Sliding Down The Stairs

nightstand.

noreply@blogger.com (Kristy) — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 02:27:00 +0000

I got rid of a lot of things when I left Virginia. A lot. Some things I sold, many I donated (I really should have had a big yard sale). I knew that I had limited storage space (Katie and Vince's basement), and I really wasn't quite sure what life was going to look like when I got back (would I live in a house? an apartment? alone or with other people?), so I adopted this as my motto:

[source]

As I've slowly moved in and set things up in this house, I'm mostly proud of the amount of purging that I did. It has meant, though, that there are quite a few things that I need to buy or make. Combine that with the challenges of a new house that has lots of room for updates and customization...well, let's just say that it will take quite some time to get completely settled here. The bathroom is the big renovation, but I'm also all over the place with other updates.

I bought this nightstand at a Restore (my favorite thrift store) while visiting friends in Asheville, NC. It was a donation from The Grove Park Inn, and it was in pretty good shape - just a few scuff marks here and there. I knew I wanted to paint it (because I love painted furniture), and I thought the detail on it would really stand out if I distressed it.

This is the before:

And the after:

I really like how it turned out! I've never sanded, primed, and painted something with quite this much detail, so it took a bit longer than I expected, but the results were worth it. After a coat of primer, I painted two coats of Sherwin Williams' Copen Blue (a beautiful blue green color that I'm going to use in my kitchen). Then I sanded down some of the edges, painted on some stain with a foam brush (Minwax Dark Walnut) and wiped it off almost immediately, then let the whole thing dry.

The storage that it adds to my bedroom will be wonderful, and I'm so glad that the only light in my bedroom is no longer a lamp sitting on the floor!

bathroom plans.

noreply@blogger.com (Kristy) — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 16:51:00 +0000

After saving a ton of bathroom inspiration photos on Pinterest, I started going through each image in detail, trying to decide what I liked about each one and which pieces would work in my bathroom. Here are the plans, at least to date.

Remove the handicap, walk-in shower with a traditional bathtub. Tile the shower surround with white subway tile, kind of like this:

[source]

Replace the floor tile. I love the look of hardwood in the bathroom, but I don't want to use actual hardwood or laminate in such a high-moisture area. It's a little more expensive than other options ($4 per square foot), but I did a lot of research to find the best deal, and I decided to cut back in a few other areas in order to still come in under budget. I wanted a dark floor (since there will be so much white elsewhere in the bathroom), but I also wanted something that looked a little warmer, not cold. I chose a pecan finish, similar to the image below:

[source]

Replace the wall tile and masonite panels with drywall, and add beadboard to the bottom part of the wall. I'm also planning to add a shelf along part of the wall, kind of like this:

[pinned via here]

The beadboard, trim, door, and ceiling will all get painted white, and I'm thinking the top half of the wall will be a light blue or blue-green (I haven't settled on the color yet).

I'm also replacing the medicine cabinet with a simple, wood-framed mirror, adding a much-needed wall outlet, and replacing both the lights and the fans. The ceiling light fixture is the Ottava pendant from Ikea, and I found the wall sconce at my local Restore (it just needs a quick coat of paint).

[source]

And after all of this is done, the linen closet will still need to be organized, plus I have lots of ideas for fun decorative items.

The floor tiles have been ordered, Saturday we'll be picking up the major supplies (wall tile, drywall, etc), and hopefully we can get this started in the next couple weeks!

bathroom inspiration.

noreply@blogger.com (Kristy) — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 04:38:00 +0000

The very first room I wanted to tackle in my new house was the bathroom. These are the photos from the inspection:

Notice the door laying there on the floor? This house was an estate sale, and the previous owners were handicapped, so nearly all the interior doors had been removed from their frames. Hanging the bathroom door (for the obvious privacy reasons) was one of my first priorities on moving day.

The bathroom also has a walk-in (handicap) shower. It was not installed neatly (lots of messy caulk) and the showerhead is broken, which makes taking a shower a little complicated. This bathroom has the only shower in the house (the upstairs bathroom has a bathtub only), so that's why this jumped to the top of the list.

