May 18th - Tuesday

Today Rick and Heather dropped up Tendai @ 6:00 a.m. as they are going to Beira (4 hours from here) to pick up the nursing students from Prairie. We were all up early and Raph was quite cranky about the whole thing, but he pulled through. Having a playmate helps I’m sure!!! Him and Tendai have a bit of a love hate relationship. She really likes hugging and Raph hates being hugged... So it’s funny watching her chasing him around to hug him and she always ends up tackling him to the ground. He needs to get tougher I tell you, getting man-handled by a girl like that! It’s embarrassing ;)

In the afternoon we gave them a bath in a small bucket and it worked out better than expected. Raph sat on Tendai mostly the whole time and she was happy about it because then she could hug him and rub his back! Raph wouldn’t not have been happy had the roles being reversed... he he. Those 2 crack me up.

We went for a bit of a walk to get even more lemons for the lemonade. It takes a lot of lemons to make 4.5 liters of lemonade! By the time I was done my hands were quite sore... I really need a juice squeezer thing :) Anyone has a lemon cookie recipe they’d like to share with me? That’s my next project. Or anything SIMPLE with lemons? Remember that my supplies are limited!!! The grocery store is 1 hour away... and doesn’t have ANYTHING that looks familiar. It’s quite strange to have everything look so different. Who knew KD was such a “North American” thing?

We made grilled cheese for lunch as Tendai is crazy about cheese. She opened the sandwich and first ate the cheese. Then she ate the bread. She’s so cute I tell you! Not having a toaster, microwave, ... really makes you get creative and I realized that bread tastes much better when “toasted” in a frying pan with “butter” (or whatever we’re using, but it’s orange). It’s not even close in taste.

The students arrived around 5:00 p.m., which is a bit too bad because they had to set up in the dark... and they are all girls!!!! We heard a lot of screaming and laughed at the (or with them?). I was terrified our first night in the tent, so I can definitely relate. It’s scarry when the bugs are ACTUALLY dangerous... and you don’t know which ones. he he. Anyway, we had supper @ Ron and Barb, they are working with “Mercy Air” along side of the ministry here. They are such nice people. Barb made delicious spaghetti for all of us and it was my first REAL meal, besides soup. I’m both excited and terrified, but it tastes wonderful so I’ll go with that!! Being with a bigger group of English speaking people was nice too, we don’t have many chances to “socialize” with peers, so it was refreshing! The students are so nice, I’m sure they’ll have a good time here. Can’t wait to see what God will do with and through them. They already found a tarantula and a lizard in their tent. he he. Hope they sleep tight, but I don’t think that’s very likely.......... ;)