy. Suppers don't require much prep. The kids go back to school at 1:15 until 2pm. At 2 they do work detail at school, sweeping and cleaning classrooms and sidewalks. Then they have free time or homework time. The younger kids have gym class Mon and Wed and the older kids have gym on Tue and Thur at 4:30-5:15. The reason for the later time is due to the heat. Pete or I usually try to go to gym class and participate if they need us. Supper is at 6pm. The jr. and sr. high kids have study hall from 7-8:30pm. We use this time to get our kids ready for bed and shower ourselves. From 8:45-9:15 or 9:30 is devos with the dormers. Then we hang out for a bit and are very tired by 10pm.
This is just a generic day but gives you an idea. Some days have other responsibilities or meetings etc.

Stay tuned for some pictures and hopefully I'll keep more up to date.

2009-08-16T14:30:00.000-07:00

Ian before the mumps

Ian with the mumps.

Swollen face... not really impressed with life.

2009-08-16T14:28:00.000-07:00

Superheroes.

Adama's (our house worker) baby

Trying to boost the car... we ended up push starting it.

2009-08-16T14:23:00.000-07:00

First day of School.

Making pickles.

2009-08-16T14:16:00.000-07:00

2009-08-16T14:08:00.000-07:00

Avacados

Making Tortillas

Charcoal cooker.

2009-08-16T14:01:00.000-07:00

Learning to ride without training wheels

Baby food... home made and ready to br frozen!

2009-07-25T01:57:00.000-07:00

The paillot or pavillion in our yard.

Ian taking a bath.

Ian with our former houseworker, she's going to have a baby in August.

Some recent pictures

2009-07-25T01:21:00.000-07:00

Lately we've seen some really beautiful moths.

Our friend Abram with Ian.

Aidan and Elianna playing in a puddle with a fun buggy and wagon.

A view of our house, not the best though.

Way Behind

2009-07-23T14:11:00.000-07:00

Ummm.... sorry that it's been a whole month since I last posted here. I've found blogger to be difficult to upload pictures to here in Guinea. I am going to try something and hope to upload some new ones in a day or two. Facebook has been much easier to upload to but I'm currently takking a self imposed break from that.

What can I say about the last month. It's really hard to believe that a month has gone by. After living in the guesthouse for 2 weeks we moved into the dorm. Since that time we've been steadily working away at projects, some big and some small. I think we've made really good progress but there will still be a list of things to do for a while. A huge blessing was that our small pallet of things we shipped over arrived just a few weeks after we did. In some ways it seemed surreal since the last time we shipped some things they didn't arrive for several months. We have less than 2 weeks till our dormers arrive. Again it's hard to believe that August will be upon us and a new school year will start. Aidan will be in grade 2, I cannot believe that's possible.

Pete has started taking over some of the 'other ' responsibilities he'll have besides dorm. Those things take up time and the pace of life here and people coming by at any time just make things different.

As for an update on the kids. Aidan is spending a lot of time outside and getting to know some new friends. He already has a couple creatures. He was given 2 turtles and has had a variety of frogs and toads. Recently he's been seeing a lot of walking sticks, they're quite a bit larger than the americal/canadian variety. They're brown and some of them have wings and can fly. We've also seen some beautiful moths and butterflies. Elianna has recently learned to ride her 2 wheeler without training wheels at just 4 1/2 years old. She's doing great. Ian is now 7 months, has his first tooth, can sit is starting to crawl and is starting to eat. Pete had a chamelion fall out of tree right near him the other day, it seemed like it was being attacked by birds so he didn't pick it up. He has also shot 3 snakes since we've been back. A black mamba and 2 green ones. The biggest being a 7 ft.7" green mamba in our 'yard.' Those things always keep life interesting.

We're doing well. Thanks for your thoughts and prayers on our behalf. Pray for our lives to shine to those around us who don't know Christ or who have chosen to turn from him. Pray that we'll know the best way to help them. I'll do my best to post some pictures soon.

A few picture sof the past week

2009-06-16T13:26:00.000-07:00

This is a picture of the piece of stick we got out of the 'cut' on Aidan's eye. It's been there for about a month now. Lately it's been getting pussy and we've been able to get junk out and tonight the piece of stick came out. It's about a 1/2 cm long and about the thickness of a sharp pencil lead. Hopefully there's not more, we shall see. Mixing paint, the old fashioned way. Add the color or colors you need to achieve your goal and stir and pour.
There are no commercial mixers in Guinea, that we're aware of.

Getting the color you want can be tricky especially if it's in the brown family, it often has a purple or rose tint to it.

It's a trick to add enough color but not too much. Once you've added to much then you try to add more white and the story goes on...

We're working on painting the dorm before we move in.

We buy oil based paint in 5 gallon buckets and color it ourselves. Then the painters add some gas to it, not completely sure why.

Our creature lover Aidan spotted this monitor lizard behind the guesthouse where we're living currently.

Pete was able to sneak up and take a few pictures.

One week in

2009-06-14T03:58:00.000-07:00

I should apologize for not posting sooner. It's hard to believe that we've been here for a week already. Unless you've been overseas it's hard to understand the utter contrast between the different worlds. In ways we're quite familiar with both but in other ways not so much.
Some things we've been readjusting to are: the heat, sweating, ants, dirt, did I say heat?, sweat?, ants? These are the main things. Some coworkers provided meals for our first few days so that was a great help. It take a while to remember how to cook here, or rather just what there is available and how long it takes etc.
Overall we're doing really well. We came up to our mission center this past Tuesday and starting assessing the work that we need/want to do on the dorm before we move in. Pete hired a couple guys from town to do some painting so our wing is painted. Yesterday we moved in a bunch of our furniture. Tommorow they'll paint the main room/kitchen living room and then hopefully we'll move in later this week. There is some electrical to be done and some cleaning and stuff. We haven't gotten our stuff from storage yet, with the exception of our bikes and the jogging stroller.
People have been coming to great us for the last few days. It's been great to see our African friends. Pray for us to be able to develop deeper relationships with them.
I would attach some pictures but the cord for my camera is in the room where Ian's sleeping, so that will have to wait.
Thanks so much for all your prayers for us. TTFN

Two more sleeps

2009-06-03T16:23:00.000-07:00

We're down to our last few days. The pictures below will catch you up on the last few weeks of our lives. This has been a great time here in North America. Now we're headed back to our other home, Guinea, West Africa. Pray for us as we have a long trip and many adjustments ahead. Ian has a bit of a cold so hopefully it won't get any worse. We'll try to do better at updating once we are in Guinea. Bon Voyage. Aidan turns 7.
A last visit to Faith's family cabin in PA.

