Water woes

I cried this morning.

All because of water.

On Saturday, my helper Mary texted to ask if she could come get some water from our tank. The state civil servants have been on strike for a few weeks, so there hasn't been much water. (The water board is state-run.) I didn't get her text until later that day, by which time she had already come to collect water at our house. (Remember, David, Timothy, and I are housesitting for my parents until they return in two weeks, so we weren't at our house.)

Mary came to work this morning and told me that by the time she got to our house with her buckets, all the water in our tank was gone. Now, you have to realise we bought ourselves a big water tank back in October or so. It cost a lot of money to purchase and install, but it was worth it to us to have it full of water in the dry season. When David came home sometime in December and told me it was full of water, I was elated. Yay! It's a lot of water! So when Mary told me it was gone--not only the water in our big tank, but also the water in the smaller drums and containers we'd filled over several weeks--I was pretty darn upset. Yes, I cried. People had come and stolen all of our precious water we'd spent so much money to save!! I couldn't believe it. And this is supposed to be a Christian community. It was just more than I could bear.

I called David, who told me not to worry about it, but suggested I take our new padlock and lock the tap on the tank. I went immediately over to the house and did so. As I did, I noticed water coming out of a community tap near our house. Running water? Sure enough, when I turned the tap on our tank, water dribbled out. So what water is there at this moment is OURS. I don't want to sound selfish and cruel, but we've paid for our water storage, and no one is going to steal our water! Can you imagine having to lock up your water supply??

Anyway, these are our water woes. I just hope that when we pack back home in 10 days, we'll have some water in the tank, considering the rains probably won't be here for another three or four months!

Gardening V - Sprouting

Well, there's not much to be said for my pathetic gardening attempt. It's been about a month, I think, and I've only got sprouts in one of my four pots. Another of the pots has a lovely grass growing it, and that's all. The other two show no signs of life.

Still, I tried. And I'm hoping these plants--once I transplant a few so they're not so crowded--will grow into something useful. But I'm not holding my breath!

Things I don't think about anymore

Today I got a text from the woman taking care of Luke, saying he needed more warm clothes. So I hopped in my minivan, ran out to Walmart, stopping by Starbucks on the way to get a chai latte, and I picked him up a couple new pairs of trousers and a cute Mickey Mouse sweatshirt, all for a whopping total of $45.99 (not including the latte).

Oh, if only it were that simple.

Instead, I went to the used clothes market at Katako, really just a glorified thrift store with a million stalls to choose from, often all selling the same sorts of things. My parents' driver/gardener went with me to make sure I didn't get cheated on the prices, and we had a grand time. I think I looked at about 50 different pairs of trousers before we found four pairs that looked about Luke's size and weren't torn or stained. This included two pairs of jeans and two pairs of other trousers. Finding sweatshirts was even harder. Luke's a tricky size, with long arms. Again, we probably perused over 40 or 50 sweaters, sweatshirts, and long-sleeved t-shirts before we finally found two that would fit Luke. (I was trying to go for something bigger than he is so that he can still wear it in a month or two.)

Finding sweat pants was a real challenge. I have no idea what they're called here, so I just held up his sweatshirt and asked for trousers of the same type of material. We found some at the second shop we went to, but they were either too small, too big, or missing the drawstring. What a headache! We finally found two pairs that were just barely bigger than his current trousers. I sure hope they fit. But even if they don't, he won't actually need them for very long. The weather will probably warm up in February sometime.

So I got six pairs of trousers and two sweatshirts for a total of $17.50. Yeah! That's what I'm talking about!

On the way to take the "new" clothse to Luke's current residence, I stopped at the seamstress to drop off two pieces of fabric I got for Christmas. Now, I do have lots of Nigerian clothes, but since I delivered, they either don't fit right in the bust, or I can't wear them at all because they're dresses, and I need to nurse Timothy. So I sat and had a nice chat with our seamstress (of 15+ years), Martina, who was shocked and tickled to meet Timothy. (She hadn't ever seen me pregnant.) She greeted me in traditional Nigerian fashion, asking after my mom, my dad, my sisters, my husband, my auntie Mary, work, etc. Finally, I told her what I wanted with the pieces of cloth, and she knew exactly what I meant about nursing clothes. Yes! She took my new measurements, wrote everything down, quoted me a price, and then said farewell greetings in Tiv (David's language, and therefore mine, too). Altogether, it was a nice little meeting, and the two dresses will cost a little less than twenty bucks. Not bad at all.

