photos of last week

keep moving boys......!

so today the girls decided to go to their favorite market. Mandevu.
it's a bit crazy. (african market and crazy? that's just an oximoron.)
p chris dropped julie, sylvie and i off and gloup! here we are engulped (is that a word?) in this row after row of tiny open shops, here curtains are hung high, there men's shirts from all over the world -and worn by who knows how many pple before they got there?!?! how exciting is that?! (not!) then it's our fav spot, 3 big piles of clothes, all 5 pin each. $1. next to that i found 3 awesome tunics/dresses for 10 pin each. yup that's my kind of clothes shopping.
After being preached at by a guy totally drunk, finding a single tall curtain to make curtains for my kitchen and a lot of hand sanitizer we met up with p chris and headed for the other side of the market to visit Fred and Eunice. It was such a sweet time. and because mosquitos are feasting on my legs right now and i'm not getting up to find the spray -it's too late anyways- i'll just tell one small story of our time there. here we are in their over heated living room... sweating bullets. liliana is starting to get antsy, time to feed. when it's that hot it's almost impossible to do and stay decent. so! i decide to relocated to the kitchen that opens to the backyard. clouds are gathering for some imminent rain and so theres a cool(er) breeze coming thru. Eunice sits a tiny stool in one corner by the door, and in a few seconds lili's stomach is filling up nicely. that's when i notice that right there across from me are 2 boys sitting in corner!!!!
Me: hi!! and explode laughing.
next i'm concentrating on pple walking by, most are too hurried to realize there's a muzungu sitting in the doorway of this very poor house and not only that but she's breasfeeding. ouuuu! exciting. (lOl) a group of 4 boys walk by, 5 seconds later they are walking by again . and another 5 seconds and here they are again! this time a little slower... Keep moving boys!
it was quite the experience.

FACTS abt Zambia & AIDS

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christmas a day early.

People in Zambia seem to wonder why Christmas is on the 25th. Of course it's just a date. They also celebrate it on that day but it seems that many raise the question.
Sunday is going to be a busy day, so we decided to have our family celbration today! Thanks to some gd parents and great gd parents we had a bunch of really nice presents to open! Kezia got a beautiful bike.

Matthews is a taxi driver that parks a couple meters from our house from he's not working. He's been taking us places and giving us a little bit of a deal. Today we went to meet his family. I'll try to uload some pictures that will speak for themselves. They are church goers but when they heard that our church was having a dinner after the service they decided to all come to our church tomorrow! :) it'll be great to have them there and maybe God will touch their hearts in a special way.
When we walked in their one room house (separated by a curtain to make 2 rooms (one is the living room/dinning room/kitchen and the other half the bedroom for all 6 occupants...)the children + one neighbor were sitting on the floor in a corner, and their mom and the youngest girl on a chair. After we sat down in their shabby looking but well kept little place, Matthews proceeded to introduce his family to us. "This is my wife Esther, and this is my eldest Mandarine." To which she stood up and shook our hands. "This is the second, Adia" same protocol. "My son Moses" "And the last born Sarah" The little 2 year old was too afraid of our white muzungu faces to even lok at us at first. It made her parents laugh! We had baked 3 dozens of mini muffins and little by little the word got out and 5 or 6 more neighbors joined in the party to get a taste of these funny looking treats. The children had apparently never heard the 'story of christmas' and so we proceeded to give them the long version even as we were sweating bullets. Liliana proceeded to add to the story in her own way and they were all surprised to see a baby wearing nothing but a diaper.
Babies in zambia are always -did i say always?- covered from head to toe and i mean hats, socks, sweaters etc NO MATTER WHAT the temperature... Yeah, sometimes it's disturbing.

Still haven't learnt how to make nshima (spelling correction on that word) but the other night i made a peanut/tomatoe/garden egg sauce west african style and invited our landlady and 'her pple' to join us. they brought the nshima and some other delicious side dishes. Sace made with leaves of green bean plant. Pumkin plant leaves, etc it was super tasty; one of the best meal we've had in Lusaka yet.
She has two children living in America with their families, and after the meal we talked abt the differences of raising children between the 2 continents.

I found out more abt some traditions surrounding a death. wow. i'll tell more later as my little princess is waking up, asking for 2 lattes please.

we're dying, you know

we were waiting for a taxi to pick us up to go to church a couple days ago, when our landlady stepped out of the house as well, she had just been informed her cousin had been found dead. she was headed over their house where the yound daughter was alone with the dead mother.... she was weary but i think it was mostly in anticipation of the long days ahead. a few hours later we met again in the yard and she was just stopping by the house to gather some 'beddings'. She was to sleep at the funeral home tonight... urgh. gotta love traditions. Her cousin was HIV positive and had finally succombed to AIDS. With a sad smile on her face she added, we're dying here in africa, you know.
Her words simply echoed in my ears for a while. my brain felt empty and the echo even louder. I thought of the crazy statistics i had read abt the devastation of AIDS. I would have to double check it but i remember reading something abt Zambian life span being just around 30.... If you ask the typical young girl here how she imagines her life/or would like her life to be, she'll tell you she wants to have a baby. And so they jump in the arms of the first man -often already HIV positive- and there you are. another statistic. absolutely head spinning.
jediah and i really have a desire to get more involved with the younger pple in the church. just get them out, playing volleyball, get ice cream, talk...

