Jan 14th

First Birthday in Africa!!!! Awesome!!!

Let me tell you why! On Wed night I stayed the night in the village with the girls. I was not aware of their birthday tradition. The next morning I was going to get up and go to morning devotions. But I didn’t hear anybody get up in the morning. I didn’t even hear the girls singing in the other room. I woke up instead to a cup of water splashed in my face and 16 voice choir singing happy birthday- followed by a huge hug- well actually a 16 girl dog pile on my mattress. =0) They made me a beautiful card!!!

I also got an invitation to dinner from my really good friend- she picked me up and took me out to eat! Could we girls eat- the food was so good!!

That night my friends here at Challenge compound made an awesome meal and gave me presents. Too much fun! I also got to talk to my fam on the phone. Before I left some people thought I would have cell phone withdrawal here in Africa- on the contrary- I use my phone more here than at home. Even in the village I can get great reception and talk to my fam.

Ok so I thought the party was over, but last night I was surprised by an outdoor grill party- candles- balloons- minerals ( pop) and tons of friends. We had a regular American party- Hamburgers and hotdogs- Pringles- and cake with candles and everything. Though the food was American – there was plenty of other countries represented- Switzerland, New Zealand, Canada, Scotland, England, and Ireland.

So after everyone was plenty full – I was taken away to be distracted while everyone else prepared a surprise.

So I came back to the group to see 2 rows of chairs – with my birthday chair at the front. All with my friends suv’s lights shining as a spotlight. Then my friend came out as the announcer welcoming us to the Karis Barn fashion show- featuring the Busenitz winter wardrobe edition. I started laughing so hard. 1 after the other my friends walked the runway- with the most shocking combinations of MY wardrobe - featuring, Karis in grade school- Karis in the village- Karis on stage- Karis going home…. They all included funny inside jokes. I was laughing so hard.

My friends made the party so fun. When I got home my friend and I hung all the clothes she had stolen from my wardrobe. I am so thankful for the friends God has blessed me with here in Jos- my new home. So first birthday in Africa- Yauwa!!

Sarah Jo Song Lyrics | Jonny Diaz Lyrics | Christian Music Song Lyrics | NewReleaseTuesday.com

Sarah Jo Song Lyrics | Jonny Diaz Lyrics | Christian Music Song Lyrics | NewReleaseTuesday.com

A Brother for Christmas- no wait- how about 40!!!!

"Aunty, when you going to be with your family this Christmas?" "Well, I don't get to see my family for Christmas this year. Will you be my brother for Christmas?" I asked this cute little boy on a walk through the village- after our Christmas program. "Sure!!!" That is how I saw this 3 days in the village with 40 boys in our care center. The missionaries with City Ministries wanted to make Christmas special for the kids in our care center. So 40 girls went to stay with the aunties in Jos and me and 8 other missionaries went to the village for the boys. We had so much fun!!!

Playing games, For something extra fun, we loaded the boys up and took them to the city for a night. We stayed in our friend Emma Loise's house- ( sorry girl-your house and yard will never be the same =0) Did we ever have a house full!! For an extra special treat we served them Suyia ( meat on a stick) with their rice and beans. That night we watched a movie and then all bedded down for the night- Sleep tight!!! The next morning we served tea and bread to the hungry boys...
We split the boys in 4 groups and did fun christmas activities... They loved decorating Christmas cookies....and eating them- but you should have seen the look on this little dudes face when he tasted icing for the first time =0)

They created their own Christmas cards... And decorated paper chains for our cactus christmas tree in the village...


And played more games outside.

After a big lunch of indomie--(Ramen for you American readers) and getting all the boys down from the orange trees....


The boys all climbed in 2 SUV's ( the big van didn't work out) to head back to Gyero. Christmas morning we decorated the Christmas tree and went to church with the boys.




Here's the boys sporting their new Christmas clothes!!




"There won't be snow in Africa this Christmas..." But we had fun celebrating Christmas a whole new way. What a great christmas!!!! I love my Brothers so much and pray they will grow up to be godly handsome young men who will greatly impact this nation with Jesus Christ!!!

Busenitz : WhitePages

Busenitz : WhitePages

My ROUS encounter!

