Addiction

Hannah and I are addicts - admittedly.
We love television.
Admittance is the first step to recovery.
We don't have satellite and we don't have an antenna, so it is just movies/tv shows we own or have borrowed.
We typically fight the urge to watch TV every night.
On Wednesday nights we do a Bible Study with the Straws and other English speakers.
Some weekends we hang out with the Straws as well.
Some nights we do yoga or zumba.
Some nights we play games.
Some nights we work.
Some nights we read separately.
Some nights we read a book together.  I have been reading a book to Hannah.  I am a visual learner and she is an auditory learner so it just works better that way.  The funny thing is that she retains more of it than I do!
Christie recommended the book "A Whole Nother Story" by Dr. Cuthbert Soup, the president of the National Center for Unsolicited Advice.  For those of you who have kids it is a good "chapter" book that teaches kids words.  Admittedly it taught me some too!
Other ideas?

times change

This is an old picture.  The stadium is already completed.  The CAN (African Cup) is already started.

There are new over passes.  They are improving the roads.  Things are really changing here.

They have trash bins now across the street from our gate!  No more trash pile.  Well... it may take awhile for people to adjust.  But I smile at the paintings downtown that support throwing trash in the receptacles and frown on throwing it on the ground!

news at 6... which is actually 12noon for you

 The Bongolo Airplane arrived on January 3rd!!
See more at...
http://gabonpilot.blogspot.com/

 There were over twenty of us who went to "Turtle Camp" this year.  We went over to Pointe Denis.  It was a great time!  Lisa (on the left) moved to Mali the day after we got back, so it was great to spend relaxing time with her before she moved.  We miss her greatly!!  They got to see a turtle, our second and last night there!!  It was about 3am in the morning.  They got to see the whole process of the mama coming up and laying her eggs... about 1h45m.

 There were two families that had kids about the same ages... they had a blast!

 We did a campfire on the beach!  And smores!!!  A treat since they don't sell graham crackers here... or marshmellows.  I believe a Grandma brought the marshmellows and Joanna had graham crackers from her food order, we just had to toast them a little (humidity).

Rachael did Arabic tea... she watered it down a little for us.  It is a ceremony, although we sort of did as we sat around the campfire. See more at... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moroccan_tea_culture

Notice the leaf as a hot pad??!!

Cold soup

Gazpacho soup
Made from ingredients I bought on the street.
Mom would be so proud.
I was so proud.
I love being able to walk down the street and buy groceries.
Not everything I need, nor the same stuff every time.
Found cucumbers the week I made this.
This week no cucumbers, but limes!
Stuff you can buy all the time... plaintains, onions, tomatoes, green peppers, and other stuff I have no idea what to do with.

Christmas

Christmas is difficult when you miss your family and friends.
But hanging with the Straw family helped to ease the pain.
I did get to talk to my family over Christmas... which was GREAT!  The skype connection on Christmas day was fantastic - no delay!!



I like giving gifts when I know that it is going to make that person smile.

Megan is a gift giver... she loves to give.  I loved watching her give... she's showing her dad the backpack she gave him.

Hannah and I gave Joe a wallet with our picture in it!  We had the picture taken down the street and the guy took a toilet paper roll and took our picture through that to give it an effect... the effect it had on us was laughter!

Sam got a tattoo sleeve!

What our weeks have looked like lately...
More pictures...

Ok so you will hardly ever see pictures of us busy at a medical clinic... cause when I'm busy working I don't have time to take pictures!  We did a couple eye clinics at two schools the past two weeks.  

We (mostly Hannah) helped Alace hang her Christmas decorations!

I know this is a fuzzy picture, but the lighting is more realistic...  her tree (albeit fake) is beautiful!

Hannah is learning to drive stick!  And she was actually driving around Libreville until we were stopped by the military the other night and he told her that she needed a Gabonese license.  

We were driving home from the Straws the other night, when we got stopped at a military checkpoint.  He asked to see our papers and Hannah's driving license.  The fire extinguisher had expired about a year ago, the vehicle inspection had expired that day!!, and he claimed that after being in the country for six months you needed a Gabonese driver's license (though she had just started learning standard shift a couple weeks before!).  So he told us it would be 36,000cfa (~$72).  He left and we sat there waiting.  I don't remember how many times he came back to the car, only one or two times, but the last time he asked for the money.  I told him that we needed a receipt, so he said we would have to go to the police station back across town.  We asked for directions, he explained, we sort of understood.  But then when we asked if he would be coming with us... because he had the papers and we couldn't go to the police station without them... he offered us 10,000cfa.  [For those of you unfamiliar with how things sometimes work here - that would be known as a bribe.]  We acknowledged that that was a better deal, but insisted that we needed paperwork.  Hannah got into the back seat, I got in to drive (after showing my Gabonese driver's license), and we motioned for him to get in the front seat.  He gave us our papers and told us to get them corrected.  

Moral of the story... wait them out!!

Thank you Father for the motivation, courage, and freedom to do what is right.  

Praying before a building committee meeting

Building committee meeting... great minds!  I am very thankful for this group of people... Pastor Hippolyte (on right),  Pastor Pilot Steve (middle), and Hannah (left).  They are awesome!  

So Hannah suggested we better document our lives...

Me doing an ear candle... have you ever done one?  It is amazing how much stuff is in your ear!!

For you bird lovers out there... this guy was eating the termites on our mango tree... he actually went into the hole that is right behind his bright red head.

Living here you see knock offs of almost every brand there is... but of trucks, that's taking it a bit far... and they didn't even spell it right!

An urchin (i think) on a reef.

We went out close to a beach called Santa Clara the other day and I walked aways out on a reef.
Mom, aren't you proud of me wearing my sunproof shirt?
Jeanne... does this look familiar?  My beach attire hasn't changed much!

Hannah and I both love pumpkin pie... so we made some for her English class and made the extra into this cute little heart shaped pies... with made from scratch whipped cream!  Yummy!!