Our African Birth

If you have been following my blog for a year or more, you most likely read about the birth I witnessed when Josiah and I visited last September. Africa is not a very labor and delivery friendly continent and Sierra Leone has one of the worst records when it comes to maternal and infant deaths. So, why, many would think, would you voluntarily go to Sierra Leone while pregnant and deliver your 4^th child there. Truth be known, I cannot logically explain it. God has lead our family to minister to the people of Sierra Leone physically and spiritually and He works in mysterious ways.

While there was some trepidation on our part about me delivering a baby in Sierra Leone, we were confident in God’s provision, no matter the circumstances. We also looked back at my previous three deliveries which were quick (2-8 hours long) and uncomplicated. God did provide even though the labor and delivery did not go as we envisioned.

I started labor on the evening of July 8^th with some mild contractions and both Jeneson and I figured that in a few hours (while the kids were conveniently asleep) I would have our newest daughter. Needless to say, it did not happen like that. Hours past and still not much progress. We called Ann Marie, one of the national nurses who was going to help us with the delivery. 12 hours later and still in labor…. By noon we sent the kids over to our neighbors for lunch. It was decision time. Do we get in the truck to start the 2 hour drive to the nearest hospital where I would be almost assured a c-section or just be patient. We needed to make the decision soon since travelling in the dark on the roads is not any fun, especially during the rainy season. Ann Marie and I wanted to stick it out at home, while Jeneson was ready to head to the truck. I decided that we needed some more advice. So, I decided to make a call to my old midwives back in Forest Park, Illinois. Thankfully, the office was open and Shirley was there. An hour after implementing her advice, Rebekah was born! She took 18 hours to enter the world, longer than all her older siblings combined!

Our running joke is that Rebekah truly is an African child as she was born in ‘African time’. In North America we are a very time-oriented people, constantly looking at our calendar or watch. In Sierra Leone ‘tomorrow’ just means sometime in the future, which may or may not be the next day and scheduled events often start hours later than planned

Rebekah was given the middle name ‘Salone’ which is African short hand for Sierra Leone. This way she will always know that she was born in Sierra Leone, Africa. She was also christened with the Mende name Kenyah which means ‘born in another country’.

Jeneson and I were so grateful for God’s provision, even if it was not how we had anticipated!

When it Rains it Burns...and Turns Violet

It is June and already the rains are beginning to pound the coastal countries of West Africa. We have been in Sierra Leone for just over 3 months now. When we arrived in late February, the climate was akin to Chicago or New Orleans at the peak of summer, hot and humid and on some days…very hot and very humid.  The rains are a welcome change for many reasons, the biggest of which is, you guessed it, water. The lines at the water pump tend to be shorter since the rains have begun. The children seem to spend less time at the wells pumping water as the rains can fill all the containers at home to overflowing.  The air is also less smoky now that the rains put an end to farmers who, in the 21^st century, still insist on burning to clear farmland and prepare for cassava planting. But the rains also bring a few hazards with those refreshing showers, and I am not even talking about the cobras and vipers or the surge in pediatric malaria cases. I am talking about purple children. Purple children?? you ask? Well, let me explain.

The rains force the children indoors. The children who spent their entire day and sometimes a significant part of the evening outdoors wandering, collecting water, gathering firewood and sticks, ‘stoning’ mango, plum and other fruit trees for food, and otherwise foraging in the ‘bush’ find themselves having to spend more time closer to home or worse, at home.  It also means getting closer to the fire and being home when the piping hot food comes off the fire. Yes, here the cultural norm is cooking over an open flame. The stove is three rocks and a pot is placed over it. Some houses have a hut they cook in but it is still open flame cooking. The children who get burned often do from either reaching into the pot still on the flame or from the piping hot food spilling on to them. The story often gets lost in translation but the result is still the same – children with first and second degree burns covered in gentian violet.  Yes, that mainstay of wound care in many an impoverished and resource limited setting, gentian violet. While gentian violet has some great antibacterial, antifungal, and antihelmintic properties, there are better (and less messy) things that can be used. But here, if it is skin related then it calls for some purple haze and for burns and blisters, it is a whole lot of Hendrix. We had wounds that have healed long before we were able to wash off all that dye off the skin.