A great picture of Ian and Grammie at the cabin.

Always searching for creatures. This was an especially pretty one.

A beautiful salamander that Aidan found.

Blowing dandelion fluff.

A big tractor.

In the max for the ride across the river. Ian was on my back for a good 30 min hike.

Some of the cousins, our kids with Kira.

All of these kids used this exersaucer at one point or another.

One of Aidan's birthday celebrations with a campfire and s'mores.

Practicing carrying Ian on my back for Guinea.

Smiles with Daddy. He's such a happy good baby. He's now 5 1/2 months old.

Some playing with fire that Pete got to do with Derek (faith's sisters husband).

Isn't he cute!

The Countdown is ON

2009-05-05T17:36:00.000-07:00

It's hard to believe that we are down to our last month here. Our tickets are booked for June 4th and we are in the process of getting our visas. We would appreciate your prayers during this time. It's exciting and overwhelming. It's hard to wrap our minds and hearts around what's happening now and what we're heading towards. Thanks for all your prayers. I'll try to post some picture in the near future.

In Georgia

2009-04-13T17:50:00.000-07:00

It was so nice to be in Georgia with Jeff, Sarah and the boys. We participated in the missions conference at their church. Pete was able to help a bit at their house. The kids had a great time playing together. It was as if no time had lapsed at all since we last say them. Memories to store up for the years ahead. The boys playing with light sabers. Taking apart electronics.

Ian with Auntie Sarh and Uncle Jeff. It was nice to experience springtime early.

Forsythia.

Daffodils.

Grape hyacinth, one of my favorites.

Fun at the park.

The crew, Ian's hiding behind Corton.

Eli and Savannah dressed up for a tea party.

The superhero/princess tea party.

More of our trip

2009-03-24T14:14:00.000-07:00

Some more pictures of our trip.

A beautiful view in Missouri. Our friends, Aaron and Megan Schaffner.

Aidan got to go on a scooter ride with Aaron.

It did make me a bit nervous b/c we were driving behind them.

Daffadils blooming in Missouri.

Day 2

2009-03-17T20:30:00.000-07:00

Day 2 went pretty well. Although we had less miles to travel it seemed just as long. The kids did really well again but we were all a bit more tired. We had a minor car delay, more about that later.

We arrived in Branson, MO sometime around 5:15. We successfully with the help of his wife surprised our friend Aaron Schaffner. We had a great supper with them and then went for a walk at the Branson Landing. The kids had a blast and we got to see a neat fountain show with fire. We're all exhausted so I'm not going to download pictures tonight. I'm glad we don't have to travel again tommorow.

Good Night.

recent family pictures

2009-03-16T18:58:00.000-07:00

All 5 of us. Again
The kids.

Pete and I.

Travelling

2009-03-16T18:27:00.001-07:00

Today was the big day. We left St. Thomas at 6:15 am. Destined for somewhere near Bloomington, Illinois for the end of the day. The kids did great. There were a couple times that Ian was really upset and they handled it very well. Playing a travel version of Candyland.

I brought some new CD's and DVD's for the trip and am slowly bringing them out.
This is a view of the 'window' Pete had out the back.

Don't the kids look great!
After travelling about 850km with several stops we ended up in Lincoln, Ill at about 6pm, which is an hour earlier than our usual time.

Our motel had a pool so Pete went in with the kids. They loved it because it was shallow enough for them to stand.

After a looong day they were both very tired, but excited.

Thanks for all your prayers. We have much more travelling to do in the next couple weeks but this is hopefully our longest day. Stay tuned and we'll keep you posted.

More pictures

2009-02-13T11:27:00.000-08:00

Ian and Daddy, look at that double chin! He's 8 weeks old here.
He loves his bath, even though it might not appear so!

We're trying to break the norm that the 3rd child doesn't get any pictures taken of him.

Another cute face shot.

Update

2009-02-13T11:17:00.000-08:00

Can it really be the middle of February already? Yikes. I mean it's good that winter is getting closer to being done. It also means that we are getting close, very close to leaving Canada and more aggressively beginning our preparations to return to Guinea. We are in the process of working on a paper update which we'll get out next week. We will be in Ontario till March break then we'll head to the states for the next 2 months. We'll be back to ON to visit and do dr's visits and paperwork etc but won't be living here. Our plan is to return to Guinea at the end of May or beginning of June. Pete is looking into tickets so things are beginning to happen.
Ian is now 8 weeks old, that also seems unbelievable. He is so cute and we love having him as part of our family. That doesn't mean it hasn't been an adjustment and still is in many ways. We're so thankful our kids are excited to be going to the states and just as much to return to Guinea. We give God all the praise for that.
For now we're enjoying our time here. Helping Pete's mom and dad, his mom broke her foot the day Ian cam home from the hospital. His dad recently had a car accident, he's fine but their car was a write off. We're also enjoying time with friends and getting in time doing things we won't be able to in Guinea. I have a few more pictures that I'll post as well.

A picture update

2009-02-13T10:18:00.000-08:00

Here's some pictures for those of you looking for them. I'll try to post some more soon and give more of an update as to what we're up to.

Sweet slumber. He is smiling so much now.
I was taking pictures of him in an african shirt for our update which is coming soon.

You have to agree that is one cute smile. He's almost 8 weeks in this picture.

Fun in the snow at Durham.

