We got water from the sky... but NOT all in the form of RAIN

We finally got water from the sky...but not in a good way! At least 300 pounds of ice was just dumped on my house and yard in a wild span of 20 minutes!! Since our average temperatures these days are over 100 degrees, the hail will melt and water our yard and for that, I am thankful! But, the intensity of the hail storm killed most of my plants that desperately needed the water sadly.

I don't think pictures do this storm justice, but to at least paint a picture... see below

Can you see the white balls? This is actually UNDERneath a tree and under the over hang of my roof and it was still this much. The yard was totally covered!

I am dreading going out to look at my car in the day light tomorrow to see the damage of this hail storm.

Most of the balls were about half the size of a golf ball. There were some bigger and some smaller of course...

Percy went and scooped a handful off his car so the kids could feel it was really ice!

This is at our back door and under neath a porch. The winds were hectic and I guess this is evidence that the hail made it under the porch and literally to my back door!

The entire yard was WHITE! If you look closely, you will see that the vegetable garden behind is not white. But, look on top. My dad put up an awesome shade net to shield my veges from the scorching heat. That shade net broke tonight with the weight of all the ice. You can see how badly it is sagging due to the ice if you look closely. Sorry dad! I guess you need to come visit me again to fix it!! :)

I hope this shows how THICK the ice blanket was that covered under our porch!

Sadly, my plants were broken and destroyed with the violent dropping of ice falling from the sky!

The hail must have knocked off all the leaves on this chilli pepper plant that was looking good earlier today. And since it is located where the roof water runs off, the plant may drown too...

Another picture of my back porch. By the way, the shoes are there because our yards are made of dirt, so walking inside with them always tracks a lot of mud/dust/dirt. Therefore, my family usually leaves our shoes at the door. Something I learned in Canada to be polite! :)

This is a picture of the yard!

Despite the damage, the kids had a blast playing in the closest thing to snow they will ever experience in Botswana. They also repeatedly praised God for the water, showing how even at a young age they truly understand the deep preciousness of water. I am sad about my plants but at least now with this good water, I hope they will grow back....

ALL in ALL... we Thabas thank God for the rain today! Not the way I would have preferred God to answer the prayer for rain, but still water from the sky all the same. :)

My girls' CRAZY MIXED HAIR

 Let me confess. When I agreed to marry Percy, one of the things that scared me the most was the future of our children's hair. Sadly, it has been even worse than I could have imagined. HOWEVER, it is also more BEAUTIFUL than I could have ever imagined as well. In the case of mixed hair, I can truly say no pain no gain. And, there is a cost to be pretty! In this case, the cost is lots of conditioner and TONS of TEARS!!!

I thought for this blog entry, you might enjoy to see the journey of how to fix our daughters' hair, or in some cases I should say their "nests". We have SERIOUSLY lost small toys in their hair. One time I found a PEN lost in the afro! 

DISCLAIMER: Although I have been doing this now for 8 years, I am still in NO WAY any where near an expert in mixed hair. This is simply a picture entry of what we have to go through to fix our girls' hair.

We started with her hair being braided in large braids all over her head.

 Taking out the braids took about 1 hour. There have been times she has had smaller braids and it has taken about 4 hours with 3 people working to take them out!

Side view to really show the ENORMITY of her hair!

Now that all the braids are out, I moisten it with a spray bottle with water.

I then finger comb it with conditioner and olive oil to work out as many of the tangles as possible and give it a bit of a deep condition. I usually let this sit for about 15 min. If I have time, I put a plastic bag over it and leave it in this stage for a couple of hours to really DEEP condition.

I used to wash her hair with shampoo (like I do with mine), but I have since learned that her SUPER DUPER DRY hair only frizzes and kinks more with harsh shampoo and does better when I wash it with conditioner. It's unbelievable thickness soaks up the conditioner like a cactus in a desert, so each time I "wash" it, I usually use half a bottle of conditioner!!! INSANE!

One tip I have realized over the years is that brushing it when the conditioner is already in makes it MUCH MUCH easier to work the tangles out!!!!! The conditioner acts as a lubricant so the process is far less painful!!

The conditioner is washed out and we have a clean shiny thick head of hair to work with.

I add more olive oil and leave in conditioner and the process of TAMING THE FRO!! This is the WORST part ... for her and for me. I try to be gentle as possible, but trying to comb through a nest of kinky curls in next to impossible and sadly does inflict a lot of pain!! :(

With two of us working together, the job takes about 15-30 minutes and we have the hair divided and ready for pigtails.

Pigtail braids are in. Anna Catherine is excited with how cute she looks and her hair is done... only 3 hours this time!!! That is good for us!!! I will maintain this by daily spritzing it with a homemade mixture of leave in conditioner, coconut oil, olive oil, water, and two other oils that I forgot their names but are supposedly good for hair.

Now on to little Abi's hair experience. Again, the same steps but MUCH easier since her hair is shorter and her threshold for pain seems greater. She doesn't scream and cry as much as Anna Catherine does! :)




We have just taken out the braids and this is the "raw" fro that results!



The Afro has been combed out and now is ready to wash with conditioner.

TONS of conditioner really softens it. I don't show a picture but I also comb out her hair when the conditioner is still on.

Then we wash it out! :) By the way, this part has to be done with two people. One holding her while the other fingers through and washes it out.

All clean and ready to style!

Not near the tears with Abi. We just gave her a book to read and began combing through. Although, there ARE tears with her too during this section. 