So I came home at the end of our little outing, having taken Luke his warm clothes, and I thought about the morning's accomplishments. Katako is amazing. You can find anything there if you look hard enough and have plenty of time to spare. And it's so easy here to just pop out to the seamstress or tailor and get a new outfit made. How cool is that?! There are definitely perks to living here (not to mention the fact that my parents have a driver...). Yep, this is home, and I'm happy being here.

...for now.

Five Movies to WATCH

I tend to like most movies I see. If they look terrible, I don’t watch them in the first place. We watched a movie Sunday night, though, that we had no clue about. Neither of us had even heard of it before. We happened to have the movie on a collection DVD we borrowed from a friend, so I thought I’d give it a whirl. And it was good! So here’s that movie and a few other gems we’ve discovered in the past five or six years, in no particular order.

• Reign Over Me (2007, R). Before I say anything else, let me say that this movie is rated R for language and some sexual references. There is foul language, but the main character actively points out that the language is rude, and he doesn’t want to hear it. Score! The sexual reference is also true but quite mild. And again, the main character scores points for his fidelity to his wife. Yay! Still, not a movie to show your kids, but for other reasons, too. This is an intense, thought-provoking movie about a middle-aged man reaching out to his college roommate who has gone a little…odd…since his wife and three daughters were killed in the attacks of September 11^th. It’s powerful and touching. Just watch it and thank me later.
• Waterproof (1999, PG-13). We thought this would be an action movie, although I’m not sure why. (We obviously didn’t read the jacket.) It is SO not. Very simply, it’s about a young, African American single mom who returns to her parents’ home in rural Mississippi for awhile. But there’s so much more to it than that! This is a touching and funny story that addresses past pain and renewal, exposed secrets, and finding forgiveness from loved ones and from God. Great movie!
• Elizabethtown (2005, PG-13). I’m not an Orlando-Bloom-is-divinely-gorgeous kind of person, but I do like a lot of his films, and this is one of them. I wasn’t sure I’d like it at first. Drew Baylor is a shoe designer who just put to market the most disastrous shoe ever to exist. So? Is this movie about shoes, or what? No!! It’s about how he takes his own professional grief to his father’s funeral, where it's mixed with his personal grief over his dad’s death. It’s about his dealing with his family members in teeny tiny Elizabethtown, Kentucky. And it’s about the quirky girl he meets along the way who helps him survive the whole ordeal. Cute, funny, dramatic, unexpected. (It’s really too bad that there is that “sexual reference”…) Worth watching, for sure.
• The Spitfire Grill (1996, PG-13). I was introduced to this film in college, so although it’s not exactly new, it’s reasonably new to my family. It touched me deeply. I liked it so much I forced my family to watch it, and they loved it, too. Percy is a young woman convict whose prison sentence is up, and she relocates to a tiny town in Vermont to start afresh…at least until her secret leaks out. I laughed. I cried. You must see this movie.
• The Incredibles (2004, PG). Okay, so yes, I do like Disney/Pixar movies most of the time. (Another great one is The Emperor’s New Groove. Talk about hysterical!) This movie is clean (yes, it’s a cartoon, but these days, that doesn’t mean much), funny, adventurous, and just all-around a great family movie. If you haven’t seen it because you think you’re too grown up, you’re missing out!

Five Movies to Avoid

I recently watched a film that really got my goat. It didn’t make a lick of sense to me—even by the end—and so I thought I’d share my experience with you, along with four similar experiences. Now, I know there are exceptions to every rule, and that people’s tastes differ. I’m not saying these movies are horrible by any means. I’m just saying I didn’t like them, and I want to tell you why. (And I’m not giving you the links because why on earth would I want to link you to a movie I think you shouldn’t watch?)

