5Crawfords

The last few weeks have been pretty low key, mostly because our car has been in the shop off and on all month so we've pretty much been stuck around the house. After a series of overheating incidents, not starting incidents, and finally a just stopped running incident, we took the car in to find that the engine needed to be replaced or rebuilt. We chose rebuilding because that was about $1000 cheaper. It was in the shop 3 weeks being rebuilt before we picked it up last Saturday. By Monday it was back in the shop as it was making a high pitched sound and had no power. We picked it up Wednesday morning after he had replaced the 'Turbo' fan. Wednesday afternoon, Alisha drove it to the store and back, and as she arrived at our gate the plastic radiator reserve tank blew it's top and smoke was billowing. So we pushed it in our gate and let it cool, called the mechanic and he sent a guy. He checked it thoroughly and couldn't find a leak. So I drove him back to the shop an...

There appears to be some confusion as to my recent comment requesting small emails. I was referring to attached files and pictures only - NOT to text. Please feel free to send as long of an email as you're willing to type, as these are never too big to download. Even attached files can be sent, just preferrably smaller ones. You can save pictures to a smaller size before sending them - since we aren't printing pictures there's no reason to send larger than 0.5MB pictures. Also, sending one or two pictures at a times is best. Obviously, with the internet speeds in the US, it really is only a matter of seconds to download multiple larger pictures. But here, it can clog our email downloading for over an hour! It's not the end of the world if you send us a big file, it's just a bit of a pain with our slow download speed. Thanks - and keep those long text emails coming, it is our main source of contact with back home and we love hearing about all the goings-on! [If you d...

Revised: I zoomed in on the picture a bit so now you can see me, Brodie and Graysen. I took the boys downtown since I thought they would really like to see the big fire! We even brought some old tires from around the house to throw in the pile. Overall, it was a fun day for the boys' first riot experience. (yes grandmas, I am joking ! I did not and would not go or take the boys anywhere near a mob/riot! The miracles of photoshop!) Original Text: In case this makes the AP wire, I'll preempt the onslaught of emails from concerned friends/family back home. Yes, there was rioting in Kampala today...you can read about it here: Kampala taxi-drivers demonstrations - April 11, 2008 We do go by this area quite often when we go into town. The riots were more of a protest by the taxi drivers who were mostly interested in people not hiring any public transportation in the downtown area. The police fired tear gas and eventually regained control after 4 hours. Apparently, they were upset th...

So right now we have 3 sick boys. Graysen is going on day 7 of a fever, bad diarrhea and head-cold symptoms. We’ve taken him to the doctor twice (two different doctors) and they said it’s a virus, and that virus’ take a long time to pass here. But he is definitely perking up this evening, so that’s good. But Sunday morning Brodie woke up with a fever and sore throat and stomach aches, and he’s been sick with all those symptoms since. Then Monday evening, Jonah started feeling hot and acting very subdued. So, the good news is, since they’re dropping like flies, that would make something serious like malaria or dengue fever or something else unlikely since those aren’t really transferred between people. We had thought about measles early on since Graysen has bloodshot eyes and all the other symptoms, but no rash ever formed. Then one of the doctors (he’s British) informed us that measles is almost non-existent in Uganda, so that’s good. But we have the vitamin A drops to treat for measle...

This is Alisha, and this is my first blog ever. I thought I’d touch bases with all of you and give you my own perspective on Africa. Well, as I have told many of you, for the first two weeks I was a basket case, wallowing in self-pity, searching for any way I could to get back on that plane. Deep down I knew I was in the right place, but on the surface I wanted God’s will to change and for us to land back in Medford, and quick. I guess I should clarify it wasn’t Africa I hated, but really just being so far from home. If we were only one flight away or if I knew I could fly home whenever I wanted, my time of adjusting to this place would have been far easier. I was missing (and still am) family and friends very much. But one day something Brad’s sister Traci said in an email really made sense to me. She said, “Even the Israelites missed Eygpt….” And finally, my time here began to make sense. At that point, just days after sending my dad home on the plane, I got my heart in the right p...