for example, last night i got back to the bureau after a long evening of wrangling the kids and trying to have them sit down at the tables and finish their studying. i was also trying to keep a few of the girls awake, as they kept nodding off to sleep at the table. we get their lessons done. i'm sending them to brush their teeth and then shuffling them off to bed up by their rooms. katinka and i get home and the drama of getting in the door is always sweat inducing. getting off the moto. unlocking the gate. getting on the moto. pulling the moto over the big curb into our courtyard. stalling the moto as your see-sawing on the curb. parking the moto. locking the gate. it's pitch black at this point. fumbling to open the front door. forgetting the helmets. grabbing the helmets to bring them inside. turning on a light, any light in the bureau because i'm afraid a lizard is going to jump out and attack me. this happens each night. it is easier when katinka is here because we each have our own little roles. but, when i finally open by bedroom door, the first thing i can think about is jumping in the shower. my feet are always, always, ALWAYS covered in red dirt. there is also usually red dirt all over my clothes and arms from the kids and i love it. but i also love the fantastic shower! last night, i'm all pumped, jamming to some Lady A before jumping in the shower and...no water. zilch. nothing.
oh Africa!
this was fine. we have a large water reservoir in the shower for instances such as this! i happily enjoyed my cup shower, scrubbed off the red dirt and went on my merry way.
until this morning.
the water is still out at the bureau. i wasn't so pumped about my cup shower this morning! or the fact that the toilet won't flush. or the fact that the water reservoir is out of water now because we were positive the water would be back on by the morning.
the pipe that carries water to our section of the bureau busted. so, until the plumber comes back to fix it...no running water for katinka and i. so immediately after i woke up this morning (it stormed last night for hours and i was up from 4-6, so i slept in a little today) mathias came to the bureau and we went over to the clinic next door and started hauling buckets of water over to the bureau so we can flush our toilet. take a shower. fill up our water filter. you know, the only things that really matter.
oh Africa!
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here are a few pictures from church on Sunday.
i thought you all might enjoy them!
i walked to church alone this past Sunday. kids usually spend the night at the bureau with me on Saturday nights, but since i had girls over Friday night, i took a break from the sleepover and enjoyed a night alone in the bureau.
this little guy followed me the last part of my walk to church screaming "GO VO" (yo-vo) at me the entire time. this literally means "white person" in their tribal language. i hear this literally on a daily basis...i've almost gotten quite used to it. it will be odd to me to be walking somewhere and NOT have someone screaming "GO VO! GO VO! GO VO!" at me.
moise, rosaline and alice in their sunday best
micho enjoying her sunday afternoon nap a little early
femi being a trooper and carrying some of the girl's bags for them
love this kid.
sweet, sweet doussou
amide
after church a few of the girls came back with me to the bureau to help me with hand-washing my laundry. doussou and florent tagged along. some of the avocados were ready that the boys had purchased for me at the garden last week, so i cut about 9 of them up and added some onion and salt. it was delicious! this was the biggest avocado i have ever seen. here is half of it up against doussou's face. if only we had had some tortilla chips to accompany the African guacamole...whew! that would have made my day!!
sunday evenings the pastor from the church comes to the orphanage to have Bible study with the older kids. a sweet lady from the church also comes to the orphanage at that same time to have Bible lesson with the smaller children. i love listening to them laugh and sing as she teaches them about Jesus!
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monday i tagged along with jon and ashley for their trip to cotonou. their car had been doing some funny things, so it needed to be looked at by a mechanic in the city. we left sakete and made the two hour drive through Porto Novo to Cotonou. augustin was in Porto Novo for a ceremony for school. he had been awarded a scholarship for being first in his entire class. he needed to go to Cotonou to finish the paperwork for his passport that he is trying to get. sometimes i forget that these children are orphans. they are so full of love and joy, that it is easy for me to forget what their life was like before Arbre de Vie. it hit me on monday when he was talking about how he was thankful he had obtained his parent's death certificates (a large feat in Benin) so he could fill out the paperwork for his passport. his parent's death certificates. he is 19. and has no family. it becomes too much if i think about it for too long...
the drive to cotonou
ashley had to pee.
let's be real...there are no public restrooms.
no quiktrips on the side of the road.
no mcdonalds we can just whip into.
nope.
but we did find this little hut.
surrounded by cows.
off the main road...
jon was running up to guard the door.
turns out the "hut" was some sort of voodoo shrine.
whoops.
eating lunch in cotonou at this amazing chinese restaurant.
augustin eating chinese food and using chopsticks for the first time!!
intersection in cotonou...pure madness.
driving here would be enough to induce an anxiety attack.
we treated augustin to pizza before we headed back to sakete that night!
pizza is his favorite and he deserved a treat after receiving such an amazing award.
we looked over during dinner and he was using his chopsticks from lunch for his sandwich at the pizza shop...hilarious.
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the days around the orphanage are so exciting right now! the construction for a new dorm for the kids to live in is well under way. here is a picture of the foundation being laid. it's amazing to be part of this time of Arbre de Vie's day to day life. so neat to see this home being built. this home that is so desperately needed for these amazing children!
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