Buzzy Bees and Babies
Good evening (: As my Senegalese friends often open their letters, I too hope this letter finds you all in good health, happiness and spirit. I am feeling peaceful, slow and a bit uninspired to analyze life today. That is not to say life is not interesting, just that it is passing nicely and without much need for comment. If I was living among you, there would be no need for explanation. We could just “be” and be together. But as I am not, I will dig up a few words to bring you here across the ocean for a few minutes today.
It rained off and on this week, but not enough to fill the tank up to where we need it. So we bought water again, town water. It’s not as lovely as pure rain water but it is still a blessing for which we are grateful. The water man is very kind, especially for his willingness to back his enormous truck down the hill maneuvering around the many stacks of floorboards blocking his path. The piddly little rain showers usually amounted to about 10 or 20 drops of rain and made for difficult line drying. I spent Friday running in and out of the house grabbing the laundry from the line and hanging it out again. Normal people would just use the dryer, which we do have. I am stubborn and sometimes naively hopeful. I successfully dried one load in the sun/rain, but ended up giving in to the drier for the other load.
We managed to put on a few more floorboards but it is still slow going. I actually hammered a few nails in straight and held the pry bar as firm as my weight can bear while Matt and or Michelle hammered the boards down. It is humorous how little Michelle and I actually help after all of the lead up that “we are going to build today!”
We try but often run to the children if they are in need or spend more time gearing up for lunch, eating it and cleaning it all up. I suppose it’s humorous in that I know I am capable of hard labor because I used to stick to tasks and actually accomplish them before I became a mom and also fell in love with food. We’re realizing we need a church work crew like those we used to take to Kentucky and Mexico (: In lieu of that dream, the building will just progress nice and slow and that’s alright. This week Matt worked a few days at the bank in addition to his afternoons at the nut factory. Next week he’ll add census distribution to the mix!
Jess and I went to both choirs this week. This was her first chance to come along to the “Drongos,” the larger and more serious of the two. Although it means a late bedtime as it ends at 8:30, drags until 8:40 followed by a 45 minute drive home on which she refuses to fall asleep, the beautiful music entering her ears, body and soul is worth every lost minute of sleep. At one point she was holding my hands, climbing up my knees, and found herself upside down hearing the sound, “Wah!” repeated over and over. Naturally, she joined in and yelled, “Wah” at full volume when the choir was silent for once second. Laughter took over and we had to repeat the section. Jacinta is learning Wolof (national language of Senegal) through a song we are singing and calls out words like Damay and Mel ni singing along with us. She kept her silence again for the first hour but then comes out of herself and joins in. Two late nights out each week is a bit much so we have found a kind neighbor to bridge the one hour gap between my departure and Matt’s return home from the factory. Melissa is in Year 6 at school and lives next door. She came over to “play” with Jess for the first time this week while I did chores in the house. They played with play dough for almost an hour and then helped me make cookies. By chance, Melissa loves cooking also. Tomorrow night will be the first time Jacinta goes to Melissa’s all by herself. She is already talking about what she will take along with her in her backpack (:
On the land, well, the land is working as I am not doing much! Some lettuces are 2 ½ feet tall almost in flower, while others are just ready to eat. The Bok Choy flowers have brought “buzzy bees” to one end of the garden. The kiwi vines are finally starting to show some life after their transplant months ago. There is one full cauliflower head almost ready to eat that I somehow missed until now, and a few tiny ones. There are about 40 broccoli plants showing the beginning of a broccoli head on each. Spinach, Chinese vegetables, peas, lettuces and broccoli are all fighting for space. The potatoes are suffering for some reason, the upper leaves are wilting, some browning. It could be frost, water logging, bad mulch, I don’t know. There are little carrot and beet patches everywhere and new potatoes springing up daily. The garlic looks the same from week to week, the real changes are happening below hidden from our eyes. The only work I did this week was planting 3 pine nut seeds, yes, I’m trying to grow pine nuts, my weakness. It will take 15-20 years before the pine tree fruits, wow, that’s a long time. Michelle watered some comfrey tea into one terrace that needed fertilizer. Jess, Keith and I have been trying to track down the laying patterns of the new chickens. They change locations every time we discover an egg. Jess and Keith found one hidden nest this week so we had a few eggs to eat. Jess loves to eat the “baby eggs.”
Speaking of babies, we found out that some friends from Holland, Michigan had a baby girl on July 9. We had been waiting to hear, and in that touchy time of leaving expectant or new parents alone, we worried that there was a problem. So Matt searched on the net and found a reference made by a sibling of the couple to the new Jillian Clare! Nothing like modern technology. Congratulations to Adriann and Jason!
