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We’re Home

June 15, 2010 in Zimbabwe by cumpston | 5 comments

We are home and safe. We arrived in Portland on June 7 to the open arms of Jeff’s mom, Pat, his sister, Heather, brother, Evan and my dad, Gordon and stepmom, Avis. We were tired and rumpled, but very glad to see everyone. We laid low, had dinner with the family, then spent the night at Pat’s before driving to the beach to spend some time with my dad.

After a relaxing week, we came back to West Linn to see our house for the first time. What a sight!!!! The wonderful people from our church and community had worked together to give our house a make-over and was it ever a surprise!!! They replaced the carpet with a gorgeous new one – much better than the old – they replaced our garage door, a faucet, 2 doors, the rotting boards on our deck, a countertop, painted everywhere including a complete makeover for the kids’ rooms – new bedding and furniture for them as well. The yard is beautiful with a new bench out in front, a new tree, everything spruced up and planted, and a sweet plaque dedicated to Jeff. There were paintings in the kids’ rooms, new (to us) telephones, coffee table, chair, desk and mask, and a brand new computer from one of Jeff’s students. A large banner greeted us with notes from people who worked on the house and wished us well and there were cards left throughout the house. We were blown away!! I don’t know how to go about thanking all the people who were involved in this amazing act of love, but we are touched to the core. Jeff would be so amazed, as we are. Thank you to all!!!

We have been unpacking from our trip and starting to get things out of storage – it’s a slow process and taking up all of our time, but we are looking forward to seeing everyone as soon as possible!

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Hi. Mary here. This is gonna be a short entry since i am tired. I just saw a new episode of Hannah Montana (but that’s beside the point.) We got back and it was nice to see everyone and drink root beer. There is no Root beer in Zimbabwe africa. In ZIm, i told a teacher i liked root beer and she goes “DROOT BEEAR? WHAT IS DAT? IS DAT A DDRUG?” (notice how i typed everything to sound like her accent. She was Zimbabish.) Any way, yeah. It was nice to see all our friends and i LOVE my room in Westlinn! If u were a part of painting or supplying my room with furniture then THANX SOOO MUCH!!! :) That’s all i have to say. Watch icarly! Drink root beer! Play pranx on your neighbors! That is my advice.
Mary out.

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Back to Africa

January 15, 2010 in Zimbabwe by cumpston | 8 comments

We have completed our first week back at school. It feels like it’s been a long one!
The weather has been beautiful! It’s hard to imagine we were in the cold and snow just over a week ago. It certainly is summer here.
Our trip was emotionally relatively easy; coming back to Africa was unexpectedly difficult! I felt Jeff’s absence everywhere I turned. Each sound and smell reminded me of him. Coming back to school I felt the vacuum he left behind. It feels like starting all over again on the grieving continuum.
On another note, Bryce broke his arm 2 days ago. He jumped out of a tree over the weekend and landed on it. It hurt, but there was no swelling, discoloration and he could move his fingers, wrist, elbow, etc. We watched it and it was feeling better each day. Then, Wednesday, he turned around funny and fell out of his chair at school . . . landed on the same wrist and it broke! Poor guy!
We had a truly African experience with it. The first place I took him was the Trauma Center, which was unable to help as there was no power. Ha! We then went on to the same hospital that Jeff went to after he broke his collar bone. It took about 3 hours, but they finally x-rayed him and put him in a plaster cast from his armpit to his fingers! They told us it would need to stay on for 6 weeks. The next day, yesterday, we went to the orthopedic surgeon who treated Jeff. He’s wonderful!!!! He explained Bryce’s break (a greenstick break) and removed the plaster cast. He replaced it with a fiberglass one from the elbow down. It needs to stay on for only 3 ½ weeks. Quite an improvement. Because of this, we have postponed Bryce’s birthday party until the cast comes off. (It was to be next Saturday; a swimming and water slide party. Not good for broken bones!)
Mary is doing well. She brought home a good report card for 1st semester, so we will have to celebrate. She has been working hard! She’s having some friends over tonight for a sleepover and iCarly party.
We’ve all been spoiled by the nice treats people have sent to us. We are eating some “exotic“ American treats (like Pop Tarts and spice packets,) enjoying American pop culture magazines (like Twist,) and watching some non-pirated DVDs (good quality!!!) Thank you all!!!

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