We currently have at least four children aged 1 through 6 that we are treating for burns. Thankfully all have been manageable within our scope and ability, meaning none of them worse than a second degree. And all are slowly healing with the help of frequent dressing changes, silver sulfadiazine, and the occasional application of Surgilube.

Before starting treatment. The burn is covered in gentian violet and black/purple eschar, so it is hard to tell the extent of the burn.

After about a week of treatment. Almost all the gentian violet has been cleaned off and there is good tissue starting to grow. The worst part of the burn is on his shoulder, but is healing nicely.

The Mystical, the Magical, the Miraculous…Surgilube!

Post conflict Sierra Leone. That is how it is still categorized 7 years after the last of the UN peacekeepers have left; many agencies and companies will pay you an extra stipend for coming to Sierra Leone, so I am told. But in the ‘town’ of Mokanji, southeastern Sierra Leone and in the heart of rutile and bauxite mining lands, at least on the surface, the conflicts seem to be confined to the water wells and pumps where some older kids feel the need to ‘flog’ a smaller child in line to fetch water or under the plum tree where 5 kids battle for one or two juicy plums that was knocked down after 30 minutes of stone throwing or ‘stoning’.  But in a society that still holds on to primitive farming techniques and venturing into the ‘bush’ for most necessities, cuts, lacerations and puncture wounds are a daily occurrence and often lead to major infections and even debilitating complications.

Once the word got out that ‘pumwae doctors’ (not sure how I feel about being referred to as ‘white’ although on a few occasions I have wished I was, but that will be for another post) were in town, they seemed to come out of the woodwork. Two week old machete wounds with gangrene, month old wounds with frozen joints and contractures and more than one injection site abscess from local practitioners whose answer to all maladies involve a ‘shot’. They all had the same story, “I having drinking the potion that the local medicine man has been giving me but I not getting better”. Or worse, “if I go the Freetown (the capital city) they will just amputate” The exact truth of this is unclear but I am sure it is somewhere in the middle with someone who went to the capital and ended up getting an amputation and the family’s reluctance to come up with the money needed to pay for the cost of transportation to the city.

It was our second week in Mokanji and my pregnant, yet eager and very OCD, wife decided to tackle and inventory the ‘Men's Ward’. For those who are not familiar with this place (and that would be all of you), it is part of the building that will eventually be the Men’s Ward and where most everything is stored, medical and otherwise, and we were eager to get a handle on what kind of supplies we had on hand. And that is where I discovered the nearly 500 single use packs of …that’s right…Surgilube, that very nectar of the Operating Room, that essence of sterility, that bacteriostatic potion that has saved the reputation of many a wayward surgeon.

Wound care has taken on a whole new dimension in this ‘rustic’ setting. Cleaning and keeping them clean is a monumentous task where ‘keep it clean and dry’ is not only easier said than done, it is often lost in translation. It is cost prohibitive and logistically impossible to do daily dressing changes, and semi-sterile conditions to do dressing changes, well it only exists in my dreams. So… Surgilube to the rescue.

Soak and thoroughly clean the wound as best you can and lather on the Surgilube. Apply dressing and tell the patient to come back in 3 days. It is a beautiful sight to see a clean wound on the first dressing change and granulating tissue with the second dressing change on a wound that was all dead tissue and pouring with pus just a week ago. 

Two inch injection site abscess with tunneling? No Iodoform gauze? No problem. Pack every three to four days with gauze soaked in… you guessed it…Surgilube. Three to six weeks and it is all filled in. Ten days of PO antibiotics doesn’t hurt either.

As my fame spreads to nearby villages, there is a down side...I am running low on Surgilube.

On a more serious note, please be praying for a 4 month old baby girl I am treating with a huge abscess from an injection to the right buttock (administered by local untrained ‘practitioner’ and an inappropriate injection site for a 4 month old) that was initially treated at a hospital 2 hours away but asked to find continuing wound care closer to home.

1 month old infected machete wound

One month later, thanks to a course of oral
antibiotics, frequent dressing
changes and Surgilube

This is just one example of how a round of oral antibiotics and frequent dressing changes can make a difference in a wound. While he has limited range of motion with 3 fingers, at least he still has his fingers and his hand!

