La Sonya

Thanksgiving's come and gone! I can hardly believe it. It seems like I just got here but now it’s almost Christmas. Next month starts the down hill descent. It only picks up more speed from here on out! Quite often I have found my mind wondering to the future. What’ll I be doing? Where will I be living? Things like that. I hate how I never feel settled for more than a year because then the whole year I am always wondering and thinking about what I’ll be doing next year. Are we ever content with where we are? Monday, November 26, 2007 Why do I just want to crawl under a desk and hide so I can have a good cry? It’s right there waiting, always on the verge. I must need it because last week I dreamt that I was weeping and I woke up with tears streaming down my face and I just lay there and let them fall, and let myself slowly stop sobbing. I couldn’t communicate with a worker here, and it made me feel angry. I don’t think it would have been any easier if we bo...

It’s like watching TV in the living room with it on mute and the same movie is on in the bedroom with the volume up a bit It’s like not being able to find the exact frequency on the radio so you listen to it with the funny shrill ringing It’s like you’ve eaten a green banana feeling on your tongue It’s moving your head so fast your eyes can’t keep up. So you feel dizzy It’s like taking a pill you know will take away your apittite but you have to take it with food or you’ll barf. And when you don’t feel like eating cause you feel sick you have to eat cause oddly enough it’ll help you not feel sick. It’s exausting It’s a nasty tasting It’s a pain to take 3 times a day It’s worse than malaria symptoms . . . (maybe)

Well. I know this is a while after thanksgiving but the stupid email has been down and so it wouldn’t have gone out till now anyway. . . so get over it :o) The day began not as I would have guessed. Liz and I had postponed our wed morning prayer walk to Thursday because of me being EXAUSTED with malaria and all. So it was a really nice way to start the day in all reality of it. Then once I was at the hospital Hans asked me if I could cover his English classes because he was going to drive Pierre to Lie for some meds. I was saddened that I wasn’t asked to go as well, but I told myself it’s not the end of the world and I got to go to Kelo the few days before. So I told Hans sure I’d teach. I couldn’t go down to Anne and Richards till after 1 pm anyway because of a meeting Hans and I had with Anatole. So after I gave out TB meds I started figuring out what I would teach. It had been almost 4 years since I taught English before! Not that I forgot any of the material...

On Tuesday I decided that our packages needed to be gotten so that we could use the tasty ingredients inside Sarah/Esther’s boxes from home :o) Early Tuesday I loaded up the empty crate/box of Liz’s that we used last time and lugged it all the way to the market. We knew for a fact that there were 3 boxes – one for each girl SM. But with this group you can never tell how many there will be. So I secured my motto and we were off. It was so fun. I’ve always loved taking out our jet skis as a kid and just going fast. Feeling the wind and sun. So of course I love going anywhere on the mottos, even if they’re a bit dodgy. I find that it always seems to increase my prayer life. . . you know, things like, “dear Lord please help my motto to not fall apart before I get back to Béré”, or “Thank you Father that all those goats and pigs got out of the way before we crashed right into them!” I arrived in Kelo with out incident, which says a lot in comparison to our last trip into Kelo. S...

Thanksgiving!!!!!! We are heading down to the other side of town to Anne and Richard’s house to have ourselves a Tchadian feast! Complete with chicken for the carnivores, and gluten for the veggies. As well as all sorts of pies and dressings! I can’t wait! I hope all of you back in America have a great holiday and take some time to really think about what you have to be thankful for (a homework project will be coming up soon for all of you about that). Enjoy being with friends and family, sitting inside where it’s warm and just laugh a lot. Laugh and be happy!! I’ll let you all know how things went later! Besides I’ll be half way done with my Turkey day festivities before yours even begin. Love you and I thank God everytime I think of you and what you are doing for me. Sonya

news update from the land of bucket showers to the land of porcelain toilets a.. Simba died b.. The sunsets are amazing c.. It's been raining a few times and it's not supposed to d.. Mowgli is great! e.. One of the baby sheep died f.. Mowgli gets to eat it g.. X-ray machine is working and I run it. h.. I'm going to kelo tomorrow i.. Malaria #4. yippie. j.. The car/Toyota truck is back and working! k.. We use it to go to the river! l.. Esther is on the Mend m.. I miss my family and friends in America!! n.. I got mail on Sunday and tomorrow I get a package! o.. Thanksgiving is here and that's great p.. It's already November! q.. Almost December!!!!!!!!!!!!!! r.. 3 ½ months here

