the last of West Africa

I just came across the last of our photos from West Africa that I never had a chance to post before we left.

Micah helped fix the window on the Land Rover,

and the rest of the vehicle, while we're at it.

Eating more mangoes from our trees.

Yum!

Even better than eating mangoes, is eating mangoes in the pool!

Our family in London for a night on our way home to Canada.  So happy to be wearing sweaters!

how to pick a mango: a tutorial by Micah

Silly me.  I should have showed you how to pick a mango before I showed you how to eat a mango.  I was just so excited about eating that yummy mango that I forgot to show you how to get one off the tree!  Oops.

It's hard picking mangoes when you're little like me.  Most of the time my Daddy helps me.  But right now there is a mango in our yard that I can almost reach... and I've been trying hard to follow Daddy's instructions and pick it myself.

First step is to just try picking it with your hands.

Easier said than done when you're only knee-high to a grasshopper!

The next best option: hitting it with a stick.  This is how my Daddy gets the really high ones off the trees.

Sometimes it helps to let out a battle cry at just the right moment.  Ahem.  It looks like I may have missed "just the right moment" and let out a battle cry anyways.  Oh well.  Can you blame me?

Sometimes you just have to be persistent.  Don't let the mango win.  Don't let the mango win!

Phew.  Picking mangoes is hard work!

Looks like this one might have to wait for another day.

Until next time...

xo Micah

how to eat a mango: a tutorial by Micah

Hey everyone.  It's me again.  Micah.

This time, I'm going to show you how to eat a mango the African way.  It's very easy.  No tools necessary.  (But watch out, they are pretty slippery sometimes!)

You just eat it like...

an apple!

Peel and all!  (Except the pit, of course.)

Yum!

I help my Daddy knock them out of our mango trees, and I eat at least two mangoes a day.  I like mango season!

how to cool off on a hot day: a tutorial by Micah

First, go to the tap (or hose) that your Momma turned on for you to play in.  Then climb up so you can reach it, and turn it on full blast.  Momma thinks it's smart to play in the water when it's just dripping out, but this way is much more fun.

 Put your hand into the stream of water,

and grab the nozzle so it sprays everywhere!

 Once you are nice and wet, and it starts to spray your face, move out of the way!

 Repeat.

 And then just splash some more!

Have fun getting wet!  It's my favourite thing to do on a hot day!  Well, that and trying to pick mangoes... but I'll save that tutorial for another day.

c'est fini

Today I had my last dentist appointment for my root canal.  I thought it would be a fairly long appointment... but I was only in the dentist chair for five minutes.  He drilled off the temporary cap and put on the new cap, and he was done.  He said "you are finished" and neither Stew nor I believed him.  If we had known it would be so quick we wouldn't have driven all the way downtown to drop Micah off for our friend Becky to babysit!  But no complaints from me.  I am very happy to have this whole procedure finished and be able to chew with both sides of my mouth again.  :)  And no more upcoming dentist appointments to dread!

the truth, round two

Remember the post I wrote a few weeks ago about the reality of life here in West Africa?

Well, all of that has really been wearing on us.  Add on the fact that I am struggling with depression again (may as well through that out there)... and well, it's proved to be a little too much for us to handle on an ongoing basis.  On the advice of some of the important people in our lives, we've decided to return to Canada in just a few weeks.  We've known this for a little while now, but we wanted to make sure the details were in place before we spread the news too much, and then there is the issue of who-needs-to-know-and-in-what-order.  As for you, my bloggy friends, hate to break it to you, but you weren't quite at the top of the list!  Shocking, I know.

So now the countdown is on!  Only about three weeks to go.  And much to do!  We are once again living in transition.  Thankfully we were able to get our flights switched without too much difficulty, and best of all, for a good price.  Praise the Lord!  Now we just need to find somewhere to live... which is proving to be slightly more complicated.  I keep wondering if the home we are looking for actually even exists, or if we are being too specific in what we want.  But we are planning to stay with our families for the first few days/weeks we are home, so we still have some time to find the right place.  I guess we will wait and see!

