baby girl.

My baby girl, who is 5 months old today, is literally zooming around the house in her baby walker.  At 4 months old she figured out this walking thing and she’s going for it, without passing “GO!”, without collecting $200.  

This is surprising, sure.  Yet I know that some babies walk early, so it’s not this huge deal.   

BUT.  

Ketzia has also figured out that she can reach things by leaning over the tray on the walker and grabbing them.  She has discovered the curtains, the tablecloth, and anything else dangling or sitting with her reach.

 The other day I was making dinner and looked around to see that she was pulling the extremely heavy, 9-inch-in-diameter lid to my large cast iron pot off the cupboard shelf.  I quickly rushed over and caught the iron pot lid just before it crashed down onto her toes.  “Baby, what are you doing?”  I said.  Surely this is a fluke! Surely my 5-month-old didn’t just manage to slide a cast iron pot lid over the edge of the cupboard shelf by pulling it as she leaned over her tray. We moved on with our day and the incident was forgotten.

 

But oh, no.  Baby goes back into the kitchen today.  She walks to the kitchen cupboard.  She sees the fascinating iron pot lid. She reaches for it and pulls the thing to the edge of the shelf again!  Thankfully I again walked into the kitchen just in time to avert crushed toes.   

Nope, not a fluke.  

I wouldn’t believe that she was capable of pulling a heavy piece of cast iron if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes.  My daughter apparently has supernatural upper body strength for a 5-month-old and brains to go with it.   

Now the pot lid is going to live on the bottom shelf where it is below her reach.

facts.

I have neglected my blog.  However, I think that when I say that we've only had 2 days without house guests and/or dinner company in the past 34 days... maybe you will understand.  :)

We are no longer without power 3 days each week!!!  Hooray!!  We still have occasional "load shedding" blackouts in the evenings for a couple of hours, and the electricity is often still too weak to turn on the internet at some periods during the day, but wow.... it is so nice to have electricity again 7 days each week! We are thanking God that this situation resolved much sooner than we expected it to!

This morning our dog Merry found a lizard in our hallway.  He loves (eating) lizards so he was chasing this one up and down the hallway.  Eventually he knocked off its tail, which started wildly writhing around on the floor.  I thought Elijah would be frightened, but instead he burst into laughter and started dancing wildly around it, trying to stomp on it and jump on it!  Hearing her brother's hysterical laughter, Ketzia (who was in my arms) starting laughing hysterically also. It was funny.

We only have one dog now.  Our older dog, Saurus, became very badly behaved and completely unmanageable.  It is true that you can't teach an old dog new tricks.  So we gave him away and hopefully he will be happy in his new home.  Our remaining dog, Merry, who is 1 year old, is a marvelous pet.  We will probably get a second puppy sometime soon to keep Merry company.

We have two children teething at the same time.  I am finding that my chitenge comes in handy, because I often am "wearing" at least one of my children!  They find it extremely comforting.  No wonder the African women are always wearing their babies on their backs.  It makes my shoulders very sore, but at least it soothes the screaming.  :)

Elijah is going through a hard stage just now, because he is nearly two.  Can I say that I understand how it is that at this almost-age they become raving little monsters?  No.  All I can say is, I never thought a child of mine would behave this way.  I always thought those were the badly behaved children whose mothers spoiled them. But apparently it happens with the "good" children, too, the ones who are consistently disciplined.  Shows what I know!

Ketzia is going through a hard stage just now, too.  Thankfully hers doesn't involve throwing tantrums and screaming until she is blue in the face.  Hers is the frustration that comes with becoming more mobile.  She can roll over, but sometimes she ends up hurting herself by so doing.  She can scoot across the floor by pushing with her feet, but she can't crawl.  She is just mobile enough that she gets wedged into tight spaces, and gets very frustrated.

We have two weeks to go before this semester ends, and David and I are both feeling a bit burnt-out, but the end is in sight!  We are working on a newsletter to send out, hopefully within the next couple of days.  I'm having computer issues, which is another factor in the newsletter delay and the absence of blog posts.  But I will try to keep up with the blog posts (now that the electricity is on 7 days a week, that will be easier).

eggplant. and life.

I was doing so well updating my blog every other day or so.  Ah well, time to gather up the slack again. 

 the driveway leading past the College buildings to our house

 

In the market today, I bought an eggplant as big as Elijah's head!  I've never before cooked with eggplant.  It had always scared me, as a vegetable, because I knew that if it wasn't cooked or prepared correctly it could be a real, total, complete, inedible flop. So I've always been a bit wary of eggplant. But last week, there were no other vegetables to be found in the market.  No green beans, no green peppers, no carrots, no nothin'.  Piles and piles of eggplant everywhere. So I looked at the eggplant, and maybe the eggplant looked at me, and I decided that would have to be our vegetable for the week.  So I took it home, and did some reading, and didn't find too many interesting looking recipes - but the week before, our College cook, Nelson, had made a very tasty dish of eggplant to accompany the nshima and beans at lunch. So I asked him how he cooked it.  Nelson's cooking instructions are never very detailed, but I managed to come pretty close to replicating this time... and added a bit of garam masala for flavor... and it was nice! We've had it a couple times more since then and this week I couldn't resist buying the eggplant that was as big as Elijah's head.

 daddy reading to Elijah and Ketzia

I'm happy to report that we are all much healthier than the last time I wrote.  It's been a month of much bleh-ness which seemed to affect all 4 of us differently, but thankfully now it seems to be passing and we are all regaining our bouncy good health again.