I keep wanting to say Amish, but they're not they're Arabic/Muslim. And they're right outside my hut door, yup that's right, right outside my door. They got here Monday night because one of the women was discharged from the hospital and their village I guess is to far away. Anyway I thought they would only be here for a night but it's going on the 3rd night now and the Amish are still here :o) My Ama speaks Arabic so that's how come they are here. Strange part is the woman who was in the hospital was there for a C-section and her baby died. I had been inthere to help with circulation so she knew who I was. Wed morning Liz and I go for our prayer walk at 5:15ish and since they r right outside my door they know I left and when I got back they asked me (with are amazing African signlanguage) where I was. So I told them I went to pray to Allah, of course using my African sign language. A perk to having them here is I'm awake early because I hear them, outside m...

Jenny had been in orbit Since breakfast time. From school she rushed off To a girl scouts meeting, A trampoline class, And then a pep rally. Jenny needs a sugarless, Energyless soft drink Like a Beatle needs A hairpiece. Two - four - six - eight, what Does she appreciate? Sugar It quenches fatigue Note to mothers How much energy does your child get from the synthetic sweetener in a bottle of diet soft drink? Exactly none. And who much energy does she need? You tell us - and ask yourself if you're doing her a favor when you stock the refrigerator with no-sugar soft drinks. She'll drink them - her thirst craves anything that's cold and wet. Bur if you want her to have the energy she needs, you'll bring home the kind with sugar. *Sugar's got what it takes. . . 18 calories per teaspoon-and it's all energy.* ~found this amazing add in an old Life magazine from the 60's that I brought to decorate with. Gotta love it :o)

Last night over at Anne and Richard’s house was so great. We were all realized and contend. Anne fixed some pizza with real cheese! James and Sarah had brought it with them from somewhere when they came back from Kosa, Cameroon. Richard then recounted his and Anne’s story :o) it’s a good one. But I loved how he was able to include God in it and I loved and agreed completely with text: Delight in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart. Psalms 37. That’s why a relationship with God is so important. Your hearts desires will be God’s desires if you have a good close relationship with God. I’ve found in Psalms 73 where it says, “Whom have I in heaven but You? I desire you more than anything on earth.” If we desire Him then His will for us will be come our will. On top of all the conversations about love’s beginnings and all I felt so content and at peace with where I am. I am happy being here in Tchad. I am very happy with who God is creating me to be right now. As I sat on...

My brother’s name is Christopher Reaves. People say he is superman. Growing up I knew he was. He survived flipped car accidents (2) in high school, when he was born I think the cord was around his neck or something, he’s survived about a bagillion accidents with either stitches or staples and he could always win in our wrestling matches. But recently I’ve discovered he’s not the only one with super powers. I too have them. Yup, it must run in the family. Would you like to know what it is? (no Ben, it’s not the power to make any situation awkward or embarrassing) I have the x-ray vision. In fact on Thursday or Friday I used my powers and way that a man had a busted arm with a calcium growth on it! He was using his arm to carry stuff and had gone in to the Hospital in Kelo to find out what the big hard bump was in his arm. He must have busted it a long time ago and got it set by a local med/local healer and they didn’t set it right. So God gave me the task of x-ray vision here. It’s amaz...

