The Fey Family

Water, or a lack of water, is not something I ever thought about before we moved to South Africa. If I was thirsty, I went to the sink, turned on the tap and got myself a drink. If my kids came in all filthy from playing outside, I’d just fill the tub with water and wash them off, and if the water was too dirty for both kids to use, I’d drain the tub and fill it up again with fresh water for kid number 2. If we had wanted to water our lawn, which we didn’t, we could have attached a hose and sprinkler to the outside faucet and watered to our hearts content. We were paying for the use of all this water, but other than the minimal cost, we never gave our water, or where it came from, much thought. Living in South Africa has given me many chances to become more aware of water and how having ready access to clean water is a luxury and not something to be taken for granted. There have been several occasions since we moved here in 2011 that have given us a small taste of life without the c...

Ok, actually it is a bright and windy day, but that doesn’t have quite the same ring to it. It is sunny, HOT, and really windy in our neck of the woods today, but we are hoping for a dark and stormy night as we could really use the rain. There are some areas of green, a sign that spring has come, but the grass is withered and dry, looking more like yellowed straw than a lawn. The ground is parched and the dust is everywhere, and I mean everywhere. It is Sunday, the 28 th of September. Another month is about to begin. Tyson and Jori will have a week off from school in October, then one more term until another year of school wraps up in December. Hard to believe we’ll have a 4 th and 6 th grader come January. Wow! When we arrived here in 2011, Tyson had just finished first grade and Jori was a newly graduated pre-schooler. Time flies. We are keeping busy, as always and I have failed to keep track of all the details, as always. We celebrated Darin’s 37 th birthday on the 22 n...

It is now September 7, which is a bit longer than I planned to wait between writing blogs. We’ve just been a tad bit busy here, which is the norm, but it seems like each day brings its own kind of busy. Over the past few weeks we’ve been dealing with a lot of sickness, mostly cold and flu type stuff. The youngest baby, who is 6 months old today, was one of the hardest hit. He was vomiting, had diarrhea, a bad cough, runny nose and fever. One of the teenagers also had something similar and the rest of the kids were just run of the mill miserable. Thankfully we seem to be on the mend although Darin said this afternoon that his throat is a bit itchy and his eyes hurt…and here I thought we were in the clear! We just enjoyed a wonderful week with my dad. He is back in South Africa for 3+ weeks doing Timothy Leadership Training, which is a pastoral and church leadership training course. Today we brought him down past Soweto to a town called Eldorado for his first week of training....

It’s been 3 weeks since we arrived back on South African soil. Three weeks of hellos and goodbyes, as we welcomed new volunteers and a new child and said goodbye to volunteers and one of our Mamas for a month. It’s been a hectic three weeks of getting the kids back into the swing of school and life in the bush and getting ourselves into the swing of normal life, which includes lots of driving and making supper each night. It is good to be back. Winter is pretty much over and we’ve been enjoying beautiful days and the evenings are warm enough that I’m ready to put my flannel sheets away. We’ve been seeing lots of animals around lately, including a rhino family and many buffalo. I took one of the little boys on a mini-game drive a few days ago and we saw several giraffe, including a few babies. He was more interested in the mangeese/mangoes/mangoos that had run in front of the car earlier, but were too small for him to see over the front hood. I kept telling him “It’s called a mongo...

One week ago, almost at exactly this time, we were waking up to head to the Portland airport. After 6 weeks of traveling across the United States, we were heading back to South Africa. The journey back was mostly uneventful, although there was an episode of motion sickness on the plane for Tyson and Jori also had a very close call after a slightly rocky landing in Dakar. Our family, and all of our luggage, made it to Tshepo ya Bana a little after 8 on Saturday night. We were tired, but being back in our house seemed to give us a second wind. Tyson and Jori were so happy to see all of their toys and things and Jori even found her little lizard friend in her bedroom. By 9:00 the kids had both crashed and Darin and I were not far behind them. Sleeping has been a bit of a problem. The first morning we were all up at 3 and then tired again by suppertime on Sunday. Then it was another early morning, 4 this time, and another battle to stay awake at night. We all managed to sleep until 6 ...

Tomorrow is our last day in the states. As a person who does not enjoy goodbyes and struggles with change, even when the change involves returning to the familiar, this is pretty sad. I must say that I am pretty proud of myself for not worrying and fretting and crying about our last day until now, our second to last day, and really, I haven’t cried yet and am not overly worried. It’s just that I am starting to feel those butterflies in my stomach, the ones that come before a big upheaval. I know there is going to be a lot of sad feelings when leaving here and there is also going to be a lot of adjusting once we are back in South Africa and these are things we’ll all just have to deal with. I would gladly deal with all the feelings and emotions and packing and unpacking in exchange for all of the wonderful experiences we’ve had over the past 6 weeks. Being in Michigan and visiting familiar faces and places was amazing. Seeing Tyson and Jori playing with their friends again, watchin...

Just a quick note to let you know we are still alive and kicking! We are having a great time in Minnesota, but are definitely feeling tired again. We have been squeezing in a ton of time with family and managing to fit in visits with local friends as well. Unfortunately, there is just not enough time to do it all! We have been celebrating birthdays, getting ears pierced, taking in a Twins game, riding on all sorts of motorized recreational vehicles, celebrating the 4 th , eating good food, laughing and talking and just enjoying a whole lot of togetherness. We will be heading to the Black Hills for a family reunion (Brouwer/Willie side) on Thursday. During the time we have left here we need to get 5 cavities filled, pick up new eye glasses, meet with friends for lunch, get a haircut, sleepover in Sioux Center, pack and eat at the Pizza Ranch. So much to do, so little time! After the 3 day reunion, we’ll be driving to Oregon. Lots of time to be together in a confined space, which I ...