28 months 8 days

Day 860. Last night I went to bed just after 11 pm. At first we had a kid-free bed, but soon first Tammy and then Emmy joined us. And they got up early this morning. Tammy was up first, at 6 am, when she heard the sheep walk by our window. A few minutes later Emmy was up as well, and by 6:30 I got up as well. We fed the cats, and I made breakfast, while they were looking out the door and window at the animals outside.

We sat down to eat, and they ate pretty well. Tammy's and Sammy's diarrhea is improving a little bit. We bought more bread than usual last night, so we had plenty of bread for everyone, and they like the white bread. They had never eaten any before now. They also had pineapple and watermelon. Then I took them to the bathroom, cleaned them up and dressed them, and we gave them their medicine. They immediately got busy in the living room, so we never got to read a Bible story today.

I went to work at the computer, trying to close the door, but it was a while before I could finally stay in my seat and get working. Margit came before 10 am, and they all went outside to go see the sheep. Even when they were back, I was able to continue working in peace with no one coming. It was 10:30 before Emmy came to me running and crying, because he was upset about something. I gave him a pacifier, he lay down in bed for a few minutes, and then he got up and returned to the living room, where the action was.

When he returned at 11 am, he wanted to call some people, so we tried, and we ended up talking to three different people using video, before it was time for me to go to the kitchen and warm the food up. At noon we sat down to eat.

After lunch I took them to the bathtub to clean them up, we dressed them and put them to bed. It was 12:40. Sammy fell asleep fast, as always, and the opposite was true for the other two, even though they had seemed so tired earlier, having gotten up an hour earlier than usual this morning. It took until 1 pm for the girl to fall asleep, and until 1:15 for Emmy to fall asleep. I got up and went back to work. Sammy woke up at 2:30, and I took him to Randy. Randy was working on his cabinet repair project. I returned to the other two sleeping kids. Tammy had already raised her head and needed me to lie down with her to continue sleeping. But then Randy came in with Sammy, who was upset about being put back to bed, so sleeping was over for Tammy. And with Tammy staying with me, all the noise finally woke up Emmy prematurely as well, at 3 pm.

And so I had different kids with me at different times, while I was trying to work. Tammy finally ended up on my lap watching videos of herself and her siblings for a while. But they also had lots of fun playing with Margit. Esther and Amaga also came over for some time. Sammy had a good day today, but in the afternoon he started crying hard again. Randy was back working on his project, and even when I took him, I couldn't always make him happy. We did have some time all together in the living room, when Bakary was over, when I was throwing Sammy around, and Bakary Tammy and Emmy, and everybody was having fun and laughing. Sammy has had red cheeks for a while, and Randy found where he has a big tooth breaking through, which explains why he's crying so much. And with all the medications I brought with me, I did not bring the creme that's applied to their gums in this situation.

At 5 pm Amadou brought the white bread, and they already wanted to have some. At 5:30 I started getting their dinner ready, and they were already getting bread with cheese from me At 5:45 we sat down to eat, adding watermelon and pineapple to the menu. Only Sammy cared to eat the yoghurt. In fact, Sammy has become a big eater during our stay in Mali!

From the dining room table they went into the bathtub, where they were all having fun. Then they came out, got their pj's on, took their medicine and got candy as a reward, had their teeth brushed, Mommy prayed for them, and then it was bedtime. It was 7 pm by then. Sammy was awake for a while tonight, while the other two always need a long time to fall asleep. And then the power went out, and came back, and went out again, while they were still awake, and talking with me about all kinds of things. They didn't like the power being out very much; the darkness, and silence, when the fans are not moving above us. Finally the power came back on. Tammy was asleep by 7:45, and by 8 pm her brother was too, and I could get up and get myself something to eat.

While I was eating the power went out one more time, which means no internet as well, which restricts what I can do on the computer. Thankfully it wasn't gone too long, and I was able to continue working.

We now have one more week with Margit, then she leaves and a team of 4 arrives from Vienna to do intense ministry for a week. After that we all leave together to return to Austria - probably at the height of the Omicron wave there. We're praying that Mali won't implement the vaccine mandate to leave the country before then. And if they don't for a while, we're considering staying in Mali longer. Intense weeks are ahead.

Today Paul went to the village of Dara and distributed 600 pairs of shoes and 400 toy to the kids there. Then he bought 400 drinks to give to the kids that hadn't received anything.