Jess has become a dolly lover. Starting with the bunny, she moved onto a purple cotton Waldorfy doll. This week she received two newborn-size dolls in the mail from a good friend in America. This must be the time toddlers like pretending to be parents or caretakers because Jess was ready! They are her babies, she calls them Kai and JD, one wearing pink and the other blue. She swaps who’s who and throws in the name, “Sally” now and then with no regard for who’s wearing pink (:We actually wore them on our backs tied on African style for over an hour while cooking dinner and picking vegetables from the garden one evening. She puts them to bed in a basket. We rode our bike to playgroup (first having to dodge the water truck and clean the chicken poop off the seat) and she asked to bring along a baby. She’s learning that the “babies” mostly live at home.
It is still winter here, quite inoffensive though. I love the fact that veggies are flourishing and that it is mandarin season. All citrus is in season, but Jess and I have found a particular love for mandarins and we can get local organic mandarins for almost nothing. Some Aussies, having originated from colder climates, long for Christmas in the cold weather. Hence, the existence of Christmas in July celebrations.
Matt, Jess and I drove 6 hours to Sydney on Saturday to celebrate with friends. There was abundant food and drinks, even some Christmas music, Karaoke??? and one Santa hat. For any of you that have heard me mock Karaoke, I must admit I tried one song and it was terrible! It is an art, albeit one that I don’t want to practice, but I respect anyone that can do it sober and still feel like a respectable human following. I was sober, thus my disgust with the whole thing. The babies wore red and green, but no one else did. There were some old friends that Matt had not seen in about 10 years, so that made it even better. It seems like complete insanity to drive 12 hours in 2 days with a two year old, but Jess was a trooper, Matt’s a devoted driver and I must brag, I packed well for entertainment and nourishment. Jess happily stayed up until 11:30, munching on fruit, cheese and spinach dip all night long, enchanting the adult guests and making us laugh and smile. She got to see and hold the real baby JD. Although I changed her poopy diaper four times in the seven hours there thanks to the fruit plate, I enjoyed watching her shine and make people happy. Matt asks her each night before bed, “Who Loves You?” She answers, “Daddy.” “Who else?” he goes on and on. She names off as many people as she can think of that love her, she knows she’s loved. I suppose that makes it easier for her to give off so much love and light.
Shine on y’all and know you’re loved. Have a good week!
It rained off and on this week, but not enough to fill the tank up to where we need it. So we bought water again, town water. It’s not as lovely as pure rain water but it is still a blessing for which we are grateful. The water man is very kind, especially for his willingness to back his enormous truck down the hill maneuvering around the many stacks of floorboards blocking his path. The piddly little rain showers usually amounted to about 10 or 20 drops of rain and made for difficult line drying. I spent Friday running in and out of the house grabbing the laundry from the line and hanging it out again. Normal people would just use the dryer, which we do have. I am stubborn and sometimes naively hopeful. I successfully dried one load in the sun/rain, but ended up giving in to the drier for the other load.
We managed to put on a few more floorboards but it is still slow going. I actually hammered a few nails in straight and held the pry bar as firm as my weight can bear while Matt and or Michelle hammered the boards down. It is humorous how little Michelle and I actually help after all of the lead up that “we are going to build today!”
We try but often run to the children if they are in need or spend more time gearing up for lunch, eating it and cleaning it all up. I suppose it’s humorous in that I know I am capable of hard labor because I used to stick to tasks and actually accomplish them before I became a mom and also fell in love with food. We’re realizing we need a church work crew like those we used to take to Kentucky and Mexico (: In lieu of that dream, the building will just progress nice and slow and that’s alright. This week Matt worked a few days at the bank in addition to his afternoons at the nut factory. Next week he’ll add census distribution to the mix!
