Week One in Geita

Our first African adventure has been absolutely fabulous so far. I have thanked God over and over for safe travel here, even more for the blessing of being able to come & see where Carson & Holly live & work, and most of all for the gift of TIME with them and our precious Jude. They are happy & healthy and for now are at home here with their little family, along with the Groens and Harrisons, the other members of their team. We are so thankful that they are!

They are such good hosts; we have felt at home since the first minute we walked through their door. The house is welcoming and they’ve set our room up to be very cozy. We have a mosquito net to protects us, a comfortable bed, and two windows since the room is a corner one. As long as the air is moving outside, we have a good breeze. Carson has installed a ceiling fan in the living room, which makes it nice and cool unless it is very hot. While they were in Kigali to pick us up, they bought two new floor fans for their bedroom and the guest room, so we have been very comfortable.

The weather in Geita this week has been like late spring in Tennessee. Wednesday was quite warm. That night we had a storm - lightning, thunder, and heavy rain for a while. Carson came in to our room in the wee hours and closed the windows so the rain wouldn’t come in. Even if it had, there would have been no big problem since the floors here are concrete. It could have just dried and nothing would have been the worse. I like that.Since then, we have had some rain almost every day. The upper water tank is full, which is a blessing. And for only the second time since early May, water from the city of Geita came through the pipes this morning! Carson has an ingenious double tank system that provides the house with water when there is rain, which makes them much better off than most of the people of Geita. At other times, he loads a tank on the back of his truck and goes to town to buy water and bring it back to be pumped into his system.

Rain water is great for showering and washing clothes, but wazungu (white people) like us are advised not to drink it. Again, Carson has a double water jug system complete with a stopcock set up with their filtration unit in the pantry. We just fill bottles and refrigerate them to have plenty of cold drinking water.

Taking a shower here is easy, but different. The beautiful concrete sink with a counter that Carson built is outside the toilet/shower room, open to the hall with a mirror above. The mirror is framed in hand-carved wood with an African animal design. It is quite beautiful. The shower and toilet in the adjoining room are completely open to each other. The toilet lid fits down over the seat so that you don't get a surprise after someone showers! With everything open, there's no crowding or claustrophobia. There is also a high window in each section.

And windows are another lovely thing. They are divided so that you can open them in sections to direct air into the room. Every “nice” house has a decorative grille on each window for safety. Here at Carson and Holly’s house, the glass opens outward, the screen inward, and the grille is between the two. The pattern is attractive and gives the house a flair, I think. One afternoon, we passed a craftsman who was outside his shop making window grilles in different designs.

Jude is at a particularly wonderful age - he is smiling, jabbering, kissing, crawling, eating, and laughing out loud. He loves to cuddle to go to sleep while being sung to. And he still likes to be swaddled while he goes to sleep, which is very sweet. We get to enjoy his still seeming like a baby and beginning to be a little boy all at the same time. He knows that certain noises, like fake coughs, bring results. Sometimes he does it to let you know he wants to be fed. Other times, he just fake laughs until everyone joins in and is really laughing!