yes.. I know..

I'm not as good at posting on here as we were in Canada. There are a lot of different factors... one being the internet. It's not always a good enough connection to open blogger. And two, power... sometimes we want to use our computer for other things, since power can be hit or miss & we want to keep it charge (speaking of, going on about 55 hours without power, but no worries, the generator charged up the computer). And three, we found out 2 weeks after being here that we're having a baby! Waiting to make it "public" has made me more silent on the blog front. Now that everything is out in the open, the computer is charged, and the internet is decent (however, I may have just jinxed myself), I'm attempting to update you on our life.

Next week we will start month 4 in our new home. There is still so much to adjust to here. Before coming here I had never heard the Islamic Call to Prayer, and now I hear it 5 times a day (including 4:30 am). It's starting to blend in as background noise. Also, I could only speak and greet people in one language (not including the little bit of Spanish I know and the French I learned in high school). Now, if  I want, I can greet in English and Hausa, and greeting everyone here is very important. I've learned how many hours of power you need to keep your food frozen, and how quickly the food can go bad. I've learned that ants like anything they can eat - water, sugar, nutella, lays potato chips, etc. Anything they can get their hands on, they will. I've learned to sleep without a fan. I always slept with a fan on in America, but here, if the power's out, no fan. You get used to it. I've learned to cook a lot more. I am not good at it still (and currently have an oven that doesn't have a temperature gage so that has made things very interesting), but I'm learning and we're not starving!

Along with all of the cultural changes of moving to a completely different country, I've also dealt with pregnancy changes! Anyone I asked about pregnancy before always said their sense of smell was heightened. Let me just say, you've never known your sense of smell to be heightened until you've lived in a smelly place. I've had to be careful with what foods I ate, afraid of getting sick from it. I also have had to always carry snacks on me, which is difficult to do since there aren't many snack items around or any fast food restaurants. I've dealt with cravings... seriously, I craved any American restaurant food (Chili's especially). Pretty much anything we can't get, I craved. The good news is I haven't had to wear dress pants or jeans that don't fit - just my elastic skirts, even though I still fit perfectly in my jeans.

These past 3 months have been such an adventure and learning experience for us. We've grown in so many ways. And by any means, it has not been easy living here, but I will say it is getting easier. The things that seemed like such a nuisance in the beginning have now become a way of life. We are trying new things and learning a little more every day.

I was planning to leave you with some pictures, however, I in fact did jinx myself and am just hoping I can get this to actually post :) Welcome to our life in Africa.