Hiatt's in the Congo

  Someone left a window open over night and the lights were on and we had hundreds of moths in the office in the morning!  They were everywhere in the basement; the kitchen, entry, board room, front office.  A few made their wat upstairs but most of them were downstairs.                  

 This morning, around 3:30 AM, I head a noise.  It sounded like something fell or like two pieces of plywood banging against each other.  I almost work Cory up to make him go check it out but I didn't.  We got to the office this morning and found out what the noise was. Our compound is outlined with pink.  Our neighbors, outlined in blue, had their car stolen last night.  The noise I heard was a gunshot.  The house across the street has an armed guard, we just have guards.  After this, they have put in a request to have armed guards 24/7 at our compound.  They think they thief climbed the fence in the back of the property, because no guard saw anything.

  Last night, around 11:10 PM a car stopped in front of the temple office.  It was there for about 5 minutes, and then it drove down in front of the Temple site, stopped for 30 seconds and then took off.  This morning, one of the workers brough in a black bag that was on the ground, next to the fence, on the temple site.  Ragheb pulled up the security footage and that is when we saw what had transpired.  We looked through the bag and we found passports, receipts, check books and other things.  Sisca was able to find a contact number and called to let them know we found their bag. He asked if he could come get it and look at the security footage.  They guy in the cream shirt and cream pants is the one who it was stolen from.  He was in a restaurant having dinner and someone broke into his car and stole the bag.  Judging from the security footage, the people stopped in front of the office and went through the bag.  The only thing that was ...

 Years ago, we were at Lake Powell with Cory's family and we had on the menu to make muffins.  We had brought the mix and everything needed to make them but we assumed the houseboat had muffin tins on board, which it did not.  Determined to have muffins, I got creative.  I mixed the 2 muffin mixes we had and then I prepared a baking sheet with an aluminum foil dam in the middle of the tray.  One side was poppyseed and the other side was cinnamon streusel. We went to put the tray into the oven and it was too big, the oven door wouldn't close all the way.  We made a tent of foil over the gap of the oven and the muffins baked.  When we took them out, we cut them into bars and my brother in law, Shaun, gave them the name of Muffica's (Muffins and Jessica).   Tonight for dinner, I wanted to make omelets and muffins.  I have a recipe my family has made for years, Rich Muffins.  They are the best!  You can make them as the recipe call...

  I had all of my "chores" done and work was caught up, so I worked on making file folder games to help Jason learn his letters and sounds. I put on a Netflix movie, Love At First Sight and colored. It was nice and relaxing.       As I was coloring, I saw Cory pull up and he had a bunch of stuff in the back of his truck.  It has kind of become our "thing" when he gets home, I go out and we sit on the front porch and just talk about the day.  He didn't pull in the normal spot, he pulled up next to the generator and the fuel tank. We are going to be replacing the fuel tank for the generator for a bigger one so Cory is going to pour a cement pad for the new one.  He brought home the sand and cement mix and Jason hopped in the truck to help get it out of the back! Jason and Ella saw my name badge for work and I asked them if they wanted one.  Their eyes lit up and said YES! I told them I needed to get a picture of them for their badge so snapped ...

 Cory and I are officially turning into our grandmothers! Being able to find Ziploc bags here or good Tupperware is hard so we have resorted to saving containers our food comes in!  A couple of weeks ago we bought this big container of cookies from the store (side note, the cookies weren't that good but desperate time calls for desperate measures.)  Every day, when Cory gets home from work, the neighbor kids, Jason & Ella, see his truck pull in and they come over and we all have cookies on the front porch.   Well, the container is finally empty, (we need to go to the store), and Cory said "This will make a good lunch box. I will hold all of my frozen water bottles plus my lunch." Then he laughed and said, "I'm turning into my Grandma Hiatt."  I laughed and said, "I'm turning into both of my grandma's, I have saved the shortbread cookie tin because it will make a good storage container for something. If they had Cool Whip down here, I would f...

Moqui had her surgery yesterday and she did awesome.  They were able to remove the stone and sent it to a lab to be tested.  Kaylee and Aaron were able to go visit her.  She had an IV in her leg but she was so excited to see her humans and was so sad when they had to leave her there.   Kona, is lost without her sister.  She just lays there (well, that's not abnormal) but she wouldn't come over and beg for food when Kaylee and Aaron were eating dinner.  She will be so happy to have Moqui home.  They had to get a cone for her to keep her from licking her incision...she is not amused!

Sadly, I am not allowed to post pictures of the temple site.  I am making separate posts but not publishing them, and then after I am done here and the temple is done, I can publish them.  I can, however, post a few pictures of close up earth work! Cory, Blaise and I were out walking around the job site and we came across the ladder system to get out of the holes of the septic tank and the storm water tank.  They have carved steps into the dirt!  I thought it was fascinating!     

