Strange Happenings

I know I say it often but life really is soooo different here. A few days ago some friends of ours in the missionary community had an attempted break-in. The wife/mom woke up with their son around 3 a.m. and heard their dog going crazy. Then she heard some people trying to get into their back door. She woke up her husband and he yelled at them. The thiefs actually said something like, "We are thieves! Let us in!" What a funny and odd demand. Did they really think the person whose house they were trying to invade would just open the door for them?!

All is well at their house now, but it did prompt some conversations at our house. Joel came to bed the other night and said to me, "I never thought I'd have to explain to our kids which side of the ponga is the one you would use to hurt someone." Pongas are the big knifes here. They are the same as machetes (as far as I know). Back home, we taught the kids not to talk to strangers or get into someone's car, but it's just kind of strange to have such candid serious conversations with your children....

Even before all of this, Dara has been keeping her pink pocket knife by her bed....just in case - she says. What prompted this blog was Dade asking me, "Do you know why I keep my knife out of my drawer?" I said "no" and he proceeded to explain, "The drawer is very hard to open and if a thief comes I can get it fast and stab them." To this comment I replied, "good". What else do you say?

I do have pictures to prove it - just in case you think I'm exaggerating. Dade's "knife" is actually a broken tool of some sort that he found in the dirt about a week ago. He uses it to scrape at trees and as a defense weapon - apparently.

Here's Dade in his bed; you can barely see the red handle on the night stand.

Dara was asleep - I was sure the flash would wake her up, but it didn't. Her pocket knife is on the far left corner of her night stand.

On a happier note, because I have a funny feeling our mom's aren't gonna find this post as impressive as I do...Amaani is still alive and is actually improving! The vet finally came by late Sunday afternoon. He said the bag was not the problem but it was probably whatever was in the bag that gave her a bad infection in her gut. We resumed her antibiotics and added another one. Yesterday, she actually ate some scrambled egg and drank some chicken broth (left over from the chicken I boiled for the chicken pot pie which was sooo good), and she didn't throw up! Today she is looking better than she has in days. I really thought she would die, and even though she is still very thin - we think she'll survive. Thank you for your prayers for our precious little dog.