moving up in the world

Around Christmas we received an email that made me cry. Cry because we are so blessed to have friends and family that love us and care for us so dearly. After reading the epic sagas posted here about our friji (or fridge.....one of my fav Kiswahili words ever as like many words it is just a misspelled version of the English word) some of you Chicagoan folks got together and raised some money for us to buy a luxury item; a fridge that actually works! You gave of your time, energy, planning, gifts, and out of your desire to help us out in a tangible way. I can honestly say after living here I will never again take for granted things like power, appliances that work, clean water, and most of all the friends and family that care for us so much. After months of trying to keep our old fridge kicking (including many fundis and prayers....seriously...Jason prayed for the thing everyday) we finally had to admit defeat after 3 times last week we can home or woke up to a fridge full of rotten food. After the thing being at 72 degrees for 2 days we finally broke down and ventured into town to buy a new one. They are extremely expensive here but since we had over half the money from you all we were able to buy one without worrying so much about the money. I cannot tell you how exciting it is to open a fridge that is actually cold. The first day we would open it just for sport and loudly exclaim "baridi tena" (cold still)! I know, easily amused. We are so thankful to have a fridge that works...thank you to everyone that planned & supported the fundraiser! Word got out and a neighbor even stopped by to admire our little friji.
We also have a microwave now! A few weeks ago Jason came home after a busy day with a used microwave. He had been searching for one for a while but the prices were always too high but that day he had found a couple and asked the guys to try it out to prove it worked. This involved the duka owners running around to gather glasses and water to show that the heating mechanism worked. After a REALLY good scrub down our beat up little microwave is still kicking. For almost a week I kept using the stove to reheat leftovers just because I am so used to not having one but after many reminders from Jason I now am loving heating rice in 3 minutes instead of 20! Woohoo!!!

So we are definitely moving up in the world.....modern conveniences and what not.

Although we are still a bit behind our Mlinzi as he bought a used TV yesterday a after a few hours of collecting scrap metal and cutting down some tree branches made a pretty impressive bootleg antennae. He and Jason are now happily watching the news outside as I type this and enjoy some refreshing cold water. Yeah!