Enjoy.......

Enjoy these new flowers that I have discovered during my walks around Bangui! This singular yellow flower (1st picture) was poised on this branch 7 feet high!

The Branch from Jesse

It was not long after we had moved into our new house on the center that I noticed this tree stump just outside of our living room window. I immediately thought of 'the Branch from Jesse', which is written Isaiah 11:1-3 "A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him-the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD and he will delight in the fear of the LORD". The footnote within my NIV Bible reads as follows concerning these Scripture verses; The Messiah will grow as a shoot from that stump of David's dynasty.

Needless to say, that each day and every time that I walk past this particular window where I can see this stump with this small shoot of a branch coming out of it (look closely at the picture above, where the green new shoot is growing from this tree stump) I reflect on these Scripture verses.

Merry Christmas!

O, Christmas tree....O, Christmas tree....

O, Christmas tree.....this is our lovely little Christmas tree for our first Christmas in Bangui! We were given permission by our neighbors to borrow this adorable little Christmas tree, while they are home with their families on furlough during this Christmas.

What was seen from our birds eye view....

~ beautiful palm trees and mango trees ~

~ lizard enjoying the warmth of the sun ~

~ two men pushing a cart, loaded with wood ~

Remember to left double click your mouse on the photos above, if you would like to view them better.

These were just a few things we had seen from our birds eye view while up on the top of the roof, yesterday.

This lizard, which we commonly see around our house, was about 15 foot up, resting on this vary spot, enjoying the warmth of the sun.

The two men pushing this cart, is also something commonly seen all through out the streets of Bangui. These long tree trunks that are transported by these carts are pushed for miles to be cut down to size for usable firewood. Central Africans use firewood as a means to do all of their cooking.

A birds eye view....or, is it a view of the birds eye?

Yesterday was a real treat for me, Trace and I decided to get a birds eye view...from the top of our roof! Picture above....Trace sitting way at the top of the roof.....where I did not dare to go. I sat and stayed one level below the peak of the roof, where he was sitting. Next blog entry.....what the birds eye view allowed us to see.

Quotable Quotes

~ Quotable Quotes ~

"God can't give us peace and happiness apart from Himself because there is no such thing." C.S. Lewis

I can see clearly now....

~ bedroom window before cleaning ~

~ bedroom window after it was cleaned ~

We were told prior to arriving in Bangui, CAR that December is the dustiest month. We can certainly understand the wisdom in these words. This is very normal for Bangui this time a year to become very dusty. The reason for this is, that the 'rainy season' has ended, and it's now 'dry season'. With no rain for 5 weeks now, it continues to get drier and drier here, the humidity has dropped from in the low 90% during 'rainy season' to now in around 70% humidity during the 'dry season'.

The top picture shows a view from our bedroom window looking out, into our lovely garden. The hazy look across the picture is a glass window louver that is completely covered in dust...not, the kind of dust we know in the US, but dirt kind of dust, from the earth being so very dry. This is a result of one weeks worth of accumulation of this dirt dust stuff. The bottom picture shows how nice and clean and clear our glass looks after it was cleaned. I can see clearly now!

No surprise!

~ African Animal Batik ~

It probably comes as no surprise that this African animal batik that we have so proudly displayed on our living room wall for decoration, is my favorite souvenir we have purchased at a nearby Artisans market. Of course, anything having an animal(s) painted, drawn, carved from wood, embroidered..etc. ~ I just simply enjoy, because of my love for animals.

1st of December - CAR Independence Day!

Flag of Central African Republic

Boat races on the Oubangui River

On the 1st of December (which is the Independence day for CAR), we packed our picnic lunch, bathing suits, and sunscreen and headed down along the shores of the Oubangui River. It's very simple to get to, we just catch a taxi not to far from where we live on center, for approximately 1 1/2 miles to the center of city of Bangui. The Oubangui River is just a short stroll from the center of the Bangui. We joined a few friends at a swim club along the river, to enjoy our picnic lunch, a refreshing swim and to watch the every famous boat races on the Oubangui River. In this race, there were about 25 of these long dug out wooden canoes (one of these pictured above). Within one of these canoes, there were anywhere from 35 to 60 men that feverishly paddled their way down river a distance than they had to go around a point, turn around and come back up river to the finish line! WOW, what excitement!! Everyone cheering and yelling to shout a team to victory!

~Quotable Qoutes ~

~ Quotable Quotes ~

"The Christian does not think God will love us because we are good, but that God will make us good because He loves us." C. S. Lewis

~ my most favorite flower ~

~ my most favorite flower ~

This little delicate beautifully colored flower is my most favorite. And, the wonderful thing is...this flower grows near to our house on the center, and where we work. This means, I get to enjoy seeing them often!

Ah, water

Ah, water!

Ever wonder how we filter our water, here in Africa?! Well, several times through out each day; we fill a pitcher full of water from our kitchen sink tap, then we pour it into the top of our water filter (the first picture on top). These 4 beige colored filters, slowly filter the impurities out of the water and allow the purified/clean water to pass down into the part below (the second picture on the bottom), where it reads 'British Berkefield'. Then when we need to fill our drinking water bottles, or to rinse our fruits and veggies (after cleansing them in bleach water) we turn up the spout ( located on the very bottom of the second photo), and we get our filtered drinking water.

I clean these 4 beige water filters about every 3-4 weeks. You simply take off the top half of the entire water filter, then you can detach these filters by unscrewing them. One by one, I simply take a regular kitchen scrub brush, scrub the filter (which feels chalky), under the kitchen sink tap water. Using tap water only, no soap, no bleach...etc. Then, once all 4 of the filters are cleaned, I reattach them by screwing them back into the top part of the water filter. Last step, I add a big pitcher full of kitchen sink tap water.....a little later...ah, clean, purified water!

The coffee mug was placed next to our water filter, so that you can get an idea of the size of it. This water filter holds approximately 6 liters of water.