There are a lot of other things I want to change in the room. The floor and half the walls are covered in a dated, pink-speckled tile, and the upper half of the walls and ceiling are masonite panels (which can be primed and painted, but there would still be seams between the panels). The medicine cabinet is in really rough shape, and the combination light/fan is ugly and very noisy.

Since changing all of this means essentially gutting the bathroom, I'm planning to do it all at once. I started calling around for estimates and gathering bathroom inspiration using Pinterest (I think I'm addicted). Here are some of my favorites:

[pinned via here]

It will take some time to complete, especially as I'm planning to tackle part of the work myself. I'll share progress as we go along.

on letting Someone else write your story.

noreply@blogger.com (Kristy) — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 18:21:00 +0000

[source]

I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I've ended up where I needed to be.

~ Douglas Adams

all of me.

noreply@blogger.com (Kristy) — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 05:00:00 +0000

Baby Bowen is the son of Matt Hammitt, lead singer of Sanctus Real. He was born in 2010 with a congenital heart defect (you can see more here). Matt wrote the song below out of that experience, and as I listened to the words last night, I was struck by how applicable this is to loving any child struggling through hard circumstances - sickness, yes, but also those who come from situations of abuse and neglect.

I can't give you half my heart, and pray He makes you whole

You're gonna have all of me, you're gonna have all of me

Cause you're worth every falling tear, you're worth facing any fear

You're gonna know all my love, even if it's not enough

Enough to mend our broken hearts, but giving you all of me is where I'll start

asking why.

noreply@blogger.com (Kristy) — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 00:06:00 +0000

I set a lot of goals for this year. It's contrary to what most people would say you should do, but this is what works for me. My goals are small, easily measurable, carefully written with plenty of opportunity to try again (see why here), and sometimes frivolous. I was originally content to leave the list as it is, then I read this post from Michael Hyatt:

"So, I went back and took another look at my goal. I had a Goal Statement. I had a detailed Action Plan. Only problem was, that wasn’t enough.

That’s when I reviewed my Internal Motivations for this goal. This is a section I write out for every goal. I list why this goal is important and what’s at stake. It is the component that most people never think to include."

I decided to try it, just to see if I found value in the exercise. Honestly, I wondered if this might be the kind of thing that really helps later, when I review my goals, rather than now. But I opened a document, wrote out each of my goals from my list, and then answered the following question for each: why will I accomplish this goal?

I found the entire thing extremely helpful now. I had to think carefully about why I chose what I did. I started to see patterns in the values behind the goals I've chosen. And I think that, taken together, these goals and values really do represent the things that are important to me.

If you've set goals - whether they are resolutions, highly detailed action plans, or just dreams - I'd encourage you to try this.

goals for 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Kristy) — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 04:24:00 +0000

I made a list of goals for the year in both 2009 and 2010. I didn't make one last year, because last year felt crazy, and I think I somehow knew even in January that my life would look radically different than I expected by the end of the year.

This year, though, I'd like to do it again. Not because 2012 feels any more predictable, but because goals are healthy, and so is being intentional.

So, here they are - 20 things I would like to do in 2012:

Create art with Jacob.
Try 25 new recipes.
Read 5 non-fiction books - there are so many that I have started but not quite finished (Plan B by Pete Wilson, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by Donald Miller, Grace for the Good Girl by Emily P. Freeman, Radical by David Platt) and others that I want to read (Kisses from Katie by Katie Davis, Made to Crave by Lysa TerKeurst, Interrupted by Jen Hatmaker)
Read through the entire Bible (I'm using a plan from YouVersion).
Get eight hours of sleep a night for one solid month.
Start an herb garden.
Make meaningful art for my house.
Explore downtown Frederick.
Take a yoga class.
Take a French class.
Take Ally, Cam, and Jake to lunch for their birthdays.
Cut my car loan balance in half.
Join a Bible study.
See 5 (new) places from the book 1,000 Places to See in the U.S.A. & Canada Before You Die.
Walk the dogs four times a week for a month.
Set up a recycling center.
Tile something.
Grill something.
Write random notes to the people that I love.
Go hiking with my sisters.

goals and dreams.

noreply@blogger.com (Kristy) — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 02:33:00 +0000

It's been a busy start to the new year. Between moving and unpacking and errands and browsing Pinterest for inspiration on new house projects - well, let's just say that there seems to be a lot going on over here. In the middle of it all, I've been thinking about the goals for this year - the little and the big things I want to accomplish in 2012.

