Crazy About the Man in My Kitchen

"So hey, what's goin' on?"

Yesterday I was floating. Dancing through my house with an effortless pirouette, a whoop of joy and near tears. I was crazy about the man in my kitchen - the washing machine repair man. Let me say this first. I am super grateful for a washing machine in a land where most of the population uses a stone and river to wash. That being said, when some major appliance konks out on me here, I turn into the mad character out of a horrible cartoon. Because it takes daily phone calls, begging, and sometime raising my voice to bring them to my house. And after three weeks of hauling the bare minimum of laundry around to friend’s houses - my washing machine is fixed. Not big news for most, but this mother of four in a land where it takes over two hours to do just one load of wash, I am blissfully happy. And I could not have been more content to switch out my laundry all day long, then letting the 7,000 meter altitude and close proximity to the equator dry my clean laundry in mere seconds.

On to other news - just to keep the bits and pieces from the day rolling... Sydney’s preschool class has been studying “night”. Syd’s teacher asked her on Tuesday, “What does Mommy do with you before going to bed?” Her answer was not reading, cuddling, singing, kisses, back scratches or prayers... It was “My mommy rummages in my hair for nits (as in lice) every night”. Sweet. Now, it’s not every night. Probably weekly though. One needs to keep on top of those things. After comments like that, I wonder if there is any hope in trying to control any sort of legacy or memories that my children have about me.

And there she is.

Today at Lost Kilos one the gals celebrated her one year anniversary of being in Lost Kilos. Collectively, my Thursday afternoon crew, which is an average of six women, have lost 30 kgs, which is roughly 70 lbs. Way to go! I am so proud of them.

This past weekend was Freedom Firm’s Annual Retreat. The staff from Pune came down and we met at a retreat center about 45 minutes down the mountain. It was a truly fantastic weekend; a necessary weekend for the staff. Instead of me chatting about it, I think I’ll share with you a note from one of the Pune Social Workers:

“Dear Jayson, I want to tell you a big thank you for making this retreat enjoyable with having Denny, lot of time to know the people, fun games, and a beautiful place. Indeed Brookland is a cooool place to have a retreat. Thanks to Tarrah for the yummy food that she had baked for us and got. God bless you and your family! Jeremy is remembering you all and missed meeting you all on the retreat.”







Cute. I mentioned our friends Denny and Pat - the retreat speakers, parents of my friend Sarah, and friends from our church in Minnesota - in the last blog. To put it lightly, it was oh so great to have them here. I feel like in this corner of the world we are put in a bit of a bubble. Not many resources in the way of new voices, different ways of looking at things, and encouragement. So personally, as a family and as an organization, I think we all got a sort of spring cleaning. We’re a bit shinier, running more efficiently, and springing back in the work of anti-trafficking with more zeal. Thanks friends.

Hey, in closing, I do want to sound the bugle and say, "Happy March Madness!" I'm on nine years of filling out the March Madness brackets among our families, and I think I've won just about every year. I'm not saying that to gloat, it's just the truth. So, if anyone wants to challenge me, this is all I'll say. "Bring it on."