Busy Day!

It was a busy family day at the Sinclair house. It started out with a funeral - for our kitty, Whiskers. Ben decided to bury him (we couldn't do it before today b/c he was decomposing and covered with flies...I know, I know...TMI). We had a moment of silence and the kids took it all in stride. We are already talking about what our next kitty might look like. Yeiters cat is prego...so maybe we will get one from sprinkles batch.

After the funeral we jumped into painting the parlor. Ben and Drew painted...
and I washed windows. Now, when I say I washed windows, you have to see what I mean by windows. There are another set of three to the right of the double wooden doors as well. I know this pic is a bit crazy...I just tried to put two of them together so you could see how awesome our Parlour is! But, the downside is all the windows to clean. Ech of those frames has about 20 individual panes of glass, that are on louvers...you pull a handle to open them up, and then when they close, they overlap each other. You can't really completely seal the windows. So I had to wash each individual pane of glass. And boy did it need to be done! Remember that harmatan we had not too far back...those panes were covered with dirt. Oh and lots of spiders! :D

So yeah...that pretty much took me ALL DAY. I did paint a bit too. We also took a break to go to our restaurant. :D

Another quick event in our family. I won't post a pic of it, but I will tell you about it. Our littlest, Faith Ann, poor girl. She's had all the hard knocks it seems. It is always something. Well, she recently got a jigger in her toe. Google jigger flea, and you will see what I'm talking about. We've heard of them, but have never gotten them until now. She had a thing under her foot, in the crease of her big toe. We worked on that thing in the dark, digging and poking and prodding and squeezing. We later learned that squeezing is what you DON'T want to do. Ahhh...poor Faith Ann has dumb parents! It is a sand flea, that burrows in your skin, usually the foot, and then lays it's eggs. You develop a round callous like spot that has a white halo around it and is inflamed and has a dark center. The center is the flea, and the white halo is the egg sac. You are supposed to excise it WITHOUT rupturing it! Well...we most certainly ruptured it. I won't even go into how gross it was...I'm pretty strong stomached and it grossed me OUT! We did all we could do and noticed a big empty hole in that spot where we'd worked on it. We figured we'd gotten everything out. We loaded it up with neosporin and covered it up. Today it was driving her crazy...itching. That is what happens, it itches and hurts all at the same time. She was just crying and crying and I sat there and just scratched her toe for like 30 minutes! I finally called Carrie Wright, a friend in Foumban Cameroon that is a nurse and has excised tons of jiggers. She told me that even though we'd ruptured the egg sac, if we put kerosene on the wound it would kill any remaining eggs. So, that is what we did as soon as we got home. And then loaded it with neosporin again. It was still bugging her tonight and I'm a bit concerned. Just pray she doesn't get any infection and that any remaining eggs don't hatch and re-burrow in her foot somewhere else.

Ok...now that I've thoroughly grossed you out...I'll close. :) This blog is meant to be very transparent...so you know what happens in the lives of some of your missionaries. You definitely got a clear picture today! haha! If anything you know how to pray for us better!

Snails and Puppy Dogs Tails

This was our find when we got up this morning:
The kids love looking for snails and we usually find teeny tiny ones around the yard. But our first snail of the season was this big momma! Emma was so proud that she was the only one who picked it up without it going back into it's shell.

We have sad news about our kitty. Right after I posted my blog post on Saturday, the kids came running inside to tell me that some neighbor kids had seen the kitty. They led them to the drive coming up to our house and there was our kitty. Evidently our neighbors dogs got to him and it wasn't a pretty sight. I wish my kids hadn't seen it. Emma was already sobbing. She took it the hardest. So, now we need to find another kitty.

Well it is late and since my post was so verbose yesterday I'll close. Tomorrow we are painting the living room to get ready for our Pastor's visit. Their trip starts tomorrow, so if you could pray for safety, I know they'd appreciate it!

A Sad Day

I'm sad...I think I'm more sad than my kids even. Our kitten is gone. :( I was really getting attached to him! He was so cuddly. And to top it all off, our cat Patches (we've had her nearly 6 years) is also gone. She disappeared a couple of days before the kitten went missing. I'm pretty sure that she left b/c of the kitten...she didn't like him, but I figured she'd at least be back for food or something. I keep asking our nightwatchman, Michael (he and Patches were buds!) and he hasn't seen her. So...now I'm completely cat-less, and I'm really sad about it. I have no idea where we will get another kitten. But we need a cat around here. A mouse ran right in between Ben's legs the other night when he opened the parlor doors to check on our generator that was running. I'm sad for my kids too...they loved that kitten! Here they are today, out in the front yard, praying for our cats to come home: (I think they were actually done praying here, but I snapped the pic as they had just finished)


Ok...enough blubbering about cats. I'll catch up on the last couple of days. Here is my pic for yesterday (Friday) compliments of Ben.