Josiah's Easter

Easter Sunday started out as any other Sunday: breakfast in the morning, followed by me doing laundry and a 10 am departure to walk about 7 minutes to the local Methodist Church. The church was full of men and women dressed in their Easter Sunday best and filled with singing both traditional hymns and African praise songs. After about an hour the girls had gotten restless enough that I decided to walk home with them. (Man do I miss nursery and children’s ministry!!!). Josiah was complaining of a headache so he decided to walk home with us. By the time we got to our doorstep he was in tears and saying that his stomach hurt also. He had a mild fever so I gave him some ibuprofen and had him lay down in our bed. He would intermittently wake up crying and it would go back and forth between his head hurting and his stomach hurting. He threw up a couple of times and was unable to keep down any fluids.

About 5pm I started to fix dinner and about half way through the beans being done our cooking gas bottle ran out of gas. As luck would have it our neighbors had our spare bottle locked up in their house and they were gone for the weekend! No bread in the house, so I walk the 10 minutes to the local store and discover that they had 2 small buns left and were expecting some fresh bread in a couple of hours. Fatmata is a wonderful lady and must have sensed my disappointment, “I’ll have them drop it by when it comes” she replied. Francis is the local baker who also works at one of the area mines so his baking schedule is somewhat erratic. I returned home to a still sick Josiah and fed the girls PB & J sandwiches with the 2 small buns. After we put the girls to bed we decided that since Josiah had not improved at all and was still not keeping any fluids down that we would go up to the hospital and get the supplies to start an IV on him. Let’s just say that Josiah is not an easy patient! By the grace of God I was able to start an IV on my poor little boy on the first try and knew he was sick because he did not fight us too much. Jeneson and I took turns ‘sleeping’ on the rug in the living room with Josiah.

By the next morning he was not having any stomach pain, only a mild fever and small headache. He started eating and drinking and by the afternoon was almost back to his usual self. We made him stay all day on Tuesday and by Wednesday was out and running around again with all the local kids. Still not sure what caused him to get so ill, but thankful to God for Josiah’s healing. Gave me a little glimpse of what the village mothers go through when their children get ill. I am looking forward to the clinic construction completion so that we can treat some of these children and ease the worry of their mothers.

Freetown Fun!

Yeah right! It has been about a week and a half since we returned from our last trip to Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone where we go about every 4-6 weeks to restock on provisions. If you are a FB friend you have read more than one post on how we really don’t like Freetown. It is full of congested streets, craziness, and noise, but it is also one of those necessary places we must go.

Our goal this trip was to finally get our Driver’s Licenses. We filled out the paperwork and gave the money to our intermediary our previous trip and were awaiting our residency permits before being able to get our actual license. The trip to Freetown takes about 5 ½ hours with the first 1 ½ hours over dirt/gravel roads through small villages before hitting actual pavement. The next 3 hours is pretty smooth sailing over decently paved roads before hitting the outskirts of Freetown and the horrendous Freetown traffic. It can literally take an hour or more to get from the outer limits of Freetown to the central area where we stay and most of the shops that we frequent are.

Kissy Road is the main road into and out of Freetown. Lucky for us the Sierra Leone Road Authority is located on Kissy Road toward the city limits. So OUR plan was to just stop by there on our way into the city and get our licenses done and out of the way. We phoned our intermediary and he said no problem. We roll into the congested parking lot only to find out that they just ran out of printer ribbon to print the license! And no spare ribbon?!?! We did convince the guy to give us our paperwork so that Jeneson could drive within the city until the next morning when we would return and pray that they had found some printer ribbon. Back onto Kissy Road. On Kissy Road your vehicle can be at a standstill for literally 5-10 minutes before moving another 10 yards or so. It is a two lane road with enough room on either side of traffic flow for motorbikes to squeeze past. One of the good things about Kissy Road is the shops on either side. You are moving so slowly that you can really find almost anything that you are looking for, jump out of the vehicle, make your purchase and not have to walk too far to get back into the truck!

We made the crawl back and forth on Kissy Road the next morning and finally received our Driver’s Licenses. A big thank you to our intermediary, Joe, who made it possible to do all this without standing in one single line! And by the way, Driver’s Licenses photos are horrible the world over!

The rest of the trip consisted mostly of Jeneson staying in the truck with the kids while I ran into various shops and stores to make purchases. We restocked on our food supplies, made some medical and supply purchases for the clinic, bought some household goods on Ecowas Street (big street market), and even bought a computer printer. I’m not sure who had the worse end of the deal: Jeneson in a parked truck with 3 small children or myself running around in the heat and sun, in and out of various shops and haggling with vendors.