We are very much looking forward to catching up with friends and family when we return!

horse pills.

Yesterday was the big day.  I had to go back to the dentist to get my root canal finished.

It all started back in January.  The day my parents arrived for a two week visit, I noticed pretty major pain in one of my molars.  After a few days I went to a Lebanese dentist in our city, who was reported to be the best in the city, cleanest, most reliable.  So we went.  It was terrible, and we left after the initial consultation because he refused to work on me while I was crying.  (I had gone in thinking I just needed a cavity filled, and he abruptly informed me it was quite possibly a root canal.)  I was also about 8 weeks pregnant at the time.

Thinking he was the only real option for a dentist here, we finally went back a few days later to have him work on my tooth.  Well, he was less gracious the second time, and at one point we almost walked out - while I had an open nerve in my mouth.  I was so stressed and scared, and was crying, then he would yell at me to stop crying, which of course made me cry more.  Then he would tell me that he could not work on me while I was crying, because he was too sensitive!  Then, he would tell Stewart that he should have better prepared his wife!!

Phew.  Eventually he put a temporary cap on the tooth and let us go.  (We had decided against the necessary x-ray at that point, because of my pregnancy, so the best he could do was cap it.)  I was supposed to return after a month to have a new temporary cap put on it.  Fat chance!

Thankfully a friend told me about a local dentist who did a very good job, and was very gentle and friendly.  Still, I couldn't work up the courage to go until a few days ago when the cap came off my tooth.  It was time.

I am soooo thankful that my friend was right about the dentist!  He was very nice and gentle.  He encouraged me to relax as he investigated the situation.  Probably thanks to the fact that I had left the temporary cap in place for 2.5 months, instead of one month, one of the roots has become infected.  He prescribed an antibiotic, and now I go back next week to have the root canal done.  The only problem?  The antibiotics may as well be horse pills.  Ug.

I'll keep you posted about the root canal next week... until then, please don't tell me your root canal horror stories!

our vacation: a photo recap

We did lots of lounging in our hotel room, enjoying the air conditioning!

Our room was so nice - we put Micah's bed in the closet, and had a separate living area upstairs in the loft.  It was perfect.

Stew dropped off these flowers the day before we arrived, so they would be waiting for me when we went to our room!

Micah loved to play with the thermometer in the pool.

And I enjoyed sitting by the pool, watching them play!

I even managed to read an entire novel while we were away.

We went swimming at a different pool on day 2.  Micah loved playing in the shallow end.

We discovered that Micah loves playing Boggle.

Or at least his version, which involves putting all the cubes into the board.

We took Micah to a new fast food restaurant (the only one in town!) for a chicken sandwich, and the ladies were enamored by him.  (As they are everywhere we go.)

And he played more Boggle.

It turns out that Micah makes a good pillow, and just might stay still long enough if he can reach his snacks!

We enjoyed lots of yummy food and drinks, and no cooking!

And spending time at the park.

But we were definitely still in West Africa - given the cows right outside our door, and the roosters that woke us up numerous times each morning before daybreak.

But even with the cows and chickens and donkeys (which, in case you didn't know, donkeys do not "bray" - they sound like they are dying of asphyxiation!), we did have a very restful time.

Especially our last day of holiday, when we went to a lodge a little way out of the city, to enjoy their gorgeous pool and delicious food.

Like father, like son.

When I jumped into the pool, a frog jumped out of the filter right at me!  I couldn't tell what it was, so (of course) I screamed and jumped out, as fast as my prego body would take me.  (Stew said I looked like a beached whale.  Great.)  Turned out just to be a rather large frog.  The pool guy came with his net and rescued me/the frog.  The pool guy didn't seem phased at all.  They must get a lot of frogs, since they are located right by the river.

((20 weeks pregnant!))

I love that Micah is still young enough to willingly sport his dorky... I mean, adorable... sun hat.  

And he just loves the camera these days!

 

And usually gets a little too close!

The end.