Our snow princess.

My sister in law gave us this cute 'trapper hat' so I tried to get a couple pictures of him in it, isn't the soother attractive!:)

Snow fun. I never thought we'd have such a wintery winter. The other day we had a thaw but previous to that it hasn't really thawed since Christmas Eve.

This was in Durham, ON, it was very snowy.

The little bundle.

Where have 4 weeks gone?

2009-01-14T17:22:00.000-08:00

I can't believe that 4 weeks have passed. Ian's doing well. His nights haven't been as good lately but we're surviving! Daddy and the kids. Is he smiling? 3 weeks & 3 days old.
so cute.

The big helpers.

He seems to like his tummy time.

Isn't he cute? Of course we're biased.

Elianna sharing a book with him.

Grammie & Grandpa with the kids.

Christmas and New Years

2009-01-02T03:55:00.000-08:00

Silly Faces. Coming home from the hospital.
The best Christmas gift ever.

Aww...

They love their new baby brother.

The fox boy.

He found his thumb... peace.

A picture of Mommy with Ian.

He's such a good content baby.

Reading with Grandpa.

Almost 2 weeks old.

The kids have had a great time in the snow in PA. Aidan even got to try cross country skiing.

Great Grandma Oldham.

Grandpa Oldham.

Great Grandma Wetmore.

Aidan, Eli & their cousin Kira.

Reading time with Grammie.

Cammo man.

Christmas morning.

A family of five.

Ian Weston Olver

2008-12-22T17:17:00.000-08:00

Here he is, Ian Weston Olver. Born Thursday, December 18th @ 12:06pm weighing 6 lbs 11oz and 20 inches long. This picture makes him look much chubbier than he is, but he was just born!.
He's so tiny next to Elianna.

So cute.

In the hospital.

Proud Nannie.

Proud Papa.

A visit from big brother and sister.

They love him so much.

Aidan is a fabulous big brother.

Proud daddy who is so helpful.

I'll post more pictures soon. We came home on Saturday Dec. 20th. His bilirubin levels were a bit high but after testing him 3 times he was ok and didn't have to go under light therapy. We're enjoying some very cold, wintery weather. We're lacking a bit of sleep but overall doing well. Thanks so much for your prayers on our behalf.

Baby belly pictures

2008-11-30T18:41:00.000-08:00

As I laid in bed last night I was thinking of the beginning of December and of course of Christmas. Being pregnant and due to deliver a baby at this time of year gives one new perspective on the true Christmas story. I thought a bit about Mary. I know for sure that I would not have wanted to make that journey to Bethlehem on a donkey during the last few days of pregnancy. I get tired doing things that are much less strenuous than that. I'm wanting to look into the Scriptures and study Mary at this time. I'm so thankful for her willingness to be obedient even at the cost of personal discomfort. What a great vessel she was. I don't mean to idolize her but just identify with how she must have felt during that time. I'm so thankful for the gift of salvation that we have through Jesus.

Maybe our next post will bring news of the birth of our new little one. We hope that you're all well and resting in the peace that only comes through Christ.

We did belly pictures with our other kids, so we're trying to be consistent. Now they're done so the baby can come!:) Sweet brother and sister.

Mommy and Daddy.

Elianna loves to give the baby hugs and kisses.

We also got some good shots of the kids.

I'm so thankful they love each other so much.

They're great friends and play well together. Of course they have their moments.

They have lots of fun...

Our princess.

All of us.

Another family shot.

Our big boy.

Momma at 38 weeks with baby #3.

October-November

2008-11-11T17:43:00.000-08:00

Aidan mission his first tooth. It fell out a couple days ago. Just in time to take it in for show and tell. On halloween we took the kids 5 pin bowling.
It was a lot of fun.

I actually beat Pete which is something that never happens!

A few days before halloween we woke up to this beautiful winter wonderland.

Most of us weren't quite ready for it.

A couple days before the snow we had quite a hail storm.

More hail.

Fall fun with friends. The girls made pumpkin cookies.

All the kids got a pumpkin to carve.

The kids drew the face they wanted and we helped carve it.

A big thanks to our friends the Dupuis for a great time.

Fall pictures

2008-10-27T08:35:00.000-07:00

The beautiful fall colors, a few weeks ago when it was still warm enough to enjoy them. More colors.
And more...

Canadian Thanksgiving

Taken around Canadian Thanksgiving also

Enjoying a visit with Faith's parents.

A visit to the fire house during fire prevention week.

All the days...

2008-10-06T06:17:00.000-07:00

As some of you may have noticed last week I changed the look of our blog. As I was doing that a verse kept coming to mind. It's the one the I posted under our title. It's a memory verse that Aidan had for school. What a great reminder that God holds all of our days in His capable hands. He knows what will come to pass before it does and he has ordained those things for us. Of course that doesn't mean they will always be easy but we can rest assured knowing that He knows what all our days hold and wants to walk with us through them. May this be a comfort and encouragment to all of us no matter what we're facing.

A beautiful day

2008-10-05T18:53:00.000-07:00

I wanted to give you an updated picture of our growing baby. Believe it or not, I am getting bigger. I don't think the picture does justice. We'll try again soon!:)
Aren't they cute?

They love the baby so much and always give him, (my belly), hugs and kisses. Aidan sometimes even does when he leaves for school.

It was a beautiful fall day. We went to the park and had a great time, although I didn't take any pictures.

Tonight we were teaching the kids a game using dice. They had fun but were being really silly. I never knew little boys could be so silly!

Elianna had a unique way of shaking the dice. Aidan summed it up well when he said, "Eli, it's like you're doing (dribbling) basketball. After dribbling she would just throw them. Good times!

The many faces of our kids

2008-09-23T06:19:00.000-07:00

Last week we were house sitting for some friends and they had a lot of dress up clothes. The kids had a blast. Here are some of their outfits. Elianna the owl
Aidan the dalmation.

Aidan the lion.

Batman.

The crocodile or alligator

The little ladybug.

The other view of the ladybug.