 Elijah with a few of our students who came for dinner

The main problem with keeping up anything online-related recently, be it email or blog or whatever, is that the electricity has not been good.  We are regularly without power for an entire day, about 3 times a week.  On the days when the power is on, it's often too weak to run the internet.  So... the brief periods when the internet is actually working have generally been spent dealing with whatever is quite urgent, but not quite having enough time to catch up on everything!  Oh, wow, yet another part of our life which is dealt with by "crisis management"!

 Elijah was reading aloud to Ketzia - as soon as I got the camera out, he got embarrassed!

The kids are doing fabulously.  Elijah, now that he has fully recovered from the chest infection or whatever it was that had laid him low for more than a week, is back to being his normal "cheeky" self as they would say in Scotland.  He is full of energy and zest for living.  He loves the students, he loves his friends, he has never ever ever met a fellow human being he didn't like.  His vocabulary is literally expanding every day.  Some of his new words this week have been "hiya" (genuine 'weegie!  I'm so proud...), "go" (said firmly to the dog), "dog", "eye", "guava" etc.  He is making a marvelous attempt to say his own name AND.... we are so proud of this... he is also trying to say "zekomo kwam biri" which is "thank you very much" in Nyanja!  Wow!  Elijah has also just moved into his very own "big boy" bed.  We ordered a bed made for him at the carpenter's complete with a bed rail.  He is so excited about it.  I am so happy for him that he has moved out of that tired travel cot which he had completely outgrown!  Now he has a very comfortable place to sleep.  I hope this means his sleep will improve now.  :)

notice Elijah's pose here, completely relaxed in his camp chair leaning his head against the table!

Things are right busy around here, as they always are, but we are finishing up the final preparations for the Trust meeting next week.  Our Scottish house guests arrive tomorrow -- in fact, as I write this, David is in Lusaka overnight and will be bringing them home with him tomorrow sometime.  So I am on my own with the two children overnight, I think for the first time since Ketzia was born!  It's amazing how rather lonely the College feels when you realize that your husband is away overnight, the students are all gone for the weekend, Marjanne has been in Lusaka for a few days on business, and suddenly it's just me and my children in our house, and across the way Phil in his house, and on the other corner Jackson in his house (his wife and kids are away in Lusaka until tomorrow, too).  And we're the only ones here. And it's quiet.  It's a bit sad.  But I'm happy there's still men around to provide a feeling of security to the place.

P.S. Did you notice our new sofas and armchairs in these photos??  Yes, the very ones that we spent 4 weeks trying to obtain!  They're HERE!  And we're so thankful to finally have adequate seating in our living room... especially since we're about to have a houseful of people for quite a while!

bleh.

Elijah was without a fever for another 24 hours and then during the night last night it came back for the 4th time in a week.  So this morning we took him back to the hospital to be checked out.  The pediatric doctor (a nice friendly girl from Edinburgh!) listened to his chest and said that he seems to have a chest infection.  She prescribed him an antibiotic and hopefully from here on out he'll be on the mend.  Later in the afternoon he perked up a bit and was playing around the house again, which was good to see.  Poor little guy, this is the first time since he had his "well baby" check up at 6 weeks old (the stupidest thing ever... why should I take my perfectly healthy child into a germ-ridden doctor's office so he can be poked and prodded and then proclaimed healthy and I can be patronized and treated like an imbecile first-time mother in the process?) that he's ever been to a doctor AND the first time he's ever been on an antibiotic!  Sniff.

Ketzia has developed a cough, too, and is full of sniffles.  I'm keeping a close eye on her and we're praying that she fights off this bug before it gets any worse.

An excerpt from an email to my mom tonight: "David and I are both utterly exhausted but, as usual, we're just frantically shifting from one urgent thing to the next, and every day is as frantic and packed full as it can possibly be.  Nothing is simple... for instance, this afternoon David went to take off the canopy from our truck bed so that he can pick up furniture on Monday. In the process (which should be a simple matter of unlatching and then lifting up the canopy and setting it down on the ground) he discovered that the truck company wired the rear brake light on the canopy through the canopy, so in order to remove the canopy he had to cut the cables and he will have to reattach them with electrical tape later!!  What should have been a few minutes' work turned into more than an hour.  Also we've discovered there's a problem with the plumbing in the guest room so now we have to get the plumber to come Monday morning... and our guest is arriving Monday night!" 


There's more, trust me, there's lots more.  But I will stop there.  It's been a really hard, distressing week in a lot of ways.  It's tempting to let it all get to me, become overwhelming.  But that wouldn't be living in faith according to the truth of Psalm 46 which we've been dwelling a lot on recently: "God is our refuge and our strength, a very present help in trouble... the Lord of hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our refuge."  There is much to take comfort in there!  And a very timely reminder that people will fail us and we will be faced with many difficulties, but in the midst of it, we should "be still and know that He is God."

another hospital experience

Elijah's been sick most of this week.  It started on Saturday afternoon, when we could tell he was obviously coming down with something -- fever, nasty cough, and runny nose.  That day I happened to have a fever, too, so we didn't think much of it.  We spent Sunday sick as a family because by then David was feeling unwell, too.  There's been a virus going around (fever, coughing, etc.).

And on Monday Elijah was up and running around again, his normal happy healthy self, and I thought he was over it. 

But then on Tuesday his fever came back and he spent the whole day sick again.  The good thing about Elijah is that he is marvelous about being sick -- he just completely mellows out, and lies down and lets the fever do its job.  He sleeps when he is sick.  He rests and lets his body fight.  I made him a pallet on the living room floor out of my yoga mat and a soft, cool, satiny blanket and his special pillow.  He liked lying there because the tile floor was cool and refreshing and he was still in the middle of the action, so when he would awaken from his feverish stupor Mama was always right there to reassure him. 