As a rule, I tend to set small goals, ones that are doable and measurable and that have lots of room for grace (very important for my perfectionist personality). I'm still working on this year's list, taking my time to make sure that it reflects the things that I want to be about this year. It's a work in progress.

I also think it's smart to dream big, to think about what I really want to see happen if fear doesn't get in the way. It's been difficult for me to do that over the past few years. My life doesn't look the way I thought it would, even a year ago. Sometimes that hurts a little, and makes me a little afraid to dream, to risk not seeing something work the way I hope it will. Mostly it's been a wonderful adventure, full of unexpected twists and turns that have brought me a lot of joy. Even so, it's hard to put a new dream out there, to acknowledge it and have seem a little more real, and maybe a little more fragile.

So I continue to pray for guidance, for strength and courage. In case you're in the same place, may these words encourage you:

[source]

We must be willing to let go of the life we have planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us.

~ Joseph Campbell

[source]

If your dreams don't scare you they're not big enough.

[source]

There is no passion to be found in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.

~ Nelson Mandela

[source]

You have to be brave with your life so that others can be brave with theirs.

house tour.

noreply@blogger.com (Kristy) — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 21:05:00 +0000

Welcome to my new house!

Soon I can finally begin the process of making this house my own. It's completely livable - but not very pretty yet. All of the rooms and trim needs to be painted, and the floors need to be refinished. Also, the first floor bathroom and bedroom doors need to be rehung. These are the photos from my home inspection:

Front Yard/Porch

To Do: Remove the awnings, pull down the bushes, dress up the porch

Living Room

To do: Paint, dress up the fireplace, replace the window treatments and light fixtures

Hallway

To do: Definitely paint, maybe update the light?

Kitchen

To do: Paint, add a dishwasher and garbage disposal, add more storage, maybe remove the soffits?

Dining Room

To do: Paint, change the light fixture, maybe built-ins around the window?

Master Bedroom

To do: Paint, add window treatments, fix up the closet

Bedroom 2

To do: More paint, more closet fix-ups

Downstairs Bathroom

To do: Replace the walk-in (handicap) shower, replace the masonite walls and dated tile, change the window treatments, mirror, and fluorescent light fixture

Stairway and Upstairs Hallway

To do: More paint, remove the carpet from the stairs, change the linoleum hallway floors, maybe tear down one wall into a half-wall

Bedroom 3

To do: Paint, replace the carpet

Bedroom 4

To do: Paint, replace the carpet

Bedroom 5

To do: Paint, replace the carpet, maybe do some rearranging between this room and the bathroom, look into other options besides baseboard heat

Upstairs Bathroom

To do: Paint, replace the masonite walls, add a showerhead (if possible), replace the flooring

Basement

To do: Eventually, fix the ceiling, replace the floor, paint

For now: Workshop, storage, and I'm creating a spray painting corner

Backyard

(Hi Mom!)

To do: Remove the awnings, remove the outdoor carpet on the small porch, maybe eventually a deck or patio?

Carport

To do: Add some additional braces along the back wall, just to reinforce it

mary's prayer.

noreply@blogger.com (Kristy) — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 04:18:00 +0000

Cause your feet will walk on water
Your eyes will pierce the dark
Your heart will save the souls of men
Your hands will bear the scars

jake's poem.

noreply@blogger.com (Kristy) — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 05:36:00 +0000

Tonight, Jake shared a poem with me that he wrote for class. He said, "it's called a what if poem."

You'll understand why when you read it.

