Conference, projects, struggles, and a haircut

It's been about a month since the last update, so it's probably about time for another one. In the last update I was still preparing for the women's conference, which went quite well. My presentations on education were very well attended and seemed to be well received. I haven't had a chance to follow up with very many people yet to see if it had much impact, but I do want to start regular sessions at the church on the same topic very soon. The kids did great showing off their stuff, Jariel sang her ABC's and showed that she could recognize them too, Kyran read and pointed out countries on a map and did some math. Overall they did well!

Mozambican women *love* their matching capulanas, and this was the conference capulana that many of them had. I sewed mine into a skirt and had enough left over for a dress for Jariel.

I love this shot of Jariel showing off her stuff!

And this is what a conference at our church looks like. Actually, this is about what every Sunday and most Fridays and Wednesdays nights look like. Amazes me how packed out the stadium is every single week!

After the conference we were able to redouble our efforts on the house. We fired the lazy painters who were stealing our stuff (long story, but we got the stuff back!), and hired friends instead. A lot more got done for a while, but then even they disappeared and quit coming. Not really sure what we're doing wrong, (we paid double what the work was worth and fed them well...) but we've had to finish up the rest on our own. Janie was super happy to cover up the Disney murals in her room:

And once most of the painting was done, we had to redo some of the floors:

You can see the old finish (covered in paint splotches), the sanded version, and a bit of the mountain of sawdust that the sander created. This was me after a day of sanding:

Only you can't see how COVERED I was in said sawdust. In my ears, nose (in spite of the mask), everywhere. At least it gave me many hours to finally get around to listening to the audio book of "The Way of Kings" by Brandon Sanderson. I'm about a quarter into "Words of Radiance" now.  

So now all but our bedroom has been painted, the floors are done, we've started buying furniture, and I'm working on curtains. Except when I take a break from curtains to make Jariel a dress instead. She likes it when that happens.

Some struggles we've been having lately... our beloved cat, Methuselah, passed away the week we did the most painting. Not sure if it was related to that, or what, but he is definitely missed. Tonight Kyran drew a picture of him, stripes and all, with a big M for "Methuselah" and a big D for "dead". It made me sad. Unfortunately, after he died our house was completely infested with fleas. The kids look like they have chicken pox. We got rid of the rug in their room, have been washing their sheets frequently and giving them baths daily, and that seems to have gotten rid of the buggers. Knock on wood. Once we make sure we're flea free we'll look into the possibility of getting another cat. And giving it a flea bath before introducing it to the house.

Another struggle has been our fridge stopped working a few weeks ago. The freezer part is still fine, but the lower part is barely colder than room temperature. All of our food was going bad, and we've been doing everything we can think of to get it fixed (the store, two technicians, and many Google searches), and nothing's worked yet. That's been mildly frustrating. Fortunately we're house sitting for a missionary who's out of town, so we've been able to store a few things in her fridge. It's just... not accessible when I need to cook...    

In other news, I realized I hadn't cut Kyran's hair since December...

So he was a little shaggy. He isn't anymore:

There's a Nigerian couple from church who run an English preschool/primary school, and we're talking and praying about sending Kyran (and maybe Jariel) there. He waffles on interest, some days he says he wants to, and other days not. He really needs some more friends and chances to learn the language, sometimes it feels like the kids hardly ever get out of the house except for church. And even there they sometimes just fall asleep:

(See Kyran slumped over in far left chair while Jon runs the media equipment for the church).

So please pray with us as we consider this option, I think it'd be best for him, but I'd like his willingness on it.

Back home, conference prep, and the kids' first literary attempts!

We're home! The rest of our time in Maputo was wonderful, we really had a good time connecting with old and new friends. There was a businessman from the Ukraine visiting at the same time as us who connected with Jon and gave him a lot of great advice. He also gave us a generous donation before we left! The kids loved playing outside more, playing in the rain, climbing trees, playing on the playground, jumping on a trampoline, playing in the sand, and doing lots, and lots, and lots of games!

