Morthaim

Thanks for all your comments on the ultrasound visit!! I really appreciate all of your congratulations and prayers!  We are so happy!  We even went out to celebrate last night and picked out possible names!  Although we aren't telling :)

The position that John and I are in being in Sierra Leone full-time has given us some really neat opportunities to work with other organizations that are here part-time.

Plus, with John's mechanical engineering skills with water, he's pretty much a hot commodity around here :)

One such is example is a project we are starting teaming up with Heifer International and a local church in the states (Westerville Community United Church of Christ).  This small church did all the fundraising for this water project.  This community has a natural source of clean spring water.  Unfortunately, they have to hike this huge mountain to get it!  So John has designed a system to collect and funnel the water down to the community in I think 5 different locations.  

We went to go check it out last Friday.  The humidity was crazy!  My shirt was literally soaked by the time I got to the source, I was exhausted!  And I was considered the slow poke of the bunch!  

John had some of the Morthaim community members dig a 3 foot hole in the ground so he could evaluate the geology.

Here are John and Chad checking out the spring a little further up to make sure this site is the best.

Here is the spring

Here is me napping because that hike wore me out...

Here is a picture of John Barry (right) and Joseph (left).  I don't know if you remember from previous posts but John Barry works for Chad and is a kind of 'on-the-grounds' guy for the rice planting projects we are doing, while Joseph will soon work for John as an 'on-the-grounds' guy for different water projects we do.

They had some pretty cool animals.  These little frogs were sooo cute!!! I didn't touch them though because Chad scared me about them having some kind of disease.  They were less than an inch big and could probably jump 2 feet!  (I wish I could jump as much as that proportionally to their body length!)

There were also something called "bush crabs" near the spring source.  They reminded me of the "hey hey" crabs from Nemo.  They walked sideways!  Love it!

On the way back I was really cautious going down.  (I usually am on the way down any steep area).  It doesn't help that I'm pregnant and now am uber-careful.  Also some of the rocks on the way down are wet and super slick.  The locals made me a little walking stick.  John got a kick out of me holding everyone up as you can see in the next pictures. :)

Alright I will leave you with this... I have a few more pictures from Morthaim and a community meeting but I will post them next cause this is getting a bit long.  

Ultrasound of Our Pikin!!!

Good News!!!

I went to get an ultrasound of our baby today!  My angel midwife Brooke called me on Wednesday to make an appointment for today.  I of course said Yes!!

Here I am getting ready at Aberdeen Women's Clinic (formerly known as Mercy Ships)

She was a little worried that my bladder wasn't full and told me she may have me drink a pint of water real quick but everything ended up showing up fine!

And as she put the ultrasound on my stomach we could see our little peanut dancing around like crazy!!! He has a little heartbeat!!!! yay!!!!  John was so excited that it was moving around so much!  He thought it would still but it was moving its little arms and feet!  Here are some of the ultrasound pics...


This one is from the ultrasound screen...

 This one is a picture of the picture they printed for us!  We were pretty excited because we didn't think they would have that kind of technology here to print us anything.

You can see the little peanut is in the middle of the black sack just kind of resting there in the middle.  I calculated myself at being 9 weeks and 5 days and he measured 9 weeks and 4 days so pretty much right on track!


Praise God for a healthy heartbeat!!! Thank you so much for all of those of you who have been praying for Baby Campbell!

In another 3 weeks or so we will have another midwife friend of ours listen for the heartbeat.  She has her very own doppler!  How cool is that!?

Have a great weekend everybody!

Shower Malfunction

A few weeks ago we were having some plumbing issues in the bathroom we were sharing with the kids.

It all started with a leak in the valve to turn on the water a few weeks before that.  John and Chad got busy on plugging the leak...

As you can see there is a wine cork plugging the hole!

They also had to stop the leaking from above because we couldn't leave the water turned off as we share upstairs and downstairs neighbors while they were looking for replacement parts.

For some reason even after they fixed the leaking problem we were getting some really low pressure water that would eventually just stop.  We couldn't figure our what it was?!

