We’re Not in Georgia Anymore…

We have official experienced living in Africa!

Mooooo….Cockadooledoo…and I don’t know how to spell the sound a monkey makes. We were woken up by a cow mooo-ing one morning. Which isn’t so rare for Africa, but we’ve yet to see a cow on the compound. Monkeys are as common as squirrels at home, and have been so kind to sing us to sleep every night!

We rode the daladala to the open market. Let’s just start by saying MARTA ain’t got nothin’ on the daladala! Basically it is a mini-bus packed full of Africans and us. There were 5 of us going to the market and we had to split up because there weren’t enough available sets. I do have to say it was worth the 100 shillings, which is less than 10 cents! We made it safely to the market, which was a little over whelming due to the lack of organization. I think if you had something to sell you could just lay out a blanket and display your product. We went for veggies and were able to get 2 cucumbers, 2 avocado, 2 large carrots, a bushel of green beans, 6 potatoes and 4 tomatoes for less than $3…now that’s a good deal! I wish I could take a picture, but I don’t think it’d be safe for us mizungu to be walking around with a camera in the market.

In addition to Heath and Hallie we have 3 wonderful roommates, Ilse (ell-sa), Nike (nee-ka), and Maxi. They are all from Germany and Holland. So we have the USA and the EU! They were all very helpful in getting us settled in. Isle and Maxi were so sweet and made us a welcome dinner on Friday (Nike was out of town) and we all ate together family style! Isle has been wonderful showing us the ropes around the baby home and I don’t know that we would have ever braved the daladala and market without her! God was truly looking out for us when he placed her here!

CoL is on a beautiful compound! There are huge trees and pretty flowers all around. Valerie, you would like to know there is a tree with sausage fruit right outside! (google sausage fruit if you don’t know what it is…I had to!) The accommodations are extremely nice and comfortable allowing us to easily feel at home. There are a few little stores about 500 feet from the gate of the compound that we can go to get basics like bread, butter, water and eggs. I’m not sure what we’d do without those being so convenient. Please note that these stores are more like little booths in china town or something, not your typical 7/11! We’ll post a picture as soon as we can get an internet connection that doesn’t take 2 days to upload a photo!

Now to the babies…I don’t think I could ever choose a favorite. They are all so cute and loving. There is one little boy that is trying to potty train with little success, but is so sweet and cute that I don’t even care he’s covered in peepee I still let him sit in my lap. Let me just say…be thank for pampers and pull ups, there’s a reason cloth diapers went out of style!

The 36 babies are split into 3 groups: babies, middle and big kids. On Saturday we all wished we had a video camera because about 8 of the middle babies were all gathered together crawling down the hall acting like doggies. It was so cute! They turned the corner and little Yasini turned around and said “byebyeeee”! Which is one of the few words most of the babies can say! We ask for you to pray for all the babies, but there are 2 that are need of specific prayers: Rebecca, who is 4 months old, doesn’t weigh over 5lbs and isn’t putting on any weight. She is so tiny and frail, but has a smile on her face more often than not! AND Salemu, who is a little over 2 and has cerebral palsy. He is getting stronger everyday crawling and trying to pull up, but it’s a struggle for him to stand up even with help.

Many more baby stories to come!

Several people have asked about sending “care packages”. If you would like to send something to us you can mail it to:
Cradle of Love
c/o Davona Church
attn: Stephanie and Christy
P O Box 360
Usa River, Tanzania
East Africa

Please only send envelopes, you can send larger ones, but they charge for pick up of boxes. If you mail envelopes Priority Mail it should get here in about 10 days, boxes could take up to 3 months.

We look forward to hearing from all of you back home!!!

- Stephanie