Some ways, we are getting settled more and more. The
kids are processing things bit by bit although, they don’t seem to notice the
beggars that surround us. It is overwhelming at times to see the young girls
with babies walking the streets, and the mothers who carry physically disabled
babies around. A young mother came up to me and showed me her child who had syndactyly with only 2 fingers per hand. Thankfully, our kids are interested in playing
with any child that they come in contact with.
Micah asked the other day if we could go home to
Canada, yes, even with the snow! Even with the odd comment here and there, the
kids are settling in at school and to life in Gitega. Joshua was sick with a
fever for 2 days, and of course the first thing I thought of is malaria, but he seems to be more himself
now and we have been over 12 hours fever free! When I did more research on
malaria, he did not have the chills nor headaches so I was able to eliminate
malaria as the source of the fever. Thank you to everyone who prayed for his
healing. He still has a cough but his
energy and spunk are back.
Sunday, Charles, started in his role as pastor of
Gitega International Academy (GIA)…however, it was also African style! We got
ready early in the morning and awaited our transportation to arrive …….and we
waited and waited…and waited (hopefully we can buy a vehicle soon so we can be more
independent). Communication was amiss and the arranging of transportation was
overlooked. We ended up walking up the hill to a main road and hailing a taxi
to take us to GIA. It did not take us long to get a taxi as our family is quite
a spectacle, or so it seems, anywhere we go. We made it to the school for
church and they reserved seats in the front row. For those who have young kids,
sitting for a 2 hours church service at the front with 4 young ones is a bit of
a challenge. Overall, the kids did great and following the service, Savana was
surrounded by the girls of the school and our boys found a willing participant
to jump on! Interestingly, there is another boy from Edmonton, Caleb, who
arrived recently to work as a missionary with GIA. There is getting to be quite
a group of Edmontonians here in Gitega!! 
I informally started as the nurse at GIA after
church on Sunday. A boy had a caterpillar walk across his fingers and he had
quite a reaction to it. His fingers became quite swollen and hives covered his
hand. I am attempting to do research on the bugs here and reactions they can
cause. I have learned of the ACID BUG….which arrived in 2012 and has remained.
It is a black and red ant-like bug that when squashed, it releases an acid. These
are things that are good to know around here!! The school only has a small
bucket of medications that other missionaries have left behind so there is not
a lot of selection to work with.
Tomorrow is a holiday so if all goes well, Thursday morning will be my
first official day as GIA’s nurse.
We are continually grateful for you, our friends and
family who have chosen to walk this journey with us. Thank you and God bless!
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