FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA” DATE: JANUARY 25, 2014

BUSH BUNNY OFF TO SOUTH AFRICA TO THE DENTIST THIS WEEK

Bun­ny can’t chew her car­rots so good, as I may have cracked a root of one of my molars and it became infect­ed. I’m on 2 antibi­otics to keep that from hap­pen­ing. Will fly out on Mon­day, 27th, see the den­tist on Tues­day with a return by Sat­ur­day, Feb. 1st at lat­est. (hope­ful­ly soon­er). I’m always very grate­ful for “net­work­ing” as Eric’s den­tist is mak­ing a place for me on short notice. A dear friend, Willie, on the mis­sions com­mit­tee at Eric’s church, will fetch me at the air­port and host me. I great­ly appre­ci­ate everyone’s help in this time of need. So for­give my short let­ter this week, as I’m in a bit of a rush to orga­nize what needs to be done for next week. Nev­er easy to leave 100 kids about to start school as well as orga­niz­ing my goat herders to take care of all the pre­cious baby goats com­ing our way at the moment. We now have 12 babies (2 sets of twins) in our goat nurs­ery with one that must be bot­tle fed, as the moth­er goat aban­doned it. THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN The 7 new hon­or stu­dents I told you about are now set­tled into our teenage boy’s fos­ter home. Your love gifts have out­fit­ted them with 2 new sets of clothes and neces­si­ties. They are dili­gent­ly study­ing up to 3 hours a day to learn Por­tuguese as school opens on Feb. 4th. All 7 boys need spon­sors at $30/month to help with expens­es. Imme­di­ate expens­es include: school uni­forms $20/child, shoes $18/child, and books, etc. $10/child. This polite and well-man­nered group excit­ed­ly posed for their first group pho­to. It is a joy to wel­come them into our fam­i­ly. You’ll notice that all the boys are thin and short for their ages. The tallest doesn’t is just under 5 ft. (1.5 m). With 3 meals a day and a high pro­tein diet, we’ll soon have them grow­ing to catch up with their age group. Top row from left to right: Alferes Malique (Al-fair-es Mah-leek‑y) 12 years in 6th grade. Sual­i­hi­na Patri­cio (Soo-wah-li-heen-ah Pah-tree-cio) 14 years in 8th grade Rachide Augus­to (Rah-sheedy Ah-goos-too) 13 years in 5th grade Rafael Jaime, 11 years in 6th grade Bot­tom row, left to right Ali Julio, 12 years in 5th grade Cle­to Domin­gos (Clee-too), 11 years In 5th grade Mar­t­in­ho Jose, 14 years in 8th grade

AERIAL PHOTO OF OUR MISSION STATION

Google Earth has updat­ed their satel­lite pho­tos, so we are now able to give you a detailed view of our 40 acre Bala­ma Mis­sion sta­tion. It took Eric and me, along with many vis­i­tors, 13 years to build all this, as we start­ed with only a 40 acre field in 2000.

BUSH BUNNY TIDBIT:

The TRIPLET GIRLS are now healthy and gain­ing weight at 6 weeks of age. Praise the Lord! (2 small­er girls are up to 5.5 lbs. or 2.5 kg and the first born triplet is at 6.6 lbs or 3kg). Bless­ings until next week! Bush Bun­ny Bren­da Eric Dry The Bala­ma Staff