A season for giving thanks begins!

Life this past week has pretty much been more of our typical routines with school, laundry, meals, etc.  It was actually a slower paced week, partially due to our electricity situation.  It seems that Sarh is having difficulty obtaining the fuel required to operate the generators that provide power for the city (or something along those lines).  For us, that means that the power was going off at random times and staying off for the majority of the day.  They have now determined a schedule or planned power outages.  The electricity is typically on around 7:00am and then is turned off at 12:00pm.  Then power returns around 5:30pm and goes off again sometime between 1:00am (like last night) or 4:00am after morning prayer.  Having the scheduled times makes life a little easier, but nothing is really very exact.  Without power our days slow down a bit due to not wanting to make oneself too hot (know there is no fan to cool things off) as well as it being too dark to see in some rooms.  It is fun to hear everyone’s sighs of relief as the electricity returns.  The other fun part about the whole town not having electricity is that it also means the water stops coming.  We have all gotten pretty good at recognizing that as soon as the power goes out we must quickly fill up the dish washing buckets and buckets in the bathroom for flushing and hand washing.  Again predictability is very convenient for this added factor.

The other exciting thing to happen to us this week is that little miss Chui has become a huntress.  She caught two large field rats this week.  We are talking critters the size of a cat that have been seen on the top of our walls, up a tree, or scurrying amongst the pumpkin plants.  It certainly makes we think twice when I hear the dogs running outside my house at night and then hearing clumping or scurrying in my ceiling.  Speaking of hunting, cricket season has started (although nothing to the extent of last year thus far) and little miss Tigger has taken a liking to catching and sitting on these pests.  It is actually quite entertaining.

As November has started, the month of giving thanks, I have decided to write a few things I am thankful for each week.  So to start it all off, I am thankful for family and friends who have supported me during this adventure.  This week I am thankful for running water and electricity and a family who is flexible.  I am thankful for the protection that God has for each of us.  My petty thanks goes to the kindle my parents gave me which is backlit (meaning I can read it in the dark when the power is out!)