Then yesterday, Wednesday, he woke up again cheery and back to his normal self, no fever.  He took a short walk with me to the Farm to buy eggs, and on the way there he carried the empty egg tray and on the way back he carried the change from my purchase.  We ate lunch with the students, as usual, and later in the afternoon he saw his friends, too.

But today the fever returned suddenly and he was miserable all morning.  You could tell he felt so, so sick.  We were monitoring his temperature, as we always do, and watching it slowly rise.  At some point, since this was the third day of fever in 5 days, we decided to test him for malaria, even though he had no symptoms except fever.  Coughing and runny nose don't point to malaria, just a virus or flu of some kind.  The malaria test was negative, thankfully.  But then a couple hours later, his temperature was over 103* F, and that's when all the books tell you to go to the doctor (if they are under 3 years old).  So I called our doctor friend in Lusaka, Christine, to ask her advice.  Should we go to the more local hospital, an hour away, or did she think this was serious enough to come to Lusaka for the weekend and get Elijah more thoroughly checked out?  She recommended that we go to Katete and ask for blood tests to check his white blood cell count, and check his chest and lungs.  So in the midst of giving Elijah Calpol (Tylenol) and sponge-bathing him and giving him a lukewarm bath to bring down his temperature, we packed up the kids and the diaper bag and the water bottles and anything we might need for a long afternoon in a crowded hospital, and headed out immediately.  On the way to the hospital, I continued to monitor Elijah's temperature and it had come down as a result of our fever-reducing actions, which was encouraging.

We got to the hospital in the middle of a torrential downpour and despite having two umbrellas we still managed to get thoroughly drenched walking from the truck!  As we reached the front door of the clinic, surrounded by a deafening African rainstorm, David turned to me and said, "You know what? It's a public holiday.  I hope they're open!"  (I have written about our previous experience at this hospital here.) We opened the door to find... they were indeed closed.  Check-in was closed but at least there was one nurse inside to evaluate incoming patients and he told us they were still accepting people who needed to be admitted.  There was only one nurse/doctor on call and there was a small group of people waiting to see him, one by one.  We explained the situation with Elijah and the nurse said there was nothing he could do for us unless we wanted to have Elijah admitted.  The lab was closed, everything was closed.  I think we agreed pretty quickly that there was no reason to admit Elijah.  At the moment he was much more comfortable and his fever was very mild.  So we got the name and number of the nurse who helped us, in case we have to return tomorrow morning, and trudged back out through the downpour to our truck, and came home.

Elijah is now asleep in bed and we hope that he feels better when he wakes up in the morning.  When we laid him down his fever was under control but it was obvious he was still not feeling 100%.  Hopefully after a night of rest he will be okay.  If he isn't, we will take him back to the hospital.  Neither of us were concerned that this is anything serious, we just felt it was better to be safe then sorry and to take action when his temperature rose higher than is safe.  But what we both find unbelievable is that on a Zambian public holiday, they close the hospital.  What, so sick people take a holiday from needing doctors?  What irony, that on "International Women's Day" we should close the hospitals so that more village women can die without proper medical attention.  I am relieved that they at least were still allowing people to be admitted if necessary, but still that seems (to me) like saying, "Closed today, come back when you're dying."

home life

 

L to R: Enoch, Marjanne, Elijah, Nathan, Asher

Elijah has a FABULOUS time playing with his new friends.  I am amazed at how well he keeps up with them considering he's not even 2 years old yet and they are all 4 years old or older!

a few of the students teaching Elijah how to "slash" the grass

Elijah showing off our new dining table and chairs

our happy, sweet little girl

blurry, but you can see how well she can lift her head/shoulders and her legs now! rolling over is next...

what Ketzia sometimes does (usually while I'm trying to make dinner)

how I cope with making dinner + 2 small kids...

update

The snake which bit Marjanne was sent to the Zambian Wildlife Association in Petauke to be identified and they told us it was a cobra.  We are very thankful that it was a small cobra because otherwise the bite could potentially have been fatal.  Marjanne's leg remains severely swollen and painful and she is still unable to walk.

Meanwhile, Nelson the cook/handyman was attacked by a mamba while he was in the College kitchen.  Thankfully he was wearing very heavy boots which prevented him from being bitten even though the snake struck several times!  We are unspeakably grateful for the evidence of God's mercy and protection over us in the midst of these dangers.

I now have the theme music of "Pride and Prejudice" as my ringtone.  Very cool...

I also have a fever and I've been feeling ill all day.  David and Elijah are starting to act under the weather, too.  I think there may be a virus going around as several others have been ill with fevers, etc. in the past couple of days.  David and I have been plugging away today trying to wrap up our February newsletter which needs to be sent out ASAP!  It's not the easiest thing to compose when your brain is addled by fever and you're so achey that life almost seems unbearable.  Blah.  Hopefully you'll see this newsletter in your inbox soon!

This week we got the dining table and 8 chairs which we ordered from the carpenter in Petauke.  It is so nice to have some proper furniture in our living area at last. :)  Funny, there was not a tablecloth to be found in all of Petauke!

And hopefully, Lord willing, next week we will be able to pick up our new sofas (new to us anyway)!  It has been such a logistical challenge getting the details of purchasing and transporting these sofas worked out... but I'm happy to say that it looks like it might all be coming together at last.

