Beware of the Ides of March...

So if you haven't already heard, Tammi, the little one, and I are heading home on March 15th. There are many factors that contributed to our decision, namely being worried about the little one. You just can't relax in a place where the doctors seem sketchy and around every corner is another potential mosquito-borne illness. We are sad to go, because we really love it here in Mwanza. The Sisters have been really nice and welcoming, we couldn't expect anything more. We hope to return here in a few years with the little one and maybe some church friends. There is a lot going on here.

So we will leave Mwanza on March 11th (Sister Jennifer is still trying to convince us to stay) and return to Nairobi. In Nairobi we will play with the kids at the House of Hope and visit the Sisters at the Incarnate Word. We will also pack and prepare for our departure on the 15th. We will return home on the 16th, probably around seven o'clock at night.

We really feel that God has placed this decision on our hearts and are confident that we are doing the right thing, despite the hard decision.

We look forward to seeing all of you in less than a month!

The Kid and I

Sorry for the inefficent manner of posting this picture. I thought Sister Denise had a scanner, she does not. I didn’t want to wait until we got home to share the newest photo with everyone, so I got creative.

The red arrow shows not only where the gestational sac is but also where the little ones had is. The rest of the anatomy (sans the “secret of secrets”) can be kinda figured out. It was good to see it moving, Tammi can even feel it from time to time.

The doctor gave quite a scare. After a four hour wait last Sunday, the doctor said that he was worried about Tammi’s loss of weight and what he thought was small uterus. So we were scheduled for and ultrasound the NEXT DAY! In the states if the doctor was worried the shi...stuff would get taken care of that day!

So we went through the next on autopilot until our appointment at 5 pm. We arrived, waited some more and were finally seen. The doctor started the scan, he immediately saw movement, and said “Good, I was worried I wouldn’t see that.” Nini-TF? That seems like a possibility he could have shared with us the previous day! Then the real ultrasound technician showed up and did the measurements. Everything was right where it should have been! 15 weeks, dead on.

We have a theory that the doctor knew that two nervous “mzungus” would gladly pay for an ultrasound to see if there first born child would be fine.

Or we could just be bitter.

Times like that makes one feel far from home.

Coming Home: The Dream

So I had a dream last night where we came and we, well just I, strangely enough, was at our coming home party. The party was taking place on a patio, much like Onion Creek. The business was a place that made burritos, but they weren't serving anyone, so I went to Taco Bell and got some food (It tasted terrible [this may not be a surprise to some of you]). When I returned the place was serving burritos, Nini-T-F?*

Anyway, I barely knew anyone at the party. I vividly remember Mat Morkin being there, he was crying, saying he was going to miss us, like we were leaving again. The other people I recognized were people from high school who had no idea I had even been gone. They kept I asking "So what have you been up to?" I would tell them that they were at my welcome home party. Not really knowing any of the people, I remained fairly quiet. Finally someone began talking about the prices of soda, so I took this as my chance to to say something about soda in Africa:

Me: When I was in Africa...

Everyone(groaning in unison): Oh God! Are you always going to talk about what it was like in Africa?!?!

Me: (silent)

So that was rough. So it was a lot of listening to strangers talk about strange things. Then I looked down the steps of the patio and there were som dirty, naked, Asian children begging and I said "There was saying in Africa 'Whereever there are naked, begging, Asian children, tea will be served'"**. Everyone silently stared at me. So I got frustrated and began walking to my car (the MALIBU!) looking forward to listening to music loadly and alone. On my way to the car I saw a man walking with a kettle of tea and some cups.

Behind him was a chimpanzee. I said "Whereever there is a (expletive deleted) monkey, tea will be served." Then Tammi woke me up because we were running late for church.

It was kind of a bitter dream. I must warn our friends and family, we will probably talk a lot about Africa at first, bear with us.

Also, Mat Morkin, don't cry, we will be around for a while.

* "Nini"="What"
**There is no such saying in Africa, or the World for that matter, as far as I know.