Up on the Roof of Africa

Did you know that Lesotho hosts a bicycling race called "Roof of Africa?"  Lesotho, made up primarily of mountains, is the only country in the world in which all of its land mass exceeds 1,000m (3,281ft) above sea level.  It's highest point, which is nearby where we live, is 3,482m (11,424ft).  This is why Lesotho has earned the nickname "the Kingdom in the Sky."

When I first began writing this blog, I did so on the roof of our mission center in Mexico.  I used to climb up the ladder to the roof above our third floor apartment and think, pray, rest, or just listen to the hustle and bustle of the city below.  It is sometimes hard for me to remember those kid-free days when I could really ponder life.  Occasionally I've considered changing the name of my blog to something more fitting to my life now.  Something like, "Piled High With Laundry."  Then I'm reminded that, although I cannot comfortably hang out on the roof of my house in Mokhotlong and I barely have time to ponder, I am still Up on the Roof.  And all these little people give me a new and different perspective.

I've always loved the mountains.  It often makes me smile when I look out my window and see the beautiful layers of mountains which surround us.  The Lord knew right where I belonged.  Nestled in the middle of no where.  I enjoy Mokhotlong being home.  It's easy to see why......

~Abby

City Life

The first Saturday we were here, we just happened to go to a nearby mall and find Minnie and Mickey dressed up and walking around to greet the children.  My kids are huge Minnie and Mickey fans and they were absolutely giddy to find the characters!  They’d never seen anything like that.  I found a sign in the mall and read that they were going to have a “special guest” around the mall each Saturday morning this month.  So I noted them and we’ve visited all of them.  The next week we found a Minion and last week we found Spiderman.

When I told them that it was going to be Spiderman, Kyle was absolutely beside himself.  Because all plans are sort of up in the air based on what Sadie girl may or may not do, I haven’t told them who it would be until Friday night.  Kyle was dressed and ready to meet Spiderman by before 7 on Saturday morning.  I then had to try to explain that Spiderman wasn’t coming to the mall until 11am.  So I told them Spiderman was lazy and sleeping in, then he was going to have to wake up and take his shower and eat his breakfast before coming to the mall.  They were okay with that, although we fielded questions all morning about how much longer until Spiderman was going to finish his breakfast.  

The entire time Kyle was in Spiderman’s presence, he was bouncing up and down uncontrollably.  Sheer delight.  The kids wanted to hug him and give him lots of high fives.  It was a banner day in the life of a four year old boy.

On Sunday we tried to go to church but were unable to get there.  Durban had a big bike marathon going on and they had closed down one of the main thoroughfares required for us to get to church.  We tried to figure out how to navigate without using that main highway but we didn’t get anywhere.  Durban reminds me a lot of Atlanta as it has so many suburbs but it’s all basically considered one place.  So imagine shutting down 285 and watching non-locals navigate without it.  Thus, after driving in circles for a while, we decided to change plans.  The kids were disappointed they weren’t going to get to attend Children’s church, as it’s been a novelty for them during our stay here.  Children’s church isn’t a thing in Mokhotlong.  

A friend had mentioned a local coffee shop called Piggly Wiggly and said we needed to check it out.  So we plugged that into the GPS and managed to find it without using the closed road.  I was glad it was open on a Sunday morning.  It was such a beautiful setting, we ate outside while the kids played on the big play gym under the trees.  Jonathan ordered a beef, egg and cheese toast meal and the kids and I split two scones with butter and strawberry jam.  I got an iced decaf coffee which was out of this world and I ordered the kids a freshly squeezed orange juice.  It was lovely, a real treat.  Then the kids saw that there was a small putt putt course nearby and upon inspection, we learned it was only $2 to play 9 holes.  So after we finished our late breakfast, we wandered over to the putt putt place and Kyle and Jonathan enjoyed a quick round.  Kyle had never done any such thing and he was pretty excited to be playing golf like his Pops.  Plus he was wearing a collared shirt for church and we told him it made him look just like a golfer.  He giggled.

My watching buddy

Waiting isn’t one of my strong points, and it sort of feels like we’ve been waiting forever and there is no end in sight.  It’s weird that Ellee came so early, leaving us no choice but to come out of Mokhotlong early just in case.  And now we’ve been waiting for three weeks with no signs of change.  These kids, they keep us guessing from the start!  At least it’s a nice place to wait and we can find special things to do to pass the time.  But I’m more than ready to have this baby and move on the the next phase of waiting….. paperwork.