We stay at a Catholic guest house near the downtown area that has reasonable rates, but spotty electricity and water supply. We are ever grateful to get back to our quiet African village with our reliable solar power and well water!

Freetown – one of those necessary evils in the life of a Mokanji missionary.

Laundry day is every day!

For the women of the village, they have to go to the pump or the spring to get the water for their laundry and use a large basin that is on the ground; I at least have the luxury of running water and a large concrete sink outside the house. How does one do laundry for 5 people in Mokanji? The simple answer is that I do laundry every day. Clothes laundry gets alternated with the diaper laundry so that I do clothes laundry on the odd days and diaper laundry on the even days. This helps keep the volume down to a reasonable level.

Once I get the kids up and dressed and started on breakfast I take my bucket, dirty clothes, washboard, laundry brush, and detergent to the outside sink after turning on the water shutoff valve (There is a shutoff valve in our kitchen so that people aren’t using our sink as their water source instead of the pump.) A tablespoon of laundry detergent works well to clean a bucket of clothes or diapers. After clothes, detergent, and water are added to the bucket, my left hand/arm becomes the agitator as I mix things up and then let it soak for a few minutes. The washboard is good for clothes that are only mildly dirty (basically mine and Jeneson’s clothes) and just need a little extra scrub to get clean. Since the kids play in the dirt all day their clothes usually get double duty with both the washboard AND a good scrubbing with the laundry brush. After all the clothes are washed and put aside, I rinse out the bucket, add the clothes back in and turn on the water. They all get a little manual agitation again as a ‘rinse cycle’ before I wring them all out, put it all back in a now clean, empty bucket and take it to the front porch to hang for drying. The diaper laundry gets an extra soap ‘cycle’ and a few more rinse ‘cycles’ to make sure that all the detergents gets rinsed out.

The advantage of the dry season is that the temps are nice and warm and the humidity nice and low so that the clothes and diapers dry quite quickly. This will NOT be the case during the rainy season when it will take a day or two (or maybe even 3) for the clothes to dry out. All told, I spend about an hour total each day doing the laundry from washing the clothes to hanging, folding, and putting them away.

The biggest washing hassle I have is doing my and Jeneson’s pants and the bed sheets and bath towels. They are just a pain because of their size and are therefore more labor intensive.

Makes you really appreciate your washer and dryer and having a laundry day once a week and being able to just push some buttons and forget about it for a while!                                                                                                           One of many statements that I never imagined coming out of my mouth: "I would love a washboard Charles! You have an extra one? Thanks!"

The Kid Life

The children in Mokanji are very friendly and many of them remember Josiah from when we were here back in September. While everybody is still trying to remember our names, they shout Josiah’s name from their houses as we walk down the road. Many kids do not go to school because of the lack of school fees and even if they are in school, I’m not sure how long they are there every day because I often see kids in their school uniforms outside our house well before lunch time.

The boys love to come over and kick the soccer ball around with Josiah and he is also tries to play cricket with them (not that he really knows how to play). He will go out and just hang out on a cut down tree with them throwing stones or use sticks to make some pipe scraps lying around into a drum circle. Lydia is our dirt magnet; she will go outside and play in the dirt for hours if we let her. She also likes torturing all the grasshoppers with sticks and climbing on the cut down trees that are in the compound. She seems to enjoy playing with the boys more than the girls because the girls are seem to be a little more aggressive while the boys are a little more gentle and helpful with her. She is very adventurous and has many a scrapped knee already. Sofia is our social butterfly. She loves using the Mende phrases that the other kids have taught her to make the adults chuckle and has no reservations about the locals picking her up and toting her around. Sofia gleefully pats us on the leg or arm and tells us about every bug, goat, dog, and chicken she sees and also enjoys roaring like a lion at the grasshoppers.

The kid life in Mokanji is not all fun and games. They have work to do; they often help with gathering the wood for cooking, preparing the meals, hauling the water, walking around the village selling food items, and watching over younger siblings. On one hand, they don’t have an easy life, they have to work hard; they have many struggles to stay healthy and get an education. On the other hand, they often seem so carefree and enjoy the simple pleasures of life like playing soccer and throwing stones at the trees.