Chad eventually removed the old shower head and made the coolest make-shift shower head that I had to show you!

It worked really well!  I loved it! I was actually a little sad to see it go!  We used it for a least a week... maybe longer. The only advantage to the replacement 'real' shower head is that you can remove it and direct the water as needed.  (which is a nice feature when you always have cold water!)

Chad isn't an engineer by trade, but you can see why John and him get along so well since they both have that kind of problem-solving mind!

Update on my health: I actually slept fairly decently for 4ish hours last night which felt GREAT! (The last few nights were not so lucky!)  My nose is still stuffy but I feel like I may be on the mend!

Also, I added a feature to my blog that you can subscribe via email and it will send you a email whenever I post  a new blog.  I figured it might be a little easier for some of you that don't use google reader or other RSS feeds.

Bureh Beach

So this is John and I's favorite beach so far.

It took us a couple of hours to get there.  We left last Saturday because a group from the bible study were going to camp on the beach.  We got there a lot later than everyone else because John had to change the fuel pump in his Land Rover (it went out!)

Once we arrived, it was only a few hours before dinner.  It was lady fish, rice, and an onion sauce.

Up above us in the palm trees, we saw some vultures...

John put a mosquito net up underneath the cabana.  Everybody else brought tents which I believe was a much better idea.  We will have to do that next time because the ground was pretty hard.

We spent most of the evening around a campfire with our friends.  Some other expatriates (mostly Dr's) also joined us at the campfire.

The next morning we awoke to some eggs on toast for breakfast.  We also had a little church service on the beach.  I cried a bit during worship because I truly miss the worship style from back home that we did that morning.  I love the African style worship that we have experienced thus far, but it just doesn't fulfill that desire inside of me.   And most of the time I don't realize I miss it until I experience it. 

After that John and I went to try our hand at swimming to this island not too far away.  Here are some pictures from it.

Once we swam to the island, John wanted to explore it.  I, however, was not quite as gung-ho as I wasn't wearing any shoes.  I went a little ways with him anyways...

This tree was quite amazing and huge!

For John's birthday before we left, I got John a pretty neat camera.  John isn't very 'gentle' with his cameras per se, so we got him one that is waterproof, dust proof, shock proof, etc.  We had some fun playing with the underwater feature...

Then John wanted to take some pictures of me swimming away from the island.  He probably took about 50 because he wanted to see the progression of the island as we were close and then farther from the island... kind of like one of those flip books.  It didn't quite work out as planned so here are some highlights...

Hope you enjoyed the pictures of this beautiful area... hopefully it makes you want to come visit us!  Just to let you know my fever was gone yesterday... still having some after effects of the traveler's diarrhea, but at least I feel a lot better.  Unfortunately, there has been a cold/cough going around our household and I think it took advantage of my compromised immune system.  Now I am dealing with that and having a hard time sleeping with the drainage.  Usually I am such a healthy person, but I guess this comes with the territory of moving to a new country with a whole host of new bugs to encounter.  Bugs- 2  Kaysie- 0 


Next up will probably be another random post of pictures I've taken since being here.  God Bless!

Traveler's Diarrhea

I know I promised you all a post about beautiful Bureh beach.  And that is coming I promise.  But today, I was struck down with a case of traveler's diarrhea.

For those of you who have had it, it is not fun.  John had a taste of it a few weeks ago.  I had had some diarhhea that time as well, but this time it was much worse.  I had a fever that rose to about 101.6 for about 4 hours.  At that point I was skyping with my mom and she suggested I go see a doctor, mainly because I'm pregnant.

I decided to call a midwife friend of ours (actually dear Robin did it for me) and she recommended tylenol and staying hydrated.  John has been treating me so well... getting me juice when I ask.  Robin did a store run and got me the juice, some saltines, and some suckers.  Later, John ran to the store and found gatorade.  High fevers are not good for the baby and neither is dehydration from the diarrhea.  After I took the tylenol, I took a cold shower (as all showers here are:) and within hour my fever dropped to 100.1 praise God! I just took it again right now and it is 99.8

I am still a little concerned about the bacteria going through me and any damage that could have been done to the baby by the fever.  The midwife said that a fever for a few hours especially below the 40 degree celsius rang (104 in Fahrenheit) is nothing to be concerned about.  If you could all pray for the health of my little one I would really appreciate it! 