If only I could sleep as soundly as this one, with the Christmas decoration she borrowed from the landlord's house.... (???) 

~Abby

Waiting.......

I found this place to stay for our baby-waiting-month on a website I use often to find accommodation all around South Africa.  I booked it in May for a few nights when my parents flew in for their visit and, after seeing it, approached the owner about renting it for the entire month of October.  Having one late baby and one early baby, I figured we needed to just plan to settle in for multiple weeks surrounding my due date.  We also knew we needed to find something that had a kitchen so we could cook for ourselves.  Where we stayed in Bloem when Ellee was born was not equipped with a kitchen, and while we made it work, doing dishes in the bathtub wasn’t ideal.  Of course, we knew renting any place for a month wouldn’t be cheap, but we didn’t really have a choice.  So I was pleased when the owner got back to me.  We agreed on a reduced nightly rate (about 60% of her normal rate) for us and secured our booking.

We are staying in a suburb of Durban, about a 35 minute drive to the coast, 15 minute drive to the hospital and 5 minute drive to the grocery.  The 5 minute drive to the grocery has me tickled pink (or should I say green?).  I am in fresh food heaven.  The guest house is on the owner’s property, situated above their garage and office.  It has one bedroom, a beautiful and spacious bathroom with a separate shower and tub (which I am so, so enjoying!!!!), a kitchen and bar for eating, and a living area.  We have Kyle sleeping on the couch and Ellee in her pack & play in the bedroom with us.  The porch is also very spacious and has a fancy gas grill and a big table, boasting lovely views of the hills.  The yard is impeccably kept with tropical flowers and a water fountain and they have a pool, trampoline and play gym for the kids to use.  Thankfully, as neither of my kids can swim, the pool has a very secure cover which is kept on at all times when it is not in use.  The apartment has two air conditioning units, which are so divinely wonderful for cooling the warm and moist Durban air at night.  I’m afraid we are spoiled by Mokhotlong’s cool and dry evenings year round!  

Porch view 

Little Swimmers

Chilly water on a blazing hot day

"Look, Mom, no hands!"

Jonathan is thoroughly enjoying having the sports channels on the TV, I am loving the hot water which runs freely out of the tap, and the kids think having a trampoline in the backyard is the best thing they’ve ever encountered.  We decided because we’ve never had the luxury of a gas grill, we would take advantage of grilling a lot!  Although we do have a small coal grill, we typically try to avoid grilling much in Mokhotlong because we know to our neighbors, meat is considered to be something that is very special and saved for rare occasions (because of it’s cost).  So, we’re grilling right and left down here and enjoying the rapid speed of lighting a gas grill and throwing the meat on!  And I don’t mind dishes a bit with free flowing hot water!

Kyle's special big boy movie date

Since the beach is a decent drive from here, I figure we’ll only try to go once a week until we leave.  Monday morning last week we got up and headed that way bright and early.  It was windy but pleasant and the kids had a great time building sand castles.  I didn’t pull the camera out at the beach but I did manage to capture their post-beach snooze on the drive home.  Sun and sand are always sure to wear a couple of kiddos out!

Building sand castles is exhausting

We found a nearby park on a creek the other day and enjoyed playing there for a while.  I think we’ll venture back over there tomorrow.  Naturally, I’m feeling somewhat stir crazy and anxious about the upcoming labor and delivery.  I am constantly trying to do things to keep myself occupied.  So I think a morning at the park and then ice cream are in the cards for us tomorrow…..

I see the Doctor again on Friday.  Hopefully Sadie Kate will decide to exit before then and I won't make my appointment.  :)  11 days till Due Date and counting....

~Abby

Where There is No Hospital

This girl.  I deeply love her already and I have yet to even hold her.  She has put me on the wildest, toughest, most stressful pregnancy journey imaginable.  At least it feels that way.  I can’t wait to meet her and weep with joy that this miserable pregnancy is over!