And last, but not least, we will be hosting Nell from http://namesacrossnations.blogspot.com for a few days in the middle of this month as she will be trying to obtain cultural information about Zambian names.  This is the first time that I've arranged to meet, in person, someone from one of the blogs I've followed, and it's rather exciting!

snakes

Last night something very frightening occurred.  Our colleague, Marjanne, was bitten by a snake.  She was walking from her house to the generator shed to turn on the generator because the power had just gone out (this was around 7:30pm, after dark) and was bitten by a very small black snake.  Thankfully there is another girl, Jeannette, staying in the same compound just now and Marjanne screamed to her to come help.  Jeannette killed the snake and then rushed Marjanne to the hospital in Petauke (about 25-30 minutes drive away).  They took the snake along for identification but no one has been able to identify what kind it is yet (it's always so difficult when they are still very small). Marjanne was bitten on the foot, near her toes and when she returned from the hospital her foot was already very swollen and the swelling was beginning to spread up her leg also.  She was in a lot of pain all the way up her leg to her hip, but not having any other problems, thankfully.

She told us that when they reached the hospital in Petauke, the people said, "Well, you shouldn't worry now, because if it had been poisonous you would be dead in 30 minutes."  By this time 45 minutes had passed since she was bitten!  Poor Marjanne had never realized until that moment how much danger she was in.  When she was first bitten she did not think it was such a big deal and even went walking around afterwards!  We are so very thankful that even though it appears the snake that bit her was venomous (based on her body's reaction to the bite) that apparently either there was not much venom injected or else it was not a highly poisonous snake.  While what the people at the hospital said can be true (in worst case scenarios, if you are bitten by a cobra or mamba you can easily die in 30 minutes) it is more common that you will die within an hour or more.  The problem with what they said is that just because you have survived 45 minutes after a bite does not mean that you are out of danger!

Anyway, the power was out in the town so they examined her by candlelight.  Marjanne, being a missionary first and foremost and not being very concerned about the situation, told Jeannette to take a photo of them treating her by candlelight!  She told me afterwards that she was thinking, "Now, this will make a good story for my next newsletter!"  The funny thing was, the people at the hospital didn't even check her vital signs!  They didn't monitor her heart rate or her blood pressure or anything.  They just looked at the bite, looked at the swelling... and gave her a steroid injection and a tetanus shot!  They also prescribed her painkillers and antibiotics to take.  But of course there is no antivenin available here so that was all they could do!

By the grace of God Marjanne seems to be okay and she has escaped death.  She did not get much sleep last night because of the pain in her leg, but she is resting a lot during the day.  Her leg is now swollen up to her hip and still extremely painful so that she cannot walk on it.  However, the swelling is not spreading any further and she is still exhibiting no other symptoms.  She is very cheerful, all things considered, and seems to be doing just okay other than the swelling and the pain! 

But you can imagine that this has left all of us considerably shaken. This is the first time in about 4 years that anyone here at the College has been bitten by a snake, but it could easily happen again.  We have so many highly poisonous snakes around here (cobras, black mambas, puff adders, etc) that it is very frightening to think how close death has come.  Also the size of the snake which bit Marjanne has concerned us.  It was so small that you would likely not see it in the grass before you stepped on it!  When you combine these thoughts with the knowledge that we are far from adequate medical care and that the closest place where antivenin is available is Lusaka -- five hours' drive away -- these things are all very worrying. We have been told that buying antivenin will cost 1.5 million Kwacha per dose (close to 200 GBP) but I think in the future we will try to keep some on hand here at the College because otherwise we are risking people's lives.

Also, after she was bitten Marjanne was trying to phone all of us to let us know what had happened.  The mobile phone signal has been so bad recently that she was unable to reach anyone for a long time!  Again, in the event of an emergency this is so concerning that we are not able to phone each other because the network is down. We do not live within earshot of each other.  I think we are going to look into purchasing walkie-talkies in order to facilitate emergency communication between staff members since the phone network is so unreliable.  There are a lot of things to consider so that we are prepared for an emergency like this in the future.

Please, please be praying for the Lord's protection to be upon our family, our colleagues, and all the other staff and students and their families here at the College.  It is sobering to think of how many dangers surround us here in this fairly isolated area, away from adequate medical facilities.  So please pray not only for Marjanne's continued healing, but for protection and wisdom for the rest of us! ...and also that we would not be tempted to live life in fear.

bees

We had a large nest of bees in our roof (between the iron roof and the ceiling board) at the end of the house and they were really becoming a problem.  They were aggressive and even stung one of the children who was playing at our house last week.  This type of bee is dangerous -- they are so-called "African killer bees" because when they get angry they will swarm and aggressively sting a person and can easily kill someone.  So we needed to get rid of the hive quickly and asked Nelson, the handy-man, to help us.

So, armed with a bottle of Doom (bug spray), Nelson and a student named Kennany brought a ladder over after dark on Tuesday (around 6:45pm) to start the job, and David joined them.  They waited until after dark because the bees are more docile at night.  The plan was that they would spray Doom into the roof to kill the bees, then remove the iron sheet from the roof and clean out the hive.  First, when they went up the ladder, it snapped and collapsed under them!  Thankfully no one was injured and it was only the bottom portion of the ladder which snapped off, so the rest of it was usable and just barely reached our roof.  Then, when they sprayed Doom into the roof and lifted the metal sheet, the bees were not dead yet and began swarming angrily.  

I was inside the house with Elijah and Ketzia, having just given Elijah his bath.  He was playing around the house and winding down for bed.  Suddenly I heard the bees in the roof -- they were so loud it sounded like they were roaring the whole length of the house.  I immediately thought, "That doesn't sound good..." and I was just starting to grab Elijah when David came rushing into the house and said "You should get under a mosquito net so you don't get stung!"  He checked the back bedroom (over which the hive was located) and it was FULL of angry, swarming bees so he slammed the door shut.  I scooped up Elijah and Ketzia and took refuge on our bed under the mosquito net, bringing Elijah's portable DVD player with me so that he would be willing to sit still!  We lay low for a while.  Some bees found their way into the house but thankfully most of them were contained in the back bedroom. 