KEZIA - kezia made a new friend today, little 6 y old Chisanga. She wanted to play doctor and kept asking her to lay on the ground ! lol The girl wasn't into it. So instead they played soccer.

SHIMA - my efforts to learn how to make 'shima' have yet to be rewarded. maybe next week said Kamwendje.


SPECIAL W.E - Jediah has been in Kitwe (6 hrs north) to visit the Speeedys. Left friday morning, will be back monday. So far so good on this side. staying busy. but def. saving the spiders for him when he comes back.

Today was a special session for 'women in leadership'. It ended up being a 5 1/2 hr long session but it was sooo good. P R really hit the nail on the head. About 10 pastor wives showed up. Such precious ladies. i didn't bring my camera, but will try to upload a pic of one of the pastor and his wife. P Paul and Agnes.


PR spoke about the what and why and how of being a pastor's wife, is it a choice, a calling? then there was a lunch break with some great food a couple ladies had cooked. Loneliness was mentioned. A P's wife must not depend on her husband's walk with God. If she does so one day or another it will eat her alive. Then 2nd part of the session, then some questions.At the end, all the ladies received a token of appreciation. A beautiful chitenge (african clothe). i love mine!
the girls did great. kezia played mostly on a blanket next to me and liliana was an angel between feedings.

Oh and tonight, Kezia and I decided to save the mosquitos we kill every night and put them in a little jar. just for fun. might have to switch to a barrel very quickly...

CHIKI - So that chiki(aka running stomach) i had, turned out to be violent, man! Body throbbing all night, i thought i had malaria at some point. 24 hrs later i was much better but it definitely took a couple more days to feel entirely better. Charcoal caps, imodium, and lots of water, baby!
And thank you Lord that none of my babies got it.

SCHOOL - I started 'school' with Kezia. nothing major. but she is so into it. When we 'pretend school' (in her words) I'm teacher Sarah and she's Audree :) all in french. we learn letters, numbers, draw, cut, paste, the whole thing.
When we were done the other day I asked her if she wanted to help me make dinner. She called me teacher sarah and i explained that now we were not playing pretend anymore and that she was home with her mommy. Her face lit up and she said: Thank you for picking me up from school mommy!
wow. a child's imagination. who needs TV??!

oh and another thing Kezia asked us this week (last week it was; do we have a tv)
-> Can we go to the park? jed and i looked at each other... uh.... well, there are no parks here, honey..! interesting realization.

This is a picture of her bangs (on a not so humid day!!) SHE CUT THEM HERSELF BTW......




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Quote of the moment:
IF I WOULD JUST ENGAGE THE SPIRIT, I WOULD REALIZE THAT GOD IS IN IT!

one week ...

today jediah is getting Liliana added to our Zambian visa. Lots of paperwork, copies, forms, pictures. I'm home, running between bedroom and toilet.... urgh. yeah.
So it's been a week. We're unpacked, back in business, house decorated for christmas, sleeping on normal zambian time. One of my goals this week is learning how to make chima (hopefully once and for all) it's the type of recipe that you pretty much eye ball, + everybody has a different way of explaining it... enough said. i'll just have to watch our neighbor make it a few times to draw a general conclusion on the matter. Chima is a polenta type of dough, it is white and made of water and finely ground maize. It's economically wonderful and quite the filler... Our kind landlady had planted some vegetables behind our house while we were gone and so now we have an aboundance of an equivalent of spinach, a growing plant of eggplants and a large 'bush' of basil and a few onions i think. We're thinking of planting sweet potatoes next. Such a great feeling to be eating out of that little patch!

Another blessing: an american family stayed at our house while we were in the states this summer (they were adopting a little zambian boy) and bought a washing machine which they offered to leave behind if we would just split the costs with them! now that's a luxury and a 1/2.
Kezia asked the other day: do we have a TV? when she heard we didn't, she was just in utter shock; but why??! she asked
ha! welcome to this side of the world, kezia. you're in for more surprises!!

Thanks to the Armans she has a big girl bed and even beautiful and girly sheets and comforter left behind by our summer renters! it's just amazing as i had totally forgotten to bring some with us.

Tuesdays, wednesdays and thursdays we walk (with girls in double stroller) to P Renaldo's house for team meetings. it's a 25 mn brisk walk each way. Meetings start with 30 mn prayer,then 30 mn message, either cd fr balto or devotion by PR himself. Our girls play together under the watchful eye of Patience, young lady who lives with the Browns.Except for Liliana of course. we just make her take notes of the messages for now.