The Mokanji Life

Really I am enjoying it. The people are friendly and Sierra Leone is a very social culture of greeting everybody and just sitting around and talking. Since there are only 6 North Americans in Mokanji and we are the newest transplants and the only ones with kids we seem to get our fair share of visitors, although most of our visitors are kids. They eagerly wait for the kids to come out and play with them and during the afternoon while the kids are taking their afternoon quiet time/nap, they will hang around our porch and just watch Jeneson and I read or be on the computer. When they aren’t being social they are working. They have to work to get water from a hand pumped well every day, they have to gather wood to cook over a 3 stone fire or use coal in a coal pot, they do their laundry by hand; almost every task that Americans use a machine or appliance to do, the people in Mokanji do it the ‘old fashioned way’, by hand.

We are only about 150 yards away from one of the two hand pumped wells in the village, so during the day we get to hear a lot of talking, a lot of hand clapping and singing as the girls wait their turn in line, and the occasional fight. We also get the frequent visitors of ladies and kids selling various food stuffs out of buckets precariously balanced in their heads. There is even this sweet girl who walks from the next village over to sell me woven baskets that her Daddy weaves. These are great, quality baskets and she sells them for 1000 Leones ($1 ~ 4300 Leones). I usually give her 2000 Leones and don’t ask for change in addition to giving her a cup of water and a muffin if I have one around.

Less than 300 yards from our house is the Old Skool Nite Klub (yes, that is how it is spelled!). There may be no village electricity in Mokanji, but at least 3 or 4 times a week we hear the generator get fired up at about 8pm and instead of hearing native African drumming in the distance, we get to hear the latest in popular music in Sierra Leone.

Our evenings, after the kids are in bed, are often spent out on our front porch enjoying the cool, breezy Mokanji evening. Here we can process any events of the day, evaluate how we are adjusting, or just enjoy each other’s company. I usually get my chocolate fix in the evenings with a nice cup of hot chocolate.

Our first week

     Not quite sure how to sum this all up in one blog post that doesn't go on and on. We arrived safely in Freetown on Friday, Feb 24th and spent the next several days gathering supplies and getting some paperwork stuff done. We stayed at a family resort that was right on the beach, had free internet, free breakfast, and free laundry. While this was a little more than we planned on spending, it did allow us to get quite a bit accomplished since we didn't have to worry about those things. We were very thankful for our Sunday day of rest and the kids enjoyed playing at the little playground and splashing in the pool.

     Tuesday morning we set out for the drive to Mokanji. Thankfully it is the dry season and some of the local mining companies had graded the roads, so what was a 7 hour drive in September was now a 5 hour drive.

     Our house looks beautiful! It is roomy enough for all of us and quite functional. We are lacking in some furniture/shelving so unpacking was basically  reorganizing into specific suitcases. We are waiting on getting some shelves/bookcases built so that we can get a little more settled. Our furniture now consists of a nice table and 6 chairs, a bed frame and mattress for Jeneson and I, a bed frame and mattress for Josiah and a mattress on the floor for Sofia. Hopefully by the end of the month we will have steel bunk beds made for Josiah and Lydia and some shelving put up. Right now all of Josiah's clothes are in one suitcase, my clothes in another, etc...

     My pressure cooker from Freetown is my new best friend and I hope to be start blogging about some of the meals that we are eating. Right now it is quite basic, but nutritious and filling. Even Lydia, my picky eater, says "Mommy this is sooooo good" at almost every meal. I think that she realizes that her options are limited.

     I do laundry by hand every morning; clothes one morning, diapers the next and hand them to dry on our porch. The kids are always out playing and there is usually no shortage of playmates.

     Jeneson and I have been able to see a few patients in an unofficial capacity and have, unfortunately, witnessed the cold, hard, reality of the poor health statistics in Sierra Leone and Mokanji.

     There is a short-term team arriving tomorrow that includes 2 pediatricians that we will be able to work with. We are also hoping to meet with the District Medical Officer, the President and Director of Development for Global (they are coming with the team), and the local Community Health Officer to discuss the start of our medical services and how that is going to look. Please pray for these meetings, that all will go well with them.