Abi's hair isn't long enough yet to put it into pigtails like Anna Catherine, so we have to put it into 4 little puffs. I think it is cuter in puffs, but they quickly get super tangled and frizzy so it last longer and doesn't get as dry if I braid it.

I have now braided her hair while her older sister read her a book and empathetically comforted her.

The hair is done!! Only took about 2 hours! I will maintain daily with the same conditioner/oil spritz I spray on Anna Catherine's hair.

I DREAM of the day when the girls get excited about their beautiful locks of kinky mixed hair!! I hope on that day, they will say "MOM, let me do my own hair". I will joyfully put down the brush and pass this long suffering job over to them and let them take a turn at taming the infamous mixed FRO that God so gloriously gifted them with when my white self decided to marry a black man!!

10 things you probably won't see in America

10 pictures you probably won't see in America

When is the last time you saw ostriches when you were driving down the road? To be fair, this is in a small government game reserve, but it really is in town about 2 miles away from our church! 

                     

 

Our termite mounds are a wonder of nature! They are larger than some trees! Ant hills always look so small when I see them in the States! 

                    

 

The drought is so bad that monkeys are stealing water from taps!!! Look closely at the stomach of the monkey on the right. (You can click on the picture to see more clearly) There is a tiny baby hanging on!

      

              

One of my children's favorite snacks is Mophane worms. They are spiky caterpillars which people catch, squish out the insides and then dry out. Some people soak them to plump them back up before eating them but my kids eat them crunchy like popcorn! In case you are wondering, NO I do not like them! They just taste like a old dried out leaf that pokes your mouth! 

I never know what I will see walking down the street. A VERY common sight is a lady carrying large items on her head. Typically, in addition to toting heavy bowls/buckets on her head, she will have a baby strapped to her back with a towel. 

The other picture is a pack of horses just meandering down my street! The drought is so bad that owners let their livestock roam the streets in search of food to keep them alive.

Of course you have all seen big buildings, but the interesting thing about Gaborone is that less than a mile from our modern downtown area are people who still live in huts with no electricity or running water.

Without indoor plumbing or electricity, a common sight is an outdoor kitchen. In this makeshift area, all cooking, washing dishes. and boiling water for bathing is done.

STRIKES: There is almost ALWAYS a strike going on somewhere in Southern Africa, usually in our volatile southern neighbor, South Africa. Currently, all universities in South Africa are striking to protest rising tuition fees.

There is also some strike going on the road that leads to Botswana where friends of mine have posted pictures of boulders that have been placed all over the road so cars can't drive. There have also been stories of locals throwing rocks at anyone who tries to drive on the road.

I don't fully understand what is going on with the strike with one of our main grocery stores, but somehow their shelves have been empty for the past two weeks as a consequence of some other strike going on in South Africa. Being a semi-arid desert, we grow very little food ourselves and depend almost exclusively on importining it from South Africa. So their strike becomes MY problem when I can't find food on the shelves.

A friend took this photo at the grocery store. Almost nothing on the shelves!!!!

I took this photo at another grocery store. Here is what was on the shelves, spread out as to appear as more food. 2 bags of croutons, 1 bag of celery, 1 bag of fennel, a few ready made meals, and a bag of vegetables = the sum total of shelves that are normally overflowing with fresh food.

This is an extra one thrown in for fun! We are experiencing a terrible drought with extreme temperatures over 100 degrees every day. This was taken in a local grocery store of the STORE MANAGER!!! Bet you won't see that in America! :) 

Road Trip to Palapye

Road Trip to Palapye

One thing that never ceases to amaze me is how GREEN everything is in America! After a two day exhausting plane trip from Africa, all I want to do is crash and sleep, but when my mom's car joins I-75 headed from Atlanta to Tifton, I can't help but stay awake to stare at the large green pine trees that tower over the interstate.

Growing up, I would have never thought twice about the lush scenery. After 9 years living in a semi-arid desert surrounded by brown dust, I drink it in and allow it to refresh my soul!

Speaking of road trips, I thought you might like to see what a drive in Botswana looks like. These pictures were taken along the roadside during our 3 hour journey from the capital city, Gaborone, to visit Percy's parents in the village of Palapye. (Palapye pronounced Pah -la-pee)

A lot of barren landscape then a random hut or house seemingly in the middle of no where. 

Another random house along the road just to show you our view on the journey

We made our trip at the end of September. In Botswana, that is called "month end". During this time, most people get paid, so huge crowds gather around ATMs all over the country, even in small villages.

EVERY SINGLE village seems to have a bar. Drinking is a huge problem to most Batswana, especially in rural villages where there isn't much else to do for entertainment. 

There is ALWAYS livestock on all roads in Botswana. This road, the A-1, is the largest highway in Botswana running through most of the country's major cities. Yet, frequently when flying 120km/hour down the road we have to slam on the brakes for a goat, donkey, cow, dog, and up north even an elephant. With no street lights, this makes night driving extremely dangerous here.

Along the road, ladies set up tables to sell various food and basic items: oranges/apples, nuts, chewing gum, cigarettes, pieces of candy, etc. 

Look carefully at the sign alerting us this area has many donkey carts.

Moments after seeing the sign, we saw a donkey cart veer off the road into a roadside field.

Here is another donkey cart loaded with grass, which I assume they will use to make traditional brooms. Gathered dry grass is bound and sold along the road as a broom which easily sweeps the dirt in our dusty Botswana yards.