On Wed. Ezekiel called Ben and said that he shouldn't come to town. The night before, a motorcycle taxi driver was killed by a police officer. Evidently the police had set up a random checkpoint. They do this frequently and will often set them up on their own...outside of work orders. When taxi's go through, if they don't have proper paperwork they will pay a bribe so the police allow them to go through. If the police need some extra cash that weekend, they will set up their own checkpoint to sit there and get bribes for a few hours. They get about 500 cfa a driver (the equivalent to a dollar US). Well, this one particular taxi driver had all of his paperwork in order. He had no reason to pay a bribe. Well, the officer got mad and took a stick and whacked him in the back of the head. Evidently he whacked too hard b/c he died right there. Motorcycle taxi drivers are like a gang...they stick up for each other. So, when another driver that was there, saw what happened, a mob ensued. The Police ran and holed themselves up inside a hotel. The mob ransacked the hotel and even threatened to burn it. Somehow the officers got away. The next day, to make a point, all taxi drivers refused to carry anyone, and one of the drivers (not sure if it was a motorcycle or car) drove all through town with the corpse of the one who was killed. I guess it was chaos. By the time Ben needed to go to town, everything had settled down, but yesterday was the guys funeral. Ben said that it was downright frightening. Every motorcycle headed out to the village for the wake keeping (and there are a LOT of motorcycle taxis in Bamenda! It is everyones primary means of transportation b/c few people own cars here). It was a thunderous roar of motorcycle engines and he said that they were all driving crazily...standing up...with half of their body off of the bike...no hands...standing on seats. All sorts of crazy stuff. He totally forgot to get a picture until the end of the line of bikes...but he did get one shot nonetheless.

Mobs like that can be scary here. Mobs anywhere can be scary, but it seems like there is less control over them here. Tom Needham got stuck in mob situation after a world cup game. Cameroon lost to a European country and since he was a white man, they stopped his car...he did get away thank the Lord. But we stay away from town or group situations after events like that...or elections. Just to be safe.

On Thursday we were at church quite late. I managed to get some pics of the kids with their buds - the Yeiter kids. They pair up SO perfectly. Drew and Autumn are both the oldest of our families and they are tight. Kate and Mariah are the same age and are buddies...Kate used to only want to be friends with Autumn - I think it is b/c she is older and she looks up to her. But she is starting to really get close to Riah. Then DJ and Emma are just buds. They are so stinkin' cute together! It is so funny how they just pair up so perfectly. Then there is Faith Ann and Trinity. They are still a little small to pair up just yet, but in the future I'm sure they will be great friends. Here are Drew and Autumn, since Drew hasn't been up on the blog in a while: I'm so glad that all the kids get along so well. When they were younger, getting together with Yeiters was a bit of a pain. We both had little kids...in diapers, some potty training. Whenever we got together someone would wet their pants...there was a lot of crying...fighting. It is so nice that the kids are older now and are such great friends. We rarely hear a peep from them when we get together, and it is SOOO nice. We can actually enjoy each others company and not have to babysit!

Well, my Pastor and his wife are coming to visit in about a week...so I better get cleaning!!!! We are so excited!!!

Birthdays and Babies

This picture of Emma and our kitty cracks me up! Yes...we have a new baby in the house...a baby kitten that is! Look at him! When the afternoon rolls around, our "baby" has to nap, and he loves to be held and will fall asleep right in our arms! The kids are loving it because our cat, Patches, just isn't this lovey. In fact...we haven't seen too much of her since whiskers was brought home. She hasn't been around at all today. I think she is mad at us.

And, did you know that it is Tigger's birthday? Well, it is according to my kids. The parlour is set up with two tables and chairs and boxes, and play plates and cups and a slew of stuffed friends. Tigger is at the head of the table in the seat of honor. He is surrounded by a number of fluffy friends like Elmo and cookie monster, Hello Kitty and Woody and Jessie. Drew and Kate even called all of their friends on the phone to invite them to party. Unfortunately spider man couldn't make it...apparently b/c he isn't Disney...he is Marvel. Well, to humor them, I played along. I wouldn't go as far as making a cake, but I did make brownies in honor of the occasion. I love my imaginative kids!

