Bed Bugs Continued...

What are these?

Here is its size in relation to a post-it note

They aren't technically bed bugs because they have wings.  We have seen these around our house quite a bit... they can be 2-3 times bigger.

Pretty sure these are what is biting us because I found one trying to bite me this morning up my shorts.

Anyone?

Aden's Chuckles

Momma makes him smile quite a bit

But nobody makes him laugh like his Daddy!

Good Night, Sleep Tight... Don't Let the...

Bed Bugs Bite!!!

Never thought I would have to say that in all seriousness to anybody.  But yes, we may have a bed bug situation up in here!

Or we may not... its currently a mystery.

Rewind to when we first arrived. 

I have noticed that I was getting more 'mosquito bites.' I chalked it up to doing late night feedings for Aden away from the safety of our mosquito net.

About 4-5 days ago we noticed some interesting looking bites on John.  They were mostly on the right side of his body on his abdomen and thigh.  We're talking probably 20-30 bites.  That is no mosquito.  They were also kind of clumped up together and in a path.  Uh-oh we're thinking... "the shingles is back! But why does he a few on the other side of his body?  Does he have bilateral shingles?  Let's keep him away from Aden for a while... we don't want Aden to get chicken pox so young!"

A day or two passes and John doesn't get the flu like symptoms that got him bed bound the last time he had shingles. I also notice my bites are kind of clustered together too.  They are not on my core but I also wear a shirt to bed.  What could it be?

Then I look up bed bugs.  Uh-oh.  Our bites look like bed bug bites.  And they itch like nobody's business! Bed bugs also feed at night and we notice our bites when we wake up in the morning even though we've slept inside a mosquito net. 

We start looking into ways to get rid of these unwelcome visitors.  It is a nightmare! These little buggers survive 100 degree temps, freezing, a year without being fed and they hide in pillows, sheets, box springs, clothes, and any other nook or cranny you can think of!  The internet says to "call your local pest control guy who specializes in bed bugs."  Do third world countries have pest control guys? Removing them would consist of getting some mattress and pillow bags sent from the U.S. with the next team in November or December.  And then in one clean sweep we would have to iron all of our clothes, take everything out of our room, slather murphy's oil on all of our wood furniture, use some kind of toxic pesticide,and isolate and protect our bed.  Then we would have to use white sheets so that we can see blood stains, feces, exoskeletons which would let us know if we were successful.  But in the meantime, we would just continue to sleep with these parasites until the next team comes.

Here is a Bed Bug

Source

So last night we go searching for some signs of bed bugs.  We probably should be able to see some eggs, some exoskeletons that have been shed, possibly some live bugs (they are 1.5-7 mm long), and fecal stains.  Yet when we take out our mattress and look at the bed posts, mattress, and sheets we find no such proof!  What in the world? We see nothing.  There are some black dots on the wood supports of our bed but they could just be a part of the wood... they aren't clustered together like they are on the internet.

Bed bug droppings

Source

We also find some little beetles (3 or 4 of them) that we initially think are the bed bugs other places in our room and in our house.  However, these little buggers have wings and bed bugs are wingless.  So whats been biting us? It could be bed bugs... it could be something else... we have no clue! But either way... we mean to get to the bottom of this!

On a side note... any prayers you can offer up that we are not getting bit by bed bugs would be greatly appreciated! It just sounds like such a pain to get rid of and even if you do all those things, there are no guarantees.

Is it really that humid?

Couple things about eggs I've learned in Sierra Leone

1. You don't have to refrigerate them.

2.  Eggs can grow mold on the shell.

3.  You can wash off the mold and still eat them.  At least that's what we did when we wanted some scrambled eggs a few days ago ;)


PS... Happy First Birthday nephew Sullivan!

Dis Na Bush Fruit

Krio lesson for the day:

Dis na bush fruit   =   This is bush fruit

There is no real name (that I know of) for it.  If you ask a Salonean what it is they would say "Dis na bush fruit"

You peel away the stiff rind

The fruit is this somewhat translucent part that reminds me of a brain.