What if a minute was an hour?

What if there was no shower?

I would smell very sour.

What if the sun was too hot?

I would surely rot.

What if I died and couldn't say bye?

What if there was no saying hi?

I would surely cry.

What if I could not run and have fun in the sun?

What if I was not smart?

What if I had no heart?

What if I was very great?

What if I was no 8?

What if I left town?

I would leave with a frown.

What if?

an update, long overdue.

noreply@blogger.com (Kristy) — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 21:57:00 +0000

I know, it's been a while. I last posted over a month ago, when I was still living in Africa and starting to look toward home.

A friend of mine suggested I write one more follow-up post to my time in Africa. I agree, it would be a great idea. The problem is, I'm not quite sure how to write it. Living in Africa for four months and working with Hope House is like a lot of great life adventures, where they really don't end but instead continue to be a part of your life for a long time. I hope that's true for me - that God has really changed me during my time there. And I also plan to stay involved - to stay in contact with friends in Gabon, to continue to help Hope House, and one day to go back there.

For now, here is what is going on now in my life. I started working for CBN again a couple weeks after I got back to the U.S. God provided a perfect opportunity to continue to do the work I enjoy but remotely, from home. Right now I'm living with one of my sisters, but I'm in the process of buying a home and hope to settle and move in by the end of the year. It's a great house - wonderful location, a great size, and needing just enough work to keep my creativity engaged. That's a muscle I haven't been able to really exercise for the last few months, so I'm very excited about that.

This blog has always been a reflection of my life, even before I had ever considered going to Africa (back when I never thought I ever would), and I will plan to use it that way. I'll continue to talk about the things that I make, the way I renovate and decorate my house, and most importantly, the things that God is teaching me and doing in my life. I would love for you to continue with me on the journey, wherever God leads me.

Here's the story I'll tell my friends when they come to worship,

and punctuate it with Hallelujahs:

Shout Hallelujah, you God-worshipers;

give glory, you sons of Jacob; adore him, you daughters of Israel.

He has never let you down,

never looked the other way when you were being kicked around.

He has never wandered off to do his own thing;

he has been right there, listening.

Here in this great gathering for worship I have discovered this praise-life.

And I'll do what I promised right here in front of the God-worshipers.

Down-and-outers sit at God's table and eat their fill.

Everyone on the hunt for God is here, praising him.

"Live it up, from head to toe. Don't ever quit!"

From the four corners of the earth people are coming to their senses,

are running back to God.

Long-lost families are falling on their faces before him.

God has taken charge; from now on he has the last word.

All the power-mongers are before him —worshiping!

All the poor and powerless, too —worshiping!

Along with those who never got it together —worshiping!

Our children and their children will get in on this

As the word is passed along from parent to child.

Babies not yet conceived will hear the good news—

that God does what he says.

Psalm 22:22-31, The Message

looking toward home.

noreply@blogger.com (Kristy) — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 18:25:00 +0000

One week from today, I'll be returning home. My time here seems very short. In some ways, I'm ready to go home. I feel like I've done the work I was asked to do here, and that it is time for God to move me on to a new place, with new lessons and new challenges and new ways that he will meet me. And yet, it will be so hard to leave the people that I love here, including these:

I'll be honest - I have no idea what life will look like when I get home. I know for a little while I will live in my sister's basement. I know that I will need to find a job. I know that I will need to find a place to live that is a bit more permanent. For now, though, I'm just looking forward to doing everyday life with my family, and working on being content exactly where he has me.

living at hope house - the raw stuff.

noreply@blogger.com (Kristy) — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 12:15:00 +0000

Because of the kids' school schedule and some difficulties with transportation, I've spent the last few weekends at Hope House, staying there overnight. I've had fun, and have enjoyed my time with the kids, but there have also been challenges, and truthfully, some convictions that were hard to swallow. I'm still working through them, but until I can wrap them all up into a neat little post, I thought I'd share some snippets from the journaling I did while I was there. Just please understand - this is raw, and though I'm not sharing everything I journaled, otherwise unedited.