• Solaris (2002). Okay, so it's an interesting idea. But honestly, I didn't understand more than a few minutes of the movie. The plot, from what I gathered, is that a psych-therapist person (George Clooney) is asked to go investigate some weird things going on at a space station. And the whole thing is classified. From then on, things don't make sense. Maybe they're not supposed to. Not only that, but it's SOOOOOO slow! It reminded me of the first 200 pages of The Brothers Karamazov. I just waded through them because I had to for class, but there was hardly anything going on--no story yet to speak of. That's how all of Solaris is. There are a few isolated events toward the end, but even they don't save the movie. It would be like trying to use a tourniquet on someone who's been decapitated. Good luck! Anyway, just don't watch it.
• Closer (2004). We had no idea what this was like, but my housemate and I went to see this in the discount theatre right after it came out. It has lots of famous people in it, so we were hoping for a good show. Not only did we detest the film, but we decided afterward that we should have alked out of the movie as soon as we knew we didn't like it. From the beginning, it's full of foul language and explicit sexuality, and portrays relationships as meaningless drivel to toss around. I strongly recommend you avoid this one.
• Love Actually (2003). This is another movie chock full of famous actors and actresses, but it, too, leaves a LOT to be desired. It's supposed to be a romantic comedy, but although it has its moments, it's generally a waste of time for anyone with a clear idea of what true love actually is. The movie portrays "love" as simply being in a relationship that involves sex. Obviously, the people who truly think that way are missing out big time. Nah, toss it aside. Don't bother with this movie.
• Fight Club (1999). I like Brad Pitt as much as any gal. (Well, maybe a little less.) He just shines in Seven Years in Tibet. But Fight Club is a whole different dimension. I guess you could call this a "man movie," as the title suggests, but I would never find this overblown testosterone film on the shelves of the mature and intelligent men I know. It's a mind twister that leaves you in the end with your brain all full of knots, and the worst part is that it really is mostly about fighting. Yeehaw. Sorry, boys, but if this is your favourite movie, you need a new life.
• Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004). Once again, this is a movie I was completely clueless about the entire time. What is going on? What does that mean? Why did she say that? Who is he? What is going on?? Maybe I'm just daft. Or maybe it's better the second time you see it. But I enjoy movies that are easy to understand, in general. Movies are entertaining to me, relaxing and fun. I don't want to have to stretch my brain into a double-helix in order to follow the plot. Thanks, but no thanks.
  

In the midst of nothing

It's not that I'm lazy... Or should I say, it's not just that I'm lazy. Honestly, there hasn' t been anything to write about recently. I've been staying home all day, every day pretty much, tending to Timothy, getting much-needed sleep, working on David's grad school applications, and reading a fantastic book called The Name of the Wind.

As I said, it's a fantastic book in more ways than one. It's a fantasy tale set in a non-existent time and place, but it's also amazingly written. Most of the story is what we call a "frame tale," or a story within a story. It's full of heroism, devastation, awkwardness, love, hatred, mystery, passion, failure, and music. It's captivating.

And then the book just ends! Neither the framed tale nor the frame itself has any sort of ending. Both stories are just left completely hanging in midair, the way cartoon characters hang when they step off of a cliff before realising what they've done. How can Rothfuss just leave his readers in complete exasperation like that? Did he have to pause because he himself didn't know what would happen next? I hate to think a master weaver such as Rothfuss could really not know where the story is headed. More likely he paused because it was already 662 pages, and he knew the reader would need a rest. (Sort of Tolkienesque?) For whatever reason, Rothfuss leaves you entirely hanging. And the amusing thing is that the story's continuation--in The Wise Man's Fear--is already available for pre-order even though it doesn't come out until April 2009. I guess that says something about the book's demand. I, for one, will be buying the next book, unless I can borrow it, too, off my little brother. :)

I miss Starbucks

Yes, so I'm one of those yuppy-wannabes who enjoy Starbucks Coffee. No, I'm not the kind to spend more than $4 a week there, or even usually more than $4 every three or four weeks. But I sure do enjoy what that $4 can buy me when I do allow myself the luxury! I adored the times my aunt and uncle would take me to Starbucks on the way to do some errand or other. Lovely. And now it's been over a year since my last yuppy-coffee.

...Maybe that's why I think of caramel macchiato when I look at my kitten. I suppose only my aunt Pamela will find that truly amusing, but it's entirely true. I see black and dark brown streaks that could only be coffee, and the light brown is obviously the caramel swirled in. And the white? Mmm, whipped cream!

It's too bad "Caramel Macchiato" is too long a name for this kitten!

A time of quiet and relief

Today I took Luke to the home in which he'll be staying for the next month. And now I'm sitting in an empty (chilly--maybe down to 68 or 70F...brr!) house, with nothing to hear except roosters crowing, goats crying, Timothy breathing, birds chirping, and the hum of the computer. Wow.

I did enjoy taking care of my little brother for the most part. He can be a real charmer. David calls him a dansiyasa, or politician, because he can sweet talk when he wants to. And he helped set the table, bounce Timothy, make lemonade. He even helped my helper Mary clean the bathroom one day! He made life interesting, that's for sure.

