visions of bed bugs dancing in my head...

measles and mumps and polio oh my...and yellow fever
thursday, may 27...at our last team meeting, stuart informed me that the three of us (emily, abigail and i) may have to get our visas after we get there. what? he said it was no big deal we would just have to be in a different line. it's a common thing to do. but, if we got our yellow fever shot quickly enough he would see what he could do to get it before we leave. so asap we tried to schedule our yellow fever shot. nothing was available until june 2 so we ended up having to go to a place where someone would have to consult us which meant we had to pay a consultation fee along with a hefty amount per shot. we had to first listen to the lady tell us every possible thing that could go wrong and every possible disease that we could contract. the information lists things like parasitic worms and bed bugs. o.k... please just stop. as she talked i sat there wondering about what the girls were thinking because i was thinking "am i crazy to be doing this? what the heck am i doing? oh gosh, i just don't know..." (right here is a good place to interject, once more, that this is totally our of my realm of normalcy and comfort...but that in itself is one reason why we are going). i looked their way and caught their eyes staring at me with a perplexed look as if they wanted me to say "it will be fine. no big deal" but honestly, i was just as perplexed as they were. i did however, manage to say "well, we will handle whatever comes along..." but all the while i had visions of things we were going to have to pack and what on earth would we really be coming into contact with. the lady convinced us that we must get some spray used by the military to thwart off insects (mosquitos, ticks, chiggers, etc.). we will need to spray each side of each clothing item and let it dry then repeat on the other side. after it dries, pack it. also, apparently, there is an outbreak of measles in africa right now. so along with the yellow fever i had to get a measles booster...and polio. the girls were fine because of their normal childhood vaccines. $700 dollars later we left the office...



friday morning, may 28th, another garage sale...
so after spending a small fortune on just shots i thought to open our garage again for two more days to see if we could possibly raise a little bit more and possibly cover the extra shots i had to get. that amount was $198. on thursday, abigail and i went to chris and jeanne's (brother and sister in law) house to get some things they were going to donate. they gave us two small bicycles, books and two unknown (to me) pieces of wood working equipment. well, those were heavy and it was hot that day! we laughed as jeanne, abigail, madilynn (niece) and i loaded those things, and not easily i might add, nor gracefully! i am sure it was a funny sight and then abigail proclaimed that she was "burning up". well, think africa... in june... with no air conditioning. i bet she will rethink nashville hot after she experiences the african heat. guess how much we made in the garage sale? $190 and some change! not even kidding.



saturday afternoon, may 29th
we planned to go to memphis to help surprise my uncle, harvey, for his 80th birthday! we closed the garage sale early, quick changed into different clothes and jumped in the car and headed west. abigail had been feeling a little weird that morning. light headed and her arm where her yellow fever shot was given was swollen and red. she put an ice pack on her arm and took some tylenol. i think that helped. i am amazed at these girls getting strange shots and taking weird medicine to prevent weird things. emily and abigail, both, are a little reserved about what they will do. i will have to say, though, that both have made great strides as far as being a little more adventurous. abigail isn't afraid to fly but emily is. the way emily has forged ahead without really thinking about it, trying not to get all worked up, helps me realize that this is a good thing. while at the table at harvey's party, another uncle, bobby, was talking to me about the trip. he did the usual ribbing that most uncles will do. he teased about past political regimes in uganda, etc. then he got this serious look and said "all foreign countries can be dangerous but the same God that protects you here will protect you there." “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”— Acts 1:8



sunday morning, may 30th
we have to take our typhoid medicine or it won't be in our system long enough. i mean, we leave in 12 days! it is going to be right on the cusp of being too late to be protected. hope we aren't exposed to that before our meds kick in. so before church this morning, abigail and i went to walgreens to get our oral typhoid pills. fyi, we are getting our cipro (antibiotic just in case) at publix FREE. do you all know about that program? up to a 14 day supply of certain antibiotics at publix....free! i spend so much there anyway i feel ok about that. at church, our pastor, mike, told us to do our part and take care of what we can and make a difference when and where we can. i feel the need to lean into our children and feed them with compassion. this trip is all about that. touching a little piece of the world, doing what we can and having two of my girls with me is , again, humbling. that we even get this opportunity is huge to me. mike also said "nothing can undo what we put in our kids' hearts." it's our job to fill their hearts with the good stuff. i want to put compassion in my girls' hearts. they have it but i want them to live it. i can't wait to get there. not ready for the flight yet but just thinking about experiencing a new culture, a new way of life, new people with extraordinary needs in extraordinary conditions is going to make the 35 hours (yikes!) in an airplane tolerable. "what we do for ourselves dies with us. what we do for others and the world remains and is immortal" -albert pine.