----------

It's difficult to figure out how to navigate here, how I go to the bathroom and how I take a shower and handle trash and eat. But it's more than that.

It's feeling confronted by just how much I like my own comfort. I thought (arrogantly) that I was past that. I thought that coming here (to Africa), giving up the things I did, meant I wasn't so concerned with nice things. But there are still so many things I take for granted - a pillow, toilet paper, a trash can in the bathroom, a shower, clean water.

And yet, it's still more than that. I didn't realize how much I relied on being able to go home and forget. I want so much to go back to the Envision house where there is plenty of food that isn't rice. I want to be able to forget that fruit is such a luxury that they're so excited to get it, and that it's hit or miss when they might get breakfast. That they wash their sheets by hand every week, and their clothes every few days, because they don't have that many. That not everyone goes to church because they don't have enough money to pay for two taxibuses.

----------

There are people who work in this space, day in and day out, for years on end. How do they do it? What do they do to keep from being overwhelmed? Because there are no easy answers and the need just keeps on coming, and I'm afraid that I'll go back home and treat myself to Starbucks and ignore it all, because I don't know what else to do.

----------

So my big prayer for this weekend has not been for anything I expected - for patience, or long-suffering, or good sleep. Instead I pray for strength and courage - to stay and engage, with my eyes wide open, to learn what God has for me here. To choose to see it, and then to choose to remember.

made for more.

noreply@blogger.com (Kristy) — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 12:25:00 +0000

I keep going back to this song:

You're beautiful, you're beautiful

You were made for so much more than all of this

You're beautiful, you're beautiful

You are treasured, you are sacred, you are his

And this is the question - made for more than what?

For more than a life trapped in poverty?
For more than a life trapped in sin? In judgement and guilt and insecurity?
For more than my own ignorance?

Maybe that's what I need to be rescued from more than anything else:

From the selfishness and ingratitude that has me taking too many things for granted.
From the pride that has me thinking I've got this figured out
From the arrogance that makes me judge too many others for not doing their part
From the fear, that would keep me closing my eyes so I don't have to face truth. Because once you know, you have to do something.

spending the night at hope house.

noreply@blogger.com (Kristy) — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 20:44:00 +0000

The last two weekends, I've spent the night at Hope House - partly for practical reasons (working with transportation difficulties and the kids' school schedules) and party just to experience more of what life like there is like.

And honestly, though it's been fun, it's also been full of a lot of hard lessons. Maybe after I've been able to process them a bit more, I'll be able to share more here.

But for now, my friend Alace has a great write-up of this last weekend. She, Leanne, and Hannah joined me so that we could give Pastor Israel and Mama Nathalie a night off.

fighting injustice.

noreply@blogger.com (Kristy) — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 14:00:00 +0000

Since I read this on Twitter a couple of weeks ago, I haven't been able to stop thinking about it:

"We get to put more than just a toe in the water fighting injustice; God dares us to grab our knees and do a cannonball."

~ Bob Goff

What does this look like, in real life? What does it mean to jump all in to the fight, to make that kind of splash?

when they have to make a choice.

noreply@blogger.com (Kristy) — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 10:55:00 +0000

Many of the children who live at Hope House are siblings. And some of them have other brothers and sisters, who still live with their parents.

At first, I couldn't understand this. How does a mother choose to send two of her children to live somewhere else? How does she pick who leaves and who stays? And how in the world do the two who leave, how do they ever handle this?

But really, what bothers me just as much is that a parent would have to make that decision at all. Because the reality is that here, sometimes a mother has to choose, because she simply can't afford to feed them all.

primitive is relative.

noreply@blogger.com (Kristy) — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 21:04:00 +0000

I have probably started blog posts on five different topics over the last couple weeks, but I haven't felt like I could finish them - either the words just weren't coming, or I wanted to give some more time for my thoughts to marinate a little. So, instead, for today, I'll just share a quick thought.

