Hot and Humid

February 11 - Thursday afternoon
The mission station pool is such a blessing on these hot and humid days! 92 degrees when we went into the water.

Our Louisiana Red Beans experiment was not ready to eat at supper time. The Lebamba red beans are clearly a different variety than what we have in the States. After twice the time cooking, they were still very crunchy. We changed the dinner menu and put the beans in the crock pot to finish cooking for dinner on Friday.

February 12 - Friday
Dr. John finally got pain meds through the Air Calvary plane and was able to lance what was believed to be an abscess on a missionary kid. Turns out Dr. John thinks the orange size enlargement is probably five bites, possibly spider. The young boy still has difficulty walking and sitting but is doing much better since the area has been packed.

Luke and Sarah and I spent almost two hours in the expansive air conditioned mission office reading Pinocchio, playing Memory and writing out Valentine's for folks on the mission station. It is a joy to watch these two curious grandchildren anticipate the upcoming events in the book. Pinocchio was born in Lucca, Italy where their cousin Aden lives which personalized the story for them.

Tonight was movie night. "Cars" for Luke, Sarah, Emma and Forrest; "27 Dresses" for Dr. Wendy, Amanda, Meladee, Carolyn, Dr. Renee, Joanna & me. The salted and buttered popcorn from the hot air popper was a treat. Plus we were offered chocolate of our choice. And Dr. Wendy brought fresh baked breadfruit cake. All in the jungle, mind you.

February 13 - Saturday
Today's adventures began with the spectator event for us of tree felling. Uncle Paul and 6 hired Gabonese "lumberjacks" felled 5 trees that were in danger of falling on electrical wired. How amazing to watch the helmet-less, protective eye glass-less, shirt-less nurse from Bongolo Hospital use his chain saw to get just the right angle to make the tree fall in the designated spot. Success on all 5 trees except one tree did take a large branch of the now prized breadfruit tree. The same crew moved the large trunks from the roadway and began cutting them into more manageable pieces. Most of the trees were rotten in the core and would surely have fallen soon during the horrific wind and rain weather of this season.

A quick lunch and we are off to a small stream of the Louetsi River for some "fishing". Luke and Sarah replenish their one gallon fish tanks from this stream. Drs. John & Renee & Aunt Meladee went along. Renee and I caught the two largest (5 inches) fish which were black and were similar to catfish. The Thelanders have access to a large two-person net and own several single person hand held nets. We returned home after about 2 hours with 12 fish. Sarah choose 5 for her tank which was completely empty; Luke decided he didn't need new fish. The rest were going to be dinner for Pokey and Johnny, two kittens in residence here on the station but the fish all died in the heat.

After a quick change into a skirt we are off for shopping Lebamba. Dr. Renee, Amanda and Meladee joined us in Joanna's taxi service. Joanna picked up Gouda and Edam cheeses & yogurt from France, some local brown eggs, yellow apples and a few other items. We weren't able to find baking powders this week. Dr. Renee had purchased some material and then visited Ose, the tailor to have some souvenirs made. She also bought a machete for her hubby in Lafayette. Picked up come coupe coupe which translates to "cut cut" barbequed chicken which was cooked on an open grill. It takes it name because the griller cooks a whole chicken and then will "cut cut" what you want.

More adventure to follow. I fear the Internet will go down again. Blessings to all. Thanks so much for your prayers. Plus it is "QT" in the jungle which translates to "Quiet Time". 88 degrees.