bye bye for a bit

We've grown up in a generation that is constantly connected. Our generation is addicted to Facebook, Twitter, cell phones, etc. It's hard for us to remember life before Google and only having home phone lines. We are constantly connected.

For the next month we will be unconnected. That's a strange feeling for us. We will be spending time at a training a few countries to the left. We're really looking forward to this time. We'll spend time in 3 different African settings - urban, rural, and in a family's home. We will have daily assignments in the community to help us better understand culture and living here.

So, this is us signing off for a little bit. When we return to the world of connectivity we will have many stories, pictures, and updates. Please pray for us during this month. Pray for our learning, our strength, our health, and our lack of connection with friends and family. Pray for those leading the training and the others attending it with us. We will update here as soon as we are connected again. Bye bye for a bit!

it's a GIRL!

On Friday, we found out we're having a girl! We both actually thought it was a girl - not sure why I did... I guess a feeling. The night before the appointment Trey had a dream it was a girl - and that as an infant she actually talked to him & gave him a high five. We went to the doctor's appointment hoping we'd find out the gender, but not positive since I am only 17.5 weeks. Our doctor checked everything out - the skull, the spine, the organs (which he would point out every one he was looking at and we just nodded in approval), the legs and arms, and then we went on a hunt for the gender. It was a little difficult since her legs were crossed and knees held closely together. At first, he said 80% sure it's a girl, and after another view said more it confidently. Of course, we were excited to learn the gender, but it was also fun to see something that actually looked like a baby and not a blob. I mean, sometimes she looked a little freaky, like when it would focus on the skeleton :) but she's absolutely beautiful, and definitely a little lady. The baby was measuring closer to 19 weeks, 10 days ahead of what we thought... so soon we will have a pool for the actual birth date, since the due date ranges from March 8th-18th! She was very comfortable through the entire ultrasound and only moved a few times. I tried to pay attention to what it felt like when she moved so I could feel it later, but I didn't feel anything. Everyone says I'll feel her soon enough. We've chosen a girl's name, but for now we're just sharing with friends & family (and still trying to settle on a middle name. We leave you with a picture of our precious little skeleton.

language learning

Can we talk for just a minute about language learning? And not just learning another language, but learning another language in a country where English is widely spoken. Learning a new language is never easy. In high school we were required to take a foreign language. I took French because there was 1 French teacher and she was easy and 3 Spanish teachers, only one of which was easy. Clearly, French was the best option. And I enjoyed it too. However, there are very few things I can remember in the French language. I know some basic Spanish (like 1-10 and how are you) because it's easy to pick up in America. And when I went to Ecuador and was submersed in the language, it seemed easy to pick up. English, French, and Spanish all have similarities. They've all be relatively easy to learn, even just the basics.

Here, we're learning Hausa. Hausa is not like English... in any way, shape, or form. I take that back, it uses the same alphabet, minus 3 or 4 letters. It sounds different. Hausa uses tones... of which I cannot hear. Take for instance the word gibi. Depending on the tone it can mean the Lord's Supper or it can mean the day after tomorrow. There's a big difference in those two things. In Hausa, you roll your r's and "swallow" some of the sounds. Not to mention, as with most languages, there are different dialects. There are places that use the p sound where an f is. There are places where people use a word to mean husband that in other parts mean a married women's boyfriend. We are doing barefoot language learning - meaning, we each have a helper that comes 4 times a week and we tell them what we need to know. And even though they speak good English, sometimes it takes some time to get across what we need to learn.

We had our first assessment about 6 weeks ago, and we both passed. But sometimes it's just really hard to progress to the next level. For me, I can understand a lot more than I can speak. I understand it because I know a few words in the sentence and use context clues (there's an elementary school teacher out there smiling because I still use context clues) to figure out what they're saying. Trey is great at speaking the language, but he doesn't always understand what is being asked of him. I would say we make a pretty good team. When we were traveling the other day we stopped at a checkpoint and Trey greeted the police in Hausa. They got excited, as they always do when we speak Hausa to them, and began to ask him more questions. I relayed what the officer asked to Trey and he then responded in almost perfect Hausa. Like I said, a good team.

Language learning isn't always easy, nor is it always fun. But what is fun is seeing the response we get from people. With English so widely spoken, they don't expect ex-pats to learn Hausa. When we can greet someone, answer simple questions, and tell them we're learning Hausa and we understand "kadun-kadun" (small-small) it changes the whole mood of everyone involved in the conversation. It shows people that you care enough to talk to them in their heart language. We've been at it for about 2 months and today was our last day with our helpers for at least a month. It will be difficult to come back and jump right in where we left off. We will forget things, and that's a little frustrating. So, pray that we will retain more than we think and we'll be able to continue to learn and pick it up quickly.

pink or blue?

