Day 113

Day 106 – January 8th, 2018

 

Tuesday morning we said goodbye to Hadassah’s family. We all really enjoyed them being here. All of us were sad to see them go.

Then, we started gathering our things to head to Pedra Badejo. Pedra Bedeja is another city here in Cape Verde. We went with another missionary family that have a seminary/church there. We staid in the church because it has bedrooms for the seminary students. (The current seminary students aren’t living there right now though). We were allowed to pack 2 work outfits, a pajama outfit, an outfit for church, and our bathroom stuff. Definitely not ideal.

Our first day there was more of a rest and unpack kind of day. But Hadassah and I helped one of the workers patch cracks in the concrete walls. Doesn’t sound that fun, but it really was. We drove a hammer into the cracks to make them a bit wider then we filled them with more concrete. Have you ever stood on a cinder block on top of a fold out chair on your tippy toes to patch walls in Africa? Nope, didn’t think so.

All of us girls share a rectangle room with 6 mattresses crammed in and laid on the floor. It was actually a lot of fun. And I’m more than thankful just for my mattress.

All 9 of us students shared a bathroom with two sinks, one stall, and two showers. But really I would even call them showers. They are shower stalls, but the shower heads don’t actually work. To shower there was a tub of water and you took a cup and poured it on yourself. Sounds lovely doesn’t it? So yeah that was a bit rough.

Tuesday night I got almost no sleep. I fell asleep around 11:30, but I woke up again in the night. So when I woke up, I laid there for like 30 minutes and could just not go back to sleep. I was burning up hot and, because of the draft from the wind, the doors throughout the place would open and close and it sounded like someone knocking on all the doors. It creeped me out big time. Well, I ended up checking the time on Ashlyn’s watch. Yes she was asleep, yes the watch was on her wrist. But anyways, I read the watch as 5:08 AM, so I knew I had to be up at 6 AM so I just decided to get on up and read my Bible until then. Well, I went in the hallway and read through Joshua. When I was finished, I couldn’t believe that no one was up yet. So I went back into the room, checked Ashlyn’s watch again and it said 3:45 AM. I had apparently read her watch upside down. What I thought was 5:08 was really 2:08. I got back in bed and tried to go back to sleep, but I was still wide awake when Mrs. Sara came to wake us up at 6.

 

Wednesday was mine and Michelle’s day to stay at the church and help clean and prepare meals. I swept for a solid 2 hours. And I scrubbed clean to bathrooms, and I mean it when I say I SCRUBBED them. My daddy will be proud of all the cleaning I did that day.

I also got moved into another bedroom. The room we were staying in had to have the ceiling almost totally redone. So I was moved into a room with Ashlyn and Hadassah. At the apartment, Hadassah is the cleanest person, but Ashlyn on the other hand is about as messy as I am. But this time, I somehow was the cleanest roommate. This was an extremely rare occasion, but I was still proud.

 

Thursday I went to the house of the Pastor of the church. We were literally helping build the house, well set the foundation at least. We were puzzling large rocks together to be the foundation for the cement floors. We used an assembly line like all day. And our assembly lines were so great and efficient that Henry Ford himself would have been proud.

We also did some painting in the seminary. I found out I’m not a very good painter. I was painting a white wall and left it all striped up… I’m blaming the white paint.

For supper we had cornbread!!!!! We also had a meatless chili-mac type meal, but the cornbread was what’s really important.

 

Friday we went back to the Pastor’s house to help, but there wasn’t actually much we could do. We did mix cement though. We also shoveled it into buckets and I loved doing that. It made me feel really strong because news flash freshly mixed cement is actually really heavy.

After lunch we always had like an hour & half break time. I used that as a nap time. Extremely thankful for scheduled rest times y’all. But anyways, so because there was painting and some work being done in the rooms, normally our beds were stacked up and rooms were a mess. So, I couldn’t nap in my room so I went into the kids room and laid on the floor. Sophia, Sara and Phillip’s daughter also napped in there. It was precious to have nap time with her… well until she kicked me a couple times in her sleep and woke me up. But even that was precious.

Our friend Serge who also lives in Pedra Badejo had us all over to his house and cooked us all supper. He grilled chicken, had French fries, and rice. The grilled chicken was cut into huge pieces so we all split them and shared them. I shared with Isaac and shout out to him for letting me eat my part first. He let me eat all of the crunchy skin, too. So thankful dude.

 

Saturday morning during our devotion/ bible study time with Phillip, my world was rocked. But I’ll save that for a separate blog… when I have it all sorted out and figured out for myself.

We painted all day Thursday. My painting skills still hadn’t improved unfortunately.

I planned on going to sleep early, but Michelle and I ended up talking for like two hours. But I’m not complaining. It was a great talked. We talked about literally anything and everything. I’m always glad for anytime I get to grow closer to my teammates.

It was still like 9:30 when I finally fell asleep. When I went to sleep, Hadassah and Ashlyn still hadn’t come to bed. So I woke up a bit later around 12:30. Ashlyn and Hadassah are still nowhere to be found. I found Issac though and when I asked where they were his response was: “I guess they got raptured and we were left behind.” If I would’ve been more out of it, I probably would have freaked out. He thought it was hilarious… okay it kind of was looking back. But anyways, I found them up on the roof with some of our other teammates. So I went back down and got back in bed. When I was just about to fall back asleep, there was a gunshot outside. Freaked me out y’all. I got up, cut the light on, and read my bible until Ashlyn and Hadassah came to bed.

 

Sunday morning we had church. Because we didn’t have church until 10 AM, we even got to sleep in an extra few hours. That was wonderful.

For our evening group time/bible study, we hiked up to this big cross that overlooked the city and had our bible study there. All of us students had like a 5 minute mini message for the lesson. The overlook of the city at night is one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. I could’ve looked and looked for hours. Also, you could perfectly and clearly see the whole starry night sky. It seriously took my breath away.

All week they have been playing this frisbee game. The space two flagpoles about a foot and a half apart and you try and get your frisbee through the flagpoles. I won’t go into all the details of how you win or lose and what not, but I will say that I won 1st place in my very first game! I became the first girl to win a game. Which made me a “queen.” (don’t ask) So the kings (guys who had won first place) were Phillip, Taylor, Isaac, and Matthias. So they insisted we have sort of a royalty round. I personally think that the guys took it way too serious, but I did come in 3rd place. It was a lot of fun.

 

Today, Monday, we got back about around 11:30. It was sooooo nice to take a real shower. We also just had pizza and cupcakes for Violet’s birthday! She turned 2 years old today! It was really exciting to see Derek and Lauren as well, I’ve missed them.

I’ve got some resting and studying to do today. So, I’m going to spend the rest of my free day enjoying my bed and apartment and preparing the week!