The flesh peels open and you get a gelatinous blob of sweet (when ripe) and tart flavors.  Very tasty!

3 months old today!

Wow another month has just flown bye!

Little Aden is already 1/4 of a year old lol!

Height: 24.5 inches (75th percentile)
Weight: Not sure.. we don't have a scale but I'm guessing in the 13.5 lb range
Head circumference: 15.75 inches (25th percentile)

For the 3rd month...

Feeding: Aden is feeding every 3 hours.  Very occasionally we'll do a 2.5 hour feeding or a 3.5 hour feeding.  I've started pumping so John can do the 10:30 feeding so I can get my beauty rest. (I am an early to bed early to rise type person :) most people would laugh at the extreme I take this to if you know me at all) At the very end of this month (about the last week or so... I started to cut out any other night feedings till like 6:30 or 7 am.  I actually think I could have done this earlier but didn't realise it... more on this in the sleeping category, but I basically just stuck his pacifier back in and went back to sleep.  I did this originally at the 1:30ish am feeding but then fed him at the 4:30ish am feeding.  When we woke up for the day at 7 am, Aden wasn't hungry so I knew we could also skip out on that last feeding. 

Sleeping: Well lets just say the sleeping issue got all mixed up when we moved to Africa lol! Actually Aden seemed to acclimate to the time zone change without missing a beat.  He had about one fussy evening (read: he actually cried for a sustained period of time) for a little over an hour and then just conked out as a was jiggling him up and down.  Ever since then he is back to his usual pleasant self.  However, my baby boy is just not a heavy sleeper like some babies.  Even since I haven't been doing a feeding in the night, I still have to go put that paci back in and reswaddle him.  This boy is STRONG and will not stay in his swaddle.  I think he is waking up so often because he gets unswaddled and his arms start flailing all willy nilly! I'm considering double swaddling him.  John suggested electrical tape but I'm pretty sure thats a parenting no-no. 

Milestones: We heard Aden's first legitimate laugh this month.  We have yet to have it be repeated but he sure thought Vulli the Giraffe was hilarious when he squeeked! We tried to get it on video to show you guys but he got a little camera shy.   Soon we will try to get a short snippet of video of Aden on the blog... I know pictures don't do any munchkin justice!

Cloth Diapering: Oh cloth diapering.... I think I will do a whole post on the process of this.  The gist is yes I have to wash them by hand.  But luckily it is a lot easier than I thought it would be.  It does take some time though.  I launder them every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.  I wish there were only 6 days in a week because my Monday load is pretty big, but I can't control everything ;)


Happy Tuesday!

Ephesians 2:8-10

When I originally started this blog, I intenionally left out many aspects of my faith in case we ever decided to go to a closed country.  I talked with John over our furlough and it seems sad to leave out these parts of my faith in a blog I originally created to stay close to friends and family.  I want to share my faith so you have a more intimate knowledge of what is going on in my life and in my heart.  Also, it seems less likely that we would ever move to a closed country.  I've been wrong before but if its God's will, then it will happen anyways whether I share these verses with you today or not.


So here are some verses that really spoke to me today...

Ephesians 2:8-10 (NIV)

⁸ For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— ⁹ not by works, so that no one can boast. ¹⁰ For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

It is humbling, comforting, and convicting to know that we are not in Sierra Leone based on anything from ourselves.  It was not our idea, it is not because we are some super-spiritual couple that decided to go to Africa and give of ourselves, it is not because we are a simple people that can handle on our own strength living in what many would call harsh conditions that often includes no electricity, refridgeration, clean water, etc. 

While I wish these things were true, it is my pride talking.  We are here by grace.  A grace that saved us from our sinful lives.  The word 'saved' does not even seem to do it justice, I think 'rescued' is even better.
 
We are here in Sierra Leone because we were created in Jesus Christ to do good works.  God prepared these good works in advance for us to do. None of this was our idea, but God's.  We have no skills, nor talents, nor abilities that God did not give us other than what he gave us to do good works.   While a part of me yearns to take pride in being in Africa, I can't.  I can't boast in it, because I am here by grace. 

What good works has God prepared for you to do in advance? I'd love to hear it!