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The van we got is SUPER nice and comfortable, and made bringing Jariel's car seat worth it (we've been lugging it around since August but unable to use it). The ride home was long, but the kids were pretty good. We stopped for the night at a little hotel on the way, which helped break up the 17-hour drive. We were stopped at police checkpoints at least 9 times (lost count), most of them just asked us a few questions and waved us on, but one of them was harassing us for not having any car insurance yet. We explained that we JUST bought the car and were told we had 30 days to get insurance, but he was pretty adamant about giving us a 10,000 met fine anyway (about $300). At these checkpoints they actually have a little desks just sitting under a tree on the side of the road, and the officer went back to his desk to write us the ticket and I prayed like crazy that God would change the man's mind, that even if it was a legitimate law that he would have mercy. He came back to the car and said never mind! He gave back Jon's driver's license and let us go without charging a dime! There was much rejoicing :-).

Now we're back to the chaotic house, as it's still torn up for painting everything. The guy we had hired to do it hasn't been very reliable, so we might just ask him to stop coming and finish the rest ourselves. We usually like to hire people to help provide jobs and free us up to do other things, but even after several talks about good business practice this guy hasn't been great. So I'm hoping to have this done soon!

I'm also quite busy with our church's women's conference coming up next week. I'm on the planning committee, will help with cleaning and logistics, and will be speaking at 3 breakout sessions on parental involvement in kids' education. I won't be advocating homeschooling exactly, just giving a nudge to get them to do more educational activities especially with kids under 5. I've been doing research on brain development, and that is the most crucial time to build strong connections and kids are capable of learning more then than any other time of life, yet that's when kids here get most ignored. Hoping to help give some ideas to change that! I'm going to try to get Kyran and Jariel to help me with my presentation, showing off some of their abilities and demonstrating to the mothers there what is possible with early education. Hope they don't get too much stage fright! I've offered them ice cream afterward if they do a good job :-).

In my brain development research, I came across some studies that suggest it's far more important to encourage creativity in the early years than to impart facts. There's plenty of time later for learning about the parts of a cell or the date of the Battle of Waterloo, but the younger brain forms more connections through exercising imagination. So I'm going to take our homeschooling in a little different direction and emphasize creating things! Today while we were painting with watercolors, Kyran started telling me stories he made up, and I decided to write them down and share them with you. As some background information, we've been reading the original A. A. Milne "Winnie the Pooh" books, and I found the 1970's Pooh movie that I remember watching as a kid, and K & J have loved both the books and the film. Having recently finished both "Winnie the Pooh" and "The House at Pooh Corner", we've moved on to "Doctor Dolittle", which we started in Maputo and are almost done with now. (I must say I'm impressed with Jariel's attentiveness to chapter books with minimal pictures! I definitely didn't start Kyran on them this young, but she's been loving them!). Just thought that might help provide some background for their stories, which I transcribed from their dictation (as best I could) as follows: 

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Kyran (age 5):

Pooh and Piglet in the Rocket

by Kyran Reinagel

Now the hippo was very, VERY big and it covered the earth! Pooh and Piglet didn’t like the hippo because it was so huge. So they got in the rocket and went out of the earth. Christopher Robin and all of the others got in another rocket and went out of the earth. They liked the hippo, they just wanted to see what earth was like outside the earth.

Piglet fell out of the rocket three or four times. Pooh pulled him up. The third or fourth time, Pooh said to Piglet, “You’ll just fall and fall, and never land on the ground!” So Piglet wanted to get back in the rocket, and Pooh pulled up the string and they turned around and went back to earth. The hippo, the very, VERY huge hippo, was gone!

That’s the end.

The End.

Pooh and Piglet Swinging from a Rope

by Kyran Reinagel 

Pooh and Piglet, one day, climbed up a wall in this house up to those shelves. And they had a rope, and stringed it to the light. The same as piglet falling out of the rocket, and Pooh pulling Piglet back up. And they got across the rope to the light. Pooh went back to the shelves and yelled to Piglet, but Piglet wasn’t at the light! He was underneath the rope trying to get to Pooh! But Pooh went back to the light. They switched and switched, but could not find each other. And finally they both went back to the light, and Pooh said to Piglet, “How are we going to get down from this light we are on?”

And Piglet said, “We could use the rope! And just let it down and we could climb down.”

And Pooh said, “I think that’s a very good idea, Piglet!” So Pooh and Piglet held the end that was tied to the light and Piglet went down first, because he was small.