I had hoped that the super-sicks would let up on me and give me a solid break before the super-aches kicked in.  It hasn’t happened that way at all.  As the nausea let up in the late teen and early twenty weeks, the serious acid reflux and various aches and pains took its place.  I'm still battling nausea at times, but I think it’s been about twelve weeks since I actually lost anything out of my belly.  For that I am thankful!  A number of foods still sound pretty disgusting, but at least my sweet tooth is back.  Because my body is in extreme famine recovery mode, I am having to watch everything I put in my mouth or the scale will win this battle.  Thankfully I really, really like salad.  

We can recap my weight fluctuations over the past months — I lost 8 pounds being sick between 6 and 18 weeks (a miracle really that I didn’t lose more).  Then I have put those 8 back on plus 11 more over the course of the past 18 weeks (yes, that’s more than a pound a week…. yikes).  I have a goal to not gain more than 4 more pounds over my remaining 4 weeks, which I think is doable with lots of discipline and determination.  The most amazing part is that the Doctor says that SK is right on track or even a little big for her gestation.  It’s a miracle she even survived the first half of this pregnancy, incredible that she seems to have grown just fine in spite of it all!

Five weeks ago I started having some minor contractions in the middle of the day.  I have never had a bit of contraction pain with my other two pregnancies until the day or two before delivery, so I knew it wasn’t a good sign.  I hung out in the bed for the whole afternoon, trying to determine if they would subside.  They weren’t very rhythmic, actually more constant and directly connected to the insane number of Braxton Hicks contractions I was experiencing.  By late afternoon it was obvious they weren’t letting up and we were trying to determine what to do.  I was 30 weeks along and there was no real possibility of a good outcome had labor really started and I delivered here in Mokhotlong.  As one might imagine, there is no NICU at the Mokhotlong clinic, and I do not believe they have any oxygen or warming equipment.  I called my OB in South Africa to discuss what I was feeling.  Of course his recommendation was to get checked by someone who could determine if I was actually trying to go into labor.  He said that the window of time to stop labor is quite short and if I got past that window, it would be nearly impossible to do anything.  The closest border closes at 6pm, which we were too late to catch, so we decided to head out a different border about 3.5 hours from here, plus another hour to the hospital.  To say it was a stressful afternoon would be a huge understatement.  There truly is no easy way out of here, especially late in the day.  It was like a nightmare trying to rapidly throw things together to make it to the other border before it closed at 10pm, all while trying to not stress myself out and cause my body more difficulty.  We got out of here by quarter to 6 and made it to the hospital by a little after 10.  I made peanut butter and Nutella sandwiches in the car before the sun set completely, as there is positively no where to get any food between here and the hospital.  And I did so thinking, “is this real life?"

A urine culture showed a bladder infection which they determined to be the cause of the contractions.  An hour or so after the first dose of antibiotics the contractions subsided.  They admitted me to monitor things overnight and so I could see an OB in the morning and make sure everything was okay on the inside.  There isn’t any sleep quite like that of a night in the hospital…. as in, there isn’t any sleep on a night in the hospital.  I think I’ll never understand why they need a person’s blood pressure at 5am.  But anyway, everything checked out okay.  I have had a few more minor episodes of contractions since then, which doesn’t make a ton of sense, but I was prescribed a uterine relaxer which I have taken twice since being back in Mok and it has stopped things.  Before this episode, I was trying to walk regularly to rebuild some of the strength I lost during my sick months.  Now I will just have to wait to try to rebuild strength after SK is out.  We live at about 9,000ft elevation and even walking around here is hard on our bodies.  So I’m stuck being super lazy for a few more weeks.

We spent the past week in Maseru (5.5 hours from Mokhotlong) awaiting extended visas for South Africa.  It wasn’t exactly a simple process, but it worked out fine and we now have a visa which will allow us enough days to await the birth.  We typically only receive a 7-day visa stamp when we cross the border, and now we have 45 days.

I am scheduled to see my OB again on Sept 30.  So in one week, we’ll be headed out to await the birth!  I’m so relieved after talking to the owner of the guest house we have booked, as she offered to be on-call to watch our other kids when labor hits.  I will be indescribably happy to get down and know we are close to the hospital and won’t be coming back here until we have a baby in our care.  We are tentatively booked from Sept 30-Nov 6th, understanding that if SK comes way early, we will leave early.  It is a relief to know that we have a place to just stay and wait and not have to worry about being far from the hospital.  That gives her 3 weeks to come early and 2 weeks to come late!  Please don’t let it be the latter!  