When we found out we were pregnant, I could not wait to find out what we were having. Trey would be ok with not finding out, but I'm a planner and at least with this child, I want to know. Almost immediately I began searching online for ways to tell when you're having. We began discussing names for boy or girl. It's been easy to decide on a girl's name, not so much for a boy's name. Anyway, I decided for fun that I'd make a post about old wives' tales for gender & give you my personal results before letting you know the official word from the doctor :) So, I did a google search and found 10 wives' tales to test. (and no, this picture is not me - simply another google find.)

Sweet or Salty

Supposedly cravings can determine the gender. They say craving sweets & it's a girl. Craving salty (or sour, which I'm not sure those two tastes even go together) it's a boy.

Results: I could basically open our salt shaker and drink it. Anything sweet I eat has to be followed by something salty. However, I have had a random craving for chocolate milk, but that's probably because it's just not that easy to get here. Anyway, salty cravings would indicate a boy.

Baby's Heartbeat
They say 140+ beats is a girl, and below 140 beats is a boy.
Results: We've ranged from 140-160 bpm. This would indicate a girl.

Shape of Belly

They say you can tell gender by the way the mother is carrying. If you're carrying high and it's shaped like a watermelon, it's a girl. If you're carrying low and it's like a basketball, it's a boy.

Results: Well, since I'm not exactly showing very much, this one is hard. However, I do feel that I'm carrying low, but that could change easily. For the fun of this post, we'll give this one to the boys.

Chinese Birth Chart
Basically, you can go to this website and fill in the information. They'll tell you the gender prediction according to the Chinese calendar.
Results: The Chinese say it's a girl.

Mayan's Prediction (of course we have to get cultural here.. first Chinese, now Mayan)

The Mayan's based gender prediction on the mother's age at conception & the year of conception. If both are even or odd, it's a girl. If they are opposite, one even one odd, it's a boy.

Results: The Mayan's say it's a girl.

Side You Rest On
If you tend to lay on your left side to rest, it's a boy. Right side, it's a girl.
Results: Typically I lay on my left side. I can prove this because I wake up in the morning with my left ear feeling bruised. I guess I have a heavy head :) This vote is boy.

Morning Sickness
They say if you have an easy pregnancy with not much nausea, it's a boy. If you're really sick with lots of morning sickness, a girl.
Results: I'm in my second trimester and total threw up twice (TMI, I know). Talking to my doctor about the pregnancy he said, "It seems like you're having an easy pregnancy." I feel the same way, since I know people who've been much more sick than me. I also know people who have had the opposite of this wives' tale, however, according to this, it's a boy.

Acne

Yes, no one really likes to talk about it or deal with it, but hormones can bring it out. The old wives' tale says that if the mother is breaking out, the baby girl is stealing her beauty.

Results: I seriously have never had acne this bad. It's horrible. So, if this child is stealing my beauty, it better be beautiful :) This would indicate a girl.

Headaches

If you're having headaches during pregnancy, you're carrying a boy.

Results: I've definitely had some headaches. A couple have knocked me out for the day. This indicates a boy.

Baby Names
Supposedly if you can only agree on a name for either a boy or a girl, that's what you're having.
Results: Like I said at the beginning, we can only agree on a girl's name. In fact, we have several girl's names we like and agree on, even for future children, but this boy name is killer. I guess this means a girl.

So, according to these "tests" it's 50/50 :) I guess we will just have to wait and see!

weekend in the capital city

We have a great family back home (and friends too!). There were some things that didn't make it in our suitcases when we first came here and some things we've realized we wanted/needed since arriving. Not to mention, adding a pregnancy to the mix and things that come along with it. Our great family and friends compiled all of those things, packed them in a suitcase, and got them to a group in the states coming for a trip. We had to go to the capital city to pick it up from the group and decided to treat ourselves with some time away.

When we got to town, the family we traveled with took us to get pizza. This was awesome, because of course I had been craving pizza :) I like all sorts of pizza back home, but the one time I've ordered pizza here it took an hour to make and ended up being the wrong thing. Here, we were easily able to order, watch them make our pizza, put it in the oven, and it was out all within 15-20 minutes. And it was delicious!

Delicious, yummy, satisfying pizza

The first night we stayed at an American hotel. It was a little pricey, but we decided to treat ourselves :) The room was nothing fancy, but it did have AC, TV, and room service. There was an American style steak house at the hotel that we splurged at for dinner. I'm not necessarily a steak fan, but this steak was pretty dang good. And Trey was more than happy with his steak.

the bread!