Goodbyes and the start of our adventure

     With conflicting feelings we said goodbye to many friends and family on Feb 23^rd as we departed for Sierra Leone. While we were sad to leave our family and friends, we were excited to start on this journey that God had started us on 2 ½ years ago. I know that my parents and sister were sad to see us (OK, mostly the kids) go off to a country far, far away with staggeringly poor health statistics and a history of violence and atrocities during the civil war that ended almost 10 years ago. Our friends and church family were sad to see us go, yet proud to be sending off their friends as missionaries. We were blessed with the prayers of many and felt them covering and protecting us as we embarked on our journey.

     You already read about my packing struggles in the previous post. We encountered some misunderstanding regarding our luggage at the airport that succeeded in frustrating us and wasting a bit of time, but eventually got beyond the ticket agent, through security and boarded our first flight. We first flew to Newark. Considering our previous flights to India, this 2 ½ hour flight was a breeze. Once in Newark we quickly found our gate and did not have to wait too long before boarding our second flight. We flew from Newark to London and since this one did not depart until 10pm, once the meal was served and lights turned out on the plane we all fell asleep. Thank God for non-full flights as we were able to spread out a bit and get some rest. Heathrow is a lovely airport, but fortunately we did not have to spend too much time there, just enough to stretch our legs and get ready for our third and final flight. While not any longer than the previous flight, this one seemed a bit longer because the kids did not sleep as much during this flight, but we arrived in Freetown without trouble.

     We travelled much heavier than we have ever had in the past. Previously we tried to limit our carry ons to just a few and our checked baggage to less than our allowance. It was very different this time; we had 5 carry ons (2 rolling suitcases and 3 backpacks) in addition to 2 car seats for the airplane and a gate checked car seat. I knew from my trip to Sierra Leone in the fall that the kids would need car seats once outside of Freetown and this was the best way to get them there. My Dad and I jerry rigged a way that we could hook the two airplane car seats to our rolling suitcases and get through the airports easier. We still had to unhook them to get through security and get onto the plane (too wide for the aisles), but it certainly made transporting them easier. We also took our maximum amount of check baggage plus two more bags.

     Miracle of miracles, all 12 checked bags made it to Freetown. I have not unpacked them yet, so not sure if all the contents made it, but at least the bags did. That was a major worry with travelling with 2 different airlines, 3 flights, through 4 airports. We arrived safely in Freetown and with the help of Pastor Joseph made it safely and smoothly through the airport and to our hotel for our first night’s sleep as a family in Sierra Leone.

Packing for Africa

    Packing to move your family of 5 (soon to be 6) to Africa for at least 2 years was an endeavor that, I readily admit, I was not fully prepared for. I thought that all my previous travel experience, including our 5 month stay in India as a family of 4, gave me significant background for this task.

     Boy was I wrong!

     I thought I could condense our life into 10 checked suitcases. This included some pots and pans and silverware, homeschooling books and supplies for J & L, some medical equipment (including a microscope), and medical books (those suckers are heavy!) for Jeneson and I, enough clothes for 3 girls (our baby due in July will be girl #3!) ranging from newborn to some 5T and a growing boy, a portable crib for S and then the new baby, cloth diapers, toys and activities for the kids, rain boots and sandals for everybody, clothes for Jeneson and I (including maternity and non-maternity clothes for me), and miscellaneous odds and ends (those certainly add up!). Needless to say I was wholly unsuccessful; we ended up taking 2 additional bags and leaving lots behind that I had wanted to take.

     Having this sense of failure at the start of this kind of journey is not a good way to start. The whole time while preparing to pack, packing, and repacking I had this relentless internal struggle: try to make things comfortable for my family and provide for their actual, perceived, and anticipated needs in a remote part of Sierra Leone vs the knowledge that the vast majority of people in Sierra Leone, and certainly in Mokanji do without many of the items that I was packing.

Countdown to Feb 23rd

We have a departure date!! We leave O'Hare International Airport in Chicago to Fly to Freetown, Sierra Leone the evening of February 23rd!

It is all every exciting, yet scary at the same time and very surreal that something that we have been praying, planning, and support raising for for almost 2 1/2 years now is finally becoming reality.

Now for the packing adventure. Needless to say since I have been down for the count with a nasty upper respiratory infection since Jan 27th (the day after we landed back home from India) I really have not done ANY packing. This week will be my turn around week. I have so many plans and visions of what I want to do this week in terms of preparing to pack and actual packing that my head is spinning. I must realize that God has provided thus far, and pray that he just miraculously multiplies the hours in my days. And all this while Jeneson is working his last week of work and taking care of three children!