I'm guessing that when most American doctors first visit the Bongolo Hospital, they consider it somewhat primitive. No large air-conditioned buildings, no widespread food or laundry service, no motorized beds and call buttons for in-patients. And though I believe it's absolutely amazing what God has built here and the wide scope of services provided, they're probably right - by American standards, it is primitive.

But today I attended the graduation ceremony and reception of Jean Claude Bataneni, who just completed his surgical residency at Bongolo. He was here with the PAACS (Pan-African Academy of Christian Surgeons) program. Tomorrow, he and his wife (also a doctor) and his two children are traveling back to his home country, Democratic Republic of Congo (also called Congo-Kinshasa, formerly Zaire), to work at the Nebobongo Evangelical Hospital. Outside of the operating room, there is no electricity and no running water. Compared to Bongolo, Nebobongo is primitive:

The area served is among the poorest in the DRC. The hospital has existed for the last 45-50 years as an orphan ministry with only intermittent outside support. The fees the patients pay do not cover the basic needs of the hospital. So more often than not, the staff does not receive a full salary. Yet the indigenous Christian community remains dedicated to the mission of keeping the hospital open. The pharmacy is never fully stocked and many repairs are deferred for lack of funds. The lab lacks most basic testing equipment.

The hospital is off the national power grid. So aside from the operating room which has a solar electric unit on the roof, the rest of the hospital has no electricity. They cannot afford the repairs or the cost of the diesel fuel to run the generator they have.

There is no running water outside the operating room. The steam to sterilize instruments is generated by wood fires. There is no sewage disposal system, so the hospital uses outdoor pit latrines.
(Source)

I think primitive, like a lot of other things, is relative.

life in africa (part 3).

noreply@blogger.com (Kristy) — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 15:40:00 +0000

My friend Melissa asked a great question about the food that I eat here in Africa. And I've also gotten a lot of experience with getting around the city over the last couple weeks, so I thought I'd share about both of those.

(Want to know more about day-to-day life here in Gabon? Read part 1 and part 2.)

Food

I live with Americans, so most of the time we eat a lot of the same food I would eat in the US. It's difficult to find prepared foods (though we do have some things from the last container order) but most everything else is available, at least for a price. The only things I really miss are berries (of any kind, but especially strawberries) and tortillas.

When I'm out during the day, I'll either eat something simple like fruit (bought from one of the roadside stands) or bean sandwiches (red beans, sauce, onions, and sometimes tomatoes or avocado on french bread). When we get together with our friends from OSPAC (the medical clinic), they make dinner - rice with a tomato sauce, chicken, and this fantastic peanut sauce are my favorites. They also usually served boiled plantains (which aren't bad) and manioc (a root vegetable, kind of like a potato).

Sometimes we get street food - chicken pieces, patates (fried sweet potatoes), and banans (fried bananas or plantains), all of which are so good!

Transportation

For the first month that I was here, we hired a driver to pick me up each morning and take me to Hope House, and then to pick me up at Hope House and bring me home. Unfortunately, though, he wanted too much money, so for the last several weeks I've been using taxis and taxi buses to get where I need to go (now that I know my way around at least a little, and I can speak and understand enough French to get by...most of the time).

My roommate Hannah told me that every time she rides in a taxi bus, she thinks of Shakira's song Hips Don't Lie - and it's very accurate! Taxi buses are bigger than a minivan, but smaller than a typical 15-passenger van. Nineteen people fit in each one - the driver and two passengers in the front, and four people across the four rows in the back (including the person responsible for opening the sliding door). Each morning that I go to Hope House, I walk down the street to the taxi bus stop and take a bus to Rio, then cross the street (not easy!) and look for a bus going to PK12 (after which I can walk to Hope House). It's not always easy - sometimes there are more people than taxis, so it's a bit of a shoving match to get a place on one. Plus you have to be careful of pickpockets, especially in busy places like Rio.