But there were also the times he put half a roll of toilet paper into the toilet, filled the tub more than half-full (which is a lot for here!), took a metal pipe outside to defend himself against two girls who were teasing him, threw a rock at a neighbour boy... You get the idea. And it will be nice not having to tie shoes for awhile, or turn down dinner invitations from friends, or wait an hour to use the bathroom while Luke takes a bath. Little joys.

I hope Luke has a good visit with this other family. They're doing us a huge favour, and we truly appreciate it. After five weeks of mothering an 8-year-old with ADD and mild cerebral palsy, I'm FREE!

And the cat came back...or not

Well, I didn't want to write anything until Zoë came back, but she hasn't yet. She's been gone for over a week now. I'd like to think that she just hit the road because she was tired of being put outside. (She got exiled after twice eating cookies that were in a plastic bag on the table... You'd think we would have learned not to leave them out after the first time!) So she could be somewhere else on the compound, fending for herself, scrounging off of other people... But it's more likely--since she hasn't come back at all--that something more dire happened to her. I don't really want to think about the possibilities.

I'm as heartbroken as I can be, considering our family history of cats disappearing. In a way, I've grown accustomed to it, but Zoë was my first cat that was really mine. And I keep kicking myself for making her want to leave. *sigh*

Yesterday I got a mass email from someone giving away kittens, so I wrote and said we wanted one. Honestly, half of me just wants a cat--although less so now that I have a baby to cuddle! But half of me knows that we need a feline for our rodent population, which for the moment is nil but which will grow out of control without a hunter in the house.

Obviously, this little kitty is not quite yet ready to hunt! S/he is only seven weeks old, a little calico with a tiny voice. And I'm eager to give the little one a name. Too bad we don't know if it's a boy or a girl! I'm open to name suggestions, but so far the ones I've thought of are Pippin, Hermione, and Eowyn.

To travel or not to travel?

My cautious husband has forbidden me from disclosing any details about our visa situation, so let me just give you the quick rundown:

We thought we had started the application process for an immigrant visa (green card) to the U.S., but this is not the case... Long story, and it's complicated. If you want details, email me, as I can't disclose them here.

In the meantime we heard we could not apply for a visitor's visa because of the other application. Now that we know we have not filed for the immigrant visa, we can apply for a visitor's visa. Again, for reasons I don't want to share, we didn't know if it was even possible to get a visitor's visa interview.

I'm happy to say we have an interview scheduled for early February. Yay! This doesn't mean we will be able to travel, but at least we'll give it a try. This is a huge relief to me. If--by some miraculous touch of God's grace--we are given the visa, we hope to travel to the U.S. in June/July. Pray for us!!

Gardening IV - Sowing

Sunday, David and I planted my seeds in the four pots I bought last Friday--dill on the left and basil on the right. He used a little hoe so we wouldn't have to stick our hands into the chicken droppings. (Note to self: Buy gardening gloves.) We planted several seeds in each pot, just an inch or two down, and then I watered them. I've been watering them every day because it's so bone-dry here, but no sprouts yet. Yesterday I moved one pot of each kind to the southwestern side of the house instead of southeastern. There's less shade there, so they'll get more hours of direct sunlight. Cross your fingers! Thanks for all your advice and tips. We hope this works! :)

Bringing in the New Year

Happy New Year!!

David, Luke, Timothy, and I ushered in 2008 at home in my parents' bedroom, gathered around the computer to watch the clock. I had to wake both David and Luke to celebrate, but Timothy was a trooper and stayed up with me. (Or was it the other way around?) We cheered and popped the cork on some sparkling grape juice. Yum! (Oh what I would have given for Martinelli's, though!) We clinked glasses and plastic cup and toasted 2008: "May it be as good as 2007--and better!"

Then the boys went to bed. Timothy and I, on the other hand, stayed up and had a lovely meal and bonding time. The firecrackers and trumpets, etc. were so loud until 3 am that poor Timothy--though he tried--didn't really fall asleep until almost 4 am. So neither did I. Poor us! It's a good thing today is a holiday, 'cause the two of us got to sleep until 11. Yeah!!

No plans for today except to expect a couple we know to come visit with their two kids. Should be nice. Today, in Nigerian culture, is another big day of visiting and eating, so we'll just hide away in our home and pretend to not be here!