You will be missed, Grammy.

Yesterday was a hot one. Forget what I ever said before about cool mornings, yesterday was a scorcher. There was a slight breeze though, so that was kiiiinda nice.

Grammy <3

A bit of sad news. Mummy called us in the morning and Grammy, the old lady that lived with our host family in the first week, has passed away. She was Mummy’s mother so it will be hard on their whole family. We ask that you keep them in your prayers as they accept friends and family over to grieve and as they plan for her funeral at the end of May. Petra and I hope to go and visit them next weekend to give our condolences and see the family again. Grant them comfort and peace in the knowledge that Grammy is now in heaven with her Lord and Saviour. It will be a sad couple weeks for them as they adjust to not having her around as she was such a present part of their lives.

She will be missed. 

Today is Good Friday. Doesn’t seem like it at all being over here. There is church that we can’t understand, no family gatherings, no turkey...I really miss turkey. Right about now, my whole family will be in New Dundee by the lake together and I have to miss that. It’s kind of sad.

This morning Petra and I went to church with Auntie Joe. Now that we have been to almost all of the churches that our students attend, we have found that we prefer Auntie Joe’s the most. Even though we can’t understand it, it is the most like our churches back home and we have come to know a lot of the people who attend there so that has been kind of nice. We don’t feel like strangers anymore.

We have met so many people, and often we only meet them a few times, so it is hard to remember all their names and faces so we have associated them with what they do.

-There is Doris. She is the lady down the road with the purple store who sells drinks. She sells us our coke and laughs at us about how much we buy. She sometimes has phone credits.

-There is the lady who talks to us in a high pitch voice and sells us our bread in the mornings.

-The bofroot lady. She has told me her name SO many times and I can’t remember it. I know that’s bad. But she sells us delicious bofroot in the morning and we do love her. She can’t remember our names either, so that doesn’t make me QUITE as bad...

-Jacqueline. She ... I don’t know what she does...she walks around and she says that she sells stuff but I haven’t seen her do it yet and she is never working, but always says she is working...She’s real nice though and is the closest thing to a friend here since she is my age and always gives me a hug in the morning.

-Patience. She owns a store in town and sells us fanmilk.

-there is the “man” who has the lonely drug store on the hill

-there is the “man” who owns the pharmacy beside Smart’s shop

-there is the lady who always tries to sell me her child...

-Felix. He likes to dance in church. I didn’t know his name until last week when I finally asked. Until then he was referred to as the monkey man...he really looks like a monkey. It’s hilarious.

Petra and I know who all of these people are, and they know who we are, but we just don’t always exchange names.

Anyway, back from my rant about people. Church. It was pretty long today. We had communion since it was good Friday. I hadn’t been to church in a couple weeks since we had our vacation and then I was sick, so I decided to dress up. I threw on a little bit of makeup, wore nice clothes, wore my headband with the cute little bow and I even wore heels.

Auntie Joe saw me this morning and said, “Caro! You look smart this morning and your headband matches your shoes. And the rashes on your face are starting to go down. You look NICE!”

Thanks Auntie Joe...my “rashes” are gone because they are covered for once.

I also realized that one of my feet had toenails that were painted, and the other foot was not. It really took away from the “nice” look of the heels...Auntie Joe just laughed at me. Sometimes she only paints the fingernails on one of her hands...

We got to church and there were a couple funny things that I noticed:

-they have a keyboard built into an organ box and they just set the keyboard on “organ” so that it sounds like one...

-they had an extra large amount of fake flowers displayed up front looking as silly as ever for Good Friday. I don’t think they realize that when they have fake flowers in bright blue, lime green, and hot pink, it doesn’t really help with the whole “fake” look.

-there were a couple who announced that they were going to be married this month during announcement time and the pastor had them come up to the front. The guy on the keyboard played the wedding song that you hear in movies when the bride comes down the aisle as they came up to the front...I couldn’t help it, I started laughing out loud and Petra had NO idea what was going on

-I got proposed to from the pulpit. Yup. It was after the offering and stuff so everyone in the church had seen me walk up to give my money, dancing away, in my heels. The pastor was in the middle of announcements and I was busy tuning out when I heard “obruni” and looked. Everyone in the church was looking at me and giggling. The girl beside me said, “do you understand? The pastor said that there are a couple guys who want to marry you because you look sooo nice.” I said, “me? Or do you mean Petra?” (hoping it was Petra)...She said it was me they wanted to marry. GREAT. I must have grimaced because the women across the aisle pointed to my face and started laughing. I turned real red.

After the 3 hours of church, there was a photographer kickin’ around for some reason and he wanted pictures of us at the front since the display of fake flowers was especially “nice” today. Oh geez.

So we took a picture of Petra and I. And then one with Petra and I and Auntie Joe. And then one of Petra and I and Auntie Joe and Auntie Julie. Then we threw in a random girl. Then a random man wanted a picture with us. Very strange. Very, very strange. I feel like a really weird celebrity at times but then we realize we are nobodies and I don’t understand why they want pictures of us haha.

We got home and it was pretty hot today. The power went off, of course, leaving us without fans so we decided to walk to town to get fanmilk. When we were walking back, there was a little seamstress shop that had a bunch of little kids in it. We waved, and there was a little girl further back who was kind of hiding behind her mom’s leg. The mother called us over and said that the little girl wanted to greet us, so we went closer and as we did, the mom pushed the child up to us. The little girl started SCREAMING! Poor girl. We often have mothers pushing their kids towards us telling us that we can have them. I think the little tiny children might be afraid that white people are going to take them away haha. I felt awful!

There were a ton of little kids who were trying to steal mangoes from the tree out front again. Petra and I watched for a while as the kids would give us a look and then sneakily try and throw stones in the tree to knock them out. At one point they were even throwing their machetes in the tree!! We finally decided we had gotten enough entertainment out of them and needed more. Time to snitch. I was pumped to watch Auntie Joe run after them with her stick and watch as she banged the stick on the table as she yelled at them. Pretty funny to watch them sass her from far away since she couldn’t get to them.

Then, across the street and over the fence and into another compound is another mango tree. The kids decided to climb the fence and go in there instead. Another child noticed and hopped the fence while yelling, “KIDS ARE STEALING YOUR MANGOES! KIDS ARE STEALING YOUR MANGOES!!” We watched as the kids all came screaming and climbing back over the fence to get away while the people who owned that compound beat them with sticks. Even though I don’t agree with that kind of punishment, those kids were being SUPER annoying and definitely had it coming for them. The kid who snitched on them climbed over the fence with a ripe, yellow mango in his mouth. Oh Africa...

Today marks exactly one month and I will be home. It’s a weird feeling...