April

Dylan built this beautiful island for our kitchen.  I love the extra counter space!

Dylan had bought some wheels in town and made a cart thingy with it.  He had quite the audience.

 When it was finished he gave each kid a ride individually- what a work out!

 Our coworkers, the Stokes, visited for a few days.  They will be building their house here in June.  Eden was able to spend the night one night and have a tea party.  So fun!

 Somebody had shot this bird's wing.  We kept him but he died the next day.

 While in town we had found some marshmallows ( a rare find ) and had a fire one night.  Roman and some of the Dem people got to roast marshmallows for the first time.  They were a hit with everyone! :)

 

This area used to be covered with a tarp and is the hut that Dylan stayed in for his first three trips into the tribe last year.  Now he's converted it into a green house (I call it Dylan's Secret Garden:) and is very faithful to tend his little plants.

 I make fun of him about it, but I was pretty excited when we had a fresh tomato from his efforts!

 This nasty thing was in our kitchen one night.  Yuck!!!

 One day the helicopter came by unexpectedly.  Some other coworkers in a tribe next to ours don't have an airstrip yet and depend solely on the heli.  They had some things flown into our airstrip and we were storing them at our house until the heli could come and get them. We weren't expecting them when they did come.  It's always a little exciting when a helicopter lands in front of your house :)

 That's all the pictures for April.  I ended up getting malaria and was in bed for a full week.  Nasty stuff.  Dylan was a gem taking care of the kids and still getting study and work done on the house.  Our coworkers also were a huge blessing by helping with meals and bread while I was out of commission.

the rest of February

When we finally got back from the capital city we stayed at the guest house for a few days until we flew back home.

One of the other families staying there had a birthday party for their middle school aged son.  They let our kids use their home made slip n slide when they were done.  The kids had a blast (and their fathers did too:)

Raquel does not like to keep pony tails or braids in her hair so we decided to go short.  Our friend Bri did a great job cutting it.

The day we were supposed to fly home the pilot got sick so we had to wait an extra day.  We drove to another city that has a movie theater (the only one on the island I believe) and watched the Turkey movie.  It was pretty silly but the kids had fun.  On the way back we stopped off at what we lovingly refer to as "the garbage beach".

It's actually really sad because it would be a beautiful place, but is just full of trash that people just throw all over the place.  Not a garbage can in sight. On the plus side, in all that garbage each of the kids was able to find a plastic spoon to dig with in the sand.

March

This crazy huge moth was on our porch one morning

 

 Dylan is doing language study full time now.  Here he is on his way to the office.  It's up near the top right of the picture.  Behind the trees you can see a little bit of gray.

He and Logan share and office.  The kids and I went up to visit him one day.  The kids were very impressed with the snacks he had up there.  When I asked Gideon if he knew what Daddy did up in his office he said, "Yes, he plays on the computer and eats food."

This red floppy hat was making the rounds.  I thought this little kid looked pretty hilarious in it.  Sometimes the people get really random things like this.  For a long time there was a man who wore a joker hat with the little points on it.  We still call him 'the Joker' when talking about him :).

 The kids love their bouncy donkeys!

 Looking at some new puppies in a hut nearby.

 The Dem people have fire pits in the middle of their round huts. It keeps them warm at night, but is also very smokey.

 Just hangin around

 There are lots of fences to keep pigs out of the gardens and airstrip so to get most places you have to climb make-shift ladders.

 Gideon practicing his archery skills

 /The people are always very generous with their produce.  Even though they haven't had a lot of food the past few months, recently their beans were ready and they shared with us.  Raquel was put to work tipping and tailing (Gideon tried to help too:)

 We set up a rotating babysitting schedule with our coworkers so that each couple can have a 'date' once a month while someone watches their kids.  There aren't a whole lot of entertainment options here, but we took a little walk and went to this beautiful waterfall :)

Surgery

 Last Sunday I called the surgeon's cell phone and told him that Roman was all better from his cold and ear infection and could we please do the surgery tomorrow.  He was very accommodating and scheduled Roman's hernia operation for 9am Monday morning.  Roman and I went to the hospital at 7 on Sunday night and they did blood work and put an IV in his arm.

 They also put this adorable gown on him.  He loved the room with all the buttons on the bed and the TV remote:)

 The surgery went very well.

 He woke up from the surgery cranky, but was fine after a good nap and some french fries from McDonalds:)

 His big brother sister came to cheer him up and watch TV:)

 

We were able to leave on Monday evening and I was very glad for that.  Sharing a hospital bed with a 2 year old is not my idea of a fun time:)  Thank you to all who were praying for Roman.  We are so thankful that everything went smoothly and he's back to normal.  Praise the Lord!

The Mall the Zoo and Valentine's Day

The traffic here is TERRIBLE!  We are staying at a C&MA guest house and can use many modes of transportation to get from point A to point B.  Thankfully none of our options are too expensive and we've used quite a variety depending on different factors.  

This is us in a 'bajaj'.  It's a 3 wheeled contraption that has a bench seat in the back.  We can all squeeze in, but it's a little crowded and hot.  They are smaller than cars, though, so they can squeeze through traffic a little more easily and can also use back roads/alleyways that the taxis can't.

 If we have a lot of stuff or it's late at night, we'll take a taxi.  My favorite is probably an 'ojek' which is a motorcycle taxi.  That is easily the fastest way to get anywhere, although, probably not the safest...

There are so many malls here, and most of them are really nice.  They are huge and have hundreds of stores and restaurants.  Of course they are super expensive and we don't really buy much at the Gucci and Tiffany & Co. stores, but there are some fun things to do!

Gideon was the train conductor

 Daddy and Roman were his passengers:)

 Raquel and I rode on the carousel

 Then all three kids went on these flying camels.  We thought they were just going to spin around, but they ended up going up and down while spinning really fast.  It looked kind of crazy and I was a little concerned about Roman, but he thought it was great:)

 On Valentine's day we headed to the Zoo!  We had heard about it from another family who had been staying at the guest house and it sounded like fun.  You can't beat the price- 45 cents for adults and 35 cents for children 3 and up.  It was a beautiful day and it was mostly deserted.  The kids had a blast running around, following the signs and finding their favorite animals.

Raquel got to pet the horse!

 I learned something new at the zoo.  We are often called 'bule' by the people here.  It's just a slang term for white people.  I didn't know that it really means 'albino':)

 Gideon was saying "Hi ducks" to the pelicans

 There were some racoons from America.  Do they have racoons in the zoos in the States?

 This tiger was pretty crazy.

 We're pretty sure he wanted to eat our children...

 We bought the kids some popsicles from a little vendor and I'm sure they were full of horrible things.  Here Gideon shows how it stained his skin.  It took a while to wash it off.  Yummy!

 Love that toothless grin:)

 

The kids also loved the bus ride home.

 

FYI- you may not bring your dog or knife on the bus, and keep your hands off the ladies' skirts!

 After tiring the kids out, we put them to bed and then, when they were asleep, we got to go out on a date!  It was the first time in about 4 months that we've done that.  So fun to be able to go out on Valentine's day!  We went to a nearby mall and had a delicious meal at a fun restaurant.  We even got a Caesar salad!  That might not sound like a big deal, but Caesar salads don't exist where we live normally.  Happy Valentine's Day everyone!!