T.I.A

It has been a T.I.A week!

I had been weed on by two babies, we had no water for 4 days, dodgy electricity, a hedgehog loose in the house and a dead mouse in the cupboard. A mountain of washing up and a clogged up toilet as we didn’t want to waste shop bought water by throwing it down the drain. It was one of those days where everything seems to go wrong. We actually got to the point that we went past caring and just laughed about it instead!

Fortunately, we were able to have a wonderful shower at the Vink’s. Received tank water from Go MAD so we could tackle the washing up (we had started to eat from bowls and even straight off the chopping board!) and flush the loo too! Andrew found and removed the dead mouse that had become trapped in some material in the cupboard of the spare bedroom and Natalie found the hedgehog in the middle of the night scratching at my door! I am so thankful for our neighbours who we know we could call on for literally anything.

We spoke to Jono Vink again about our water situation as basically we had no water in the taps and in the tank we only managed to get half a bottle of green water! He took us to another tap and turned it. The sound of water gushing into our tank was amazing! Apparently the children like to play with the taps and had turned ours off! At least we will know for next time! The truly funny thing is that the other day when I went into Rehema feeling dirty and disgusting and actually wanting to shave my hair off, (yes it was that bad!) the women said I looked beautiful and began playing with my hair. I don’t know if they were being serious or not, but it was an important reminder to me that what I look like really does not matter. These women could not care less if I had greasy hair, filthy feet and baby wee on my clothes. More importantly, neither does God.

Oh and the cuddles I had from the babies was totally worth getting weed on! Once was at the orphanage and I love them all too much to care about a bit of wee, and besides, it goes nicely with the dribble and snot! The other baby was Mtani’s niece. I went out with the GO MAD team one afternoon to see Mtani and hear the plans for his toilet and washroom. Seeing him was awesome and I have to admit I was glad he hadn’t forgotten me! The bonus was getting cuddles with the baby, who (the way I like to think of it) felt relaxed enough in my arms to wee! Please keep the GO MAD team and Mtani in your prayers as they plan all the logistics and finances involved in building a disabled toilet. He is doing really well but has some nasty sores. He is still reading his bible, still smiling and very happy to be getting a toilet.

This week we also had great fun in the rain! Woke up to the torrential rain and had no idea what to wear. Not in a i want to look good today kind of way, but more like, what do i actually have that is appropriate for rain! I ended up in canvas shoes which weren’t the best idea! We had to navigate the puddles and try to not slip over as the roads had turned to slushy mud which Nat, in her Toms with no grip, struggled with much to many people’s amusement! When it rains here life slows down even more than normal. Where there would normally be loads of people around getting a dalla dalla into town it was deserted on the sides of the road. People just wait for the rain to stop before carrying on with their day. As we arrived at Rehema everyone abandoned their wet shoes at the workshop door and removed soaking clothes and flung them over the roof trusses! No time spent moaning about how wet they were like it would be in England as you drip your way into work, or as i hear at the moment, getting on a boat and rowing to work. I discovered that my raincoat really isn’t that waterproof and so the rain had got through every layer therefore i ended up in Nat’s spare jumper, even after i had laughed at her that morning for packing spare clothes! That same day we also had the electrician guys in (getting power in the workshop which is very exciting!) and i stopped and looked around the craziness that was the workshop. There was a ladder going over one of the tables, dripping wet clothes hanging off the trusses, and ribbons everywhere as i was trying to sort the cupboards and in the midst of it all was Mama Jackie happily sewing on her sewing machine. It was such a crazy scene but you couldn’t help but smile.

Highlight of the week- There are sooo many high points to this week but Mama Jackie arriving at the workshop with her sewing machine was amazing. She is such a lovely friendly woman and so skilled. It is awesome that Rehema now has a sewing lady in the workshop and hopefully she will soon be joined by others. The workshop is really coming together now so praise God for that!