Slowly the Doom took effect, and eventually the men were able to start scooping dying, drugged bees into a large bucket.  They emptied the hive and collected all the honey (which was sprayed with Doom, but the Zambians said that they would boil it and eat it anyway... not sure what I think about that!). 

Amazingly, in the middle of everything, Elijah fell asleep and I put him into his own bed... and he never even stirred when the men nailed the roof back on!  Thankfully even though the bees were angry, Nelson and Kennany only received a few minor stings on their hands and David didn't get stung at all.  Now I am trying to air out the back bedroom so that I can furnish it for the guests coming to stay with us later this month!

no wonder I'm tired.

On Friday morning, we went to town, all 4 of us, to do our weekly shopping.  Which also combined shopping for the College, picking up one of our local Trustees who need a tire repaired, stopping at the bank, etc.  It took more than 4 hours, in the end.  4 hours in the blazing sunshine hopping in and out of hot, crowded shops will wear you out!

This is what the rest of the day looked like other than shopping...  Elijah tried to chew through a power cord, used his yogurt for finger-painting, plastered his breakfast (Weetabix) all over his hair, tried to bite a chunk out of his sandal, peed through his cloth diaper, sat on the package of light bulbs we had just bought, threw lemons down the kitchen steps because he thought they were balls, tried to pick Ketzia up and managed to pull her out of her car seat (but I caught her before her head hit the floor), kicked the cucumber I bought in the market across the kitchen floor because it looked like a footballl, and demonstrated in many other ways that he is nearly 2 years old... 

He has also been getting up at the crack of dawn (almost precisely 5:30) every morning. Which makes us doubly and triply thankful that Ketzia sleeps so well, because otherwise we would be really suffering for sleep!  As it is, we are getting enough to function but rise-and-shine with our wired little guy still seems brutally early....

In other news, my mobile phone is inexplicably dying and will need to be replaced, we have a bees' nest in our roof which needs to be removed, the huge pit-which-was-intended-to-be-a-swimming-pool in our garden is almost filled back up with dirt again (thanks to the hard work of our students who are getting paid for this) and no longer threatens Elijah's safety every time he goes near it, one of our dogs ate Elijah's lunch today and has been banned from the house for a week as a result, my children seem to schedule at least one "synchronized screaming" event every day, we are still desperately trying to find a way to get the furniture we are trying to buy from Kabwe to Lusaka sometime in the next 1-2 weeks or else it will be sold to someone else, I have pretty much given up on cloth nappies with Elijah since he is 30+ lbs and no cloth nappies seem to be designed for a boy his size and we will now use disposables for him (cloth for Ketzia) and soon switch to toilet-training mode... and it is time for bed.

settling in

Drinking lots and lots of water.  Changing Elijah's clothing six times each day -- either due to food (he insists on feeding himself, you can imagine the result!) or leaky nappy or playing in the mud.  Juggling household duties while carrying one or sometimes both of my small children.  Staggering naptimes so that Ketzia falls asleep first so that I can put Elijah in bed while it's quiet -- otherwise, if she's making noise or needing attention, he won't settle  Sweating constantly.  Trying to catch up on the endless pile of dirty laundry.  Being reminded again of how dirty things get here in Zambia.  Unpacking.  Trying to find time to sort, organize and put away everything that has been unpacked.  Hanging the laundry out to dry, and then bringing it all back in again when a storm comes through in the afternoon.  Listening to African rains on our metal roof.  Comforting both of my very small children when a terrifying lightning storm came through and a bolt struck very close to our house.  Thankful for electric pedestal fans which make sleeping in the heat more comfortable.  Being amazed at how strong Ketzia is and how fast she is growing.  Restocking my kitchen cupboards.  Eying the chocolate stored in the freezer, which I brought from the States, which is supposed to last me until October.  Welcoming our colleague, Marjanne, back to Zambia (she arrived on Thursday).  Meeting new friends and renewing old acquaintances.  Reassured that I have not lost my Chinyanja and people are just as impressed that I can manage a few phrases as they were when I left!  Finding friends for Elijah and inviting them over to play outside together.  Hiring men to slash the high grass which has overgrown the College in our absence (it took them 4 days).  Thankful that the men who were slashing killed a huge puff adder which was in the field behind our house (but worried that it was there in the first place).  Furnishing our two guest rooms in anticipation of visitors coming next month and throughout this year.  Getting our new (well, new to us) washing machine hooked up in our kitchen. Ordering our dining table and chairs which are being made by the local carpenter.  Thankful for the provision of a 4-piece living room set which we are buying from other missionaries in another part of  Zambia and which we should be getting within the next few weeks.  Trying to figure out the College finances.  Getting the battery recharged for the College vehicle which wouldn't start.  Thankful that finally we got the issues with the internet sorted so that we can be in contact with the rest of the world again.  Thinking that it's very cool that Zambia won the Africa Cup, against all odds, and feeling the patriotic fervor surrounding us as Zambians are decked out in their national colors in celebration.  Sorting out the lecturing schedule for this term and looking over the material to be taught.  Arranging for the guest house to be cleaned for our incoming guest lecturer.  Conducting interviews of prospective incoming students.  Looking forward to the start of the term on Tuesday!  Just a few of the things we've been doing this week.  Thanks for your prayers.

the calendar on the wall is on October 2011...

... and that's because that's when we left this, our home in the Eastern Province of Zambia.  And now we have returned, 4 months later.  Everything is green and overgrown here at the College and it is very, very quiet.  They have only slashed the necessary bits, leaving the bush in between untouched.  It was quite a shock to see the Zwemstras' driveway hidden by long grass and realize that they won't be our neighbors anymore.  Our colleagues Phil and Marjanne have not returned yet, which means that it is just ourselves and a few staff and their families around. 