People often ask us if we are going to ship anything over. It really is quite costly to ship items overseas between the actual shipping cost and then port and custom/duty fees once it arrives in country. You also have to take into account that it takes about 50 days and it would only go as far as Freetown and we are about a 7 hour drive outside of Freetown.

We will limit ourselves to what we are allowed to pack in suitcases on the plane, which may not sound like a lot, but when you have 5 ticketed passengers on an international flight can really add up. We will be allowed to take 200kg worth of luggage (that's 440 pounds!); that is A LOT of luggage. We plan on getting much of our household supplies in Freetown so the biggest weight component of our luggage will be books, both our medical books and homeschooling books for the kids.

How do you pack to move overseas for a couple of years with three children? I'll try to keep you updated as much as I can during these next 17 days (YIKES!!!!!!).

Mumbai, a city of contrasts

To put it simply, Mumbai is a crowded metropolis, and like many large cities there is large economic variability. I think of the Chicago that I am familiar with, from the South Side to the Gold Coast, and the differences in population of these two areas. However, I think the size of Mumbai and the growing economic prosperity of the 'upper' and 'middle' classes here provide a stark contrast to the hard reality of poverty that millions in Mumbai live in.

Previously, there was a smaller subset of Mumbai that lived in the money, mainly the Bollywood elite and business moguls. Now with the burgeoning middle class that has more disposable income the look of Mumbai is changing. Nowhere is this more evident than my in-laws own little neighborhood. Mumbai is divided into neighborhoods similar to the way Chicago is, but then these neighborhoods are divided even further.

My in-laws live in Ghatkopar West, a run of the mill area of Mumbai; nothing special or outstanding about Ghatkopar until a few years ago. You walk out of their building and you have roadside stall selling everything from vegetables to underwear. There are also several small stores selling everything from milk and dry goods to jewelry along with some store front doctors offices. The beginning of 2009 brought big change to Ghatkopar and really put it on the Mumbai map, R City Mall opened up. R City is now the biggest mall in India with four floors of stores including a large food court (KFC, Subway, Dominos, and more), a 9 screen movie theater, an indoor 'ice rink' (actually some sort of tile that you can skate on), and an arcade that has a 6 lane bowling alley. This is a mere 5 minute rickshaw ride from my in-laws.

However, just outside kids are begging, people are living in shanty houses, and others live in a pile of garbage and 'pick' what they can use or resell.

Like I said, a city of contrasts.

Mumbai traffic

This, my friends is a TYPICAL street in Mumbai (Bombay). THIS is why I will never drive here and I think those that do (including my beloved FIL) are crazy. The basic rule is if the vehicle/person fits, that's the way they go. Now granted, there are some roads that have actual center dividers and some sort of order to them, but those are the main roads, not the millions of miles of side roads in the city. The average speed is SLOW. If my FIL happens to be driving and gets the car above 30 km/hr (18mph) she is pleading for him to slow down that he is going too fast.

I will admit that when I first started visiting here, the disorder and congestion of the traffic would drive me crazy and leave me with a sore jaw. You see, I did not want to appear to be visibly stressed and have a death grip on that little handle thing above the door, so I resorted to constantly moving my right foot (imaginary break) and clenching my back teeth. Over the years I have learned to relax and could even fall asleep in the back of the rickshaw if tired enough.

Regardless if you drive a Honda Hero (popular motorcycle here) or a BEST bus (city bus) one thing you have to be aware of is every last inch of your mode of transportation and just how close you can get to the next guy (usually within 6 inches) without hitting him. Rickshaws are a very cool mode of transportation as they are cheap, you can usually find one to take you where you want to go, and they are small enough to maneuver through traffic/people. Despite their small size, we can easily fit our family of 5 in the back of one. However, my real respect and admiration goes to the BEST bus drivers who drive all over the city on streets large and small. You could not pay me enough to drive a bus in Mumbai!

Independence in India

I think that one of the hardest adjustments that I have had to make in all my trips to India is the loss of independence. In the US I am used to taking a walk if I want to take a walk, going to a local store when I feel like driving there and being able to take the kids to the local park if the weather is nice and I feel so inclined. Here in India, things are different. Mumbai is a densely packed metropolis of more than 20.5 million people, very few road signs, lots of nooks and corners, and in this area of the city no a lot of pale folk like me, in fact, I think I am the only one for miles! And I don't know Hindi.

