Tonight there may be close to 1,000 more people in Hamilton than were here yesterday. There are around 6,000 people who reside in the Hamilton area (which is why we qualified for a Walmart yaaaay!). The reason for this nearly 20% overnight population increase is due a youth/young adult ministry here in Hamilton. This is my initial connection to Hamilton and why I’ve traveled here in the past. The ministry I currently work for moved here last year because their children were here  and they were involved with the ministry. There are often large conference over a weekend and people come from all over the United States, but mainly this region. I did see more license plates from out of state today than any other time living in Hamilton.  I remember being in a conference here this summer on my birthday actually where I saw someone I knew from Tulsa. I was praying over some young people when I spotted this guy staring at me with a confused expression. He was absolutely shocked to see me in this tiny town. He had seen me with young adults at my church in Tulsa but he wondered what on earth I was doing here in the middle of no where. We talked afterwards and he explained that he and one of his brothers were in Hamilton for a couple of weeks helping their dad with a work project just outside the city. The hotel they were staying at informed them that they would not have any available rooms over the weekend. You can imagine this family’s surprise at such a remark in a small town. They began to ask questions and found out “some Christian gathering of young people” was up the road. So my friend stopped by and saw me! It was quite funny, but it is like God to show up in a powerful way in a small hidden town.

Today was eventful when the rain shut down the Internet at my office. I’ve experienced rain shutting down the Internet in Madagascar when my boyfriend calls me, but again…I am still in America. Just the other day I heard this question from the other end of the phone, “Do you hear that rain?….” Click and the phone call was dropped.  I was able to resume working at my home and the Internet came on a couple of hours later.

I think that the country dogs out here realized that they gave me too much of a break yesterday so they decided to multiply today. There were two outside of my office today, one around the corner from my house, and of course good ole Coco was in my friend’s garage. I attached a video of him for you below. He is growing on me. He also lives in my friend’s garage right now. He is a handsome dog and has grown so much over the past couple of weeks since he bit me. I also saw a cat outside my door tonight. Have I mentioned that I am NOT a cat person? Although I’d rather encounter them when I’m out running than all these dogs.

Last thing for tonight is that I have officially adapted to the open doors culture here in HamaBama. I have been getting multiple letters and packages a day, mostly of things to take to Africa. It  has been the easiest thing to have stuff sent to my friend’s home verses a PO Box since no one knew my current address (I still don’t know it haha)! Tonight I went out to my car and on my front seat was a stack of things that came in the mail. I laughed out loud because not only had I left my car unlocked, but my friend thought to check if my car was unlocked to leave my mail there. That made a total of 5 pieces of mail that came today! All but one was a surprise to me haha! We’ll see how much of my stuff I can actually bring to Africa. This is fine with me because it just means I’ll have more room to bring home fun things from Africa. Any requests? I know what you are all thinking…you’d rather have something from Hamilton right? ;-)

Goodnight!

Today started off with STRONG odors of onions as seemingly everyone’s property around my office was mowing their lawns. I forgot to mention yesterday that there is onion grass here. That is the main cause of the odor. I think all of my neighbors have onion grass except for…Mr. Perfect Lawn who was mowing his yard AGAIN today!! Yes he did just mow two days ago. Also his neighbor set out signs today telling people that she had a Garage Sale to attempt to sell the items left over from the Tuesday sale that were left over from the previous Friday sale. This did not seem to be so helpful as the signs were gone by the time I took lunch. Bless her heart! I just want to go and buy all of her stuff but not really.

I had a busy day and wasn’t feeling the greatest, but it was full of smiles.  I helped pack some swords at our office today because we are moving out of there soon. This is completely unrelated to all things small town, but quite epic! I uploaded a picture so you could see a before shot. I am now a self-proclaimed professional packer of swords just so you know! I have two lovely assistants that are quite excellent too! When my oldest brother got married a couple of summers ago, he bought all of his groomsmen William Wallace replica swords. It was absolutely hysterical! I’m not sure why swords unlock this unexplainable passion inside all people, but it’s quite fun to watch. The largest sword we had in the office was taller than the other 3 women in the office! Being women who clearly have not fought in war recently, we could not understand how someone could carry that let alone kill anyone with it. If I had to go into battle back in the days that people used swords, I would have taken a horse and a strong steak knife! Onward!…Don’t worry, I hate killing flies I wouldn’t really fight. 