Superman.

Superman with the interesting ladybug.

The fuzzy sheep.

A couple weeks ago we were at a local park. I thought these water lilies were beautiful.

God has created such beauty for us to enjoy.

First Day of School

2008-09-07T16:25:00.000-07:00

Aidan had a great week of school. He loves it. We are soo thankful and hope that the rest of his year continues to go well. Here he is walking into school with his class.

What a big boy. We took him out for breakfast to McDonalds before school.

Elianna is really going to miss having Aidan around. They are great friends and play really well together.

Aidan on his first day of first day of first grade.

We went to a nearby conservation area and took a nice walk.

There were all sorts of fire trucks from all sorts of places.

It was loud!:)

Aidan and Elianna at the Fire Muster Parade

The Toronto Zoo

2008-08-31T15:35:00.000-07:00

We had a great time visiting the Toronto Zoo. It was a long and very tiring day but worthwhile. The morning was cool but the afternoon was nice but not too hot. We did a lot of walking! Eli loved the flamingos.
The sea turtles were fun to watch.

Aidan loved seeing the different types of frogs.

The blue poison arrow frog if I remember correctly.

This and That

2008-08-10T17:46:00.000-07:00

I know it's been a while since I've posted. These are pictures from our time in PA. They are in descending chronological order. So, this is me beginning my 22nd week of pregnancy. If you haven't heard the ultrasound says that we're having a boy. A family shot, with a bit of pete's head chopped off!:)
Grammie and the grandaughters having a tea party. Kira my sisters daughter is on the right.

Some beautiful cosmos.

Grammie and Eli on the swing.

Pete at the fire during our campout.

It might be a bit hard to see but these are some luscious blackberries we found on a walk near my dads cabin.

My brother Caleb and his son Noah.

Aidan and my cousin Ben. The weather has been unseasonably cool here.

Aidan, Eli and Kira.

The morning we left St. Thomas for PA.

Our days in pictures

2008-07-20T17:11:00.000-07:00

Here's Aidan on a climbing wall at a local park. Both the kids are loving the availability of parks to play at.
A fun hammock style swing.

We were given some bikes for the kids. This was their first ride. Aidan's bike is a tad short and Eli's is a tad big but they love them!

The neighbors water pond, the water lilies and hyacinths are beautiful.

We're living at Pete's parents. The kids having been in the pool almost every day.

Aidan likes to jump in.

More pool fun.

Elianna hurt her foot so Nanny got her an ice pack.

Pete's parents have some beautiful flower gardens.

some climbing roses

A beautiful lily.

Daisies... they're so pretty.

From Canada

2008-07-13T17:08:00.000-07:00

We're back! Our trip went really well. Of course it was long and tiring but smooth. We've been back about 4 days now. We're feeling pretty good. Here's some pictures of our trip and the last few days before we left. Pete and Aidan claiming our luggage in Toronto. Long airplane rides...
In the Conakry airport. Once we boarded our flight was delayed a while because of heavy rains. When we opened our soft sided luggage in Canada we had a number of wet clothes etc.

Omelets that we enjoy eating in Conakry. Delicious eggs on a nice soft bread.

This is how the omelets come wrapped. You buy them from a small 'restaurant' on the street.

Usually they are just wrapped in plain paper or old receipts etc. This time ours came wrapped in a National Geographic written in English.

One of the last things Pete did before we lefts was to unhook our batteries, solar panels and the fuse box etc. Here is the empty power corner!

Our luggage packed before we left Hamdallaye for Conakry.

The beginning of our trip

2008-07-04T20:03:00.000-07:00

Hi all,
Sorry it has been forever since we've updated here. We've been pretty wiped and our internet hasn't been great for a while. For any of you that don't know we're are expecting baby #3 and heading back to North America in a couple days.
Today we finished packing up our house and putting our stuff into storage for the next 10 or 11 months. Whew! It was exhausting, because in the midst of it we were still dealing with ministry stuff. We're so thankful for all the help we've had from friends.
Tommorow morning we are heading to the capital city for couple days of rest hopefully before we embark on another continent. Thanks so much for your prayers on our behalf. We are a bit sad to leave here but looking forward to arriving there.
Happy belated Canada and Fourth of July.
Once we're settled we'll be posting more regularly and with updated photos.
See you soon! Can you arrange some warm weather for us? Must be at least in the 80's F!

Aidan's 6th Birthday

2008-06-15T09:44:00.000-07:00

These are Aidan's friends who came to his party. It was a creature theme. We had parfaits with chocolate rocks. There are some rocks on the plate below. We also ate gummy worms. Thanks Aunt Ruth for sending all the fun stuff.

Wow, can he really be 6?

Aidan with a boy from the village. They have fun riding their bikes together.

Aidan's cake on his actual birthday. We didn't receive our packages with gifts and party stuff till about a week after Aidan's birthday. He actually got to celebrate twice.

Happy Birthday Aidan.

The rains are coming

2008-05-24T03:40:00.000-07:00

After nearly 6 months of no rain, the first rains that fall are soo sweet. It's like a reminder of God's faithfulness. Never late, just on time and sometimes even earlier than you expect. We have been getting our first few rains. Of course there are downfalls as well. While it's raining it's cool, afterwards it heats up and gets really humid until the next rain. After rainy season is in full swing the time lapse between rains won't be so great and the humidity might not build as much. In a month or so the grass will come up again and we'll have a yard, like what you see in the background of this picture.
Right now our yard looks like the background in this picture. Elianna seems to attract dirt. It's a bit hard to tell from the picture but her face is pretty dirty.

In preparation for rainy season the people burn their field to prepare for planting. Here's some smoke from one of those burning times. It sort of looks like our house is on fire.

The burning fields and the smoke can really stink. Depending on the wind you might even get a layer of ask in your house. Fun fun!
Not to mention it blocks the sunlight so it's harder for our solar system to charge!

This is the road right near our base. It's hard to tell but the big trees in the foreground are in full bloom with beautiful red flowers. It was a breath of fresh air in the midst of a mainly brown landscape.

