Saturday, January 23, 2010

Vervet Monkeys and their toys


Here is a picture of a vervet monkey. They are as common as the squirrel we have there in Arkansas. They come everyday around the house. And you have to be careful and not leave any windows or doors open or they will come in. Note: their bright blue balls. Sofia thought it was a toy hanging off of the monkey! And Sienna said "WHOA, what's on his pumpkin?". I was laughing so hard.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

First day of school but they didn't go

Today the girls were supposed to go to school but they were not able to. Sofia has been running a fever for the past 4 days. She has had very few other symptoms. Just a really stopped up nose and swollen eyes. So, I took her to the doctor. We don't have insurance yet but the doctor I went to only charged us $15 for a consultation. She has a sinus infection and upper respiratory infection. I got antibiotics and nose drops. Her fever broke tonight- I think. She seemed a little better this evening.

We had power outages all day today. The power went out at least 6 times today. Luckily they didn't go out after dark. It is very common in Africa to lose power daily.

The girls probably won't go to school tomorrow either. Hopefully Friday.

We got news that Gary was in intensive care. I talked to the girls about him and told him he was not well and in the hospital. They were so sweet- they closed their eyes and said "Jesus, please make pawpaw better so he can go home from the hospital. He is constantly in our thoughts and prayers here.

Not much else to write tonight- I'm pretty tired and headed to bed.

Sunday, January 17, 2010

Marisia and her girls



You can see the beautiful Valley of 1000 hills behind us. It is amazing.

Visit to a traditional Zulu Village

Yesterday it rained all day so we did not go to the beach as planned. We stayed around the house and went to a couple of stores. Not an eventful day.

Today, we attended church where the girls will go to school. It is called Hillside Church. It is a nice church. It’s a non-denominational type of church, very similar to New Life. The music is very modern and the worship group is young (again like NLC). The girls enjoyed it but were a little rowdy as usual. Tammy, the girl who has been watching them for the past two weeks, was there. We sat with Gavin and Kirsty and their family. Kirsty is an identical twin and the girls call her the twin mamma. They have met her twin sister.

After church, I took the girls to see some typical Zulu dancing in a small Zulu village. They loved it. There was a little “brown kiddo” there and they wanted to take her home with us. She was very cute. They kept holding her hand. And they didn’t want to leave the village and the people there did not want them to leave either! They were a hit!

Anyway, they got to go into a Zulu hut and see how dark it is and they wanted to know why there were no lights. They say the kitchen and how they cook on the ground. Sofia said it smelled like smoke in the boma (house). And then there was a performance. There were the Zulu warriors dancing and then they talked about their marriage traditions. There were the fortune tellers (with their bodies and face painted white). One of the girls did not have a shirt on and Sofia thought that was interesting. She said it was because it was hot so she didn’t have any clothes on top. The traditional dancing that the Zulu girls/young women do entails no tops being worn. It was really interesting for them to see. They took right up with the people and let the “warriors” hold them and have their picture taken. I will post most of pictures on Facebook tonight. I have posted a few here. Sienna and Sofia love to say the words they know in Zulu to the locals! They say “hello”, “how are you”, “I’m good” and “thank you”.

Our housekeeper came on Friday. Her name is Mavis. She is good. She really likes the girls, too. She will probably come and help out around the house 3 times a week. She arrives at 7 and leaves at 3:30. I pay her $14 a day. Not much at all. She has a little 5 month old boy. I am going to try and buy her some things for him as I can.

Sofia told me yesterday that when she gets big she is going to help street kids. She worries about the kids she sees who don’t have much. She said she is going to give them a house. And Sienna said that when she gets big she is going to work with me and give people pasta and lights in their houses.

Sangoma



Here is the apprentice fortune teller or locally known as a Sangoma. The girls weren't too sure about the white stuff painted all over her body

The girls and their new friend


Sienna and Sofia wanted to take this little girl home with them and give her some pasta!

Zulu Warriors and the Twins!


Here the girls are at the Zulu village today. You can see the fortune teller in the back. Since she is still learning the trade, she has to paint her whole body white. Once she is experienced, she will not have to paint herself everyday.