Advent-ures

So I don't have any new pictures, but I've actually been doing a lot. Maybe that's why.



So here's the latest:



Two days ago I decided to start ripping my cds onto my computer, to create a 'Christmas' playlist - so I wouldn't have to keep switching cds to hear new songs. I got a bunch of old latin Ave Marias and Nunc Dimittis (Simeon's now dismiss your servant in peace) and Hallelujah Chorus, along with some other Messiah on there first. Then did my favorite children's choral cd, but ran out of time to add the rest. And now someone's borrowing the other cds that I got for a dollar each for the Friday community event - so I'll have to wait. But as I was doing this, I looked at my 'Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer' and 'Feliz Navidad' and somehow it seems sacriligeous to put it in the same list with Handel. We'll see. Maybe I'll leave out the grandma one.



Yesterday Karl and I started making an advent calendar. I had lots of scattered ideas of ways we could do it - eventually I'd like to have little used matchboxes or something each with a little thing symbolizing something for Christmas that you hang up somehow and read a related Bible passage. Then I was thinking another way could be kind of like how Beth & I had our card collection and would trade them with each other in a variety of games - so I could have 24 Christmas cards, and each day we could discover what the next one was and post it on the wall. But we didn't do either of those - not enough cards or objects collected yet.



Instead, we have a homemade advent calendar - cut pictures from the cards I had collected so far, matched them with verses, and cut out windows out of a paper sheet, then glued the card bits to a paper sheet underneath. The windows are numbered outside, and then have a reference to look up (inside), that relates to the picture that appears when you open the window. I wish we had a more festive exterior, but at least it's something. I remember making something similar when I was little, only I drew all the symbols inside. It was good practice for poking holes in paper and cutting straight lines without cutting through the edge of the paper.



This morning was the morning for Ruth to get her yellow fever vaccination. So as soon as she was up, diapered, fed, and diapered again, we took a taxi down to the Central Center where you have to get it done. Traffic was horrendous, the sun and sweat were out in full force, and Ruth was rather grumpy to have to sit instead of stand in the taxi. We practiced 'no' on the door handle again and again. When we got to the center, it was FULL of people sitting and waiting - maybe a hundred or more in a little room. I asked at the desk and found out that yellow fever vaccinations are given between 1:30-3:30 M-F, so I would have to come back. I was a bit relieved, because waiting in that line would've been probaby 3 hrs or more, and with Ruth - not so good. But I couldn't go back in the afternoon because I needed to teach. So instead I asked the taxi driver to go by Mokolo, so I could look for some fabric. He drove, but I think it was a different market, because nothing looked familiar. So we bypassed that (at a snail's pace) and continued on to Mahima so I could shop for food/diapers. I'm hoping I won't have to shop again before we leave - got enough disposables for a couple days plus the trip back to the states (don't want to leave wet diapers hanging around while we're gone for 2 months). But I DO have to go back and get Ruth her shot - probably next Tuesday I can manage it, and if I don't have to wait too long, can be back in time for a teacher meeting. Anyway, traffic was worse on the way back, but we made it, and Ruth stayed awake so that she could get a good nap in at home before we went up to school.



Tonight we got to eat some great food (since I'd been shopping) - real meat, mashed potatoes, sauteed vegetables, and salad. Then since I finally had butter I was able to make the first batch of Spritz for December. So all's well that ends well. I feel like I didn't get anything done today, but I guess I DID mend the 6 inch tear in the mosquito net in our room. (It would've been a lot shorter if I'd done it right away before Ruth got to it...)