Kate

I haven't put Kate on the blog in a while, so I thought I should highlight her. She is such a pretty girl. She is definitely my most free spirited and also definitely blonde! She "does" long before she "thinks" and it gets her in trouble a lot.

We had a great day. Ben taught in the morning at the Bible institute. I prepared for ladies Bible study (we are now doing a book study on James) and I also did some CT work. I made quesadillas for lunch while chatting with my Mom on the computer. She was leaving FL. today after having a 10 day vacation...lucky bum! :D

Emma went with me to Bible study and three ladies showed up, thankfully, just before the sky opened up again! We learned about the background to the book of James - author of the book, who it was written to, why it was written...etc. Then we read through the entire book. I also challenged the ladies to memorize chapter three during our summer holiday. When we come back next school year hopefully all of us will know it.

Speaking of scripture memorization, our whole family has decided to take on the challenge of memorizing Matt. 5-7. Well, I suppose it isn't the whole family, but most of us. Ben, Drew, Kate and myself. I was so proud of Kate and Drew! They came out of their bedrooms this morning excited to tell us that they had memorized the first two verses before they got out of bed! They both have their Bibles next to their beds and often we will find them reading in the morning. Sometimes the Bible, and sometimes other books, but this morning it was the Bible. I think that Ben had marked Matt. 5 with a bookmark the night before b/c they were excited to start learning! And they didn't forget! Anyway...it was just a proud moment for me. Seeing initiative like that from my kids to memorize scripture on their own. Praise God! I pray it only continues!

Fun day with Friends

We were invited to Ndop today, to eat lunch with the Sanderlins. Matthew, who was with us over the weekend, is staying with them, so we needed to get him back. It was a great excuse to spend time with Sam and Abby and see their new house. We had a great time of fellowship. The kids had a blast playing together...it is always fun to play with someone else's toys! Here are the girls with little Elena Sanderlin:

Their house is super cute! They have put a ton of work into it, and have made it very homey. Abby fixed spaghetti for lunch and of course the kids were excited as that is their favorite meal. We spent the afternoon visiting and I also cut Abby's hair. She might not ever want to talk to me again after doing that...but we will see. Haha!! Next time I go home I am asking someone to teach me some hair cutting skills. I really need to know how to cut hair! I have 3 girls and all the missionary ladies out here would really appreciate having someone who knows what they are doing. It is just a skill that would be nice to have. If anyone who reads this blog knows how to cut hair and would be willing to teach me next time I'm home...let me know! :D

Our drive home took just over an hour I think...and it is amazing how much cooler the temperature got as we drove into Bambili. Ndop is quite hot! Poor Abby is pregnant too and has a little furnace constantly burning inside her :D ... so she has fans running frequently, poor thing! Thankfully rainy season is starting to fully develop and with that the temps will start to cool everywhere. As you all in the states move into your summer...we essentially move into our coldest time of the year. July and Aug. are the coldest months for us and we really look forward to them!

Jump for Joy!

Ok...be honest. Doesn't that picture just want to make you smile or laugh! I love it!! I do portrait sessions with my own kids on a regular basis and that is what I did today after church. I wanted to get all the girls, but the big girls were playing a game and weren't including Faith Ann very well, so I said, "Want Mommy to take some pictures of you?" She loves having her picture taken, so she was game. I got some really cute ones and actually did a page with them We had fun. I finally got the big girls to come out and got some pictures of all of them, but that photo shoot was a dud. Oh well...you win some and you lose some.

Church was great today. We had great groups in both churches and had wonderful services. Today was our Lord's Supper Sunday, so that is always a special time. Matt preached in the book of Acts again today and his closing application was a real challenge to me. Our family memorizes scripture on a weekly basis, but I need to be more actively memorizing scripture. Each year for our family conference we choose a passage as a group and memorize it. It is usually about 3 chapters total and not everyone memorizes it. Normally it is the Needham family, some of the Wright family and a handful of others. It is different every year. However, I've never done it. This next year the passage everyone decided on, is the sermon on the Mount in Matt. chapters 5-7. I've been thinking about memorizing it and after today's sermon I've decided that I'm definitley going to do it. I'm going to work on it with Drew...He is bright and memorizes well and I think he would enjoy doing it with me. He doesn't know it yet! haha! But I know he won't mind. I have a whole year, basically, to memorize 3 chapters. I know I can accomplish it if I just commit.

Well, after great services, we came home and I made some chicken salad sandwiches and we played games (and took pictures.) Now we are about to have some pudding for dessert (a request of Emma) and then baths for everyone as the water came in early today (yay!) and then bed!