[I think Sonya wanted me to post this from an email she recently sent me when she discovered a music cd at the hospital that we sent the SMs a few years ago. --Andrea K.] First I saw the sm boxes in Brock Hall and wrote a message my freshman year. Then two years later I was in Honduras craving messages, notes anything from my friends at southern. So I said to myself when I get back I am going to help get notes out to the SMs serving. The year I came back I had a HUGE push for notes, there were thousands of notes sent out to 100 missionaries all over the world. The next year I helped again to make sure the notes were getting sent out as well as start putting together the book to send out to new SMs with random things in it. Then I passed on my office space but still helped with the SM stuff. Here I am now 6 years after I started sending things to SMs and I am receiving things that I started, things I never ever intended to receive in a packet, yet things I would have wanted when I was ...

The Austrailians, Lily and Paul, are heading back home. They’d been here almost as long as me and Liz. Cristinal, the Portuguese nurse from France, is also heading home to France. She’d been here for 5 weeks-but it seems like longer. The good news is we finally got our car back (see James blog from back in July to find out what happened to the car) and so at least they don’g have to take public transportation back up to N’Djamina. But Sarah’s dring with them up there to make sure everything goes alright. Which leaves me, Liz, Hans and James here all by our lonesome little selves, we’ll be the only ones at the house for the next few days. Esther is over at Anne and Richards—the missionaries who are here with some non-denominational ministry. They’ve been in Africa for years. They even speak Nandjere, which to me makes them really smart! They’re great. They’ve been back from their son’s wedding for about a month now. We’ve been over twice on Saturday night to eat and sing or play games....

Danny and I spent another late night over pancakes We talked about soccer and how every man's just the same We made speculations on whose and the when's of our futures and how everyone's lonely But still we just couldn't complain And how we just hate being alone Could I have missed my only chance? And now I'm just wasting my time By looking around But'cha know I know better I'm no going to worry about nothing Cause if the birds and the flowers survive Than I'll make it okay Given a chance and a rock See which one breaks a window and See which one keeps me up all night and into the day Because I'm so scared of being alone That I forgot which house I live in That it's not my job to wait by the phone For her to call This days been crazy but everything's happened on schedule From the rain and the cold to the drink that I spilled on my shirt Cause you knew how you'd save me Before I fell dead in the garden You knew this day long before you mad...

We were opening our packages and Sarah still wasn’t feeling good. She had been feeling bad even before we left that morning so she was laying down on the couch in the living room. So back in the room Hans made a comment on how she wasn’t looking all that good. Then I was going out to get something and I see she had passed out in the hall and Dr Audrey was holding her. So I peak my head back in the room and tell the other two. While we were all sitting there helping her in the hall, getting her IV in and liquids down her it hit me—I love my family here—My SM family. I didn’t know all that was going on then. It was the start of more than 24 hours of crazy time. Over that time I grew very scared. When Dr Greg, an American certified surgeon, came in around 1 or 2ish Sat am to examine her stomach, because that is where she had been having pain all day and now night, the thought of Appendicitis hit me and I was scared. What would we do” It was al scary for many reasons. I love Sarah—one of ...

I don’t know how many of you have been reading the other two girl’s blogs but I highly recommend it. Those of you who know already about Sarah/Esther’s ordeal, here’s my take on the whole deal. For those of you who don’t know about it here it is. . . I have no idea where to start . . . why does it seem like I am always starting out a blog this way? Here’s a bullet format of the events: * Friday the girls didn’t work so we decided we would go to Kelo to get the mail as we all know Liz always has about a billion packages and the rest of us a letter or so :o) * 2 moto bikes—we’ve learned where to ask for a ride into Kelo and where not to. Liz and I on one and Sarah and the empty box on the other * Flat tire for me and Liz—2 hours waiting! Broken bike for Sarah and box—3 hours waiting! Problem was we didn’t know that each other was broken. We figured that the other one was already at the post office that closes at Noon. * Arrive Kelo—40 min till noon. Took the ...