We are all so excited and eager to meet this girl.  It's obvious already that she's feisty and has a mind of her own, I can't help but wonder who she'll be.  I'm busy cleaning and nesting and packing for our month away from home.  I keep asking myself, "when did I get three kids I have to pack for?"  It doesn't really seem possible.  But Jonathan and I are ready to be outnumbered!  Bring it on!

6 months

8 months (35.5 weeks)

~Abby

Home Assignment

This is a post I’ve been wanting to write for months but just haven’t had the mental energy to put together.  Now that I am feeling mostly better, I am having to seriously begin thinking about our home assignment plans for 2016.  A number of people have asked about our home assignment and what it will entail exactly.  Since this will be our first ever home assignment, we can’t be sure of precisely how it will all unfold, but our general understanding is as follows:

We left for Africa in January of 2013 and embarked on our first three-year assignment with Africa Inland Mission.  With AIM, missionaries receive home assignment time which is based on the length of their overseas assignment.  So for us, three years in Africa means eight months on home assignment.  Home assignment, also known as furlough, will begin for us in January of 2016.  We will spend our 8 months visiting supporters, supporting churches, family and friends, attending conferences and occasionally being AIM representatives if there have been requests for AIM personnel in nearby churches.  During the spring of 2016, Jonathan plans to finish his Masters’ degree with Liberty Online and we will attend his graduation in Lynchburg, VA sometime in May.  We also plan to visit our dear friends in Mexico during our home assignment.  We have about 50 supporters and five supporting churches which spread across the whole country.  It is our goal to visit as many of our supporters as we possibly can, as we truly believe they are our partners in ministry.  With the addition of our new daughter, we will have some additional support to try to raise during our time home.  And lastly, for the first time since our honeymoon, Jono and I hope to take an anniversary trip alone sometime next summer.

For traveling around the US, visiting churches, supporters, etc, we have a home assignment fund that is being funneled into each month.  It pays for our tickets home, our travel, our tickets back to Africa.  We will still live on support for our normal life expenses during all our traveling.  Our plan is to base ourselves in Aiken, which is where we have the most family nearby and where the majority of our supporters live.  Also, three of our supporting churches are in the Southeast.  Because our sending church is in Illinois, we will travel and spend significant time there, probably around the time of their missions conference.  Another of our supporting churches is in Missouri where Jonathan’s parents are living, so we will spend time there as well.  Our goal is to maintain some level of normal life for our family, so we hope to use Aiken as a home base and do the majority of our travels leaving from and returning there.  Any of our supporters who would enjoy coming to us, we will gladly try to host in Aiken.

Currently our two major needs are a place to stay while in Aiken, as well as a vehicle.  In order to keep our house in Africa, AIM will continue to pay rent for us throughout our time in the States.  Thus, our available funds for trying to actually rent a home or apartment in Aiken are insufficient, besides the fact that we have no furniture.  We are certainly willing to pay what we can and we are praying something will present itself to us.  If you know of someone who has a place where we could stay or rent, please send me an email or a Facebook message.  Understanding that eight months is a long time and that five people are quite a lot, we are willing to move around some if we have a few options.  My parents have a van we can use which will hold all our carseats.  But that will leave my mom carless.  So, if you have or someone you know has a car my parents could borrow, then we will primarily use my parents' van.  We appreciate prayers in both of these areas.

The future plan, although not written in stone yet, is to come back to Africa in Aug of ’16 for a follow-up 2-year assignment.  We have approval from our local leadership, it only needs to be confirmed by our US AIM office. We’d like to come right back to Mokhotlong, spend two years trying to establish TEE in various outlying villages and establishing leadership for those groups.  Eager interest by pastors and church people in two nearby villages has recently necessitated Jonathan starting a new group. The interest and desire for TEE in this area is widespread. We will need to turn all groups over to local leadership before we can depart for good, or TEE won’t continue without us.  The main issue with the local leadership is transportation.  While many local pastors who will graduate from the first TEE class (should graduate before we leave in Dec) would be willing to lead a group in an outlying village, they don’t have cars.  So getting to and from is a serious issue.  That will be our main objective when returning- trying to establish a system so that those groups can perpetuate themselves.