Because of my in-laws being very protective of me I would often feel claustrophobic when I would come to visit. Going outside required somebody else to be with me, even if is was just for a walk around the building.

I have slowly been able to emerge from this cocoon and venture out on my own. The breakthrough came on my third visit here. We lived with my in-laws in their 2 bedroom flat for 5 months the beginning of 2009. At that time Josiah was 2 1/2 and Lydia was only 3 months old. During this stay here I would go to the opposite corner from their building and buy diapers by myself. The owner of SK knows my FIL well and I was easily able to communicate my diaper needs to him. This gave me a nice 5 minute walk about 3 times a week as Pampers there were sold 10 to a package. I would also walk Josiah to and from his little preschool that he had for 2 hours every day; this was only 2 buildings down. I also started going for morning walks on the street in front of their building. Basically I would walk one block down, turn around and walk one block back. While it doesn't seem like much, I was grateful for every opportunity to get out without feeling like a burden to others.

Today I had an Indian independence breakthrough. There is a large mall a couple of blocks away that opened up a few years ago. While technically it is within walking distance, walking on the streets of Mumbai is an activity I choose not to undertake. Having to dodge rickshaws, bicycles, scooters and motor bikes, large city buses, people who live on the street, and chickens, donkeys, goats and cows is not my idea of a leisurely walk.

Well, today various circumstances had me with the kids at the mall. They had just gotten there with Jeneson who was going to see a movie with his niece and nephew.  The rest of us had just gotten done doing some shopping and were heading home. Since, the kids don't get out too much, I decided that I would just stay at the mall with the kids for a while walking around. I got many questioning looks wondering if I could handle getting a ride back home.

Catching a rickshaw does require some element of skill and luck. The rickshaw drivers stay in certain areas of the city and if the fare will not be worth it, often turn down requests for rides. I know that the trip from the mall to home is less than lucrative for them as it only costs 11 rupees (as a point of reference it is about 50 rupees to $1 US). The first driver asked must have thought I was stupid, desperate or both as he wanted to charge me 50 rupees. I crossed over the busy street (with three kids in tow) and was able to find a rickshaw in about 5 minutes. I think I was a pity fare. But, hey we got home safe and in one piece. It may not seem like much, but is certainly an accomplishment!

Leaving on a jet plane

Well, in less than 24 hours we will be embarking on a trip to India to visit with Jeneson's family. Let's just say that I have many filled in lines on my TO DO list, but here I am blogging. I am a last minute packer. I do have the majority of clothes packed, but will wait until tomorrow morning to pack the finishing touches. Just not that motivated to pack right now. So instead I will offer a little insight as to what international travel is like with a 5 year old, 3 year old, and 17 month old.

In an effort to save a little money on tickets we are flying a Middle Eastern Airline. I have flown ME airlines before and lets just say that they take good care of their passengers. Much better than any US based carrier that I have flown. However, the downside is the flight times. Usually when we fly to India we use European based carriers. This makes for a great split in flight times, generally 8ish hours to some place in Europe, then another 8ish hours to Mumbai. With this carrier, our first flight is 14 hours long!!! I am praying for lots of sleep time for the kids and us and lots of grace from the flight attendants and fellow passengers.

I think the key to flying with kids is to not over pack. Yes you read me right, I am not the mother that you will see trudging through the airport with 10 checked bags and 5 carry ons (technically our allowances on this flight). We will have 4 checked bags (all under the 50 pound weight allowance) and one of them is the box with the pack and play for our youngest, so really only 3 bags. We will have 2 real carry ons plus the older kids will have their little backpacks with their essentials.

I highly recommend a household with no TV or electronic type games, this makes the novelty of the in flight entertainment much more entrancing. The biggest struggle is keeping their earphones on their heads.

We do bring some toys and coloring books on the flight, but not a million small toys that easily get lost between and under seat. Snacks, however, are a must, but drinks not (there is plenty to drink during the flight).

Thankfully, our 14 hour flight starts at 8pm, so after the take off and initial round by the flight attendants we will put the kids in their PJs and snuggle them in for the long flight and hopefully a good night's sleep. If that doesn't happen, there is always the Benadryl back up...