Sunday, June 12, 2011

Nothing seemed to go right

I don't know where to begin to describe the past 2 days! First of all, nothing seemed to go right or at least not as I had hoped, yesterday. From spilling things, misunderstanding my neighbor, getting lost, getting locked out, missing the vegetable man, and the electricity going out several times - all of that paled compared to the giant sand storm (habuub) that swept in for 12 hours.
In the morning there was a nice wind so I opened up all the windows.Within 30 minutes I realized the wind was laden with dust and there was a "fog" of dust in the neighborhood. I decided to close up all the windows and boy did it heat up fast! The sandy winds blew all day meaning my clean but wet clothes stayed in the washing machine (another thing that went wrong.) By 8:30 pm the boys were in bed and the dust had died down so I hung my laundry and opened all the windows again to get some air. After cleaning up a bit, Eli and I headed to bed. Little did we know that an even stronger habuub had blown in and blanketed our house in dust!!! Eli sat up in bed when he heard the howling of the wind outside. When we opened our bedroom door to look down the hall, the air was thick with silt and dirt! We hurried to close all the windows and I grabbed the now muddy clothes off the clothesline. I decided to start sweeping up the mess so the house would be clean when the kids got up in the morning and what do you know, just as I started, the electricity went off. Not wanting to sweep in the dark, I gave up, took another shower, and tried to fall asleep in the heat (no fans or AC since the power was out.) An hour later Isaac and Joshua woke up, whining about the heat. I put them in the cold shower to cool down and right as they got out, the power came back on. I was so relieved. We all went to sleep with the cool air and fans blowing on us. Thank you Jesus!
    I set my alarm to get up early before the rest of the family this morning and spent an hour sweeping up piles of powdery dirt, then got the boys ready for school. It's now almost 3 pm and I've been cleaning all day. I've dusted everything, re-washed 2 loads of laundry, re-washed all the dishes that had been drying in the dish drainer, swept the entire house 5 times and mopped twice. The dust is insane! And I thought I would go insane until the thought entered my mind to view this as a crazy new adventure, rather than a frustrating annoyance. It sure wasn't easy to keep a positive attitude when mid-way through a load of laundry and right when I wanted to shower, we ran out of water! Ahhh, the joys of life in the desert. :) Not only do I hope to continue viewing new "trials" as adventures, I will be praying for extra patience as that is my most needed virtue at the moment.

6 comments:

Emily Morrison said...

oh goodie! i can hardly wait to join you :)

-emily

Jason and Heather Fader said...

Wow, what an adventure. Is there a "season" for dust storms, or is this just part of the adventure all the time there? We're praying for you as you adjust to all the new challenges there.
And we really like Eli's new look with the jalabia.
Love you! h and j

David & Juanita Anum said...

Well done! Sheesh, that was some 48hours. I like your blog, I hope you don't mind if i follow, your welcome to check mine out.

Audrey said...

Well, Beth, that sounded like a frustrating past two days! Hang in there!I love you, sis.

Audrey

Faders said...

Yes, Heather, this is the haboob season but apparently haboob season last for half the year.

Cathy said...

Wow, an adventure indeed! We are looking forward to meeting you when we make our way up to Khartoum in November. We'll be staying at Jeff and Heather's while they are gone. Be blessed!

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