It is sort of hard to believe that we’re halfway through our third year already.  It has been great and long and hard and fun.  I’m so excited, though, to be home for a while.  I believe we all need it.  I think Kyle will be able to actually remember America after those months, and I think he needs that for establishing his little identity.  I also think it will help him to bond with his grandparents and cousins and feel like a part of a bigger family.  The other day I asked him if he was an American boy.  Almost in defense, he replied, “No, I’m an African boy.”  And I’m glad that he feels confident here.  But he also needs to know that he is American and has those roots as well.

I’m looking forward to being nearby friends, my sisters and sisters in law- to feel like I’ve got girlfriends again.  I’m looking forward to being able to drive!!!  I’m looking forward to dressing Ellee up pretty and taking her out just the two of us.  I’m looking forward to celebrating the kids' birthdays with family!  I’m looking forward to church in my own language and nursery, getting to sing and listen and enjoy a service without my kids at my feet.  I’m looking forward to eating chicken salad from about ten different places.  I’m looking forward to making some crafty things!  I’m looking forward to hugging my brother, Ryan.  It will have been three years, which feels like a very long time.  I’m looking forward to visiting all my grandparents, whom I miss terribly.  I’m looking forward to seeing so many familiar faces and places which are so dear to my heart.  I’m looking forward to our whole family getting to meet Sadie while she is still a baby!

My kids are not going to believe we'll be 10 minutes rather than 4 hours from McDonalds!

~Abby

Where There Is No Doctor (Baby #3)

Mokhotlong is a beautiful place to live.  The people are friendly and welcoming, the mountains are majestic and awe-inspiring, the days are slow and quiet.  It is known for cold winters and mild summers.  We really feel at home here in our corner of Lesotho.  Really one of the only drawbacks to living in such a delightfully secluded place is the lack of medical care.

With Baby #3 on the way, I already find myself worrying about it.  What if I get stuck on Sani Pass giving birth in the back-a-Rocky?  It’s a genuine concern.  While the back-a-Rocky does tend to provide us with a variety services, a delivery table isn’t one I’m looking to add to the list.  Immediately when we found out were expecting, we began discussing our various options for prenatal check ups and where to deliver.

Having been pregnant in three different countries, I’ve seen my share of doctors.  My first doctor experience in Mexico was unnerving to say the least.  Thankfully my second doctor experience in Mexico redeemed things significantly.  I delivered Kyle in the US with my favorite Doctor but I couldn’t talk her into coming with me to Africa to deliver Ellee.

Arriving to South Africa/Lesotho late in my pregnancy with Ellee, I really just had to take the luck of the draw with a doctor.  I ended up recommended by a general practitioner to an OB-GYN that I absolutely loved.  He was laid back, conservative, calming and easy to talk to.  He was perfectly willing to work with our situation of living in Lesotho but traveling to South Africa for check ups and delivery.  We were living about two hours away from Bloemfontein, where Ellee was born, and traveling back and forth a number of times before we went to stay for her birth.  

Now in Mokhotlong, we are a solid four hours drive to the nearest private hospital in South Africa, five hours drive from where I plan to see a doctor and deliver Baby #3.  Unfortunately, seeing my Doctor in Bloemfontein is out of the question, as the drive now from Mokhotlong is 7-8 hours.  So, I’m taking the recommendation of a friend and hoping and praying I am pleased with my new doctor the way I was with my Ellee doctor.  We leave this weekend for my first appointment on Monday.

Throughout my pregnancy, we will travel back and forth to Durban for check ups.  I anticipate seeing the doctor every 4-6 weeks early on, until maybe August or September, when we’ll have to go more regularly to check things like blood pressure, etc.  Hopefully after my first appointment, we’ll have a good idea on what the doctor is thinking and we can proceed from there.

Another serious concern for our accessibility to medical care is the border gate.  The nearest border to South Africa is closed from 6pm-6am daily.  The only border which is open 24 hours is the border at the capital city, which is 5-6 hours drive from here.  Using that boarder would send us to Bloemfontein.  

Thus our only real option is to head out significantly before the baby is due and await the birth.  We anticipate spending the month of October waiting for Baby in Durban.  Because Ellee came two weeks early and Kyle came five days late, it is totally impossible to know what this baby may or may not do.  It is, of course, our hope that Baby will come a bit early so we aren’t waiting for what feels like forever away from home.  But only God knows if that will happen.  

