My Arms Are Stronger

1 foam mattress

1 sleeping bag

1 travel pillow

4 sheets
5 blankets
1 pair of pj's


This was the pile of laundry that I washed and wrung out by hand one morning while we were in Moloundou. These had to be soaked in buckets and scrubbed with a brush on a concrete slab. How did all of this get dirty? It happened in the middle of the night. Boaz was sick and was having belly issues. He threw up during the day and was having the runs. So, that night when we put Boaz to bed in our tent, we made sure a bucket was right next to him. The kids were sleeping so their heads were towards the side of the tent and their feet met in the middle, right next to where I was sleeping. I piled 2 extra blankets in the middle of the tent, by their feet in case anyone got cold in the middle of the night I could easily throw another blanket on top of them. Well, around midnight Nandry was standing over me saying, "I need to throw up!!" In an instant I dove across the tent to the bucket that was near Boaz' head...but didn't make it back in time. Nandry threw up right in the middle of our tent. Right where all of our bedding met, right where I piled those extra blankets, right where Boaz and Asher's feet and legs were.

Nathan took Nandry outside to clean her up and wash her hair out. I sat there in the tent just staring at the mess, making sure the boys didn't roll over and get more of it on themselves (they were both sound asleep, thankfully). As I sat there, I realize that was the most strategic place Nandry could have thrown up, to make sure everything had to be washed. Amazing! I was taking a count of the things that didn't need washed and that included 1 sheet, 1 blanket, 1 small blanket, and thankfully 4 travel pillows and 2 foam mattresses.

After getting it all cleaned up, with the rest of our team asleep, or pretending/wishing they were asleep right next door in their tents, we piled all of the bedding up outside on the porch of the directors house and went in to their guest room which was off the side of their house. One of our teammates let us borrow an extra blanket, and we took our still clean pillows, (1 1/2) blankets and sheet. The guest room had a full size bed with a foam mattress on it, so we put down a sheet and the boys and I slept sideways on it, with my legs hanging over the bed. Nathan and Nandry slept on the borrowed blanket on the tiny space left in the room on the concrete floor (it was a very small room). Fortunately, once the door and window were shut, the room kept cozy warm and we didn't need any covers, and actually had to open the window a few times to let some air in.

Also in the middle of the night, maybe around 2am, the rest of our team was driven out of their tents by an ant invasion...they fled to the Abbott's car but after the horn got beeped in the scramble, they ended up invited to sleep on the living room floor of the director's house.

Then...after all the wash was done, and hung up to dry, guess what happened. It rained, though it was dry season and 3 weeks early for the rains to start. So the picture up above is actually all the bedding that I washed, hung up, then took down and piled on the porch while we waited for the rainstorm to pass.

Did I mention that our 3 kids weren't the only ones sick and throwing up? Add in the Abbott's 2 kids and a couple of us adults and there you have it. Fun trip, though some of it we definitely wouldn't want to repeat.