Toys

With Christmas coming up, presents has been on my mind lately and how to go about doing "Christmas" here. Do I give my gardener and his family presents? What is the culturally appropriate thing?

Well, that brought to my mind toys for the kids. So I started paying attention to what they have.

The ingenuity and imagination totally blew me away.

 

This is made out of bottle caps and a juice box.

This one just blows me away!

 A car! Out of bent wire! wow...

 Here is all my gardener's kids plus 2 friends.

Oh, and this was Timeo playing on a bucket and using a little straw for a whistle.

I guarantee that these kids are happier with their toys than most kids in the US are with theirs.

Kind of humbling huh?

Untitled from Lauren Reeder on Vimeo.

The Drive to Mzuzu

Okay, I made this video when I first moved to Mzuzu. It just shows you the beautiful scenery on the way to Mzuzu.

I'm currently in South Africa so I have the internet to finally upload it.
Note: this is only for the super interested in my life..aka Mom, Dana, and Julie. hahaha. Otherwise, you'll probably find it boring.

Untitled from Lauren Reeder on Vimeo.

Jeremy's Growing Up

Jeremy finally took off his training wheels!

I am so honored that I got to be a part of it. He decided during school one morning that he was going to take them off.  So, Eric came over, took them off...he jumped on and off he went! He didn't even fall!  

I was such a proud aunt!

The Lost Shall Be Found...Shoes That Is.

I have so many blogs running through my mind. Ones about toys, Jeremy, South Africa, Thanksgiving, and my lost shoe.

Which one do I start with today? Hmm...Let's go with Thanksgiving and my lost shoe. :)

The Laffoons and I went down to Lilongwe to spend Thanksgiving with our mission family. I was SO pumped to get down there and see everyone. It had been just about 4 months since I had seen most of them, and actually, there was one missionary there that I hadn't even met yet!

First off, let me start about my shoe. I own Reef flip-flops. For you out there that don't know about them, they are the best flip-flops on the planet. Arch-support, comfy straps, soft, mold to your foot...etc. And they run about $30-$35. I've had these for 4 years. I only have one pair of flip-flops here. Well, that's not quite true, but pretty much I wear these all the time.

So, as we are in the middle of no-where on our drive to Lilongwe, Jeremy has to use the bathroom. As there are no rest areas in Africa, we had to pull over on the side of the road. Jeremy was sitting in the middle, so he had to crawl over me to get out. I didn't realize until 3 hours later when we arrived at the guest house that one of my flip-flops had "left" the vehicle when Jeremy got out to use the bathroom.

Of course, I was disappointed. I couldn't replace it until next year when I went to the states. I would have to go around without them, but I would survive. A year living in Africa has taught me at least that. :)

So, back to thanksgiving...
We had lunch at our of the missionary's houses and there was 32 of there! It was so nice. There was a single guy there that had just graduated from seminary, and guess where he graduated from?? CLEMSON! and He's from Myrtle Beach! So, that was fun to talk about home with him. The food was so incredibly good. Of course, everything had to be made from scratch, so the food was AMAZING. We don't have turkey here, so we had chicken instead but I couldn't tell a difference.  hahaa. Betty made the dressing, and it was the BEST dressing I've ever tasted. There was sweet potato casserole, green beans, mashed potatoes, squash casserole, crescent rolls, pumpkin pie, mulberry pie, and so much more. We played horseshoes and just chatted. It was wonderful.


Well, I shopped for supplies, went to the eye doctor, hung out with a friend from when I lived in Lilongwe, and then it was time to head back to Mzuzu. We left on a Wednesday and returned on Saturday.


I was still sporting my one flip-flop. Eric, with the amazing mind he has, remember the exact spot that we stopped for Jeremy. So, we decided we were going to stop there and see if my one flip-flop was still there. I seriously doubted it was still there.  I took a picture of it...Here it is...

 

yep, Its in the middle of nowhere. Its a miracle we found the spot. Well, Eric pulls the car over, says, I believe it was these two bushes. He walked straight over to it, and lo and behold! there it was! (Michelle, that was for you!)

I couldn't believe it!! 

My shoe had lasted for 4 days on the side of the road. :)

It was my own little Thanksgiving Miracle.

Admiral Boom Goes Boom in Mzuzu

Remember this guy from Mary Poppins?