And tomorrow I promise I'll have something more pleasant to talk about! With pretty beach pictures!

No News

Short post today. . .

I talked to the angel midwife I met at Thanksgiving.  She spoke with the obstetrician yesterday and called me back to tell me what I already know:

1. I would be better managed back in the States for the pregnancy
2. I am at increased risk for miscarriage, preterm labor, and needing a c-section

She told Brooke that she would better recommend doing an ultrasound at 12 weeks because you can see more.
That is all fine and dandy... I am just so eager to find out if there is a heartbeat!!!

We looked at the date that I will be 12 weeks due and its December 26th... the day after Christmas.
She said she doesn't even think they will be open that week.  She told me she would try to get me in earlier.  Bless her heart!   I still think it will be another week or two before I get a scan.  But I guess no news is good news! 

Next post:  Bureh Beach (my favorite so far!)

Dinner with the Taylor-Pierces

These dinner even was a week ago Sunday, but I have to showcase these birds.   I started making this recipe for rotisserie chicken quite often a few months after John and I got married.  It was an easy and delicious recipe and tasted quite similar to those rotisserie chickens they sell at grocery stores for $5-$10.  And I usually paid $3 per bird so it was a great deal.

I've had to make a few changes although I would really recommend the original recipe because cooking it low and slow makes it sooo much more juicy and the skin even crispier/stickier.

Roast Sticky Chicken-Rotisserie Style
    adapted from Sue Rogers

Ingredients

• 4 teaspoons salt
• 2 teaspoons paprika
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 onions, quartered
• 1 (4 pound) whole chicken

Directions

1. In a small bowl, mix together salt, paprika, onion powder, thyme, white pepper, black pepper, cayenne pepper, and garlic powder. Remove and discard giblets from chicken. Rinse chicken cavity, and pat dry with paper towel. Rub each chicken inside and out with spice mixture. Place 1 onion into the cavity of each chicken. 
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
3. Place chickens in a roasting pan. Bake uncovered for 1 hour (1.5 hours for 3 chickens), to a minimum internal temperature of 180 degrees F (85 degrees C). Let the chickens stand for 10 minutes before carving.

I used 3 chickens.  I also cut up a bunch of potatoes and carrots.  I seasoned them with olive oil, salt, pepper and thyme and put the chickens on top.  It smells SOOO good when it is cooking and is quite impressive, yet so easy.

I had John cut up the birds... he is getting much better at it! :)

We had over our friends Rene and Modupe Taylor-Pierce and their three kids.  They are such a NEAT family!  They are Sierra Leoneans who just recently moved back to the states after having lived there for more than a decade.  They moved back for a few reasons.  1.  So their children would know the country they are from  2.  To help further develop the country in economic development and spiritual development

We got to hear his story of how he was chosen as the first Sierra Leonean to attend West Point Academy.  He is currently getting his doctorate (I'm not sure in what? Leadership I think)  He took about an hour and half to tell his life story which is incredible!! It makes my life seem so boring.  He also met his wife in New Jersey and she happened to be Sierra Leonean as well.  

His father is a prominent figure here in Sierra Leone and just published a biography of his life.  
This was the night before Peggy and Bob left.  Here are a few pictures.

 Here is another of the African dresses I bought when I first got here. 

  
I bought another one but I'm going to try to trade it in.  Most of the dresses are stretchy 'one-size fits-all' types so I thought I would be fine.  However... this one is just too short in the torso.  I will see if I can trade it in for another one plus 10,000 leones or so.  

Hope everyone is having a good week!   

Upcoming posts (in no particular order):  Bureh beach photos, ultrasound results