Sometimes, when I need to take a few kids to a medical clinic, we'll take a small taxi. They're a little trickier, because you need to negotiate with the driver on how far he'll go and how much you'll pay. It's also not really safe for me to take one by myself, so I usually only do when I'm with one of my translators.

when it's not my story to tell.

noreply@blogger.com (Kristy) — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 13:06:00 +0000

One of the things I struggle with as I'm learning these kids' stories, is whether I have the right to share them. Some (many) of them are quite tragic, and there's a part of me that honestly wants to put them out here - to pull on your heart strings as they have pulled on mine, and to remind us all of the hard things that people all over the world face.

Yet, these aren't my stories, and so maybe they're not my stories to tell. After all, I would find it very odd if a friend were to write about the hard things of my life, even if I was willing to share it myself. It seems odd, doesn't it?

But here's the more important thing - while each of these children has a story of heartbreak, they also have a story that He has written, and that He is writing. It's a story of freedom, of redemption, and of hope. And maybe in the interest of trying to move people, to motivate them to give or even just realize how blessed they are, we neglect to tell that story.

I'm still wrestling through this one, and I'd love to hear feedback. What do you think?

life in africa (part 2).

noreply@blogger.com (Kristy) — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 13:00:00 +0000

Here is more information about life here in Libreville (see part 1).

Climate

Right now Gabon is in the dry season. It is almost always cloudy, but rarely rains. The average temperature in Libreville for June - August is between 75-80 degrees Fahrenheit, so it's really not that hot. The rainy season starts in September. I haven't been here during that time (yet).

Libreville is a city of around 800,000 to 900,000 people, and it comes with all of things you'd expect in an urban setting - traffic, crazy taxi drivers, and pollution. In addition, there's little to no regulation or monitoring of diesel or car emissions. And, sometimes, people clear out fields by burning them. So, sometimes it kind of stinks outside.

Bugs

Before we came to Africa last year, I got several immunizations - Yellow Fever (required for entry into Gabon), Hepatitis A (first of two in the series), Meningococal, and Typhoid - and an updated Tetanus shot. Luckily, most of those vaccines are good for a few years, so I didn't need to complete any more (I had already taken care of the second Hep-A shot earlier in the year. I also take anti-malaria medication (Doxycycline) daily.

The biggest threat, of course, are mosquitoes. We have mosquito screens on all the windows at the house. I have bug spray for my clothing and lotion for my skin that I use most days. Mosquitoes are more of an issue during the wet season and at night. There are also bufudus - tiny bugs that you can't see, but that leave little bites on your skin that itch long after they've gone - but these are more of an issue in the jungle or at Bongolo.

Worms are also a common problem here. As a matter of fact, every patient who comes to the medical clinics at OSPAC gets worm medication, no matter what complaint brings them to the clinic in the first place. So we carefully wash produce, use filtered water, and wash our hands thoroughly before handling food. I also don't walk on the ground outside without shoes (to avoid worms that live just under your skin).

The estimated HIV infection rate in Gabon is between five and ten percent (ranked 14th in the world, according to the CIA World Factbook), so to be safe I also make sure any open cuts are covered with a bandage, especially when I'm going to be spending time at Hope House (at least until we've been able to get HIV tests for all of them).

It all sounds like a lot of extra work and precautions, but it's really not, I promise.

What other things would you like to know?

life in africa (part 1).

noreply@blogger.com (Kristy) — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 13:00:00 +0000

When I started making plans to come to Africa, I called Verizon to find out if my cell phone would work here. A representative told me that they had no cell towers in Africa. He said, "Think about it - who would want to build a cell tower with a lion chasing you?"

I think (and hope) that he was joking, but it is true that there are a lot of assumptions and misconceptions about life in Africa. Before coming last year, I expected everything to look like the scenery in the Lion King. But Africa is a big continent, full of cities and villages, jungles and deserts, humid and dry places. I thought I would take a few posts to write about the reality of life here in Libreville, and also to answer a few of the more common questions I've heard.

The House

I currently live in the Envision mission house in Owendo, a suburb (-ish) of Libreville. It's a big house, meant to house quite a few people (one night this summer, we had 42 people sleeping here, but that is an extreme example). Upstairs there is a big living/dining room, kitchen, office, laundry room, three bedrooms, and two bathrooms. I either have a room to myself or share it with one other person, depending on who is living here at any given time. Leanne and Hannah use the other two bedrooms.