Jess and I went to both choirs this week. This was her first chance to come along to the “Drongos,” the larger and more serious of the two. Although it means a late bedtime as it ends at 8:30, drags until 8:40 followed by a 45 minute drive home on which she refuses to fall asleep, the beautiful music entering her ears, body and soul is worth every lost minute of sleep. At one point she was holding my hands, climbing up my knees, and found herself upside down hearing the sound, “Wah!” repeated over and over. Naturally, she joined in and yelled, “Wah” at full volume when the choir was silent for once second. Laughter took over and we had to repeat the section. Jacinta is learning Wolof (national language of Senegal) through a song we are singing and calls out words like Damay and Mel ni singing along with us. She kept her silence again for the first hour but then comes out of herself and joins in. Two late nights out each week is a bit much so we have found a kind neighbor to bridge the one hour gap between my departure and Matt’s return home from the factory. Melissa is in Year 6 at school and lives next door. She came over to “play” with Jess for the first time this week while I did chores in the house. They played with play dough for almost an hour and then helped me make cookies. By chance, Melissa loves cooking also. Tomorrow night will be the first time Jacinta goes to Melissa’s all by herself. She is already talking about what she will take along with her in her backpack (:
On the land, well, the land is working as I am not doing much! Some lettuces are 2 ½ feet tall almost in flower, while others are just ready to eat. The Bok Choy flowers have brought “buzzy bees” to one end of the garden. The kiwi vines are finally starting to show some life after their transplant months ago. There is one full cauliflower head almost ready to eat that I somehow missed until now, and a few tiny ones. There are about 40 broccoli plants showing the beginning of a broccoli head on each. Spinach, Chinese vegetables, peas, lettuces and broccoli are all fighting for space. The potatoes are suffering for some reason, the upper leaves are wilting, some browning. It could be frost, water logging, bad mulch, I don’t know. There are little carrot and beet patches everywhere and new potatoes springing up daily. The garlic looks the same from week to week, the real changes are happening below hidden from our eyes. The only work I did this week was planting 3 pine nut seeds, yes, I’m trying to grow pine nuts, my weakness. It will take 15-20 years before the pine tree fruits, wow, that’s a long time. Michelle watered some comfrey tea into one terrace that needed fertilizer. Jess, Keith and I have been trying to track down the laying patterns of the new chickens. They change locations every time we discover an egg. Jess and Keith found one hidden nest this week so we had a few eggs to eat. Jess loves to eat the “baby eggs.”
Speaking of babies, we found out that some friends from Holland, Michigan had a baby girl on July 9. We had been waiting to hear, and in that touchy time of leaving expectant or new parents alone, we worried that there was a problem. So Matt searched on the net and found a reference made by a sibling of the couple to the new Jillian Clare! Nothing like modern technology. Congratulations to Adriann and Jason!
Jess has become a dolly lover. Starting with the bunny, she moved onto a purple cotton Waldorfy doll. This week she received two newborn-size dolls in the mail from a good friend in America. This must be the time toddlers like pretending to be parents or caretakers because Jess was ready! They are her babies, she calls them Kai and JD, one wearing pink and the other blue. She swaps who’s who and throws in the name, “Sally” now and then with no regard for who’s wearing pink (:We actually wore them on our backs tied on African style for over an hour while cooking dinner and picking vegetables from the garden one evening. She puts them to bed in a basket. We rode our bike to playgroup (first having to dodge the water truck and clean the chicken poop off the seat) and she asked to bring along a baby. She’s learning that the “babies” mostly live at home.
It is still winter here, quite inoffensive though. I love the fact that veggies are flourishing and that it is mandarin season. All citrus is in season, but Jess and I have found a particular love for mandarins and we can get local organic mandarins for almost nothing. Some Aussies, having originated from colder climates, long for Christmas in the cold weather. Hence, the existence of Christmas in July celebrations.
Matt, Jess and I drove 6 hours to Sydney on Saturday to celebrate with friends. There was abundant food and drinks, even some Christmas music, Karaoke??? and one Santa hat. For any of you that have heard me mock Karaoke, I must admit I tried one song and it was terrible! It is an art, albeit one that I don’t want to practice, but I respect anyone that can do it sober and still feel like a respectable human following. I was sober, thus my disgust with the whole thing. The babies wore red and green, but no one else did. There were some old friends that Matt had not seen in about 10 years, so that made it even better. It seems like complete insanity to drive 12 hours in 2 days with a two year old, but Jess was a trooper, Matt’s a devoted driver and I must brag, I packed well for entertainment and nourishment. Jess happily stayed up until 11:30, munching on fruit, cheese and spinach dip all night long, enchanting the adult guests and making us laugh and smile. She got to see and hold the real baby JD. Although I changed her poopy diaper four times in the seven hours there thanks to the fruit plate, I enjoyed watching her shine and make people happy. Matt asks her each night before bed, “Who Loves You?” She answers, “Daddy.” “Who else?” he goes on and on. She names off as many people as she can think of that love her, she knows she’s loved. I suppose that makes it easier for her to give off so much love and light.
Shine on y’all and know you’re loved. Have a good week!
posted by Matt & Shana & Jacinta & Genevieve Henry at
12:21 AM
1 Comments:
Shana, This is the first blog I have read. You are a master writer. I feel as though I am right there with you. Have you considered setting up to do video chatting with family and friends back home? It's just a matter of a video cam and a high speed connection. I got to see my grandson when he sat up by himself the first time, and a couple of weeks ago, his first steps. It is pretty cool.
You are missed, but I am so happy for you.
Love, Connie
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