Answer to age old question

So why is Africa so poor? well here you go. In the picture you see what is left of a kitchen timer that I brought. Yep heard a noise and blamed Emily (cause I thought she threw something) and this is what I found, my timer on the floor. So you're thinking what's this got to do with Africa? Since I've lived here in South Africa just about everything I buy breaks within a few minutes, hours, or weeks. So what I have been doing lately is buying two of most things because I know that one is going to break. The other answer is that anything that doesn't break right off is imported and cost twice as much, and that's in U.S. dollars. And that's why Africa is poor.

Moms For Modesty

Found this site and thought I'd help spread the word. Don't think you have to be a mom to agree with the mission of this forum. Take a gander, leave a comment, and lend your support. As the blog that lend me here noted - our daughters aren't trash and they shouldn't dress like it!

Moms For Modesty

I'm a Tourist

So in between the packing and figuring out what to send home we're doing a little sightseeing. there's still so much to see here and we're going to try to pack it in during our last three weeks here. Headed to the World of Birds (every time I say that I hear each word echo). Was recommended and it was nice. They don't just have birds but monkeys, gargantuan pelicans. These things were huge!!! Kevin kept telling me come look. I thought, "yeah, yeah, their big." Then I finally walked over and looked OMG!!
We also saw swans, meerkats, turtles and other animals. The coolest was the monkey that sat on Kevin's head. He was so happy, but a bit nervous. He's already had shots for rabies (long story) so he wasn't too scared.
Then we took some of the girls to Kirstenbosch - they had never been. They had a good time rolling down the steep slopes. I'll have to post some of those pics when I get a chance.
Emily had a blast chasing after some ducks. There was a juvenile that seemed to be enjoying the chase as well. The older duck kept quacking and finally stood his ground so we made her stop. Yep they were exhausted, as we all were.
Got to talk to my parents, but feel asleep before I could call back to the house to talk to everyone who would be at their house enjoying the traditional Thanksgiving feast. I was so glad to know that Joe & Jescel went. They were glad to have you and raved about the cheese cake and flan. So I'm expecting an encore for Christmas.
Here's some pics we uploaded to FB so take a gander (no pun intended LOL). Have a great weekend and see you very soon!

Yearbook Yourself

Found this cool site via my cousin. Too funny - Emily, Kevin and I are shown below in the different eras. I think Kevin's are the funniest! Try it out yourself... Yearbook Yourself If you've got a mac with an internal camera just use that to take a quick pic of yourself in photo booth. (click on the pic for a bigger image.)

A Different Christmas Poem

I don't normally read emails that are forwarded, but I did this time and was so glad. My dad sent this to me - so maybe that's why I opened it...
Remember those who will be far from home this Christmas defending our freedom that so many countries around the world long for - like openly complaining about our President and government officials, like allowing us to access what we want on the www (many country block sites even Facebook and MySpace). Remember them as you eat your Christmas meal, remember them as you watch your children play with their gifts and that they have sacrificed much as we sit in the comforts of our homes this holiday season. Just remember them...

The embers glowed softly, and in their dim light,
I gazed round the room and I cherished the sight.
My wife was asleep, her head on my chest,
My daughter beside me, angelic in rest.
Outside the snow fell, a blanket of white,
Transforming the yard to a winter delight.
The sparkling lights in the tree I believe,
Completed the magic that was Christmas Eve.
My eyelids were heavy, my breathing was deep,
Secure and surrounded by love I would sleep.
In perfect contentment, or so it would seem,
So I slumbered, perhaps I started to dream.

The sound wasn't loud, and it wasn't too near,
But I opened my eyes when it tickled my ear.
Perhaps just a cough, I didn't quite know, Then the
sure sound of footsteps outside in the snow.
My soul gave a tremble, I struggled to hear,
And I crept to the door just to see who was near.

Standing out in the cold and the dark of the night,
A lone figure stood, his face weary and tight.
A soldier, I puzzled, some twenty years old,
Perhaps a Marine, huddled here in the cold.
Alone in the dark, he looked up and smiled,
Standing watch over me, and my wife and my child.

"What are you doing?" I asked without fear,
"Come in this moment, it's freezing out here!
Put down your pack, brush the snow from your sleeve,
You should be at home on a cold Christmas Eve!"
For barely a moment I saw his eyes shift,
Away from the cold and the snow blown in drifts..

To the window that danced with a warm fire's light
Then he sighed and he said "Its really all right,
I'm out here by choice. I'm here every night."
"It's my duty to stand at the front of the line,
That separates you from the darkest of times.