I have THE BEST husband in the world.  One thing I truly miss was my monthly appointments, getting my nails done, (miss you Sueanne).  Last month, I painted my own nails and they turned out awful.  I cannot paint my right hand.  So this month, Cory said he would help me.  Sunday afternoon, after baking bread and naps, we set up out side and he did my nails.  One thing Cory is very good at is being patient, and he's detailed oriented so they turned out great! I feel like a new woman!  I even got a glitter accent nail!                      

  Saturday, we usually run errands and then relax at the house. We needed to go to Hyper Psaro, one of the many grocery stores here.  We like this one because the selection is "fantastic" but it is farther away from our house.  Along the way, we passed a furniture store selling couches.  They sit them outside in the dust and just leave them there.  Sam said, even when it rains, they stay outside.                        We made it to the round about in front of the grocery store and all of a sudden there were four cops that stopped us, right in the middle of traffic.  I didn't get the best pictures, because I was so scared and shaky.  We were stopped in the middle of the street, blocking a lane of traffic.  There are some rules here for when you are stopped by the police.  1. Only roll down your winding an inch or two.  If you do more, they will reach in and grab your keys. ...

I have two places I can work from.  I love them both for different reasons.  The first is the office next to the temple site. When I come in here, I get to have human interaction!  I get to do things around the office and walk out onto the temple work site and visit with workers out there.  The down side, I have to share a desk with Cory.  He's not at the desk very often but it is a little cramped.  We are working on getting another desk so we can each have our own!   This is my office space at home.  I get to look out onto the front yard.  Often times, there a little birds that come and sit on the window sill.  I am surrounded by pictures of friends and family that I love!  It's wonderful.  The down side...The internet sucks here and often times, the power goes out and then it messes with things.  Oh well...I can't be too picky! The pictures keep falling off the wall.  The wall is cinderblock with plaster over i...

 It is no secret my love for my puppies.  They are loved by everyone!  Cory and I wanted to bring them with us so bad, but it was not an option.  In order to bring them they would have had to have undergone tests at home and paper work.  Then they would have to be crated in separate crates and put UNDER the plane for the whole flight.  Once they made it to South Africa, they would have had to have been quarantined for 14 days. Then we could have gone back and gotten them and brought them to Lubumbashi.  I couldn't do that to them. We decided it was best for them to stay home with Kaylee and Aaron (and Harper, Katie, McKenzie, my mom, Teresa, Paige)...it takes a village!   Aaron faced time me on Thursday and told me he thought Moqui had a UTI.  I told him to get a vet appointment and get her on some meds.  They took her in Friday afternoon and at 1:00 AM Saturday morning for me, I got a text to call them.  My phone was on silent...

Some days, I am at the office all day because Cory isn't able to take me home.  I always have books, projects and other things to keep me busy.  On Friday, I decided to make a chart of our travel plans in December because I was booking our hotel for our return flight layover in Johannesburg.  Seeing it all laid out is crazy!  The amount of time we will spend traveling is no small feat.  But it will be so worth it!  

 The day started out with a beautiful, red, sunrise!  This picture was taken at 5:46 AM, as I was getting ready for work.  The pollution makes for beautiful sunrises and sunsets. On our way to work, it was slower than normal.  Again, traffic here is insane and I'm surprised that I'm still surprised by what I see!  We finally came across as to what was causing this particular delay...this truck was in the right lane and was being pushed by a couple of guys, while the rest just sat on it.  It was going maybe 2 MPH.   As we were approaching the turn off for the temple site, these cute kids were walking to school.  I loved how the backpack was almost bigger than the cutie carrying it! Right across th3e street from the temple is a Belgium School.  Drop off and pick up is next level crazy!  We usually miss this time, but we were running late because of the truck I spoke of above! Cory usually takes me home around 1:00 because I don't need...

  I went to the yard to get some pictures of Edile's workers so I can make their name badges. Side note, the people here LOVE name badges.  It is like a status symbol to them.  I had to go back to the office to make them and Cory took them back to the workers and he said "you would have thought I had given them 100 dollars. They were like little kids at Christmas." Anyway, here is the latest update of how the yard is coming along. This is just as much Cory's journal as it is mine so he is helping me write this, hence the detail I don't understand!! They have poured a cement pad in between the containers and there will be a roof over it for a work area. The shipping container on the left will be for tools and equipment. The one on the right is a staff lounge area and they will be serving food from there. The lean-to off it will have chairs and table under it. The red container in the back is where they have been crushing concrete cubes to test the strength. The ram...

 Today I got to go on a field trip!! I got to actually go walking on the streets!  Follow along on the journey of putting data on my phone here.  Blaise is a rock star and so patient with me and helping me figure things out! When you run out of data you have to go to these little shacks along the street and pay to have them put data on sim card.  It is only good for 30 days and then you need to do it again.  Even if you don't use all your data, if you don't add, then you loose it. Just across the street from the office site is this little set up and we tried this place first but they don't do Africell, which is the one we have so we had to go a little further.  Blaise asked if I was ok walking and I was a little too eager with my response because he started laughing at me! I was excited to be able to walk! So off we went! We walked to the end of our street, which has no sidewalk, it's just dirt and then turned onto the main street where there is a sidewalk!...