Pooh, coming down, said, “Watch out, Piglet, or I’ll fall on you!” But Piglet didn’t see Pooh! And Pooh climbed up back to the light. And Piglet looked at the rope. Pooh was not on the rope! He threw the rope back to the shelves and swung back to the shelves.

And Piglet said, “Pooh! Why are you back up there to the shelves?”

“Well, Piglet, it’s like this. You were in my way of climbing down, so I just climbed back up and swung the rope over to the shelves and climbed, climbed the rope.”

“Back to the light!”

And Pooh said, “Piglet, I’m going to climb down the wall backwards, and hold the rope in my pocket.” So Pooh climbed down backwards the wall, but he didn’t have any pockets! He just had to hold the rope on his arm and got to Piglet.

The End.   

Jariel (age 2½):

Choo Choo Train

by Jariel Reinagel

In my story there was a toon and a very shark monster, and it was a Monster Idal. That’s what it was called. And it was a rainbow, it was another monster, it was called “Rainbow”, because it was a rainbow.

And there was another toon that was another monster, and it was big BIG!

I was telling another story to Bubba, and it was another monster, but it was BIG. And the monster was dark, and the bear was dark, and everything was dark. And the lights were off.

And I had another story I made up to Bubba, and it was another monster that was a toon, and it was dark again, everything was dark again. They just played with Piglet, Owl, and Christopher Robin in the dark. They used a flashlight.

And I had another story that I made up to Kyran. It was about crayons, and balloons, and dice, and paint, and paint, and paint. There was a lot of paint at that house. The house was called “Ring the Gack”.

I have another one I made up, and it was about a monster AGAIN! The monster was in that house. They were friendly monsters, and they danced. And they had snacks first. The monster looked funny on the mattress. On the way biggy little bunk. And there was a rainbow that I saw, and it was fun, and it was tuna, and it was a blanket. It was a blanket that was like mine, and it was a pillow. Um, and there was another house I made up to Kyran, and it was another monster in it, and it was a toon monster, but not the same monster, and it was named Tuna. I mean Da. And there was another rainbow. And three rainbows, and four rainbows! And this many (holds up 4 fingers). And a lot of monsters and a lot of stories! And a lot of blankets! And there was a doctor called Doctor Dolittle. In the story I was climbing up the tree, no one helped me down, I just stayed there. Bubba didn’t help me down, I just stayed there forever. Bubba was just watching a movie, I climbed up the tree, there was a little staircase and a butterfly and a penguin and a water bottle and something like a light switch. That’s how my story was. And I was done with the story of Doctor Dolittle. And he did not talk to me, he was talking to you and Daddy, and Janie. Lots of the people were lost in church, but we found them. We left them in the church, but then we found them. That’s my story! And it was found. Not there, but we found him here. There was a blanket that was found by me, and I found it, but Bubba and my brother and Janie and Daddy and Mommy did not find the peoples too! Just one person, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten! There was one person missing of the peoples. The kitty will bite.

And there was something with a bird called “Ring the Gack”, and my kitty was called “Ring the Gack”, and there was another kitty called “Ring the Gack”. Um, and he was wild tiled. That was my kitty’s name, Wild Tiled. And the kitties came with me, my kitty but not Bubba’s kitty. I have a lot of kitties. I went to a lot of places, and they gave me a snack. A really big snack.

There are more stories! And something was lost, and Christopher Robin was lost. He just found me, but in the end he jumped up and down a LOT. And up there he fell, and he fell, and he fell until he was down to the river, and he said, “Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow!” And he didn’t stop saying, “Ow!” And he just kept saying “Ow!” And he did it too. And there was dice in there, there was one, two, three! 

(end of Jariel's stories)

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So I'm not exactly sure where all the monsters came from, or what a "toon" is, but "Ring the Gack" is definitely from "One Fish, Two Fish" by Dr. Seuss. She came up with the title after writing the story. Not exactly sure how it fits :-).

Renovations and a Road Trip!

Whew, it's been a busy month. Before we get started with the news, here's the super-cute Thoughtful Apple Fairy.

