43.Just 'A Calculating, Computing,Tallying,Enumerating, Reckoning Up...But, Hey, Who's Counting? I am! That's Who!

 

Interesting discovery as I was doing Housekeeping today. I was having one of the guys help me get all new bedside rugs into every room. So I even knocked like in the Hotels and called out, “Knock, Knock, Housekeeping”- even though none of the guests were here. Always thought how cool it looks and sounds in the movies. But going all over this place delivering rugs and checking was a hot chore! But got 45 new rugs all passed out and the old ones picked up. Hotels are interesting and so are the folks in them. One newly arrived guest has a tent set up on the bed with personal sheets and pillow inside. Go figure. Guess it’s a better mosquito net?

I then took inventory of the specific supplies Inge asked me to check. Ken and I counted every towel, hand towel, wash cloth, bedspread, bath mat, table cloth, mop and bucket, rugs and mattress covers. Then I had to write MPH on every single one. So that is 347 items counted and the letters M-P-H marked on every item (on the table cloths we also wrote the dimensions). So that is 1287 times MPH or something was written!!  Thank goodness Doris-a guest- was here and she helped me or I’d still be printing!

Yea! It is raining! All of the Congolese had told me yesterday that the rains were coming. “Just wait, Mama, it is almost here!” Well, here it is!! It smells and sounds so good. It has been raining hard and then lightly for over an hour. We are having intermittent rumblings of thunder and lightning flashing and cracking. Birds are having a great time ruffling their feathers and just “’a singing in the shower”- AKA the puddles. With just this little bit of rain the Mango flowers have opened and the perfume is a sweet mixture of Honeysuckle and Hawthorne. If the lightning gets worse I will turn off my computer. My battery- not mine- the computer’s battery (Though, now thinking about it, it might be mine too!!) suddenly only holds a charge for about 15 minutes. So I guess when we get home I need a new one of those or a new computer. Wouldn’t mind that although mine is a comfortable old workhorse! Just hate transferring all the stuff.

We got an interesting story at lunch from a guy, David, who has been here on a sabbatical from his church in Colorado for two years. He and his wife are here as a missionary pastor. Their two years end in November. After he had been at the station for a few days one of the village elders asked if he knew how to play basketball. When the response was yes, the elder took him over to four poles protruding from deep dirt. The elder took a machete and scraped down through about three feet of dirt and there was the corner of a cement basketball court! ”I’d like you to teach the village kids to play basketball.” So a few weeks later David went to find someone to speak English and told the man that he wanted to clear the basketball court. The guy said sure!  He told David that he needed to go to the schools and tell them what he wanted to do and they will send kids to help each day. So in three weeks they got the court cleared of three feet of sand blown in over the years. Then David had the mission work shop build the backboards and the hoops. Then as the word got out through his church in the US, Spalding sent nets, balls, and uniforms. Then a group similar to the Globetrotters heard about his teams and sent more uniforms, travel shirts and a basketball for each of the 70 kids on the teams. Then all the kids in the surrounding villages came for a ball. Only for team members! So more joined! ;)) They played intramurals at first but are now playing other towns. Now the kids want to play basketball all the time and not football/soccer! ;)

Just realized how much fun it has been writing and communicating with all of you these past few months on the blog. My “last blog” is not that far away anymore! I have gotten to share memories, tell you how MPH operates and even vent a little. We are both looking forward to going up country to see Marcia and what I affectionately call “The REAL Congo of our memories!” I want to see the villages and the colors, ride on the sand/mud roads- at least once, smell Congolese chow cooking, see the critters roaming around, and visit the people.

Then I want to go sit on my porch at Possum Kingdom Lake and watch the boats come and go, the fish jump in the early mornings, listen for the bird calls, see my grand-girls (and their parents, of course), go to our Sunday School Class and Church in Graham, pet Dave the cat and hope he still remembers me and is not too mad at me for being gone so long, eat Mexican food and BBQ, drive a car( hope I still remember how!) without always having to go through Spaghetti Junction, shop in only one store and get everything on the list, watch football and for Ken I will add- watch NCIS on Tuesday nights! So, in looking at this list the only things that I have really missed- that matter- are God and family! Not bad, I guess for five months. ;)

So back to the title of this blog…. I am counting. ;)

Hey, Callie, Sidney, Kara and Emery!  
Roses are red, violets are blue, Pops and I are counting the days until we finally see you...

 Have a great day!

Love Ya, ME