Right now all I can really think about is how miserably sick I am.  I’m not sick quite like I was with Ellee, less vomiting this time.  But goodness am I sick and my family is sick of me.  I’m not coping very well.  I am so eager to get past these awful weeks and enjoy being pregnant and feel like I have a better handle on life.

It won't be such a bad place to have a baby.

~Abby

Shepherds of Men

The past two days we have had the honor of hosting a group of outstanding young men.  The shepherd TIMO (Training In Mission Outreach) team stopped by our house yesterday and again today during a jaunt to a far-out village.  These guys are the cream of the crop, let me tell you, and they mean business - about food and the Gospel.

Left to right : Sam, TIMO team leader from England; Chris, South African born, now an English citizen; Mark, Montana, USA; Caleb, Pennsylvania, USA; Tobias, Germany; Spencer, Iowa, USA.

In November, three Americans, one German and one South-African-turned-British came to Lesotho to spend two years living among and witnessing to the Basotho shepherds.  The shepherds are a subculture within the Basotho people who live in the rural mountains, herding flocks and surviving under extremely difficult circumstances.  Oftentimes shepherds are ostracized as outsiders and there are social and geographical blocks to reaching them with the gospel.  Here shepherds are largely illiterate; their traditions are to sing songs and tell stories as a way of passing along important information.  The TIMO team came to impart a set of Bible stories which were developed by two female AIM (Africa Inland Mission) missionaries and translated into Sesotho.  Because the shepherds are exclusively men, typically between 18-35, AIM intended to send young men to live and work with them.  This group of guys signed up for two years of extreme living.  We (Jonathan and I) are truly challenged by their courage and commitment to the gospel.

There is something of a gaping hole in the missional community where young men are concerned.  It is commonly known that the missional force is largely made up of single women and older couples.  It does seem that the trends are changing and we know a significant number of young families on the field.  However, the number of single missionary guys we know could be counted on one hand.  Until we met all these guys.  They are serious about what they’ve come to do and we are so proud of them.

Their living conditions are even more isolated and primitive than I think I can accurately depict.  Obviously, I haven’t lived where they are living.  However, we pass by the area in the vast, seemingly uninhabited mountains where they stay, during our trips in and out of Mokhotlong.  Their huts are only about three feet high with a thatched roof and just an elevated space for sleeping.  The shepherds (Basotho shepherds and the TIMO team alike) have nothing but the clothes on their back, the blankets they wear for warmth and shield from the sun, and a spoon for eating their breakfast and dinner.  Both meals consist of a thick maize meal called pap and occasionally some wild greens they find growing nearby where they live.  They drink water from the streams around their huts.  I do believe they have a bar of soap but judging by how the guys looked when they showed up at my house and how my sink looked after they washed their hands, they must not invest too much time in utilizing it.  That’s okay.  As I see it, why bother?

From sunup to sundown these guys are outdoors.  They are working to learn Sesotho so they can better communicate with their shepherd neighbors.  They hike up and down mountains, play a familiar game amongst the shepherds with sticks and rocks, sing, read and sometimes nap while out on herd duty.  In the mornings and evenings, they take turns making the fire to cook their pap.  It’s as if they are on a two-year long extremely difficult camping trip.  But a camping trip with an eternal purpose.

Every forth week of the month, the team leaves their post, called a motebong, in the mountains and retreats to a house in Clarens, South Africa.  Their TIMO team leaders also live Clarens and facilitate their travel and work with the TIMO program.  In Clarens, the guys can shower, eat whatever they want, watch a movie or just take a nap in a real bed.  They also have internet access during that time to contact their loved ones back home.  Because TIMO is focused on mission training, there is also a curriculum that goes along with the program.  The guys are reading some of their assignments while at the cattle posts, and completing the rest of their assignments while in South Africa.

