Bulk, Bugs and Goodbyes....

Well…at least I’m not a month since my last post. We continue to try to get the compound running at a smooth pace. I would say we are making progress, although we are still figuring things out. Some things are coming more easily…some things are still a continual struggle. The water situation has been much more consistent, thanks to some ingenious engineering by TCBITW. Power and internet still come and go (internet less so thanks to some battery back-ups), although I have determined if I have to live without any one thing…power and internet are MUCH easier to do without than water!  

Our two 40 foot containers got off from Little Rock this week…can I hear a big WOO HOO…come mid-August (please Lord, mid-August), we will have a plethora of things we either can’t get here at all, or are so expensive (and cheaply made), they aren’t worth buying. We have everything from generators to furniture to toilet paper (and DO NOT EVEN JUDGE THAT DECISION) coming in bulk, and oh how grateful we will be for all things large and small! I have to give a great big shout out to some folks without which the containers would not have gotten off (much less with all the things we need)…the whole wolf pack (Braswell’s, Chapman’s, Greenwood’s and Woodham’s). They did everything from coordinating the shipment to runs to Sams, Home Depot, etc. at the last minute. Russell’s mom and dad, Roy and Salliejane, who lent the use of one of their garages as a staging area, and had to put up with daily UPS arrivals and being there on pick-up day to make sure everything made it. That saved us a lot of time and money not having to have a separate storage area for all the container stuff, not to mention the hassle, for them, of having stuff piled up for months and months. My mom and dad, who put up with Josh, his bum knee and his friend, Coop, who got into LR right in the middle of all the hoopla.  And, last, but not least, Brit and her husband, Kelly, who have been a continual source of help with us living here…They are always willing to do WHATEVER they have to do to make sure we get what we need, when we need it! I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again…we simply couldn’t be doing what we are doing here without the STRONG support of both our families and all of our friends.  We would be half as productive (and let me just say that half as productive and we might as well not be here) and A LOT more stressed (and people, I could not TAKE a lot more stressed) if it were not for that support. Words honestly can’t do justice to how thankful we are for them all!

One thing we are still trying to get a grasp on here in beautiful downtown compound land is the creepy, crawly bug situation. About two weeks ago, I popped up with 47 bug bites (yes FORTY-SEVEN…I counted every last one). The biggest, itchiest bug bites EVER…to the point that I did a round of steroids, didn’t sleep for days on end and was pretty much M.I.S.E.R.A.B.L. E!!! Here’s a hint…buy stock in Benadryl…I will personally see that you make money on that investment! So…after a few days and the steroids kicking in…itching subsided and bumps begin to disappear…but we still don’t know the creature that caused such a plague on my body…the Dr’s. King suggested several things…African Ju Ju Chiggers, and bed bugs were discussed…I don’t know if the African Ju Ju Chigger is actually a pest here, but apparently they do have chigger like bugs, and well, I did all the research on the dreaded bed bug, and all I can say is EWWWWWWWWWWWWW…..I immediately went to work to try to find out if we, indeed, did have the little things, and let me just interject here, that we, in fact, have bed bug specific covers on our mattresses and all the pillows, and Katie and I tore those things apart looking for tell tale signs, and well, there simply were not any. AND, TCBITW has yet to experience one bite, so I am leaning towards the African Ju Ju Chigger! All’s well for two weeks and then BAM…yesterday – 10 bites! DANG IT!! At least it’s not 47, but still miserable, although no steroids this time...can’t exactly stay on those for long periods of time, but see above about Benadryl investment – just sayin. If anyone knows where I can get a black-market supply of the twenty year banned, DDT, please send it my way…I’m willing to try just about anything….oh, to just have Orkin or Chem –Lawn!

We also said goodbye to Katie Rainey last week. Bittersweet for us all, and beautiful, downtown compound land is simply NOT the same without her. She was a joy to have for four months and we hope that it isn’t the last we see of her! She completes degree number two in December, so she will have a little more freedom after that! Her house will be waiting on her, should she decide she wants another go over here. Christine, Chantal and Jan Viere gave her a “surprise” going away party (photos included). It was very touching and sweet, and reminded me, yet again, why we can’t take our presence here lightly. The staff and people we work with do become attached and when we leave, they still don’t trust that we will, indeed, be back, even when we assure them that we will. We tend to think of what we do here as a project; they see us as their lifeline to a better future. Oh, the pressure of it all!! With her leaving, we also said good-bye to Lucy, Blanket and Charlie (since she was their primary caretaker, and thanks, but I don’t do the whole goat thing). We donated them to the deaf school just a kilometer up the road from us, and they intend to use them to teach the Orphan head of household kids how to care for livestock and use the milk for the deaf boarding students.  We wanted to make sure they went somewhere they didn’t just end of on the bad end of a shish kebab! And since I start my volunteer work there next week, I can keep an eye on them!

So…we continue to just plod along, doing the best we can….each day a different (and sometimes the same) challenge, but step by step, little by little, we are making progress! Prayers please, for the expedited arrival of the containers! We seriously don’t need any Atlantic hurricanes or Somali pirate takeovers of freighters….

Till next time….

Jan Viere, Christine and Chantal....

Christine and Katie..