Blog Archives
Making Music Together
I definitely have to find a way of putting music videos on this site! The tunes they came up with were so catchy…
A Picture Paints a Thousand Words, so here’s Three Thousand to Begin With…
LXH’s initial confidence on water very quickly turned to panic. Hilarious!
Meanwhile, YLPP poses dramatically for the camera…
You Sing the Blues When Times are Tough
One song is not enough
You need more when the going gets rough
You sing the blues when times are tough
But one song is not enough…
Lyrics from a song in Joseph the Dreamer. Our friends learned a new one this week with Ani Ma as our talented teacher/dancer. The hut was a little tight holding all of us but it was all the cosier because of it. Singing, dancing and feasting with family…who could ask for anything more?
kids health check
The health check at the village school with our kids. LHZ looks delighted to have a picture of sweets (‘candy’ to those of you who don’t speak British English!) stuck to his forehead.
My Beautiful Friend
How quickly he grows! And what a delight he is to his mother. Our beautiful friend LXH and all she embodies.
Ah Chia and The Stripes
Ah Chia had a great time today…She had a brief medical exam, performed some songs for her adoring fans, checked Denise for head lice, and partied with her back-up dancers.
All in a day’s work.
Denise, did Ah Chia find anything…?
Oh the deep deep love
Finally some of our family members from Australia could meet our family in Fugong. It was a special time.
In spite illness, a lack of common language, a vast difference in culture, it was obvious He was in our midst, and His faithfulness to us all were made all the clearer.
Dark Days
We may have been all smiles during our past few visits to Ki Li Jia’s, but this family has seen some really dark times these last few months.
KLJ’s relapse has been daunting. His family was so hopeful the day they freed him from the corn crib he was locked in, more than 5 years ago. He was lucid then, he knew he did violent things when he was unwell, and was motivated to keep taking his medications so he wouldn’t hurt his family members.
He started to work. Found fire wood for his home. Cooked for his family. Odd jobs around the farm. He started wanting a wife. And was sad that no one considered him ready to get married.
His younger brother too was looking for a wife. But for many years was not successful because prospective wives and their families deemed the family too poor. How big a burden it would be to care not only for aging in-laws, but also a mentally unwell older brother-in-law.
Then his brother did find a wife. They seemed happy together. She worked hard alongside the family, planting corn and rice. She did not seem to mind that her husband was poor. She saw his faithfulness to the family and was a part of it whole-heartedly.
Then the unraveling began. KLJ refused to take his medication. He said was was much better. Signs of relapse started to show. One day he hit his mother with a stool and they had to put him back in the crib. Still, he would not take his meds.
Then his brother’s wife developed a mysterious illness one night and passed away. Just like that.
Just like that, the family has gone back to taking care of a loved one with severe mental illness, and their younger son is now a widower.
A CHA — cinderella?
Eventually she chose pretty brown suede shoes even though they were a little tight on her…