Summa time

Yesterday was great.

I wish I had a camera ready when I threw Tania the keys and said don't forget you're driving as we got in the truck to go out to the bush!  The look was priceless.  Even more priceless was the fact that it upset her so much that it took about a dozen forward and reverse manuvers to get out of the driveway.  Needless to say she wasn't very happy after 10 minutes in the driveway thinking about the 3 hour 4x4 journey to the bush!  Again needless to say SHE FORGOT we had decided that she needed to practice her 4x4 skills.  In the middle of the 10 minutes of trying to get out of the driveway she scowled and growled at me "I AM NOT A FOUR WHEEL DRIVE GIRL!"  LOL

From there the day got way better.  Tania is an AWESOME 4x4 girl!  She just didn't know it.  As we went bouncing up the first steep rock infested hill holding the handles in the truck to keep our heads from bashing the windows and each other as she says "this is FUUUUN".

2 weeks ago I nearly smoked the brakes going down one mountain.  I held the brakes too long and they got hot and soft and the pedal fell to the floor leaving me with no brakes to speak of.  This was because I had decided to try the hill in neutral and use only the brakes instead of stressing the transmission.  Well Tania took that hill better than our driveway LOL.  She got to the bottom and said "that wasn't as bad as you said..."

Then she had to face her fears.  She has had a very well earned fear of driving through water since 1999.  In sept of 1999 after hurricane Dennis and Floyd hit North Carolina we found ourselves trapped in our little town of Lasker North Carolina.  The swamps rose and made lasker into North Carolina's newest island!!!  So after a few days of being stuck on the island of Lasker, we decided that our Isuzu Trooper could go through the water and release us from our prison.  With our 4 month old Shiloh (our first born) we set out to escape Lasker.  To this day I don't know why Tania was driving.  That has been erased from my memory.  As we crossed the bridge out of Lasker which was under water and the headlights went underwater and then the hood, the Trooper started to float and loose traction.  She absolutely did the freak and froze.  I had to reach over and tear her hands off the steering wheel and take over driving from the passenger seat.  By the grace of God we made it out alive.  But she has not driven through a puddle without getting tense since then.

So yesterday she faced her fears and drove through 2 different rivers.  Both ways even.  So 4 river crossings with 5 kids in the car.  She did awesome!   I even got a video of one of the crossings (which forced her to do it without me in the truck giving any kind of guidance).  I will post it later!

We went to the place where the guys from the bush spend the night before coming to town.  We got to visit with a couple of the guys wives and little baby Brian.  It was a nice visit and our kids got to swim in the river all afternoon which of course was a huge hit.

The next trip up will be the week after next.  Maybe Tania will teach me some tricks about driving off road!  This time we will hike up the river and visit the village to get some footage of the clinic and school before my trip back to the US.