Downstairs has pretty much the same set-up, with a (very long) dining room that we use when there are teams here, and a bunkhouse and extra bathroom for the guys (girls stay in the bedrooms that mirror the three bedrooms we have upstairs).

There is no air-conditioning, so we use fans to stay cool. It's not too much of an issue now, since this is the dry season (more about that another day). And over time, your body really does become more accustomed to the temperature, I think. I hope.

Our house is surrounded by a wall and we have a guard here most of the day and night. This isn't really so much because it's unsafe, but because we're considered wealthy (and really, we are) so this is expected. Thought I have to be honest - I find it a relief, especially when I'm here on my own. Paul (the day/weekend guard) and Sam (the night guard) also take care of the cats, the puppy we're currently babysitting, and all of the gardening (we have bananas, plantains, mangoes, pineapple, sugar cane, and avocado).

Water

There are plenty of places in Africa without running water, and many more without any access to clean water. Thankfully, Libreville isn't one of them!

We do have city water for most of the day - it comes on around 6am and (usually) shuts off around 6pm. We have a water pump and two reservoirs that we turn on when/if the water shuts off (sometimes it doesn't). When there are teams here, we ask everyone to only shower before dinner to avoid using all of reserved water, and then around midnight the guard will turn off the pump for the night.

We do have both a washer and a dryer (two of each, actually) but because gas is really expensive, we line-dry our clothes, either outside or on a drying rack. If we dry them outside, we bring them inside and run in them dryer for 20 minutes, to get rid of any mango worms. It's a bit more work, but there is something about hanging my clothes outside to dry that I actually like.

The water isn't really safe to drink (though we do use it for brushing our teeth), so we have a filter and fill bottles of water from there for drinking. Bottled water is also readily available (if not very cheap).

I've got another post planned about climate and bugs, but are there other things you'd like to know? Anything I'm missing?

pk27.

noreply@blogger.com (Kristy) — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 13:00:00 +0000

One of the most exciting things going on with the Gabonese national church is a project called PK27. This is a 25-hectare (approximately 60 acres) campus located just outside of Libreville that will eventually be the center for all of the social ministries of the church: Hope House, OSPAC (the medical clinic), RBI (the eye clinic), and many, many others. This is the master plan:

Right now, though, it's a jungle:

One day last week, I walked around the property with Pastor Israel and some of the kids at Hope House (Steve Straw and his two interns walked with us part of the way, then stopped to clear out some of the jungle with machetes).

I can't describe how thrilling it was to walk around this space and dream about what it will eventually become. The leaders of the church really believe that God will use them to change their country, and they're not afraid to attempt big things in pursuit of that. It's humbling and inspiring.

for me.

noreply@blogger.com (Kristy) — Sat, 27 Aug 2011 14:44:00 +0000

Most Africans I've met love to sing and dance, and the kids at Hope House are no exception. Every day when I arrive, after greeting me, someone inevitably asks if I've brought my MP3 player (la musique, they say, while pointing to their ears to indicate the headphones). They pass it around and sometimes share it, with each one using one ear piece.

Thursday, during what was a more emotional day for me, I was listening to the music with one ear while Naomi (age 8) used the other ear piece. This song came on:

You're beautiful
You're beautiful
You are made for so much more than all of this
You're beautiful
You're beautiful
You are treasured, you are sacred, you are his
You're beautiful

I looked at her and wondered, does she know this is true? That she is beautiful and treasured in his sight? I even thought this would be a wonderful song to use in a video, with photos of the kids that I have come to love.

Then God tapped me on the shoulder. This isn't just a message for her, he said, it's a message for you. You are beautiful. You're my daughter and I love you. I have redeemed you, I have called you by name, and you are mine.

Sometimes I get so caught up in the ministry that I neglect the relationship. I'm so grateful that he is faithful to remind me.