Monday, December 6, 2010

This week, I decided to just do the pages with the boys to get caught up to where we are supposed to be in school.  They both did well.

This morning, Gilbert said, "My nose always hurts before (sneezing sound) 'Bless you!'"  I said, "Before you sneeze?"  He said, "Yes, that's what I meant."

At lunch today, both boys were sitting on their knees.  Danny said, "Do I look like a number 5 when I sit like this?"  Joe told him that he did.  Then, Gilbert said, "Hey, I'm a number 2, but I have to slant my head a little."  Almost every day at lunch, Gilbert asks, "Have I been good today?"  If the answer is yes, then he wants to know if he has to take a nap.  Today, he started to ask, "Was I," and stopped abruptly.  He said, "I don't want to ask that question."  He knew that he had been in trouble a few times this morning.  

Bonnie kept asking me if I could show her baby how to do it.  I said, "What is it?"  She said, "Flips."  I said, "Babies can't usually do flips."  She replied, "Well, my baby flips around, and she can wrestle!"  Later, when I was putting clothes in the dryer, she said, "Can you show my baby how to do that?  She needs to learn some things."  

Everything was pretty quiet today.  The guard doesn't come on Mondays.  Our helper did not come this morning; she has to take a taxi, and the taxis aren't running.  So, Joe helped me out this morning.  While I was teaching school, he did the dishes.  That was a pleasant surprise when I walked into the kitchen after school.  He started some laundry too.

This afternoon, Dan and Joe talked to our guard on the phone.  We were completely out of money because all of this happened at the end of the month when we get our deposit.  The guard said that it was quiet in Bassam for the moment.  So, Dan and Joe picked the guard up and went to the bank.  Joe was able to get money out of the ATM.  There was one store open too.  So, they were able to get some groceries.  We were almost out of tea bags and laundry soap; Joe got stocked up on those.  After they left, I was wishing that I would have asked Joe to get some Coke too.  When they came home, he had gotten a whole crate of Cokes!  What a sweetheart!

Joe said that none of the buildings in town had been destroyed, but there was a pile of rubble on every corner that had been burned.  All of the glass had been broken out of the Mobile station, and everything inside had been stolen; there had been a fire in the parking lot.  

Mbeke, the former South African president, came to try to get things resolved peacefully.  But, his talks seem to have done no good.  Both presidents have chosen their own prime minister and are setting up their governments.  It is probably going to turn into a war soon.  Please continue to pray.

A demain,

Joe, Laura, Gilbert, Danny, and Bonnie