stuff

Okay guys, SKYPE is officially off the table. Pastor Brad did a short video call with Pastor Mike (not sure for how long). 350 mb for video, 50 for non. That would translate to either $50 or $12 at the current exchange rate. Sorry . I don’t know what the rate to call from the US is; there are many different cards you can get off the web. It currently costs us about $1.30 to call. Of course those of you who have tried know how tough it is to get through to us due to our location. So if you’d like to talk to us, maybe send an email and we will call you; we can split the rate somehow?
Went and bought a washing machine yesterday. Just had to do it…hopefully it’s a decent one. Hard to know over here! We can thank Uncle Sam and our amazing tax accountant for our fed refund this year!
If you send us a letter or package, below Zambia, write “AFRICA”. I don’t know if it will help or not. But I finally got my birthday card from Brian’s parents…last week! It was sent in November, but the Lusaka postmark was March 30. On it, “Africa” was written by someone other than his mom. I don’t know where that got added or if that is why the delay, but I am sure it won’t hurt!
We went to Lusaka yesterday to go to the revenue house and then the road traffic to FINALLY get the ownership changed on the truck…or so we thought. I don’t know what was going on, but there were literally at least 100 people outside the revenue house in line. Must be some type of Zambian tax day? I know the quarter just ended, but wow! We also drove by road traffic while getting supplies-they gate was closed there and no one was going in. Don’t know what that was about either. Brian’s temporary driver’s license expires on Friday the 18th. But there is no guarantee the card is ready. Our problem is that we are out of Lusaka, so we are subject to 1 to 3 checkpoints each way on a trip to town. Most of the time it is just one, and we know the guys and share a pop with them, so they mostly pass us through. The other stops are usually road traffic (think state highway cops) and most of them are really not very polite to us. Especially when we are in the Gospelink truck with supplies, they think “rich white farmer” and stop and look for any reason to fine us. Two of the times they have stopped us Brian has talked us out of a ticket, the one time we couldn’t get out and it was a fine of maybe $10, so not a big deal. So we still have much town work to do. It is tough on Brian-he hates being in town and often gets a headache, and it is tough on me because the house is chaos when I get back and we’ve lost a day of school. We have asked one gal to come stay with us for a few months during summer teams to help with just the kids and home schooling. We’ll see what she says. If she can’t, anyone else want to come?!
We have the part for our fridge and it works pretty well, most of the time. This last tank of propane hasn’t been very good. We have gotten some pretty cruddy tanks of diesel in the truck-apparently they can do something to the propane too to “stretch it out.” The fridge has gone out a bit and the flames on the stove just aren’t quite right.
Pray for Paul and Lori-they sold their house and are grieving and feeling “homeless” for now. Pray for comfort as they continue in the transition and grieving process and for their support so they can stay here for good in June. We need them here!
I was also told that we need to have more about the kids on the blog and how they are. SORRY! I try to tell them they can write whenever, but it is like pulling teeth. I will try to do a kid post soon with the day to day of what they do and how they are and all that. You can also be looking for some pics soon of me and a big change.
We are up to 7 baby chicks now.
Anyone know how to tell if your dog is pregnant? We figured it she would be due Mid to end of May if she was, just wondering when we would know for sure?
Got the new tub in when Wendell was here…maybe we wouldn’t have needed to? The new one leaked too-but this time we were able to see where-right around the drain. So Brian tightened and that helped, but he will need to work on it some more. We also put a water tank in the rafters to try to increase water pressure. It helps, a tiny bit for the pressure from the hot water tank . We just don’t know the deal is. And the water is still cold! It takes quite a bit of power to use the hot water heater (electric), so we only use it occasionally; and our tank less water heater (propane) is still in GA waiting to be shipped over here on the next container. It could be a long cold season!