Thankfully, no snakes or other creepy-crawlies have manifested themselves in our home yet, and I pray that continues to be the case!  We have installed two more "bug zappers" in the house and are taking every precaution against mosquitoes.

Our travels went smoothly and we arrived safely with all 7 checked bags, a double stroller and assorted carry-ons intact.  The last 2 days have been spent in Lusaka where we were shopping for furnishings for our house and other necessities.  Today we drove the 5 hours to our home and now the unpacking has begun.  The living room looks like a bombshell went off as I am sorting everyone's clothing out and categorizing the things we brought over from the States and the UK.  Our house is pretty much empty except for 4 folding camp chairs and a coffee table which is currently functioning as our "dining table."  We will be putting in an order at the local carpenter's this week for a dining table and chairs, and we will be getting a 4-piece living room suite sometime in the next month, which is very exciting!

Elijah definitely remembers this place and he was very excited to be home.  I will be so happy when he feels settled and secure again.  (Note: since being in Scotland for 10 days, he has started saying "tea" and even pretending to pour and serve it -- very properly!)  Ketzia is growing like a weed and is still sleeping amazingly well.  She is a very settled, content little baby and the travel didn't bother her one bit! 

I am remembering how much I did NOT miss the heat here.  I've just been sweating buckets since we arrived, and this month isn't even the hottest time of year!  It is definitely hot, and humid, and stormy, but the peak of the heat is October-December.  Speaking of the rain, please be praying that the rainy season will improve.  Thus far it has been a very disappointing rainy season and not nearly good enough to give the crops the necessary water.

Our dogs, Merry and Saurus, are still alive and were delighted to see us.  Sadly, Saurus is skin-and-bones and seems very subdued and rather unhappy, so we are going to try to get him to pack on the pounds, and we are probably going to take him to the vet this week to make sure he's not sick with anything.  Merry has gotten taller since we left and is still his happy, clever, bouncy self who follows us from room to room, curious about everything.

I think this is a reasonable update for now... just wanted to catch up on this neglected blog of mine and say the travel is OVER!  And we will be enjoying settling back into our home and preparing for the next term which starts 21st February.

a few sentences

Amazing how sorting clothes becomes a never-ending task!  That's what I'm doing these days as we prepare to leave the States and travel back (via Scotland) to our home in Zambia.  It's challenging thinking ahead and trying to figure out what I will need for the next year for my two younguns.  What size will they be the next time they need cold weather clothing?  And things like that.  A never-ending job, but sometimes more intense than others.  Our room is FULL of piles of laundry.  I think my 18-month-old just grew 2 inches overnight.  Literally.  Suddenly this afternoon he was popping out of his onesies which he wore without difficulty yesterday.  And tonight at bedtime, he is suddenly bursting out of the very same pajamas which he's been wearing for the last few weeks!  Speaking of growing, I think Ketzia has reached 9lbs. Any day now she's going to be bursting out of her newborn diapers.  She is filling her clothes out very well these days.  I'm gratified that even though she keeps me up w-a-y past my bedtime, she at least has been falling asleep almost precisely on the exact stroke of 11pm every. single. night.!  Unfortunately, Elijah's up at the crack of 7am and both of them are up during the night, so sleep still feels short-changed around here.  Our room isn't just filled with piles of clothes.  It's filled with piles of other necessities and treats we'll be hauling to our home in Eastern Province.  Like chocolate chips... so that I can make chocolate chip cookies a few times in the next year.  And alphabet magnets for Elijah. And medicines. And quart-sized Ziploc bags. And so on.  And I have something really special arriving in the mail tomorrow: a Kindle Touch!  This is David's present to me.  I don't know why.  Maybe he just loves me?  :-)  If any of you have suggestions or recommendations of what I should download onto my Kindle, let me know!  Free is best... It shouldn't cost more than $.99 because I'm cheap like that!  ;-)  We decided a Kindle would be a really good idea to minimize the number of books we have to haul internationally.  I still buy and take medical books with me, because I need a good hands-on medical library for immediate reference where we live. And having shared these brief notes with you, now I'm calling it a night...

Ketzia's birthday: another birth story! (complete with photos)

Since I know some of you will be interested, here is Ketzia's birth story!  This post is lengthy, and detailed (but not in a bad way).  This was my second homebirth/waterbirth. You can read about Elijah's birth here: http://katie-kette.blogspot.com/2010/07/elijahs-birthday-our-birth-story.html

I was attended by my husband David, my sister-in-law Sarah, our midwife Kate and her assistant Jill.  My fabulous mother-in-law Pat and other sister-in-law Anna, as well as Sarah's husband Tim, did a great job babysitting our active 18-month-old boy, Elijah during the labor so that I didn't have to worry about him and David could support me.

Ketzia's birth story really has been a journey across several continents.  We found out we were pregnant in the spring, in Zambia where we live.  We immediately started thinking ahead to our end-of-year plans, thankful that we already intended to be traveling to the UK and the States at the end of this year, so we could work out the logistics to have the baby where we would be supported by family.  In the meantime we arranged for prenatal care in Zambia.  In the Lord's providence our friend Christine who has so generously opened her home to us during our occasional visits to Lusaka is a doctor/gynecologist and I became her patient!

Because of homebirth laws, we planned to settle with David's family outside of Philadelphia and have the baby there.  It would be remiss of me to not mention Sarah's willingness to have us live with her for a couple of months, not only opening her home but also supporting me in every way in the planning and preparation for my homebirth in her home!  We can't express how much this means to us.  In the Lord's providence we were able to use the marvelous Kate who was Sarah's midwife for the homebirth of Thomas this past summer.  And Sarah also had a birth pool and all the supplies, so we were all set.  Amazing!

