10 Life Hacks for Third-World Livin' (from Back in the Day)

Life Hacks would have meant a serial killer holding a machete back when my husband and I first went overseas. Nowadays it means: cool tricks to make life easier.

I didn't have Google or Pinterest or blogs to read back then. I had a Lonely Planet book about our new country in one hand and a copy of Where There Is No Doctor in the other. The rest we just had to figure out along the way.

Because there was nowhere to share my tricks of the trade, most of them have faded into the "I Don't Need That Anymore" corners of my memory. So before I lose every one of them, I thought I'd write them down. And since nowadays I have a blog (we went overseas before internet y'all!) I can share my Life Hacks with you! Now, keep in mind these may be old school...but sometimes old school is cool, right?

1. If you don't have running water, drain your laundry water (from hand-washing or hand-filling your washing machine) into a container (tub, bucket, etc) and use it to flush your toilet. Saves on water and your toilet gets washed with laundry detergent!

2. If your electricity goes out all the time and you want cold water to drink during the day: Buy a large water thermos. Buy a bowl that is big, but small enough to fit into the thermos. Every evening fill the bowl with water and freeze (if you have electricity at night). In the morning, dump the ice into your thermos and fill it with water. Don't forget to refill your bowl and put it back in the freezer for tomorrow. All day long you'll have cold water to drink without opening your fridge and losing the precious cold. We did this for years in Africa.

3. Toothpaste works to ease itchy mosquito bites. Just dab it on every one of them. You can easily count them as you go so that you know how many there are for your next blog or Facebook status. You smell minty fresh, but lint also sticks to your skin. Up to you.

4. If you don't know what you are doing for dinner, but it's time and your hubby and kids are getting hungry, saute some onions. Makes the kitchen smell like you know what you are doing and buys you a little time. (I got this idea from my mom!)

5. If you live in a super hot and dry climate, do these things to keep relatively cool:

*Get your head and hair wet and don't dry off. I know people who just left their clothes on and got fully wet and then walked around the house like that. The water cooled them off and since we lived in the desert, it didn't actually take very long to dry!
*Get towels wet and lay them on your floor at night. If you don't have AC but you do have a ceiling fan, the wet towels will cool the room off a bit.
*Wear cotton undershirts or tank tops under your clothes. If you are living in a country where you have to dress conservatively, this seems counter-intuitive. But my friends and I discovered that tank tops collect your sweat and #1 keep your outer clothes from stinking and #2 used your sweat to cool you off.

6. Keep a container in your freezer and put the "final" leftovers in it, no matter how small. When the container is full you can make soup. Dump the frozen stuff into a pot and add whatever you feel might be missing (water, stock, a can of veggies (or fresh ones if you don't have cans), a taco mix, some spices, some pasta, rice, etc.) My family doesn't realize that's what I do and almost every time they say, "Wow, this soup is really good!" It's better if it cooks a long time in the crockpot. Honestly, my family usually likes it even better the second time around. I call it "Hearty Soup" like my mom does!

7. Here's a truly old-school tip. Back in the day our only communication back home was through letters. It did not cost any more in postage to add one Koolaide packet or one ziploc bag. Since both were hard (uh...impossible) to come by, we had our friends and family stick one or the other in every letter. It was like getting a double treat every time!

8. Learn how to breathe through your mouth and not your nose. If you live in a Third-World country, chances are you are gonna smell pee, poop, blood, sewer, fish, carcasses, spoiled garbage, and durian. It's nicer for those in whose country you are a guest if you don't wrinkle your nose and pass out or gag every time your nose is offended. I also try not to think about the fact that my mouth is still taking in all those smelly germs without the advantage of nose hair filters. So breathe through  your mouth and distract your mind and you'll be fine!

9. If you happen to stay at a nice hotel that supplies shower caps, save them. They are handy for covering food dishes, like plastic wrap...only free. I wash and reuse until they are kind of gross and then throw them away.