Mothers Day

2008-05-21T03:18:00.000-07:00

A wonderful Mothers Day walk.
To find a peaceful river, with even a canoe at the edge. There was also a tadpole 'hole' that Aidan found at the end. He was able to bring some home in a little jar we found on the rocks.

Over wooden bridges.

Down dirt paths.

We walked through recently burned field still smoking.

Happy Mothers Day and misc.

2008-05-10T21:34:00.000-07:00

Rainy season is soon upon us but many of the trees are getting flowers and new leaves now. Here's a pretty flower on one of those trees. When you see a big tree full of these red flowers in the midst of otherwise dry looking things it's beautiful.

I know, you don't see many pictures of me. We were going to the village for a wedding.

The kiddos. Aidan loves to wear the headlamp when given a chance.

Some 'lion' pictures the kids drew a while ago.

Our friend Pete with a black cobra that he and pete killed.

Someone saw the snake and was able to trap it in their storage shed. Then the guys went on a snake hunt. I guess pete was the one the actually got it. They sort of clubbed it to death with a stick. It was about 4 feet long.

Raindrops

2008-05-05T22:58:00.001-07:00

Sorry it's been a while since we've posted. The last couple times I've tried it hasn't worked really well. We're doing well. We've even had 2 nice rain showers and a few sprinkles last night. It's fabulous but increases the humidity.
If you don't get our e-updates I'll let you in on our 'news.' We're expecting a baby in December. Surprise! We'll be coming home sometime this summer so that Aidan can go to school. We'll probably live in Ontario but travel as well.

A wedding

2008-04-15T02:10:00.000-07:00

A couple months ago my house worker said she was going to get married. When the time came to make the formal announcement she gave us missionaries bon bon or candies instead of the traditional cola nuts, since she knew we wouldn't eat them.

The day of the wedding Elianna, I another lady and her daughter went into the village to help prepare food for the wedding. Elianna showed no fear in going right up to the ladies pounding. They got a good kick out of it as well.
They let her try for a minute.
Eli and another girl also intently watched them butcher a chicken. My friend and I got to cut up eggplant, onions and garlic oh, and yes try to open a large tin can with only a paring knife. We called on one of the Guineans that we know to assist us!

The actual wedding takes place at night.
Pete and I went to the wedding around 8:15 which is what my house worker told us to do. They have all their weddings at night. They hook up a generater, have a d.j. and a soiree/party, it usually lasts all night often till 7am. I really wanted to see the bride come out and this hammock dance that they do. At one point they said there was a hold up because the brides older sister wasn't married yet so she needed to be paid money. Pete left about 10:30 since we had someone watching the kids. I stayed with a couple other missionary ladies till the bride came somewhere after 11. It's amazing to watch these people dance, especially the women, some which you might think can't move like that. They have a group of men with tom tom's or bongo style drums and whistles. The whistles are really annoying!:) I came home right around midnight. It's so interesting to see part of their culture. Kids of all ages up at all hours of the night. A missionary friend said they really do "live at night."

Here the bride is carried in a hammock underneath this canopy by four men. They dance with her like that for quite a while before they put her down.

Nincong King

2008-04-14T04:40:00.000-07:00

These are nincongs, I don't really have any idea if there's an English translation... or what language that is! There are a ton of fruits in season right now. The kids love climbing trees to get these and eating them. Aidan would eat as many as we would let him each day.

I think they're a bit on the sour side.

Proudly displaying his loot.

Rain and a roof

2008-04-11T23:39:00.000-07:00

There she is the finished roof, all nice and shiny. Now only a few weeks later it has a nice layer of dust/dirt on it.

Notice the darkish looking sky. Low and behold we got a full blown rainstorm on the first day of work. In the middle of dry season no less. It was a very hot day. Someone said they saw 118F on the thermometer. The guys had gotten a lot of work done but weren't finished when it started raining. Another glitch was that one guy had mis-stepped and came through the ceiling in our living room so their was a hole right into our house. We had a bit of water damage and some clean up but nothing too bad. It was worse for the guys working on the roof b/c it was slippery and dangerous.

What we call the front of our house, it's really one of the ends.

The first of the tin going on.

If you can see the black plastic inside the truss area that is what Pete had to put up last year to combat leaks.

You can see how dry the ground is right now. The trees and most plants still have green on them.

The African guys worked on taking the tin off the roof . As payment for their work they got to keep the tin which they resold and make quite a bit of money. Everyone wants a tin roof even if the tin does have holes in it.
One day they took off half the tine and put up new tin on that half. The next day they did the other side. The third day they worked on our porch. Our field has a construction crew, two guys who work with local guys. They do big things like roofs and building of houses and new buildings.

New Roof part one

2008-04-06T04:16:00.000-07:00

I wanted to upload the pictures of the guys working on replacing our roof but our internet connection isn't very good right now. I'll try more later.

Variety

2008-03-23T08:21:00.000-07:00

Aidan, Eli and Kelsey.

Kelsey does art with us once a week and this week we colored Easter eggs.
Last week we made masks.

Every Wednesday morning I make snack for the school kids. Here's a picture of some of them. There are around 15-20 that usually come.

Elianna playing with playdough while Aidan does school.

Aidan writing a letter to his cousins, Nathan and Corton.

Happy Easter

2008-03-23T04:04:00.000-07:00

Hope you all have a great Easter. We get to enjoy a warm one! Here are some flowers and fruits that are in bloom or in season now. These are green mangoes on a tree in our yard. We love mangoes and can't wait till they're ripe. We have been getting mangoes from Conakry. They're soooo good.

Here's an apple that's fallen to the ground. You can see the nut on top. I guess it takes a lot of work to process the nuts that are inside the part that you see.

In our area there are a lot of cashew trees. Now is the time for them to harvest the cashews. The nut forms first and then on top of the nut a cashew "apple" forms. Some people like to eat the apples. Pete says they're not bad. I haven't tried one yet. There are red ones and yellow ones. Some people are highly allergic to the cashew apples and even to the trees.