No one had to ask or beg or implore me,
I'm proud to stand here like my fathers before me.
My Gramps died at 'Pearl on a day in December,"
Then he sighed, "That's a Christmas 'Gram always remembers."
My dad stood his watch in the jungles of 'Nam',
And now it is my turn and so, here I am.

I've not seen my own son in more than a while,
But my wife sends me pictures, he's sure got her smile.
Then he bent and he carefully pulled from his bag,
The red, white, and blue... an American flag.
I can live through the cold and the being alone,
Away from my family, my house and my home.

I can stand at my post through the rain and the sleet,
I can sleep in a foxhole with little to eat.
I can carry the weight of killing another,
Or lay down my life with my sister and brother..
Who stand at the front against any and all,
To ensure for all time that this flag will not fall."

" So go back inside," he said, "harbor no fright,
Your family is waiting and I'll be all right."
"But isn't there something I can do, at the least,
"Give you money," I asked, "or prepare you a feast?
It seems all too little for all that you've done,
For being away from your wife and your son."

Then his eye welled a tear that held no regret,
"Just tell us you love us, and never forget.
To fight for our rights back at home while we're gone,
To stand your own watch, no matter how long.
For when we come home, either standing or dead,
To know you remember we fought and we bled.
Is payment enough, and with that we will trust,
That we mattered to you as you mattered to us."

PLEASE, would you do me the kind favor of sending this to as many people as you can? Christmas will be coming soon and some credit is due to our U.S service men and women for our being able to celebrate these festivities. Let's try in this small way to pay a tiny bit of what we owe. Make people stop and think of our heroes, living and dead, who sacrificed themselves for us.

LCDR Jeff Giles, SC, USN
30th Naval Construction Regiment
OIC, Logistics Cell One
Al Taqqadum, Iraq .

Going Home

Read it here

Get Your Copy!

Hey everyone - we'll be sending out a newsletter at the beginning of December with a review of our first year here in South Africa. Want one? Email your address to logans.africa@gmail.com and I'll make sure you get one! Thanks!

Bagels For Frannie

Well, the bagels were actually for Kevin, but Frannie (she's my cousin) seemed to be barraged with complaints of our lack of bagels. So I thought I'd send a bagel-gram her way. Yes, I made bagels. It was actually quite easy (as the recipe implies).
So what was for breakfast this morning? Yep, bagels. And a pre-dinner snack as well. So in two day we devoured 7 bagels (we had to test taste one once they were cool enough). One left for Mr. Kevin.
Now I just want to say that yes, we can purchase proper bagels here in South Africa. However the one deli that we know of is quite a distance away and getting there is not an easy task. And the shops that are close - well let's just say their idea of a bagel is anything but.
So Kevin got bagels, and hopefully Frannie will no longer have to "hear" his complaints.
(By the way, the pic is the bagels that I made!)

Working for a living

Thought I'd share a few photos here. I think its so cute how they love to help out. But I know when they get older (as we all did) they will resist against doing their share. But for now...

Emily LOVED helping Kevin wash the car. She had the best time. Only she kept washing the same spots and Kevin had to keep rinsing off the same spots. But I think he's got a anxious volunteer for the next bath!

Here they are just helping me vacuum their crumbs up. It was fun for a VERY short time, but they wanted to give it a try. Emily cleaned up behind the couch and Katie did under the kitchen table, so that was helpful.

And since I had space I just put in the extra pics of them dressed up, and Katie enjoying an episode of Spongebob from under the table. They also helped carry the backpacks to one of our trips to the garden. Since we were about to leave, they weren't as heavy as when we got there. No it didn't last too long, but longer then we thought they would last! 

Things are slowing down and we're just trying to figure out what to do. Since resources are limited, so is our ability to do things, but God is good and He knows we're doing the best we can. 

Now I'm REALLY Worried

Here's a few things being said about our President-Elect...

[Rep. Paul] Broun cited a July speech by Obama that has circulated on the Internet in which the then-Democratic presidential candidate called for a civilian force to take some of the national security burden off the military.

"That's exactly what Hitler did in Nazi Germany and it's exactly what the Soviet Union did," Broun said. "When he's proposing to have a national security force that's answering to him, that is as strong as the U.S. military, he's showing me signs of being Marxist."

Obama's comments about a national security force came during a speech in Colorado about building a new civil service corps. Among other things, he called for expanding the nation's foreign service and doubling the size of the Peace Corps "to renew our diplomacy."

"We cannot continue to rely only on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we've set," Obama said in July. "We've got to have a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded."