So the people who owned all the furniture in our house came and took it all away, and we've slowly been replacing it all. In the meantime it's really barren! We got the appliances and beds, though we're waiting on some renovations before getting the rest. We wanted to repaint most of the house, and redo the wood floors which are scratched beyond belief. Unfortunately, a lot of the old paint on some walls and all the doors and windows had to be scraped off first, as it was peeling off in many places so we couldn't just paint over it. So here's Kyran helping one of the workers with scraping a wall:

And here's Jariel "helping" me scrape a closet door:

Jariel thrilled to be allowed to help paint:

And Kyran too 

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The house isn't quite done yet, but we had to put it on hold while we are taking a trip to the capital, Maputo, to pick up the car we ordered from Japan! It's at the port, but we are still waiting on all the paperwork to clear so we can go pick it up. We took the night bus down, the kids did pretty well sharing the narrow little bed:

(I love the night bus. Actually being able to lie down makes the 17 hours go by so much faster). Now we're at the Iris Ministries Zimpeto base, visiting with old friends and teaching them new games, like Pirate's Cove (and yes, Kyran is wearing an official pirate eye patch :-) ):

There's a missionary here, Laura, who was one of the first to befriend us on our very first time here in January 2008. She loves games, and over the years we bonded over many a board and card game. It's good to be back and catch up with her and our other friends from a bygone era! The kids are loving the base, they get to play outside almost all day (a luxury for these city kids who can't get out nearly as often as I'd like). It's also nice to be out of the chaotic house for a while, it was getting stressful having workers in the home all the time, hardly being able to go anywhere, and not being able to invite people over either. Hopefully we'll be able to finish up the painting and floors within the week or so after we get back, then I can finish buying furniture, make a few curtains, and actually FINALLY settle in a bit and make it "home"! I'll definitely send pics when it's all done :-).

We're definitely looking forward to having a little more freedom once we get our car! It's been challenging using the public transport, especially for shopping trips :-/. 

I should go now, but I'll close out with one more pic of cuteness:

Family Update--Kyran's Birthday!

We had a great time with Kyran's birthday party! This is the "rainy season" here in Mozambique, which means we've been getting rain about 4 days per week for the last couple months. Kyran really wanted to go to the beach for his birthday, so I prayed it wouldn't rain on the 28th and that was answered! It was a lovely, sunny day, and everyone who didn't wear sunblock came home a little too rosy (don't worry, the kids were thoroughly protected!).

There's a family working at the same base we used to, with Iris Ministries in Dondo, that have a little boy who just turned 5 and a little girl who is 3, so just about the same ages as our kids! They've really hit it off, so we invited them to share the day with us. It was great because it also gave us adults some time to talk. They seem to struggle with a LOT of the same things we did when we were there, so it's been good to try to give them advice and help them along. But boy, are we glad we're not there anymore! Anyway, so Kyran and friends had fun, he requested a very American kid meal of chicken tenders and macaroni and cheese, so I obliged. 

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I think our time in Malta last year influenced his request for a boat cake! He originally suggested that it "look like the Next Wave" (the ministry ship my parents work with), but I was able to talk him down to a simple sailboat . 

​Both kids are enjoying Kyran's "biggest" birthday present: a kitten! Our first family pet (if you don't count the two goldfish we had in Rolla). He has been asking for a cat for months now, and when I asked what he wanted for his birthday he repeated, "A cat!". A fellow missionary happened to have a litter of kittens she was trying to get rid of at just the right time, so we agreed to take one. So far "Methuselah" has hit it off well with the Reinagel clan! 

​I'm not actually sure where Kyran heard the name from, we just recently went through the Genesis Bible stories in our homeschooling, but our book just hit the highlights and skipped over the genealogies so he wouldn't have heard it from me. I think it's funny though, since he was the longest living person mentioned, and cats are supposed to have 9 lives! (In Mozambique the superstition is that they have 7 lives, which makes sense... they probably don't last *quite* as long here as they do in more developed countries).

We've been busy trying to actually settle into our apartment, which is taking far longer than I would have liked. The previous tenants still have most of their stuff and furniture here, they were supposed to come get it this week but now the wife is sick so it's being postponed again... So we have 2 fridges, 2 stoves, and 4 a/c units crowding our relatively small apartment, but we hope to get rid of half of them soon! It'll be nice for everything to be truly ours finally. 

And if you didn't see it on Facebook already, we OFFICIALLY got our residency cards today! What we couldn't do in 3 years last time, we accomplished in 4 months this time. That feels good.