I always forget the name of these. They're beautiful but don't really have a smell to them.

A pretty flowering tree in our yard.

Some beautiful smelling flowers. These are also on a tree. They smell like plumeria.

Our birthday girl

2008-03-02T06:05:00.000-08:00

Elianna turned 3 a couple weeks ago. It's hard to believe our baby is 3.

Aidan looks like he's more excited than she is.

Eli got some rubber boots from Auntie Ruth. Grammie brought them for her. She's been wanting rubber boots for a while. She doesn't seem to have any qualms wearing them in 100+F weather!

A special treat was that grammie and grandpa were her for Eli's birthday. It was the day before they went home. We were able to go out to a restaurant and swim at a pool. We had a great time.

Oranges and such

2008-02-25T11:56:00.000-08:00

The handy dandy juicer.
This is a great little tool. It's more of a press than a juicer. By the way this one doesn't belong to me but I do have one on my wish list. :) So, if you happen to see one let me know!
They are so useful here as you'll see in the pictures below.

When fruit comes into season it comes in full force. Now we have oranges and grapefruits a plenty and they're great for fresh juice. The press above is easy to use, not messy and fast.

Our oranges tend to be more green and yellow on the outside and not so much orange.

We said goodbye to Faith's parents last Wednesday night. They had good flights and a good drive home. We had a fabulous time with them and are so glad they could come visit. I'll post more pictures of their time here soon.

A Family Visit

2008-02-12T22:49:00.001-08:00

We have been anticipating a visit from Faith's parents, and they have arrived.
The kids are having a great time with Grammie and Grandpa. They enjoy lots of story time with Grammie. Grandpa's been helping out with various projects around our house. They're getting a glimpse of what we do here. We were also able to visit one of the village locations that our mission works in.

They left cold, snowy north eastern Pennsylvania for hot, dry Guinea. Here's a picture of them at the beach. It will be an adjustment for them to go back to the freezing temps. Sometime last week we saw 106F on the thermometer.

Can you imagine swimming at this time of year??? We had a wonderful time playing in the water and waves.

We also had a nice campfire complete with s'mores.

Milestones

2008-01-17T13:16:00.000-08:00

Our little boy is growing up. Just this past week he started riding a bike on his own without training wheels. He's doing great but still getting the hang of starting and using the breaks. I thought there would be a lot of tears and scrapes since we have no soft areas (aka grass etc) to ride on. He's done great, I think since he's cautious so far he hasn't had any major wipe outs!

Here he is riding by himself. This is a great place to ride. There's a lot of room and not much traffic. The cons are it's hard dirt and gravel!

Pete started out running behind and holding onto the seat and handlebars. Gradually he let go and just ran alongside. At first, I don't think Aidan even realized Pete wasn't holding on.

Aidan's been talking a lot about what he's going to do when he grows up. He's quite sure that he wants to be a policeman, probably in the states near Grammie and Grandpa. He did say that he might be a policeman here, but I said I wasn't sure if that would work or not. Another thing he has sort of decided is that he isn't going to get married! It's great being 5 and being the mother of a 5 year old. Here's a snippet of a conversation we had the other day, "Mom, I was talking to Daniel and he's not going to get married either. We think that we might live together." Daniel is his best buddy here. They play together as much as possible.

Late Christmas pictures

2008-01-17T12:57:00.000-08:00

Elianna and Laura the carrot who talks when you bop her on the ground. Elianna was really quite taken with Laura.

A playmobile knight that Aidan got for Christmas. He loves to play with the guys along with his legos. Some days he creates quite the 'forts' for his creations.

A family Christmas photo.

Soccer Game

2008-01-17T12:32:00.000-08:00

On Christmas Eve some of the Guineans hosted a soccer game in honor of the 'photes' pronounced fo-ta with a long a. It's the word for white person on one of the local languages. It was held at 6pm but didn't start till later than that. It was fun but different since some of us wanted to make nice suppers etc. Aidan had fun and wasn't shy at all, he went to sit with the kids and had a good time running around and playing with sticks. Here are a couple pictures.

Conference 2007

2008-01-06T12:09:00.000-08:00

Here are some pictures from our annual field conference which was held in mid December. They're sort of out of order. On the last day of conference the teens organized a medieval fair for the kids. There were different booths/games that had a medieval theme. For playing the games and scoring etc. you could earn shillings. After the whole things was finished Aidan got the trophy for the most points scored in the activities. He gets to keep the trophy till next conference. His name and the year were burned on with a wood burner. He's also proudly displaying his sword which you'll read about below.

It was a great week of Spiritual and Physical refreshment.

This little guy from the village even got in on the fun. He got his face chalked! The damsel in distress picture.

Aidan's first time with a bow and arrow.

At the smithy you for 5 shillings you could get a wooden sword made. As soon as Aidan heard that he was eager to start earning shillings.

This was the jousting booth. Pete was injured so a fellow missionary helped Aidan.

At the Beauty Parlor you could get your face painted.

This was a unique booth, two opponets played hockey with mops on a piece of wet, soapy plastic.

At the Village Inn you could get drinks or buy candy with your shillings earned. The vendors handed out 'popsicles' or bonbons, an African popsicle, ye glaces. You just pour juice into a small sandwhich style bag tie it off and freeze it.

One evening we enjoyed a BBQ together and someone made balloon hats etc for the kids.

The adults had a great time playing volleyball, court soccer and floor hockey. Unfortunatley on Wed. and Thur. Pete hurt his ankle on one leg and then knee on the other. I'm glad to report he's doing much better. Our friend Brian had some pretty nasty looking road rash.

Enjoying Sports at the Sports Court. Which is just below our house.

During the mornings the adults had worship and teaching times. The kids had VBS style classes. They had a great time and enjoyed making crafts, like this crown!

Aidan is really starting to become a funny guy.

Christmas in the Air or not!

