Asher had a successful 4th birthday celebration on the 29th of March!

What's more fun than a barrel of monkeys?

We said "farewell" to Kemi and Mixie this past week. Our Peace Corp friend in Dimako is keeping them during the next year while we are home on home assignment. We will miss our silly little monkey and our patient cat, but I'm looking forward to having a clean veranda without monkey droppings all over it! The kids seemed fine with saying "goodbye", but we'll see how much Mixie and Kemi in the next couple of weeks before we leave the country. Personally, I think Asher will miss them the most!

Tumbo Fly

This is the grossest thing ever! We thought that it was an infected sore, until there was a small but perfectly round opening that kept getting a little bigger. Then I noticed that there was definitely something coming to the surface, then disappearing back down the hole.

I held Boaz still while Nathan did a firm but quick squeeze and the maggot popped out. Nasty, nasty, nasty! The tumbo fly lays its eggs on wet clothing and then the egg/larva burrows into your skin and grows into this flesh eating maggot. We have to make sure our clothes are completely dry before we take them off of the line because the eggs can't survive on dry cloth. Some people iron everything before they wear it. I am wondering if Boaz got one from getting his clothes wet in the rain or while playing in water with his shirt on. Now that it's rainy season, one of the kids favorite activities is playing in the rain. I'll have to keep track of the moisture level of their clothes from now on!

Lots to Blog about...

Can you believe that Asher is 4 years old now??? And that since he was born, he's only been in the USA for about 2 months of his life? Of all of us, he'll have the most culture shock coming back for our year of home assignment!

There's been alot to blog about this week, but we haven't quite had the time yet. Here's a list of things to be expecting in the next few days: our "goodbyes" to Kemi and Mixie, Brian's (Darla's boyfriend) arrival, Asher's 4th birthday, the beach and that gross maggot that came out of Boaz' shoulder.

Easter Eggs

Here are a few pictures of the kids with the Easter eggs that they dyed. It's difficult with brown eggs, the only kind we can get here, but we did the best we could. We used rubber cement and toothpicks to draw designs on the eggs before we dipped them in the food coloring. It worked really well because the rubber cement rubbed right off when it was dry. Nathan did his traditional scene on an egg of the cross and the tomb with crayons before he dyed it, it turned out well too. On Sunday morning we had breakfast with the Abbotts and then the Abbotts did an impromptu Easter pageant with the kids. Tonight, Nathan is showing The Passion to the Baka and they seem to be into it. Hope that you had a great Easter and that you got a chance to ponder what it is all about!

Communication

Angu came to our door telling me something that he wanted. I asked him to repeat it about 5 times before I even could hear what he was saying, which was "jandamo". I was racking my brain trying to figure out what jandamo was. He couldn't find a better way to say it, he was being clear, and I, the dumb foreigner was the one with the communication problem. Finally it dawned on me that he wasn't using a Baka word, he was using the french word "gendarmes" which means policemen. I giggled, got out the bucket of toys and Angu was so content to line up all the cowboys and Indians -- a.k.a. gendarmes or jandamo!

What's for lunch?

Yesterday, our Baka neighbors caught this HUGE lizard out in the forest. Sanda, the father/grandfather of most of the family that lives around us is the one who speared it. Mbombe is what it's called in Baka, however they explained that this kind of lizard is called by many names. This one is about as big as they get, but as they grow older the stripes on its body get wider, according to the Baka.

Augustine our cook prepared a small portion that Sanda gave us and the consensus is that it tastes good unless you think about what you are eating. Samba, the guy in the picture, also gave me a ring of skin from the tail (which he cut off and is holding in the pic) and two of the super-sharp claws.

In His Eyes

Here is little Ambili, happy and fairly healthy. He's grown up around us strange foreigners and is more at ease with us than some of the other Baka babies who just cry from fear when they see our white faces. I heard him on the Abbotts porch the other day just laughing and laughing at the crazy things Barry was doing. Ambili is the one who was so sick when he was just a year old and the Lord restored his health. (see www.theconrods.org/RecentPhotos/ and scroll down to the bottom for old pictures of Ambili...we really need to update our website with some new "recent photos")

This is a close up of Ambili's eye in the same picture. If you back up and squint at it, you can see me taking the picture. Cool, huh?

Mixie and Kemi

Mixie the cat and Kemi the monkey are becoming good friends. I wouldn't say they enjoy each other's company, but tolerate it well. They share breakfast together: Mixie laps up the milk while Kemi picks out the soggy cornflakes from Asher's leftover cereal. Sometimes Kemi can't stand it that Mixie is eating cat food and she doesn't have anything, so Kemi'll load her mouth with a few pieces, but spit them out later.

Mixie doesn't mind having Kemi invade her afternoon naps anymore...only when Kemi moves around too much. In this picture, Kemi is sucking her big toe and holding her foot to her mouth with her hand.

We have found a home for Kemi and Mixie for when we are gone on furlough. Peace Corps Dimako Barry is going to keep them! His landlord has kept monkeys before and is excited to have another one.

Just a normal day for us.. YEA!!

We are glad that Nathan is home safely and we are back into our normal day routine! Well, lets see, we have our morning rooster chase. Everyone chases the poor rooster with sticks and rocks until it is tired out and someone has caught it. In this picture, the kids are examining it before it gets plucked and eaten.

Next we here's a pic of the Baka taking a Kool-aid break from the rammed earth construction project...Ice blue Raspberry Lemonade, such an interesting color!

And finally in the evening, the field and brush burning. It's time to plant crops because the rains are starting so everyone is doing their final preparations on their fields. Actually in this picture, I think they are clearing the field to build a house...or maybe to plant corn. I should ask.