The guys were at our house for breakfast on Thursday morning, so we invited a few of our closest friends here in Mokhotlong to meet and visit with them.  The team arrived fully clad in shepherd attire, although they’d ditched their blankets and boots for coming indoors.  I made up 24 egg/cheese/bacon mini-quiches in my muffin pans.  Then I made two loaves of fresh bread and cut up a whole bowl worth of fresh fruit.  We served that along with all the drinks we could come up with here in Mokhotlong : juice, hot tea, coffee, Coke, water, ginger beer (like ginger ale), Mountain Dew, sweet tea and milk.  It was absolutely demolished.  Then they set off to their village destination about four hours from here.  Jonathan was able to join them and enjoyed his time getting to know them all a bit better.

Kyle making sure everyone had a car to play with.

Breakfast grub

Turns out Tobias already knew our neighbor/friend Ntsimane

Eating and catching up on the Africa Cup of Nations soccer tournament.

Upon their return yesterday afternoon, I served up Double Doozies per Kyle’s suggestion.  After those vanished, I made up some soft pretzels and they were also gone in no time. Apparently eating pap (think really thick grits) breakfast and dinner can leave some people hungry for comfort food.  I specialize in comfort food so I was happy to oblige.  At least we could send the guys off with bellies full of American junk food and prayers for a successful ministry at the motebong.  

We will see the guys again in a couple weeks at our quarterly AIM-Lesotho prayer day.  I’ve been assigned to making treats for tea time.  Now I’ve got to pull some more tricks out of my sleeve and I will obviously have to make at least twice as much as I was originally expecting.  I see a lot of pans of brownies in my future…  Happily.  It is a privilege to serve those who are giving so much for others.  Do join us in praying for the Lesotho shepherd TIMO team.

~Abby

To read more about the Basotho shepherds, check out Jonathan's research paper he wrote for one of his seminary requirements.

Thanksgiving

For our Thanksgiving on Saturday we invited our Basotho family over for a traditional American dinner.  We often have them over for some American cuisine.  They've yet to try something they didn't scarf.  Saturday we also invited one of Kyle's little friends and his mom.  So that was five adults, three teenagers and four kids.  I warned them ahead of time that it would likely be a bit odd for them.   We’ve heard that the Thanksgiving menu combination sounds weird to non-Americans.  I was slightly nervous about trying to tackle T-day on my own but with the help of our friends’ daughter, Joy, we pulled it off!

(Sorry about the poor quality of the pictures.  Photography was obviously not first priority, eating was.)

Friday Joy and I started by making pies.  That is the most important part, right?  I had planned on doing a pecan pie and a chocolate chip pie.  But with the first mention of pie, Joy burst out exclamations about how much she loved the apple pie with cinnamon she once had.  Well, with that the plan changed.  First an apple pie.  Then a derby pie to combine my desire for pecans and chocolate.  I don’t think we have any future in opening a bakery based on the looks of things.  But if we were scored solely on taste, I think we could make it big time.  I’ve never had much luck with pastry dough but trying a new recipe from a friend changed that.  At the dinner table there was a lively debate going on between the derby pie eaters and the apple pie eaters.  The people who chose apple pie first were adamant that it was the best.  The derby pie team was convinced theirs was the best.  Of course each side opted to try the other pie and I don’t think we ever came to any conclusion on the winner.  In my opinion the derby pie took the prize because let’s be honest, pecans and chocolate are a show-stopping combination. 

Turkey isn’t easy to come by here, as you might imagine.  It’s not exactly an African-raised meat choice.  While during this time of year you can find them (I presume because of a relatively high foreigner populous), they are typically quite large and quite expensive.  My oven is small.  It is probably not much more than 1/2 the size of a standard oven in the US.  I knew there was not a way in the world I was getting a turkey and anything else in the oven.  So, I skipped the turkey and went with a ham and butter baked chicken.  Since chicken and turkey are something like cousins, I didn’t figure the substitution would be too frowned upon.  It wasn’t.  

A couple months back I found sweet potatoes at the grocery.  There are ‘sweet potatoes’ here but they are different, purple on the outside and off white on the inside.  The ones I found were brown on the outside and orange on the inside, just like I wanted.  I peeled, cooked and pureed them and sealed them in the freezer for sweet potato casserole.  French fried onions don’t exist here so I made my own for green bean casserole using this recipe.  Thankfully I had some Stove Top stuffing waiting in the cub bard, to me it wouldn’t be Thanksgiving without it.  I also made mashed potatoes and yeast rolls.  

