Just have to laugh

You know those moments when the only thing that keeps you from pulling out your hair or breaking something is just shaking your head and laughing....

It seems to be happening to me often these days. Not sure if the frequency is related to the fact that i am in Africa or that i am settling into a new house... or both. Home improvement projects tend to cause those situations and then add the fact that you are working with limited LOW quality products and you have a recipe for disaster. Let me just share with you a couple of those moments of late.

NO 1....
So we need a desk for the computer and for Isaac to work at so we hire a "carpenter" to make us a desk. We of course inquire if he has dry wood (so missing Home Depot right now) and he assures us he does. The desk is to be ready in like a week. 1 week passes no desk .. tomorrow tomorrow sure of course tomorrow. At the end of the second week Isaac finally goes and picks up the desk. We had given him the specifications for the width and height and requested one drawer. Not to complicated for a master carpenter right...... wrong! So the top of the desk is literally 3FT high. Me being the loving supportive missionary wife upon first glance of this "desk" lashes out a verbal abuse upon Isaac of how could he have accepted that and pay that much for that thing! Isaac's only reply was he said i did not specify the height and i had already agreed on the price. OK so it did totally work out ... we are using the "desk" as an ironing board/folding table and is located just under my clothes lines in the house -- Romans 8:28 at work!

NO 2....
The bathroom sinks here for the most part are not set into a counter top. They are most commonly the free standing type where you just have the bowl and VERY little room for any toiletries. Well even though this house has 2 bathrooms we are using the master one for Yahoo's bedroom so we really only have 1 bathroom for the 7 of us. Often i am juggling my almost 1 year old while trying to clean his poopy butt while not knocking over the toothbrush into the poopy water. Isaac we NEED a shelf. Well here there really is not such a things as a small project. Just to build a simple shelf you must begin at the lumber yard. Dimensional lumber does not exist. So you spend hours rummaging through stacks and stacks of boards praying desperately to find one that is semi-straight to then have to negotiate with the dealer on price to then have it planned, then cut, then bring it home and let it dry, then cut into smaller pieces, then varnish then mount. For those of you who know my husband, you understand when i lovingly call him more than a perfectionist. when he does it he does it right (and that is good thing). So he is finding the Africa home improvement game more than frustrating. So we go through all the steps and after hours of cutting, sanding, measuring, varnishing we finally get to mount the first shelf. The first nail goes in like butter then the next OK doing good the last and most visible nail just will not go in. The nails here must be made out of aluminum! We try another-- constant adjustment. get most of the way in and can't get the last quarter inch pounded in. Isaac decides to take it out and try another nail but now the hammer can get it out. Try the pliers just to have the top break off. Deep breath. Finally in total frustration Isaac just pounds what is left of the nail into the board. We step back to admire our work just to realize it is not straight. TIA (This is Africa) -- nothing can be square or straight it would just be out of place. The shelves are up and the toothbrush is safe. Praise the Lord!