2007-12-24T06:48:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas. Here's a picture that Aidan colored. We wish you all a Merry Christmas. Wherever you are and whatever you're doing.

Elianna's Coloring. She called it rainbow. Making wreath cookies. Cornflakes are readily available and recently we've been able to get marshmallows as well. These were one of my favorites growing up.

Cookie Fun.
Notice the long sleeves, the mornings have been quite cool mid to upper 60's but the afternoons are hot with temps flirting with 100F.

A Nativity set that we had carved here in Guinea.

Our Tree

Getting ready to make gingerbread cookies. One of Elianna's favorite stories right now is the "Gingerbread Man." She runs around saying, "run, run as fast as you can you can't catch me I'm the gingerbread man."

Since we didn't get any pictures in the mail for you all, here's one the Aidan colored the other day. His coloring has improved a lot.

Catching Up

2007-12-22T02:43:00.000-08:00

I haven't done too well at keeping up lately. We've had some busy times, don't we all! So now you'll get a bunch of pictures at once.

This is my house worker and her daughter. The other day was a holiday here. The people are socially obligated to get new clothes and get their hair done all nice etc. Pray that we will be an influence in the life of Adama.

They love to have pictures taken of their kids.

Another, fete, holiday tradition. The women who've had children in the last little while, I don't know the exact details. They dress up as men, with sunglasses and big mens shoes and come around asking for money. They sing etc. and are called in french, les comediens. I'm sure even the english speakers can figure that one out!

A couple weeks ago I got to go with Pete on a supply run. A fellow missionary family kept our kids for the day. I had never been before so I got to meet all the guys he buys from etc. Here he is in one of the stores with 2 of his suppliers. It was a fun, tiring day. No one would let me do anything like load boxes into the truck etc.

Another recent excursion. I got to go to the village up the road with a friend. She is a missionary who lives here on base for part of the week and part of the week she lives in the village with an African family in a room in their house. We rode bike for about 20 min. to get their. My first experience riding in a skirt, trying not to get it caught in the chain and to stay modestly covered, my knees. We walked out to the rice fields where they were harvesting rice. Here's some bundles of rice still on the stalk.

One of the ladies working. They lay the bundles on the ground and use their feet to twist/break off the stalks and take the rice kernals of the stalk.

A chicken house. Isn't it cute!

A platform they built to dry/lay the rice bundles on.

Another big crop her is peanuts. This is in the village with my house helper. She roasted the peanuts and we're taking of the skins.

family

2007-12-18T08:12:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since I've posted and since I've posted a family pix. This was taken about a month ago for our Christmas cards.

We're doing well but have been very busy. Last week was our annual field conference. A great time but tiring. Recently several of us have had a stomach bug and colds.

Aren't they cute!

Flower Jam

2007-11-25T13:02:00.000-08:00

These are called bissap. They are flower petals. When you boil them you can make jam or juice. The flavor is a lot like cranberry sort of tart so you need to add sugar. Approximately 3 quarts of petals, the amount in the pitcher makes 3 pints of jam.

I don't think the Guineans make jam, they make juice or dry the leaves to make a sort of tea.

Our new vehicle

2007-11-25T12:43:00.000-08:00

Ok, here she is...missionary white as Pete calls her. There are a number of missionaries who have white land cruisers.

We just need the mechanic to check the brakes and we're good to go. We also need to get a roof rack built. When Pete does supply buying he'll completely fill the inside with several large coolers on the roof. And the picture wouldn't be complete unless she was a tad bit dirty around the edges. This vehicles has 2 specific things we were searching for, seatbelts and good AC. It has many other good things as well!:)

Ladies Retreat

2007-11-12T13:09:00.001-08:00

A couple weeks ago I had the privelage of attending a ladies retreat specifically for missionary women. Eight ladies from the U.S. came to do this retreat for us. It was held on an Island off of Conakry. Here's a picture of all the NTM ladies that were able to attend. One aspect of the conference was that there was child care so I took Elianna and Aidan stayed with Pete. It was a wonderful refreshing time. Great teaching from the Word and good fellowship with other women from our mission and other missions working in Guinea.

A beautiful sunset.

The little princess. She got lots of attention during the conference but did very well.

Guinea is not a country that looks tropical everywhere. You see lots of palm trees but other than than not a lot of the tropics. However this island is one place that does look tropical, as you can see.

Eli talking to Daddy on the cell phone.

Me with 2 other NTM ladies who live and minister at the same place as we do.

Eli with her new 'cheesy' smile and chin up in the air.

Comediens

2007-11-12T13:02:00.000-08:00

One morning we told the kids to go pick out clothes or something. A few minutes later they come into our room and busy up laughing. Aidan had dressed Elianna in some of his clothes. They both thought it was great and she wore the clothes for the day! Sorry, the picture is not real great.

Part of the Team

2007-11-12T12:48:00.000-08:00

Not only do we get the chance to serve missionaries in the villages by buying supplies etc. From time to time we have other opportunities to minister. A couple weeks ago we had Aidan's little friend Kelsey stay with us for a week. This allowed her mom and dad to travel with another missionary friend to a distant village to do some work. They traveled about 10 hours on dirt, pot holed roads! Here's a couple pictures of the truck when they got back.

Ants

2007-11-06T02:56:00.000-08:00

Lately we've had several nests of ants that we've uncovered. You'll be sweeping and sweep under the endge of a piece of furniture etc. and they just come pouring out. Here's a couple pictures. This nest had a lot of eggs as well, the whitish yellowish things. Ick.

Photo Op

2007-11-06T02:32:00.000-08:00

Once you bring out a camera you have a following and everyone wants a picture.

The lady in the middle is Ami, she works at our guesthouse. The lady on the right is her sister. Several weeks ago she had to have a C-section delivery. We were able to help her out finacially so we went to go visit her and see the baby. Lori on the right is a fellow missionary and Guest House Hostess.

produce

2007-10-21T04:37:00.000-07:00

I know it's a bit hard to tell but these cucumbers are huge. Ok, I just thought of a comparison. Think of the diameter of a medium size zuchini. Some of the produce gets huge. There are no seedless english cucumbers, long and perfect!:) No seedless watermelons either. We had some watermelon last week that was really good but seedy. In the front is a small head of cabbage. Just right for a small family. And yes, we do eat the bananas green. There are some that get yellow but the majority are ripe when they're like this.