[bathroom interlude; uho! kezia has the chiki too...]

Our big preoccupation right now is to find a vehicule. Please keep that in prayer, it would allow us to be soooo much more mobile -of course- and overall make it a lot easier to get places as a family, visit pple where they live etc.

That's all -for now. i really hope our connection will be better soon so we can upload pictures. until next time!

Hi everyone! we made it safely. the 17 hr flight with one refueling stop in Dakar Senegal, wasn't as bad as we thought it might be. A south African girl next to us 'babysat' Kezia for hours! that was a God sent treat. They served us breakfast in the middle of the night and then dinner a couple hrs later. left us discombabulated. We spent the week end in Pretoria, stayed with amazing friends Jako and Joh-Ann (parents to be in 2 months!), enjoyed a weather in the 80s and meeting up with the body of Christ in Pretoria. And beside the fact that the girls have been waking up at 3am and Liliana is still fighting a cold, we are so excited to be back in Africaaaaaaaa!

lately...

LILIANA is here!!!

Liliana Faith Tanguay was born on 8/8/2011, 7lb12, 20 1n.
It was an amazing experience, completely different than the first. Sarah applied principles from the hypnobirthing method and was able to deliver without an epidural. Recovery was faster, went home next day! Kezia is super proud of her lil sister and such a gentle helper for mommy.

ONE DAY AT THE BEACH...

Sarah and Kezia were playing in the sand..

Mom: Who made the sand?
Kezia: (very matter of factly) Jesus
M: and who made the oceans?
K: Jesus
M: and who made Kezia?
K: (even more matter of factly) you.

Big smiles exchanged between mom and dad.

M: but how did you grow in my belly?
K: Jesus put me there!

so sweet

BALTIMORE LIFE

exactly a week ago, we were landing on US soil, after a wonderfully long trip. 2 10 hr flights and a 22 hr layover in london. the long layover turned out to be a blessing. -thanks to Kathy Corbiere- we spent it in a charming/inexpensive little hotel in the suburb of the city right accross from a park -with such lovely cherry trees, the cherries were alllllmost ripe- and THE best breakfast i can remember ever having/ which came as a shock since we were on british territory.... i mean, i'm french come on! :)

We are absolutely BLESSED to have been able to come back to our appartment -as we left it- furnished and ready to go /the cherry on the top: a FULL refrigerator thanks to an amazing mother-in-law...!
and a car that works! The transition has just been sooo smooth. We are very thankful.

Last saturday morning I took Kezia to visit our dear Gemma at the nursing home. She remembered her from last year. When she saw the building she said: This is where she is in her bed! the pictures are from last yr, i didn't have my camera this time. I just love to watch kezia give of her joy and love to 'miss gemma' and learn to minister that way. She did give a hard time to a sweet old black lady who called her baby; kezia frowned at her and said: I'm not a baby i'm a girl! :)
Last time we had brought her a little flower to put in her hair, she glowed! and this time we braided her hair and took her out on the patio, she kept putting her hand on her chest and letting out a huge happy sigh, her eyes taking in the birds, the clouds, the trees and flowers.



We love miss gemma sooo very much...

Tomorrow we head out to West Palm Beach to visit some dear friends. The church there has been supporting us this year and we are so incredibly -once again- blessed. Pray that our car will make it, that kezia will have a special grace for the car seat-after not using one for 6 months! and for $ to cover the whole trip. We are also hoping to visit the Clearwater church and stop by some relatives' in north carolina, and the Saddlers (Rob and Sally, for those who remember them!) probably on the way back.

WE ARE LOOKING FORWARD TO THE NEXT MONTHS WITH YOU HERE IN BAL'MORE!!!!

one more WEEK on Zambian soil for this season!

Apologies for such a long time of no posting! our internet connection has been plying tricks on us....

The Zambian winter has started! So far it's around 50-55 in the mornings and evenings.... Okay this photo is not Zambia, but needless to say we were blessed to be able to purchase a space heater!
This season will continue until aug-sept then the REAAAALLY hot season hits!

Today we're looking forward to....

* FOOD FELLOWSHIP sunday (all the satellite churches gather once a month for a service and a meal together!)
* Packing the house up this week
* Eating our 'last' nshima at neighborhod 'restaurant'
* Hanging out with friends before saying bye for the summer..

Finally flying back to Lusaka on Wednesday, but here is south africa still, for another 2 days

yes we're still in South Africa! and having a little too much fun... :)

KEZIA and THANDO!




JEDIAH preaching in Nellmapius under a tent and under the rain




BRAAI night (bbq) at Jako and Joh-Ann's after a paint the house day
(we just moved in their house after staying almost a month at P Jabu and Buyi's lovely place!)

JAKO and the first batch of unbelievable meat!


JOH-ANN and her brother








LAST MONDAY was a public holiday and the Zwanes took us to a park with wild animals, the scenery alone was worth it and we also saw 3 of the big 5!