So Kate, my U.S. midwife, and I were in correspondence via email.  Every time I had a prenatal appointment with Christine, my doctor in Zambia, I sent all the reports to Kate so that she could add them to my file.  I am thankful for technology which allowed me to be well-cared for.  In mid-October we left Zambia and I was given all my medical paperwork by Christine and a certificate of good health which allowed me to fly.  In the UK I had another check-up with a doctor and received another certificate of good health.  On the 9th of November I traveled with Elijah to the States to spend a few weeks with my parents, and on the 5th of December we ended our travels and settled in Philly with David's family to await the baby's birth.

My "due date" was December 22nd, but I had a feeling that Bump would decide to arrive early.  We certainly hoped that this would be the case, since it would start the birth certificate/passport paperwork process a bit earlier. 

On the evening of Sunday the 11th of December, I started having regular Braxton Hicks contractions around 6:30pm or so, which carried on for several hours.  They were so regular and so distracting that I honestly thought I might be in early labor.  After pacing around the house for a couple of hours, it was bedtime and I was so tired.  I decided to go to bed, figuring that if this was "real" labor, I should get some rest before things ramped up, and if it wasn't, then I would get a badly-needed good night's sleep.  Sure enough, the contractions went away after I lay down.  I had never had a "false alarm" with Elijah so I found this an interesting experience.  It was clear that the baby had "dropped" so the week started with me feeling like labor was probably imminent and could start at any time, even though I wasn't due for more than a week.

At the end of that week, during the night on Saturday (or rather, in the wee hours of Sunday morning) I woke up needing to use the toilet, and had a contraction.  It was a real contraction and I could tell right away.  However, I didn't have a watch so I had no idea what time it was (so I don't know when labor officially started). I went back to bed and fell back asleep, but continued to have contractions.  Since I had no way of timing them, and I was sleepy, I don't know how frequent they were, and I was able to drift off in between.  But I didn't get much more rest that night.  The contractions continued, and around 7am I woke David and told him, "I'm not sure I'm going to make it to church this morning - I'm having contractions."  Eventually I went downstairs to get some breakfast, feeling it necessary to get some nourishment and thinking "This might be it" -- but at the same time, I was still debating about going to church that morning!  I had a difficult contraction while in the kitchen and didn't manage to get any breakfast other than a yogurt and some orange juice.  David came in and found me kneeling over the birth ball during a contraction and said, "YOU are not going ANYWHERE!  Get back upstairs and rest, you're in labor!"  So I went back upstairs and didn't come back down for a few days.  :-)

David told me I should go ahead and call our midwife, Kate, to give her a heads-up since she lives a full hour's drive away, so I did.  Then I settled in the bedroom with the birth ball and focused on staying comfortable.  I ended up spending the majority of the labor in just one position - kneeling on the rug on the floor and leaning my upper body on the birth ball. Sitting wasn't comfortable because it put too much pressure on my stomach and if I rested my body weight on the ball it helped me relax during the contractions.  I realized that things were moving faster than expected, and so David had to scurry around to finish preparing the birth pool.  It needed to be inflated a bit more, so I spent more than an hour of labor trying to focus through contractions while David was in the same room endlessly inflating the birth pool with a horribly noisy pump!  Then he had to get the hose hooked up to the shower head and start filling the pool.  He also had a lot of phone calls to make... to his mom to ask her to come help us instead of going to church, to his sister Anna who lives in Delaware so that she could leave church and come up, to my parents to let them know I was in labor...

using the birth ball... birth pool filled and keeping warm

I called Kate back and told her to come.  I had lost track of timing the contractions but they had been coming every 6 minutes and sometimes a bit closer.  Then I got David to hook up the TENS machine to help me with the contractions.  I used the TENS machine during my labor with Elijah and found it to be SO helpful, and was surprised to learn that the maternity TENS machine is virtually unknown in the States!  So I purchased one in the UK and brought it along with me.  It definitely helped take the edge off the contractions and keep me focused.

The house started to scurry with people but I was in a zone.  I felt nauseous and vomited once and thought "Am I in transition already?"  I vomited during transition with Elijah.  Kate arrived.  Sarah and David were in and out of the room and bringing me water bottles, etc.  The assistant midwife, Jill arrived.  I just kept hitting the "boost" button on the TENS machine!

Time kept passing.  I wasn't wearing a watch so still had no idea what time it was, and didn't mind that.  Eventually I could tell that the TENS machine wasn't helping as much with the contractions anymore.  My fear is always that I will get into the birth pool too soon and slow down my labor, so with Elijah I had waited until I couldn't cope with the contractions any longer before I got into the birth pool and the timing had been perfect.  I intended to do the same thing this time, so I felt that was my "cue" that I could transition into the birth pool.  I had been kneeling on the floor for hours so was looking forward to a change.  I took off the TENS machine and got into the pool.  Unfortunately I still couldn't sit comfortably so was unable to labor like I did with Elijah.  I stayed on my knees and rested my head on the side of the pool.  Sarah and David were excellent at rubbing my shoulders, holding a cool washcloth on my forehead, and encouraging me to stay relaxed.  I was only in the pool for a couple of minutes before I started sounding "pushy."  Kate encouraged me to just listen to my body and push if I felt ready.  So I did.  Unlike with Elijah, when I experienced the "fetus ejection reflex" which was uncontrollable and involuntary, this pushing experience was totally different -- my body was telling me to push, but I had to do all the work.  It was exhausting.  What I found hardest to cope with was the searing pain in my lower back.  It was excruciating.  And it didn't necessarily go away between contractions. 

but it wasn't all bad!  :-)

I pushed for more than two hours.  It was an entirely different labor than Elijah's (I only pushed 40 minutes maximum with him).  I was tired, very tired.  At the very end, as Ketzia was being born, I was struggling to keep my focus because of the horrible, horrible pain in my pelvis and lower back which was making it impossible to breathe.    I just kept thinking "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."  I did it!  My waters finally broke only a couple of contractions before she was born (as with Elijah -- part of the reason for the excruciating back pain). 