My heart is just returning to its normal pace.... ( ok so this was last week but I just had to share it with you)

ok so my friend Holly and i were talking and all of a sudden she shouts, i just saw a really big rat on the other side of your guitar

Picturing a 5 pound rodent ( like the ROUS’s on Princess Bride)

anyway- being so brave ( not) I frantically closed my bedroom door and put blankets to seal off the doorways. SInce there was no traps- and I didn't want to kill the thing in my house- well,,,, I jumped back on the chair I was standing on and screamed. I know thats not too heroic but its all I could do. My friend and I were laughing and screaming. Suddenly I had an urge to face this problem with courage. I got down off my chair.... marched over to my garbage can and set off to capture my prey. Success! But now what. How could I get it out of my house. I called my friend Matt on the phone to see if he would come assist- his nickname on the compound is Mr. Health and safety- he wouldn't answer his phone. So once again the responsibility was on my shoulders

I grabbed a dust pan to slide the garbage can on.... It would have worked perfectly if I hadn't taken so long to flip it and put on the lid

My friend shouts, ' It's coming out!! I jump back and run to our posts on top of the chairs. At this point I was ticked it was taking so long to take care of this guy- and was at a loss for a new tactic. By now my ROUS was taking another lap around my apartment. It did arrive back to where I had it caught in the first place. As It climbed on my baricade I had set up- ( my fluffy towel) I swiftly landed my garbage can right over the top- Success!!! for the second time. We wasted no time flipping the can over and placing the lid on top. Now a new predicament- what do we do with a captured mouse? We decided to deliver it to Mr. HEalth and Safety. That didn't prove helpful- he didn't come to his door. Aha! My friend and I decided to take it to the guard to take care of. So with garbage can and fluffy white towel in hand we showed up at the guard shack- surprising him with our appearance. We told him our tragic story and asked him to kill the ROUS for us. He told us just to let it go. Lame. But at least it was closer to where he sleeps and far away from us so we were ok with it. We took our prey outside the gate- and He took the lid off and freed our friend

The ROUS running for its life ran back under the gate and hid in the corner right nestled up to the gaurds shack

we told him thank you and ran back to our apartment

Actually the ROUS is only about 4 inches long-but the way my heart was pounding it might as well have been bigger!!!

We wouldn't have worked so hard to catch the thing if we would have known we would end up just letting it go outside. He better never show up again!!!

fun times in the village

Remember the little piggy who went to market =0)

I love this tree- it is so beautiful!!!!

Hey friends!!! How about going with me to the market in Miango? Ok I would love to show you pictures but they all got loaded backwards so if you could just help me out and scroll to the bottom and read up that would be great!!!! And people say I am not normal... seriously.

Sobering place- the miango cemetary. We gotta see where a lot of missionaries are buried. Reading the tombstones we saw so many missionary kids there. Thinking about the pain the parents must have gone through- wow- not words. And then their was one gal that was 24 when she died. I don't know what you all think about cemetaries but they remind me that we weren't made for just life here- but we will live forever someday. Ecc 3:11- God has set eternity in the hearts of men. Also the hope of eternity in heaven shines through the verses these people chose for the stones like this one: " with Christ- which is far better." Phil 1:23 I loved this one that talked about a gal who was a "Beautiful Singer.- They sang a new song. Rev 5:9"
Ok you might think this is a little morbid- but i just want to challenge whoever is reading this- know where you are spending eternity. God is preparing a place for you- there's always room for more!!!!! And He gave his life for you!!!! "And He died for all that those who live- should no longer live for themselves but for Him who died for them and rose again." II Corinthians 5:15. (my life verse) He's my reason for living!!! - Thanks for reading this crazy ordered blog. =0)

Ok this is just to show off my hair and my cute dress barn shirt =)

I love it that Nigerians love bright colors- bright fabrics and lots of style!!! These 2 beautiful ladies were gracious to let me take a picture of their shop. See anything you want a whole dress made out of? Including a head tie of course =0) You buy it in 6 yard units. I saw this great neon green and hot pink tomato pattern. But I bought the green blue and green Pepsi pattern

OK it was like craziness- lots and lots of people at the market- and they really don't like us taking pictures so i took this one from the parking lot. We were like the only 4 white girls in the whole town. =0)

This is the picture that gave this blog post its title. This little piggy went to market and never went home. =0) Fresh meat!!! I bought some bacon here and it was sooo good!!!

I still cannot get over how every Nigerian- from 2 years on up has the gift of balancing stuff on their heads. I have seen ladies with huge loads of firewood on their heads. Crazy.

If you started here- thanks for following instructions. =0) This is the beautiful scenery on the way to Miango. The potholes in the road were so bad. Little boys were filling them with dirt all along the road- we thanked them by throwing small change out the window which they snatched up so quick. Ok next picture.