A true American food

Being away from our loved ones is tough during special occasions.  We are hoping and praying the timing works out for us to be home for Christmas next year at the beginning of our home assignment.  Last year we visited with friends for Thanksgiving in South Africa and with more friends for Christmas in Maseru.  This year, however, we decided to stay close to home for the holidays.  I'm trying to be all here, not wishing we were anywhere else.  We bought a small Christmas tree, we've hung our few Christmas decorations and we're hunkering in for a cozy holiday season.  Fortunately, living in the nose bleed section of the world keeps the temperates relatively cool year-round.  At night, with the tree lights on, it is still comfortable to snuggle under a blanket and watch a movie.  Regardless, we do miss home and the excitement that holidays bring with family.  Yet we are so, so thankful for our dear friends here who share life and its joys and heartaches with us day in and day out.  They truly are our family here and we're glad they humor us enough to celebrate some holidays American-style.

~Abby

Why Don't You Just Ship Your Car?

Rocky doesn’t get enough attention.  He’s the hardest working member of our team, besides me of course ;).  Seriously, living where we live and doing what we do would be impossible without this tank.

Our first picture with Rocky who is named after the body builder in Toy Story

Before moving to Africa, we had to raise what seemed to us a ridiculous amount of money for a vehicle.  Little did we know what sorts of adventures we would get ourselves into with these 4-wheels…. wading rivers, climbing rocks, bumping along gravel roads for hours.  While living in the US, we drove a Toyota Avalon which served us well.  We paid cash for it, it didn’t give us any trouble and it was comfortable.  At this point, with two carseats, it would have been tight but we could have made do.  On many occasions we were asked, “Why don’t you just ship your car?”  Especially when we were initially way under funded for our vehicle project, it seemed like a somewhat reasonable idea.  Of course, shipping a car internationally isn’t exactly a walk in the park we hear and it is also quite costly.  So we stuck with the advice of our organization and fellow missionaries and charged forward trying to raise the money for a 4-wheel-drive tanker.  We didn’t really have to do much for the money for him; in the end two large donations made up the majority of the necessary funding to buy our Land Rover, although many friends and family contributed to purchasing him.

Looking at vehicles that might fit the bill, I specifically said I didn’t want to drive or ride around in something that looked like an army tanker.  Rocky could hardly look more like one unless we got him a custom camo paint coat.  Dark green, boxy, powerful and tough, he basically belongs on the front lines.  We believe he is on the front lines.  While he isn’t the most comfortable vehicle to take a trip in, he’s spacious, reliable and strong.  He takes the “roads” (glorified cow paths) up here like it’s his job.  Well it is his job.  We feed him food, get him a number of gizmos and gadgets and replace his tires and he does the rest.

About once a month, we drive him down this road……..

……to buy our groceries and anything else we’ve realized we need while up here.  Jono, the car packing king, can stuff him full from top to bottom if necessary.  On any given trip, he carries the four of us, along with a suitcase, a pack & play, Ellee’s stroller, Kyle’s bike, 3 coolers, 5 reusable shopping bags full of food, a few pillows and blankets and goodness knows what else.  Once he had 4 suitcases, the coolers, the stroller, the pack & play, a toaster oven, pillows, blankets and a rocking chair and who knows what else  He loved it.

We use the back-a-Rocky (as it’s affectionately known to Kyle) for loads of other functions.  It can be a picnic table and a port-a-loo (not at the same time), a napping spot, a play gym, or a truck bed.  While he cruises along nicely on paved, smooth roads in the lowlands, he seems to prefer the challenge of climbing rocks and crossing rivers.  Sometimes we can’t help but laugh at how easily he takes on those things, like it’s nothing to drive through or over anything we put in his path.  It’s during those moments, when our heads are hitting the ceiling every five seconds as we bump along, that Jono and I will jokingly look at each other and ask “Why don’t you just ship your car?"

Picnic on the top-a-Rocky

This weekend we took him out on some rough roads and through a few rivers to a village for an evangelistic meeting.  It didn't even faze him.  Truly, we couldn’t make it like we do without this guy.  I think he deserves way more credit than we give him.  He’s practically part of the family and we’re glad we decided against shipping our car.  We’re hoping to get many more years out of Rocky.

Just imagine that's us because we were following right behind.....

....Not a boat or a canoe but a beast!

~Abby