Ketzia Anne Lachman was born at 1:24pm on Sunday, December 18th after less than 11 hours labor (no idea how long it actually was).  Her cord was wrapped around her neck once but Kate skillfully untangled her so quickly that I didn't even realize it until someone told me much later.  Ketzia was not breathing at first so Kate immediately gave her supplemental oxygen for a few minutes.  I was holding Ketzia, tickling her feet and calling her name and rubbing her back and she started moving and making noises.  Kate was holding the oxygen mask over her nose and Jill was checking her heartbeat. She immediately starting getting her color and was fine!  She "pinked up" beautifully and starting nursing within minutes, as soon as I got out of the birth pool.  She has been a great nurser from the very start, and a very contented baby. 

Jill on the left, Kate on the right

There were plenty of hands to help and after getting settled in bed with Ketzia I was brought food (glorious food!) and after a good long while and a good long feed Ketzia was weighed and measured and cleaned up and dressed.  She weighed in at 8lbs 10 oz (a full pound bigger than Elijah at 7lbs 9oz)  and 20 inches long.  I was able to take a shower and felt amazing.  My recovery has been so much easier and quicker than it was the first time around! 

me fresh out of the shower, Ketzia with Aunt Sarah

 me having something to eat, Ketzia with Mutti

Ketzia with her daddy

 

Ketzia with Aunt Anna

 Ketzia meeting her big brother!

resting after a big day!

We are so thankful to the Lord for working all the details out, in His providence.  For providing us with skilled caregivers both here and in Zambia throughout this pregnancy.  For protecting Ketzia and myself during the bout with malaria when I was 19 weeks pregnant.  For sustaining me throughout all the travels during the last trimester of my pregnancy.  For allowing us to be with family.  For giving us a safe and peaceful birth in the comfort of our (temporary) home.  And for our beautiful, healthy little girl.

David has posted even more photos on Facebook for those of you who would like to see more... as well as an explanation of the significance of her name.

introducing Ketzia

Our sweet girl has been fabulous so far.  Sleeping well, eating well, melting our hearts with that curious expression as she is taking in the world around her. We are so thankful for another healthy, happy, and completely mellow baby!  The Lord knows that she will need that disposition with the adventures that lie ahead...

Birth story to follow, I promise.... but at the moment I'm enjoying spending time with that happy face and resting.  :-)  Looking forward to a visit from my family next week!  And trying to finish writing up a December newsletter, hoping to get it sent next week!

heh. life.

Apologies for the unintentional blogging hiatus, folks!  This is an abbreviated update to say, briefly:

1) On the 9th of November, Elijah and I flew together from Glasgow to Charlotte, NC via London Heathrow and Miami.  We were delayed for 7 hours in Heathrow which made our total day of travel last 24+ hrs.  It was a journey worthy of its own post... and that's part of the reason I never got around to posting anything else, was because I was trying to put the finishing touches on a post about traveling internationally, without your husband, at 7.5 months pregnant, with a 16-month-old.

2) Elijah and I stayed with my parents for the remainder of November.  It was wonderful.  I had so much help with Elijah from my parents and siblings, and Elijah had the opportunity to properly get to know his grandparents and uncles and aunt!

3) We missed David, who remained in the UK for two weeks beyond the date that Elijah and I left.  Thankfully, Skype is wonderful and Elijah is now old enough to interact with his daddy on webcam!  But "single parenting" even for a short two weeks is very wearing.  We were very happy when David was reunited with us on the 23rd of November (in time for my birthday dinner and cake!).

4) We celebrated Thanksgiving with my folks and the whole family was able to be together, which is a big deal now that we're all starting to scatter far and wide.

5) David, Elijah and I spent the weekend of 26th-27th November in Atlanta, GA visiting the FCC congregation there. It was a lovely visit and we were so thankful for the opportunity.  Drove back to Charlotte on Monday.

6) David, Elijah and I spent the night of 30th November in Greenville, SC where we visited the FCC congregation there on the Wednesday night, and visited Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary (from whence David has his M.Div) on the Thursday morning, before driving back to Charlotte that day.

7) We said goodbye to my parents and started heading north on Saturday the 3rd of December, breaking up our journey on the way by visiting friends outside of D.C. for the weekend.  We had the opportunity to speak at Sterling OPC on Sunday, Dec. 4th before driving the rest of the way to Philly on the Monday.

8) On Monday, 5th of December, we reached the outskirts of Philly, where we are staying with David's sister Sarah and her family.  It was so nice to know that after traveling virtually non-stop since the 17th of October, we will finally be staying in one place for a while!  We will remain here until the 25th of January when we fly back to Scotland, D.V.  It's a good thing we settled down when we did, because....

Our daughter, Ketzia Anne Lachman, was born here yesterday (the Lord's Day) 18th of December, 2011!!  Weighing 8lbs 10oz, measuring 20 inches long...

So, that brings you, however briefly, up to date with the events of the past month.  There are photos of Ketzia on Facebook for anyone whose interested, but I also hope to update this blog with her birth story and photos soon!  :)