The Life & Times of Louis & Amber - Warmth in Winter

Winter in South Africa is nothing like winter in the US. At night it will get into the low 40's, or even the upper 30's, but during the day it almost always gets up into the 60's - basically it is like a nice October day in Iow. After this past winter that doesn't sound all that bad. However, houses here have no central heating. In fact, building codes require that every room have two vents that are permanently open to the outside, making rooms impossible to heat at all. And that is just for the "proper" houses. Many of the people in the ghettos live in nothing more than tin shacks, insulated by stuffing old newspaper into any cracks. You can imagine how cold it is to wake up in the morning to 38 degrees outside and 45 degrees inside. I've developed the habit of setting out my clothes next to the bed, and then in the morning dressing before getting out from under the covers. On the bright side, you can leave the milk out for hours without worrying that it will spoil. Some of you may know that there is a knitting club that meets at the Carroll Library. During out time in the US we were able to tell them about our work with the orphans of South Africa. They took on a project of making warm items for the kids here. Most of those items should be arriving next week with the container we shipped, and there will be many happy faces to receive hats, scarves, and blankets. A few of the fleece blankets came over in our suitcases when we arrived May 12th. We were able to pass those out to some of the children in our area who had need of them. I've attached a picture of a young girl named Kate. Our family has grown quite close to her older brother and several cousins. You can see that Kate was thrilled to wrap up and snuggle with her new prize. She wanted us to thank the people who made it and sent it over for her - so To the Carroll Ladies Knitting Club: Thank you from Kate Jakuja.