Update on the maggot situation...

Ok... so in my attempts to try and get the mango fly larva (sounds so much better than maggot) out... I think I crushed him to death and now my body is resorbing it.  However, I actually think it might be the better way to go then waiting for him to get big so he can 'worm' his way out while I suffocate him (despite how his satisfying killing the little bugger would be!) 

Hopefully I won't have to face this dilemma again... I decided to use the dryer with all my clothes after they line dry.  Supposedly, you either have to use a dryer, iron all your clothes, or not wear your clothes for 48 after they dry.  We try to use the dryer as little as possible since we can't run it on solar due to it's high energy requirements. I thought I did wait for my clothes to have been dry for 48 hours but they may have been still damp when I put them away. 

Here is a picture before I accidentally squeezed him to death.  You can see the dark part in the center where the larva continues to breath.  Yuck!!

I have a maggot living in my skin...

So I had high intentions to write some really in depth, spiritual posts this past week.  And I did write one.  But you never saw it because it got lost out "there" somewhere in the world wide web and I couldn't think of writing it again and then had a mental block of writing any blog.

But back to my super interesting title of my blog.  I finally got it.  Something that I have been avoiding for the last 2 years.  A mango fly laid its eggs into my clothes.  I wore my clothes and an egg burrowed into my skin and thus my problem of now having a maggot growing in my skin. 

The internet tells me the lesion begins to look like a little crater.  The center is where it comes up to breath to get air.  But in a day or 2, as soon as its big enough... I am going to suffocate it with vaseline and as it wriggles out to get some air... I'm going to pull it out a watch it die a most painful death in some bleach water as punishment for infesting me with a parasite. 

I already tried to do it but "it was not ready" as the internet tells me because it didn't come up for air.  However, I may have already killed it in my futile attempts.  If that's the case, my body will just resorb it.  

I took a picture of the maggot living in my skin.  I decided not to post it because my internet is SUPER slow these days and well... cause its gross.  But if you want to see... let me know and maybe I'll post it or send you an email :)

We're back!!

So it's been about 2.5 months since I last posted.  John and I are so thankful for the time that we got to spend with family and friends.  It went by really quickly and we were a lot busier than we thought we would be.  Nevertheless, we came back refreshed and ready to see what God has in store for us. 

We arrived in-country 33 hours after we left Arizona.  Aden did really well on the flights.  The hardest part was waiting for our luggage on the carousel.  It was literally like a sauna inside.  We were all dripping with sweat and Aden was an unhappy camper because of it!

Our teammate Chad wasn't able to make the ferry over to pick us up but it was a blessing in disguise because I really enjoyed taking a small boat instead of our cars onto the ferry.  The boat was small but the seating was spacious and cool.  There was a video of various people running with the bulls in Spain in the background.  All the Sierra Leoneans that we were riding with us thought it was the most peculiar thing! (I tend to agree!)

When we arrived in Sierra Leone, our wonderful teammates had moved all of our stuff into our new compound.  Instead of paying rent for another year, we decided to live in these "mostly" fixed up houses that we are leasing from the government for free for 20 years. Its in Newton (right outside of Waterloo) We packed up most of our belongings before we left Sierra Leone, and that was the first thing we had to do when we arrived... unpack! It seemed a little overwhelming at first.  I tend to prefer packing... and John likes to unpack so I guess we make a pretty good team... I think what took the longest was decided where all the furniture would go so we could unpack our things in and around it.  We were lucky to have our teammates watch Aden during a lot of the unpacking stage so we could get to work!

It took about 5 days and we have a majority of our house unpacked.  I think we probably won't be entirely moved in for about 6 months and I'll tell you why later...

But 6 days after we arrived, a team from Chile arrived.  One guy will be living here, another young nurse Valentina will be staying 6 months, and another man is leaving on Sunday (we'll call him Mr. P...he likes to remain anonymous but he's one of the big reasons that John and I are in Sierra Leone now).  We have been having a BLAST with the team.  A major reason Mr. P came was to lead us in a 5 day spiritual retreat and encourage/challenge us to a greater relationship and intimacy with God.  And if that was his goal, he did just that! I think our whole team is very excited about the growth in each of our personal walks with God and what He has in line for each of our ministries.  I hope to be mixing in some of my favorite quotes, current meditations of my heart, and ways I believe God has been challenging me... as well as the usual day-to-day stuff I usually post about (AKA... pictures of Aden :)  

Here is a picture from our new compound with a lot of our Sierra Leonean, Chilean, and American team members (minus John who was taking the picture and Aden who was sleeping during it)

 

Pack it up... Pack it in...

So I've been a little MIA lately... but for good reason.  Not only have I been preparing to make the journey to the US, but this past week I found out that we have to have our whole house packed up and as much of it moved into a storage container as possible before we leave.

At first I was thinking "It would have been nice to know sooner" but actually I'm one of those weird people who really like to pack.  It seems like almost everybody else I know likes to UN-pack. Me? Know way... I hate deciding where things go.  I need to hire a professional unpacker/organizer.  However, God has paired me with such an amazing complement... and he much prefers to unpack (yes!) so I think we make a good team.

Right now I am sitting on my couch looking at a bare bookcase, everything is cleared out of my kitchen, pantry, and Aden's bedroom.  Three suitcases are filled right next to me just waiting to be locked with some TSA locks after we add a few last minute things in the morning. 

My carry-on is packed with clothes for cold weather (Brussels will be COOOLD!) When we leave tomorrow, the high in Freetown will be 86 degrees with a max of 88% humidity, comfort level = 96 degrees.  I also have lots of toys and snacks for Aden to try and keep him occupied during our 6.5, 9, and 4.5 hour plane flights we have planned.  I'm not actually too worried about the flights with him.  I may be being naive, but John and I have been in prayer about it and I know that it is a finite amount of time and there is a light at the end of the tunnel.  How bad can it be?  ;) 

Well, see you all on the other side!! 

Car Problems

I would say almost without fail, when teams come, there is some kind of car problem.  With this last team we had at least 3.  The first one was when Chad realized his breaks didn't work on the day they were heading out to the village.  About half a days work and the problem was solved.

The second problem happened when John and I and the other people from Flagstaff were on there way to the village the next day and Robin's car got a flat tire.  But we made lemonade out of lemons while John went to go get the tire fixed.

While we were waiting Aden was just walking up and down this road as far as he could go.

We also took cover in the shade of some trees.  This is Dean from CCoF.

The 3rd car problems was when we were leaving the village and one of John's tires fell through a bridge.  The bridge was made of palm tree trunks and was not held together very well.  While we were waiting Aden, my mom and I walked down to the next village and sat with the villagers for a while.  Everybody here is so hospitable.  They dusted off three chairs in the shade and kept bringing us more and more gigantic cucumbers from their gardens.  Precious!

Straight Up Lion King

We found this in the village...

Straight up GRUBS!!! I seriously can't think of grubs without thinking of Lion King... anyone?

Turning the Crank

Since we first got our well drilling kit in March of 2011 (and since have added another kit) we have drilled over 20 wells.  And when I say "we" I use the term loosely as people do when they are associated with a good work that is going on but are not actively involved.

I've had only a few opportunities to jump in there and turn the crank with the boys and usually I was holding Aden so it would have been difficult.   John said there has only been 2 girls that he's met that could 'turn the crank' for any lengthy period of time without tiring out.  In this last trip I decided to give it a go.  Yes it was hard and I was tired... yes I did most of the work (you can see in some of the pictures that John is smiling... nobody truly working hard has a smile on their face... and clearly, the look of constipation consternation on my face shows that I was doing most of the work).