10. Weavels and unsavory critters like that will leave your flour, cereals, rice, and other grains if you spread it out in the sun (on a woven mat or large tray). Stale cereal and chips crisp back up in an oven set at low. Don't through away that stuff!









If you live in a third-world country, in the boonies, or if you live somewhere else, what tips have you learned for every day life?

#H54F: High Fives on Monday

You know how you have those days that don't play out the way you imagined they would? That's what happened to us last Friday. Who knew we'd be spending the weekend in the hospital? Well, the Lord did, and that's a good thing! So here's my Friday Highlights...on Monday:

#1 Our oldest son hosted Bible Study at our house last week and it is such a joy to see teenagers gathering on their own to study the Word. I made a lot of ice tea, a lot of popcorn, and a lot of meatball sandwiches. It was a lot of fun.

#2 I'm stopping my Neighborhood Narrative story. Sorry. I hate to stop things unfinished. But, you may have guessed, it is a true story and it just got crazier than it already was. I will still write it and perhaps one day I'll get to post it. For now, you can pray for the characters. The names are different but the people are real.

#3 Thanks to friends, I figured out how to buy pork! (shhhhhhh #nothalal) It is no longer chunks of meat hanging on hooks to me. I now know which chunk can be used as a pot roast and which chunk can be cut into pork chops. Watch out Pinterest...I'll be searching for pork recipes pretty soon.

#4 I am super excited to have received final confirmation from the publisher on book title and cover for my debut novel. Woohoo! Post coming soon about that.

#5 And the biggest news from last week happened on Friday, although I am not sure it is in the "highlight" category! Our middle son broke his arm pretty badly while running a race at Field Day. He broke the ulna and radius and had to have surgery to put plates and screws in each bone. The Lord was so faithful in providing excellent medical care and a great community around us. Surgery was on Friday and our son was free to go home from the hospital by Sunday afternoon! And get this, he's back at school today. What a tough guy!

I am hoping that #5 for this week will be super boring.

Have a great #Thanksgiving Week!

The Sad Story

This is a serial story that I started a few weeks ago. To read the full story, click HERE

Jackie never planned on getting hit in the face. But that's what happened.

She and her friend Liya were visiting in the neighborhood again. Time to practice more language skills.

"Halo!" Jackie said, turning her attention to a little boy who appeared beside her. Sitting on the floor, she was eye-level with his cute little face.

POW! He punched her in the face.

OK, this one is gonna be a little hard to play with. I'll just sort of hold him at arms length like this so he can't hit me. Oh, yes, there we go, he's behind me now. And...pulling my ponytail now. Awesome.

Two other little boys charged into the house with a little cardboard game and some game pieces. They played quietly to the side. Jackie thought that was very sweet. Maybe she could bring a game for them to play next time. Then they jumped up, tore the game to pieces and threw it into the air. Bits of cardboard fluttered to the ground like falling leaves.

Nice. No games.

Screams came from a bedroom as an unhappy little boy wailed his protest over who-knew-what. Rohiza grabbed a long stick and walked about the room herding, hitting kids, and hollering.

Well, they are not worrying about being on their best behavior anymore. As much as I hate the hollering and hitting, I guess it means we are in the inner circle!

Jackie eyed Liya. She obviously did not enjoy watching the adults holler and hit the kids either, but really, what could they do at this point? LOVE them. That's what.

Rohiza put her stick down and sat on the floor so Jackie tried to join the conversation at hand across the room. Scootch, scootch. Rohiza was talking to Liya. To her delight, Jackie realized she could understand some of it. Rohiza's mumbled words were finally making sense to her. Rohiza told how the blind son used to be married but his wife ran away.

"Thank goodness they didn't have any kids," she said. "Or I'd have to take care of them too."

Jackie looked over at the blind man who sat next to his mother. Why do they talk about him like he's not even there?