Speaking of steak knives…due to my playing…I mean packing swords this afternoon, I played with my steak knife at dinner tonight. My best friend and I went to Tupelo Mississippi for dinner tonight! It was such a great evening and it was refreshing to get out of town. Driving down the main strip there made me feel compelled to stop everywhere! At one point I exclaimed “JoAnn Fabric!!! I feel like just because I see it I need to go there and I would never need to go to a fabric store!” As much as I would like to say that I am Proverbs 31 woman walking and I make all my own clothes, I do NOT sew…even buttons. Maybe one day I will need to legitimately go to JoAnn’s store. I am so exhausted and ready to get packing for AFRICA this weekend wooooooo hooooooo!!! I can’t even count down the days (which I do know is a week from tomorrow) because it will make me too anxious.

No dog stories, no cow stories, no Walmart runs, and no killing of crane flies today people! I did however notice that there is NOT much room in that blue shed on the farm. SO the mystery of the Noah Shed on the farm continues. I am hoping for a good rain shower tomorrow that is in the forecast. I LOVE a peaceful rain and with the horrible drought last summer in Tulsa, I was so deprived.

Today I received a “pass” on my apartment inspection! I feel like I have now arrived in life :-) Ok not really, but it does mean my paint job with the blueberries was a job well done. The only comment was that I clean the ceiling vent in my half bathroom. I honestly would have probably never even looked up there had she not mentioned it. Sure enough there is some dust there. Sorry I don’t think to routinely clean my vents in bathroom ceilings, but now for the rest of my life I probably will.

Onto the onions I alluded to yesterday…there have been many moments where I have smelled this potent aroma of onions here. I learned that smell is actually wild onion that grows here. It is definitely overwhelming but explains why even some people smell like onions :-)

My drive home tonight was rather eventful. While I wish it was something really southern like a cow stopped in front of my car, (I feel like my friend Mikey would expect that (hiiiii)) nothing that exciting happened. I pulled out onto a street going the speed limit minding my own business, when this lady sped around a corner and miraculously I swerved to avoid a head on collision! These back roads make people drive crazy.  The whole driving rule of keeping your hands at “10 & 2” is extremely helpful here not just for crazy drivers, but also to wave at any given moment. I feel awkward when I miss an opportunity to wave back at someone because I am steering with one hand. You awkwardly move your hand to wave after you’ve passed another car or the person is no longer looking. So when in the south keep your hands at 10 & 2 and anticipate lifting them at any given sign of a car or person. On my way home, I decided to stop at take the pictures below. It kind of made me laugh so you’ll have to read the captions.

When I arrived at my home, I got to meet one of my next-door neighbors I had not yet met, Gladys. She is 84 years old and a fellow Yankee! Halleluiah!!!!  Haha! She is absolutely a doll and she was planting flowers. I noticed that she didn’t have an accent, which was how I found out that she has only lived here the past ten years and is from upper state New York. We talked about how different the south was (not that I grew up in NY) yet how kind everyone is here.  Gladys is my neighbor who BLARES good old-fashioned Pentecostal preachers on Sunday morning! This past week reminded me of clips of Oral Roberts I’ve heard and it very well could have been him. It makes me smile :-) I love that I have praying neighbors. I will tear up if I talk too much about my other next-door neighbors! The kid is so adorable and his imagination absolutely astounds me! I want to play outside with him this weekend and chat with his mom. 

Well that was my day in Hama Bama! My friend’s mom started calling Hamilton that years ago when everyone was traveling back and forth for ministry events here. I sent my mom some flowers for her birthday yesterday and one of the sentences read something like, “I wish I could be there but I am sending love from Hama Bama”. My mom asked me if I or the flower shop misspelled Alabama! Neither-it was very intentional.

Goodnight all! The sound of crickets is so normal now…weird.