Autumn

2007-10-21T03:48:00.000-07:00

Autumn is one of my favorite seasons. Here is Guinea, we don't really have seasons. Mainly just dry season and rainy season. Each has different characteristics at different times. Right now we do see some things that remind me of fall. It's the harvest time, there are a lot of gourd or squash type vegetables. The nights and early mornings are cooler. Anyways all that to say I've tried to bring a bit of autumn into our house. As you'll see in the pictures below.

These are all squash/gourds that I've bought from the village.

The white one looks just like a pumpkin.

A couple weeks ago we celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving with some fellow Canadians.

A sign I made for our door.

We had a great meal complete with turkey, stuffing and pumpkin (squash) pies.

Rain

2007-10-14T08:33:00.000-07:00

I know another post on rain. It's part of our lives for a good chunk of the year! Now we're nearing the end of rainy season. It gets quite hot and humid during the day and then often breaks with a big thunder storm late in the day. Here are some pictures. Look in the distance you can see how much water is on the ground. This can happen in seemingly a matter of minutes.

The kids always want to play in the rain. Eli loves holding Jack. He usually looks quite uncomfortable.

This is sort of off to the side of our house.

This is behind our house.

Frogs and Toads

2007-10-05T03:25:00.000-07:00

Can you tell that Eli's holding a toad? Often the kids spend their days searching for frogs or creatures. Eli has no qualms about holding them.

Beauty

2007-10-05T03:04:00.000-07:00

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder or so they say.

Sometimes I feel I'm too busy to stop and see the beauty around me like these sunsets.
I'm so thankful for all God has created but I do miss the fall colors this time of year. Our nights and mornings feel like fall but our days are hot and humid. We're at the end of rainy season and the humidity really pumps up for a month or so.

Friends

2007-10-03T14:47:00.000-07:00

Here's a recent picture of Aidan and Elianna. Aren't they cute! Aidan's hair was getting pretty long, for here. So after bath I spiked it up for him. I can't believe that he's 5. He's doing really well in Kindergarten. Eli's 2 1/2 and potty training. She's doing pretty well.

Garden Update

2007-10-03T13:50:00.000-07:00

This picture doesn't seem as clear as I'd like. This is Aidan behind some huge leaves. During rainy season some leaves get huge!

The marigolds are mostly red and orange with a few odd yellow's mixed in. I can honestly say this is the first time in my life that I actually like marigolds - the way they look!

As you can see the marigolds grew really well. As my mom says, "they're hardy." They are also supposed to repel mosquitos. If you're familiar with them you know why. They have been a nice splash of color around my laundry drying shed.

Here is some of our garden produce. We've been enjoying some yummy green beans, soy beans and a lone cucumber. The green and soy beans have been our best crop! Right now the local produce in season is squash, cucumber (sometimes), corn (not quite like the sweet corn back home).

Watch out for falling objects

2007-09-21T03:28:00.000-07:00

This is our water stand, Normally there is a 1000 liter holding tank on top. The black barrel is our hot water heater. We pump our water from ground level up to the holding tank on top. From there it's piped into our house.

You might be wondering where our holding tank is in these pictures.

A couple weeks ago I was extremely startled by a loud crash. I didn't know what it was but it got my heart racing. I was inside and ran out with Eli, around the corner and saw that the holding tank had crashed to the ground. I didn't know where Aidan was at the moment so I started frantically calling for him. Thank God he was on the front porch out of harms way. No one got hurt. Within minutes our yard was filled with people who had heard the crash. You are able to see the damage to our laundry shed and yard. I'm so glad it didn't come down on the roof.

At the time of the fall the tank was nearly full so there was probably 700 liters of water in it. Here it is in two pieces. There's a big rip in the plastic and the metal cage landed a distance away from it.

Here's the cage. Normally the tank is elevated on top of the water tower so that it's above the hot water heater. When we moved in Pete made a new stand but apparently it wasn't strong enough for the weight of the water and it broke. The following day after the tank fell a couple guys made a new sturdier stand out of 4x4's. I haven't downloaded my pictures of the new stand yet. We're so thankful that no one was hurt.

Happy Grandparents Day

2007-09-09T03:32:00.000-07:00

Nannie and Poppa, Grammie and Grandpa - Hope you have a wonderful day and know that you are loved very much.

Aidan and Eli enjoying the hammock.

A rope swing which gets a lot of use, our house is in the background with our little patch of grass.

Aidan's first day of school last week. He's doing very well. This is our play/school room which we are enjoying very much.

If we could we'd bring you some flowers today. Hope you enjoy these from our flower bed.

Goats, babies and rain water

2007-09-06T09:58:00.000-07:00

Here's Aidan checking out a baby goat. The Africans always get nervous when the kids get too close to the animals. These babies were so cute.

Here's another goat they were chasing.

Some goats playing in the nice green grass.

The kids don't look to happy about the picture. Eli wanted to stay at this place and visit and Aidan was begging to go home. Sometimes they really enjoy the village other times not so much.

This is from one of our village visits. This baby was very content to just sit with me.

This is the gutter coming from our house into our basin - water holding tank. Right now all the water that we use is rain water that we collect from the roof. During dry season there is a well that we pump water from. Stay tuned because there is more interesting info to come about our water holding tank. I hope to blog about it soon.

Rainy Night

2007-09-04T22:50:00.000-07:00

We seem to be making a switch in rainy season from lots of gentler rain during the days to more hard rains at night. Somtimes though it wakes me up and I can't get back to sleep for hours. So, logically I think of things to do - like update the blog. I've been trying to do this for several days and can't get any pictures to upload our connection is the same as always. I'm open for any suggestions.