"Oh," commented Liya, "what about your daughter's father-in-law who is in the hospital? How is he doing this week?"

"Oh, he died," said Rohiza.

"What?"

"He only lasted two days," Intan chimed in.

Oh Lord, does the bad luck never stop with this poor family?

More talking revealed that Rohiza had been married twice. In both cases her husband died. So when relatives urged her to marry again, she said no way. Now she lived with her daughters and blind son. Her own sons didn't care for her.

"The one that was here last time," she said, "they one laying over there who said he couldn't work, he took drugs,"

"Yes," said the blind man. "He used to be different, but drugs messed up his mind."

Jackie's heart was heavy. There was no end to the sadness in their life.

"Rohiza, I pray for you all the time. What specifically can I pray for?" asked Liya.

"Life is so hard."

"Do you pray Rohiza?"

"I can't. I have high blood pressure from all the stress. If I bow to do the necessary ablutions for prayer, I will faint."

"Can't you just pray in your heart?"

"It's too hard." The old woman turned and began to bounce Fardus in the bouncy seat. Her quite action said loudly that she was done talking about God and prayer.

Intan and the blind man, Jackie noticed, perked up. The blind man smiled, as if to say, "Finally,we are talking about something interesting!"

Later, when Jackie and Liya said goodbye, Intan walked them to the door. "Come back soon," she said. "I'm not patient waiting for your return!"

The two ladies departed with heavy hearts. They had not shared a Bible story, but they had let Rohiza share her story. Hers was a sad one. Jackie wanted with all of her heart for their story to include Jesus. He could redeem this family, so tangled in the devil's hold.

Later that night, when she was in her own home, Jackie prayed for the family. Her heart felt heavy. No joy, only heartache filled her thoughts. Reading in the Gospel of John, she ran across John 16:24 "Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete."

What? Where did that verse come from? Jackie reread it. This verse had everything all wrapped up in one. Was she taking it out of context? Was this a sign? Was this what she was supposed to do? She repeated the words to herself...

Until now, Jackie, you have not asked anything in Jesus Name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.

Four Years of Blogging

I started blogging four years ago today! I was looking back through my posts, trying to find something and I ended up back at the beginning. When I glanced at the date, I noticed my very first blog post was published on November 17, 2010. Cool!

Since I began blogging, we've lived on three islands in Southeast Asia. We are island hoppers. We used to be desert dwellers. That's really neither here nor there, but "desert dwellers" was fun to say and it matched "island hoppers" and also, this is a blog which means I get to say whatever I want without worrying about if it makes sense or should be edited out or whatever.

This blog has 168 posts that range from serious to ludicrous, from LOTS of text to LOTS of pictures. It's been fun. I hope I'm getting better at it.

We'll see what happens in the next four years...

The Fear

To read the full story click HERE

Jackie most certainly did NOT want to give up Fardus, especially when she knew he'd end up right back in the bouncy seat. But it was his mom, for goodness sake, so she did. She smiled and carefully lifted the small body to his mother's arms.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if Jesus healed Fardus?

Jackie's thoughts wandered to an earlier conversation with Liya as they walked to the neighborhood that afternoon.

"You know the story," said Jackie. "Jesus and his disciples are in a boat and out of nowhere comes a huge storm. The boat is getting flooded with water and the disciples are starting to panic. They realize that Jesus is taking a nap in the bottom of the boat. How can one sleep at a time like this? They wake him up and in their fear they say, 'We are going to die!' and what does Jesus do?"

"He calms the storm," replied Liya.

"Yes, He calms the storm. But even before he does that, he turns to his disciples and says, 'You of little faith, why are you so afraid?' Then, when he calmed the storm, his disciples are so amazed. What sort of man is this that even the winds and waves obey him? We serve a mighty God, Liya."

"Yes."

"He has power over everything."

"Yes, He does."

Jackie stopped walking and looked at her friend, "I know He can do a miracle for this family. And He's asking me, 'Jackie, why are you so afraid?'"