Kristen's steak

Trey's steak & baked potatoes - with the works

The next morning we spent some time walking around the hotel, deciding on what all the foreigners were doing there. We headed to our company's guest house before lunch to meet the group that brought our goodies. To get there, we used an old fashion GPS, a.k.a. me & a map. We're lucky we made it there since I'm horrible with directions :) We had so much fun sorting through everything that was sent to us. We spent time with the group talking about what they're doing here and hearing their heart for all to hear the Good News.

GPS

Our goodies - filled with maternity clothes, new clothes for Trey,
supplies, sheets, painting canvases, and so much more!

Happy Trey with his new hat 

new rainbows = excited floridians 

We didn't go out until after 4:00 since it was Friday afternoon and half the city closes down for Friday Mosque. We've seen a lot of mosque's since being here, but this one is by far the most beautiful. It's the national mosque. Looking at it I thought it's so sad that something so beautiful on the outside can teach something so deceitful.

Saturday we spent driving around, enjoying the "modern" city. Seriously, with it's divided highways, smooth roads, big buildings, almost constant power, and some decent public transportation, it's the most modern city we've been in here. We even were taken to a grocery store that could make us forget we're in West Africa, that is until the power went out and they switched to the generator :) We made our way over to another restaurant where we enjoyed some delicious humus dip - comparable to Red Elephant's humus dip. We were even offered ice for our drinks. We just looked at each other and laughed. We decided against the ice since we weren't sure if it came from filtered water, but just to be offered it was nice.

What, you mean you've never seen a soccer game in the middle of an off ramp?

public restroom - or lack thereof.

Humus & Pita Bread

We really enjoyed the time away and yes, we realize that a lot of it was focused on food :) We are excited that we get to go back this weekend since we are flying out for some training. We hear there's a pretty awesome pool at a different hotel that we plan to spend some time at :)

one of those days...

Today. It was one of those days for me. You know, we all have them. Days that, for no good reason, are just bad days. Nothing went terribly wrong. It was just a bad day. Let me just take you through my day.

We woke up the morning away from home. We were in the city we need to be in to check out of aliens in order to travel internationally. I guess you can say I woke up on the wrong side of the bed. We went to the office to check out. We sat with the man in charge as the paperwork was filled out. After it was done, he mention something about a fee. We had heard nothing of this before, and bribes being a regular thing here made us suspicious. I didn't like doubting this man because he's been so nice and helpful before. But in that moment, I got irritated. He let us leave with our paperwork and without paying anything. He said we could talk to a colleague and bring the money back by. We leave, call her, and sure enough, a fee was needed. So then, I just feel horrible for not believing him.

Now, we're trying to leave the city to get back to our house in good time. We needed gas (which our car takes diesel) and there happens to be a gas problem in the city - gas being petrol, not what we needed. We drive to the front of the line where the attendants are annoyed with us. The national with us tells them we need diesel. They understand and tell us to pull up, outside the gate, near the diesel pump. We sit there for a while and then the attendant tells us to pull into the gate... and at the gate, another attendant yells at us, that we're doing something wrong. The national gets out and tells him what we're doing, and then gets frustrated, gets in the car and we drive off. Eventually we found another station with diesel. So, we set out to get to a new road that is faster to get out of town. We end up on a dirt road with massive potholes, I mean the kind you can lose a car in. Now, all of this is actually a normal day here, but remember, today was just one of those days.

We finally get out of the city and on our way. Only now, I'm starving. I lay down in the backseat trying to ward off the hunger, only it's hard to sleep because of the horn. You see, going through towns on the way, the horn has to be honked often. People run out in front of the car, children are walking home from school, and cars pull onto the road without looking. Which leads me to something else that bothers me here - the fact that road rules are not necessarily followed. They have a road safety book with rules very similar to a western country, but all the rules seem to be relative to the situation at hand. Again, these are things I've dealt with on a daily basis here, but today it just rubbed me the wrong way.

By the time we got home, all I wanted to do was eat some fast food for dinner. Something quick and easy. Luckily, this city does have some western style restaurants. They're not fast by any means, but at least I didn't have to cook it.

During training, people told us about these days. They don't happen often, but when they do, they're pretty difficult. I don't say all of this to complain. Most days this stuff doesn't bother me. It's just part of living in Africa. But today, it did. At training, they told us on days like today we need to rely on the Lord more than anything. So that's how I'll end my evening. Resting in Him and His Word, because that's all I can do on this day.