Sanity

Praise God for some quiet time. I've decided that I'm going to have to take a few days out of the center for respite every month...I was hoping to last till 6 wks, but it's just not working for me. I think I haven't really found a good rhythm or found that quiet space that I crave living so close to so many people in a community. It just wears you out. So Monday of last week, I finally broke down and called a local Bed & Breakfast type of place run by a South African couple about 20 minutes from the base. It's a overnight place for the rich South Africans that come and vacation on the beaches of Mozambique. This means that the ONLY people that are around between the hours of 9am and 5pm are the couple that owns it, a few Mozambican workers and their 2 huge dogs and tiny dogette who kept me company, often coming by my room just to make sure I was still good. It's out in the middle of nowhere, pretty, and amazingly quiet. I had a corner room that was huge, a big queen bed, and a BATHTUB (that I used a lot just because we don't have them here)! They cooked an amazing breakfast and dinner and then I packed some snacks, fruit, and peanut butter sandwiches for lunches. They always had hot water and teas, coffees, and cookies I could help myself to as well all day long. Mostly I just sat out on the verandah reading, watching a few movies on my laptop (thanks to Laura for lending me some dvds) and having quiet time...very uninterrupted quiet time! The price is amazing and well worth every penny of my sanity. I am so thankful for this time and do NOT take it for granted at all. Here are some pictures from the weekend...and also a few from the days before.

I got to look out the beautiful windows, that were really just screens without window panes, all day to the big back yard. Note the all important mosquito net...never leave home without it...actually, it's provided, but i wouldn't if they didn't have one.

Yeah for bathtubs and hot showers that run for more than 2 minutes!

the chair I spent most of the days sitting in reading on the verandah outside my room!

the stuff I brought with me: worship cds, Bible, journals, books, dvds, laptops, mp3 player

Rachel and I decided to bring the older toddlers to have their first ever experience with a trampoline after snacktime on Thursday (no, you read correctly...our BH director has a trampoline for the tots...we are NOT being spoiled here at Iris). They were hysterical. They didn't know quite what to make of the contraption we zipped them up into, so I made Jannie (one of the nurses from Denmark and former BH director before me who know is starting a community nursing program for us) climb in and show them how it works. They were all giggling by the end and thinking it was so much fun, not to mention trying to stand. I laughed really hard at their attempts.

Clearly, Francisco (with the big grin on his face) thinks that the trampoline (in Portuguese: trampolim) is cool! There's Nemias to the left (standing up), Luisa attempting to stand, and Francisco's twin, Lourenco being his laid back self and wondering WHAT he has gotten himself into!

Nemias and Luisa really like it too.

I added a video of their first moments on the trampoline on my video site...go to the column on the right and click on it to see more toddler fun.