"And what do you say?"

"I say, yes, why am I so afraid? Am I afraid to pray for healing and it not happen? Am I afraid to share Jesus and watch Him get rejected? Am I afraid I will put Jesus' Name on the line? And if that is the case, am I afraid Jesus is not big enough to defend His own Name? What am I afraid of? And why?"

#H54F: High 5 for Friday

I got this idea from my fellow blogger and friend who will laugh with me, Tracey. We had a great afternoon together LAST week and I've been visiting her blog lately because she's got great stuff on there :)

So it's Friday! For those of us in Asia anyway. You folks in that other hemisphere will have to wait a few more hours unless you wake up REALLY early. Here are the highlights from my week:

>> 1 Kris traveled AGAIN. But not to worry, we are all 5 at home for the following few weeks. Woohoo! So here's to the end of a busy travel season.

>> 2 I went to Georgetown with a couple of friends to check out a business we heard was run by believers. We got to encourage them and also eat some yummy food in the process. More reasons to love Georgetown.

>> 3 Rain in the afternoons. I love it. The cool breeze, the dark clouds, the fresh smell, the pitter patter. After so many years in the desert, I just don't know if I'll ever get tired of rain.

>> 4 I was disappointed not to make a visit I'd been looking forward to this week. My visiting buddy had something else she needed to do. But I quickly saw God's hand in it as I was able to make connections with some other moms in town and that was good.

>> 5 My car battery died today. Like: it D-I-E-D. Today. In front of a coffee shop (the latte was yummy and would be #6 if this was High 6 For Friday, which it's not). But thanks to some HELPFUL friends, we got a new battery and I was on my way in about an hour. High five for friends who dropped everything to come rescue me.

What was your week like?

The Baby

To read the full story, click HERE.

For two weeks, all Jackie could think about was that baby boy. That sweet baby boy with the cleft lip. Why didn't the mom hold him? Why was he always in the bouncy seat? Was he just too hard to hold? His little body twisted and turned and didn't ever relax.

When visiting day arrived, Jackie was unprepared. She'd hoped to have a Bible story ready to share, or some game for the kids. Nothing. Sorry, Lord. I just am not prepared. Can You work through me anyway? This time I'm not going to be concerned with practicing language. I'm going to love on that baby and maybe another kid or two while I'm at it. Love. That's what we're doing today.

And that was the theme, even if that's not exactly what Liya and Jackie would have liked. They would have liked to tell more Bible stories. They would have liked a big response from the family..."We all believe in Jesus!" But Jackie knew they still didn't quite "get" it. Did the family even comprehend the gospel message?

It doesn't matter. Love them. That's what we're doing.

Jackie noticed the family always bounced the baby boy in a bouncy seat. They bounced him vigorously. No wonder he doesn't cry, he's trying not to puke. Jackie wondered if his little brain was getting jostled. But as soon as the mother stopped for a few minutes to get something in another room, the little baby started to whine. Jackie took the chance to scootch across the floor to the bouncy set.

"Hi there little guy!" Jackie bounced the seat softly. The little baby gazed in her eyes. His hand flew up and she held her finger against his palm. His tiny fingers closed into a hold on her finger. His back twisted and her looked at her upside-down. His leg flew up. He cooed. A tube was taped to his lip, to be used for feeding at some point. He sucked at it. Lord, please be with this precious little baby. When he gets older, help him learn about You.

Jackie looked up a Rohiza who was watching and smiling. "What is his name?"

"Fardus."

"How old is he?"

"One year and three months."

Jackie tried to hide her surprise. Little Fardus looked like a skinny six-month old.

"May I hold him?"

"Yes."

Jackie carefully supported Fardus's head and lifted his little body. She cradled him close to her and sang softly. Before she was ready, the mother returned to take him.

Fardus. I know your name now. I'll be praying for you by name.