If you guessed...

CHAYOTE you were right!!!

In Sierra Leone they call it "chu chu" pronounced "choo choo" (like the train)

According to "Aggie Horticulture"

The chayote is also "known as the Vegetable Pear and the Mirliton, this vegetable is a member of the cucurbit family. The fruit is light green in color and pear shaped. The fruit is produced on vigorous growing vines that are cold sensitive."

Here it is raw and sliced.  It has a small seed inside of it that is also edible.

I sauteed sliced chu chu with onions, garlic, salt, and pepper in some coconut oil

I served it alongside what I call Mexican Lentils.  I soaked some red lentils, cooked them, and added some taco seasoning, extra cayenne pepper, and added some leftover shredded chicken.  I really recommend the extra cayenne.  I made it for this bible study we have once a month with other expatriates and it was quite bland.  The next night I pumped it up with some more taco seasonings and added the cayenne.  John agreed it was way better.  I topped the soup with some yummy avocado for a nice cooling effect.

Hoping to try some more local food with non-local cooking styles... see whats up next!

PS Thank you so much for your prayers.  Turns out my mom has a vitreal detachment (way less serious than a retinal detachment) There is still a small chance in could turn into a retinal detachment but this would happen in the first 3 weeks.  We're still praying for continued good news in this area.  Also, John's sickness was your typical 24 hour thing that we are used to having here and he went back to work yesterday.  Praise God!

Tropical Fruit Trivia!!!

Another round of "Tropical Fruit Trivia"!!!

Can you guess what I am?

Don't worry if you don't know what it is... Aden has no clue either... :)

PS Mom... you're not allowed to guess Mrs. Chopped Viewer extraordinaire!
PSS Anyone who isn't Mom... please pray for my mom.  She is going to an eye specialist today because she thinks she has a detached retina.  Also pray for John... the once a month food poisoning of Sierra Leone is visiting him :(

Mr. BoJangles is really a girl!

Anyone recognize that SNL skit from the Will Ferrel days?

Well, I don't have a cat that is named Mr. BoJangles, but we did figure out something special about our cat upon returning to Sierra Leone...

The conversation I had with John went something like this:

Kaysie: Hey John, whats that lump on Bess (our female cat)'s butt?

John: That's not its butt.

Kaysie: Hmm (puzzled and thinking)  (gets a closer look at that area) Those kind of look like man parts.

John: Is Bess a boy?

John/Kaysie:  hahahahahah!


It is quite typical of African culture to want to give an answer, whether it is right or not in order to appease the person they are answering.  We assumed Bess was a girl because that's what the community told us (whether they knew she he was or not) when they gave her him to us.  We are now calling him 'Mr. Bess'

Sorry its been so long since a post... Blogger has not been letting me on because it doesn't recognize my IP address so I got a hotspot shield.  Hope to be blogging more!  Here are a few more pictures of Mr. Bess who loves nuzzling up in John's pants...

We're BAAAAAAACCCKKK!!!!

And we're very excited about it!

Except its so hard to unpack when you're so busy making a cute boy smile!

Aden did exceptionally well on the flight.  He cried for probably less than 2 minutes for the entire flight time.  People kept saying how they were expecting a 'roucous' from him but he was so quiet.  "A quiet bobo pikin" another lady put it. One of the airline stewards from London to Freetown probably would have kept Aden if I would have let him.  He kept coming back to me to hold Aden and to show all the other stewardesses.  We got pretty lucky with the flights.  From Chicago to London we got three seats instead of two and then we got 5 seats to share from London to Freetown.  We definitely felt everybody's prayers for the trip be answered with the roominess in the planes, the ease we encountered checking in our 5 checked bags, and the kindness we encountered from all the airline workers.  Aden even received his first set of pilot wings and also a stuffed toy! 

We did end up having to sit on the tarmac for almost 3 hours in London before we took off.  We didn't get to our house in Freetown till 1 am because we missed the ferry ride to the closer port! But if that is the worst of the entire trip, I am very grateful.  It was sad to leave family but I am excited to see what God has in store for us this trip!