"We can't be lulled into complacency," Broun said. "You have to remember that Adolf Hitler was elected in a democratic Germany. I'm not comparing him to Adolf Hitler. What I'm saying is there is the potential."

Charlie Rose Show: Tom Brokaw and Charlie Rose.

ROSE: I don't know what Barack Obama's worldview is.

BROKAW: No, I don't either.

ROSE: I don't know how he really sees where China is.

BROKAW: We don't know a lot about Barack Obama and the universe of his thinking about foreign policy.

ROSE: I don't really know. And do we know anything about the people who are advising him?

BROKAW: You know that's an interesting question.

ROSE: He is principally known through his autobiography and through very aspirational (sic) speeches, two of them.

BROKAW: I don't know what books he's read.

ROSE: What do we know about the heroes of Barack Obama?

BROKAW: There's a lot about him we don't know.

Charlie Rose again who spoke to both Evan Thomas and Jon Meacham of Newsweek magazine.

MEACHAM: He's very elusive, Obama, which is fascinating for a man who's written two memoirs. At Grant Park he walks out with the family, and then they go away.

ROSE: Mmm. Mmm-hmm.

MEACHAM: Biden's back, you know, locked in the bar or something.

ROSE: (haughty chuckle)

MEACHAM: You know, they don't let him out. And have you ever seen a victory speech where there was no one else on stage?

ROSE: Mmm.

MEACHAM: No adoring wife, no cute kid. He is the messenger.

THOMAS: There is a slightly creepy cult of personality about all this. I mean, he's such an admirable --

ROSE: Slightly. Creepy. Cult of personality.

THOMAS: Yes.

ROSE: What's slightly creepy about it?

THOMAS: It -- it -- it just makes me a little uneasy that he's so singular. He's clearly managing his own spectacle. He's a deeply manipulative guy.

ROSE: Watching him last night in that speech, he finishes --

MEACHAM: Yeah.

ROSE: -- and he sort of -- it's almost like he then ascends to look at the circumstance.

MEACHAM: He watches us watching him.

THOMAS: Watching him!

ROSE: Exactly!

THOMAS: He does --

MEACHAM: It's amazing.

ROSE: It is amazing.

THOMAS: He writes about this metaphor being a screen upon which Americans will project. He said they want of Barack Obama; I'm not sure I am Barack Obama.

ROSE: Mmm!

THOMAS: He had -- he has the self-awareness to know that this creature he's designed isn't necessarily a real person, and he's self-aware enough --

ROSE: Ahhhhhh!

Great expectations: Obama will have to deliver
By JENNIFER LOVEN

Even after nearly two years in the spotlight, little is understood about the 47-year-old first-term senator's approach to leadership. His resume: community organizer, eight years as state legislator, and less than four as U.S. senator.

As a lawmaker, he has displayed a knack for working with Republicans on a handful of favorite issues. But he has devoted most of his time in the Senate to running for president. Unlike the past seven presidents, he was never a governor or vice president. And unlike John F. Kennedy, the last senator to move directly to the presidency, Obama has not commanded troops in wartime.

Emphasis are mine. While I trust in Him who controls all things, these comments made by those who favored Obama pre-election have me a bit concerned. Are we going to have to fight for our freedoms and morality against a Democrat controlled government? What liberties, such as freedom of speech, life, basic liberty and the rest are we in danger of losing?

The comments (and concerns) of those who in all probability voted  and propagated his presidency are not a good start.

I for one will be praying God's mercy and that Obama proves those who did not vote for him wrong. But this again, is not a good start.

It Has Begun

Well the potty training has begun. But I must say that it has all initiated by Katie. Now that its finally starting to warm up, the naked baby phase is back, and "i wanna pee-pee on potty" is becoming a more common phrase in her vocabulary. She gets up first thing in the morning to pee, she's even asked to go when we are out-and-about. So I think Emily has been a very good teacher.
As noted, its finally getting warm. Still a cool breeze sometimes but over all we're bringin' out the shorts more and more. Nothing really too important to note. Just wanted to let you know we're still here. Schools almost out - sort of. They will be testing this coming week and though technically there's still 3 weeks left of school, most kids won't even bother going to school. There's really no reason, testing is done, no more learning - so why bother.
UPDATE: As I'm writing this blog I got interrupted for the second time for "pee-pee", but this time it wasn't pee-pee!!! YEA! Wouldn't it be great if we didn't have to buy diapers anymore. The money we would save!!! Funny how something like using the bathroom can make a parent so giddy! :P
Thanks for all your support, love, friendships and encouragement. I do want to ask for unspoken prayer. God knows.