this morning

This morning was one of those mornings.

I woke to the sound of Erik filling the toilet tanks with water hauled in from outside to force them to flush. Apparently we still had no water. We haven’t had water since yesterday at about 9 a.m. Things were starting to get stinky in all the bathrooms. I put the pillow over my head. It’s Saturday and I wanted to sleep till past 7 today.

No such luck. “Hey Mom! Guess what? When dad opened the toilet tank he found a tree frog living in there! Cool, huh? I put him in this jar and we are going to keep it moist so we can watch him for a few days to see what he does. Except, he has a weird looking bump on his back, what do you think its from?”

“Perhaps from living in a toilet tank??” I said as I stumbled out of bed.

When I finally made it to the kitchen, a precarious stack of dishes greeted me from the sink and countertop. I looked closer. Ants. Everywhere. I didn’t want to spray my dishes with Raid or Doom (the popular insect spray here) because that stuff smells so noxious it can’t be good for you. I found my organic insect spray made with essential oils and began spraying like mad. It worked! Ants were curling up all over the place. Erik got me some water from outside again and I began heating it in our electric teakettle. (one of the coolest inventions ever!) I brushed ants off of the dishes and dropped the dirtiest into a bucket of water to soak for awhile.

Oh right, breakfast! The kids would love pancakes. I’ll do that. I went to the fridge for milk and eggs and was so thankful to feel it was cold. (last month, it wasn’t working…we moved it and discovered the coils needed cleaning...also we found a very large, dehydrated mouse). Grabbing a bowl from the cupboard, I checked for bugs, mouse poop or any other foreign object. Phew…clean! After getting the rest of the ingredients, I began mixing. Suddenly, the electricity went off. Argh. Well, we have a gas stove. No problem. I checked the pantry. Yes! We still have some almond flavoring left that we brought with us from the States! The kids love almond flavored pancakes so I poured some in the batter. A few more stirs and I began to drop batter into the skillet.

The pancakes were cooking nicely. A little too nicely. I am still working to figure out the right settings for cooking different things on the stove. I burnt every single pancake in the first batch. As I went to dip the second batch out, I found a flour bug. I shrugged, dipped it out and kept on cooking.  Unfortunately, I burnt the entire second batch as well. The kids were nice and told me they liked burnt pancakes anyway. When I started dipping the last batch, I noticed an ant in the batter. Oh well. Too late now.  I scrutinized my flour bag and found nothing. By the final batch of pancakes, I finally had the temp right. Woo hoo!

I turned to the sink and with a surge of optimism turned the handle. Thank you Jesus! Water! The fact that He is the Living Water has taken on an entire new level of meaning here! “Guys…quick we have water! Someone get in the shower! And get a load of laundry in the washer! (It’s been piling up because of the water issue and because the woman who helps me out with laundry has malaria). Hurry and wipe off the table and go flush all the toilets again! And we have steady pressure so you can really scrub that syrup off your hands and faces!

In a flurry of activity, we got all the dishes done, and 2 people got through the shower. We didn’t make it out to the washer in time. When I got my turn in the shower it was still warm, but just a trickle was falling. Who cares? I’ll take it.

Glancing at the clock, I saw it was just past 8. Wow. It’s going to be a long day.

And that is the norm here. The days seem to drag on forever…but the weeks just fly by. It’s a weird phenomenon. Thanks for reading about our morning. I know many of you can relate to the chaotic feelings of morning and this probably doesn’t feel too different from where you are!

This simple post was not written to elicit sympathy in any manner;  Just to give information about daily life as an American living in Africa. Although…if you want to send packages with chocolate and candy after reading this…we would accept!