 

Sometimes I feel like I'm in that movie...where all the house shake violently after he shoots the cannon.

Well, my house doesn't shake violently, but the windows do rattle.

Yes, I am talking about when the cannon goes off practically in my backyard.

I know, I never thought that I would ever be talking about cannons either, but nevertheless, Africa is full of surprises.

Mzuzu is hilly, and I live on one of the hills. My backyard is a slope downward and goes down into the valley. It looks like this:

Well, across the valley is the military barracks. The soldiers stay there, and they practice their gunfire there as well. That is actually pretty amusing because they only get probably like 2 shots maximum. So they all get together, and shoot at the same time like maybe once a month. That's their shooting practice. haha. So you hear this random gun-fire echoing across the valley.

But the worst is the cannon practice. I heard the last shot a couple of days ago was because they were aiming for this "house" they had put up and were attempting to blow it up. Sure enough in the afternoon, all of a sudden, the cannon BOOOOMMS. The windows kinda rattle, and you are taken off guard by the loud noise. When I first moved here, I didn't know what had happened. I was kinda scared.

And all of this is taking place in one of the most peaceful countries in Africa.

I guess they have to be ready if they ever get in a cannon fight.

I better not get some random cannon ball landing in my yard.

Fire

crackle, crackle, pop, pop!
I know that sounds more like my cereal, its acutally fire.
Fires are happening EVERYWHERE!
I swear the air is constantly filled with smoke. Its hard some nights for me to keep my windows open to let in cool air because the smoke hurts my throat and eyes.

For those of you that don't know, there aren't necessarily seasons here. We have mainly dry and wet seasons. Well, we are in the middle of our dry season, so everything is brown and dry.

We have lots of forests here in Mzuzu...lots of indigenous trees...and we have these horrible fires in the middle of the forest...the smoke is so thick you can't see in front of you. It hasn't been that bad here in the middle of the city, but I've driven through it on my way in. Its awful. On the way out of town, you can see where miles have just be devastated by fire...

But the scary part is when you can hear the "crackle, pop," because then you know its close. Twice now, I've been sitting at dinner at the Laffoons, and we have seen fire right around the house, neighbors burning trees, or just random fires.

Almost every night you can look up and see a mountain with some huge fire on it. They burn their fields to ready it for the next planting season, they burn brush to chase the mice out so they can catch them and eat them, they burn trash, they burn leaves, they burn trees/bushes they think have snakes in them...burn, burn, burn!

I'm ready for rainy season!!

Rambling Thoughts on a Saturday Morning

Just yesterday as I drove the gorgeous landscape from Lilongwe to Mzuzu, I was already starting to mourn leaving this country, these people.  Yes, its 11 months away, but I know that will be here before I'm ready.  It is hard for me to imagine being back in my own country surrounded by Wal-marts and Chick-fil-A's.  Well, sometimes it's not that hard, but to think about STAYING there, and not coming back…that just makes my heart ache.  I wish I could explain to you the feeling that even though you were born American, somehow, in some strange way, you feel more at home half-way across the world.

Then today, I'm baking in my kitchen, making pickles, freezing some strawberries, and listening to my music…and my heart hurts to see the people back home, wishing I was doing all of those things in my kitchen back in my apartment in Greenville.

I know it sounds like I'm so fickle, but I think it's a matter of missing just the people.  if I could just transport everyone from back home, to here, I think that would be so blissful.

That statement right there convinces me that happiness is not dependent on things. I don't have a mall to go shopping in, a place where I can get everything I want…yet I love living here.  I have less clothes and shoes that I possibly have ever had in my life, and yet…I'm happy with what I have.

What am I going to do when I'm back living in America, where no one really understands what I've been through over here; you are different, and they are different and things will never be like there were before.

That's a really scary thought for me. 
Will I change back into the old Lauren?
And how will I take living back in the land of plenty?

You can never really understand "land of plenty" until you've lived in a third world country. Example, right now I'm sitting here on my couch, watching my gardener's 12 year-old daughter wash the clothes in a wheelbarrow and hang them on a tree to dry.

I guess all these questions will be answered all too soon.

And I know that all things that are worth doing, that have the greatest reward, don't come without sacrifices.

And I know that if all my friends and family were here with me, then that would have changed this experience tremendously…I wouldn't be the person that I am now.

And that change is a part of life.
I just don't think I'm ready for that change quite yet.