Home sweet swamp

We have now been back in our village home for over a week (Sam for a few days more). What a surreal feeling. As strange as it felt and as hard as it was to see the state of our house (lots of work to get it back in shape but not impossible), it still felt like home.

The people seemed happy to see us. My closest friends gave me big, awkward hugs (hard when I'm so tall and they're so short and they always turn their heads the wrong way to hug 🤣) and kisses on the cheek. My friend Maria held my hand with a death grip the entire walk back to the house. Our relationship is an interesting one as I rarely see her but somehow we have a special connection. Who knows, maybe it's just me haha. I loved seeing everyone. Been wishing that I was farther along in the language to be able to tell them all about our past 2 years, how much I've missed them, and ask them about their lives. That's been the hardest part for me, I think. 2 years away and I've regressed a lot. Each day I'm remembering more and more. But we hadn't finished official language study when we left (a little over halfway done) so we've got a lot of make up work to do 😉

The kids have quickly settled, even more than I thought they would. There is a certain contentedness in them. I've learned a lot from them actually. That despite the mess and chaos of our circumstances, we can find rest and peace.

Sam, of course, is wanting to jump straight back into language study but I'm taking it easy. My personality needs more environmental stability than some so I'm going through and organizing, putting stuff away and cleaning a lot to get the house back to what it was. I've had to throw lots of things away though. Most are damaged from the climate we live in...dry rotted Tupperware lids, moldy baskets and linens, rusted decor items, etc. You may wonder..."well why didn't you store those in sealed containers?" I did. At the bottom of a sealed plastic tub (pictured below), were some complete moldy wooden shelf brackets. The rest of the items in there were fine. So it baffles me. Some thing that were left out, were in great condition. Others weren't. Metal rusts, wood gets termites, plastic gets brittle, paper wilts. Definitely presents some challenges! What it means for us is needing to replace things more often than we would in a dryer environment. But we do what we have to to live out here. 

Overall, we've been making good progress with the house. Thankful that the structure has remained intact. We have running water, a stove, fridge and freezer and washing machine that work, electricity from our solar panels, and much more. Really, what can we complain about?!

I'm so grateful for the support we've gotten since leaving the US. Many of you know how hard it was for us to leave this time. I guess it's always a step of faith. God has given us peace along the way. Many have asked about how to send care packages, asked to be put on our mailing list, and asked us our needs. We are so humbled by each inquiry and word of encouragement.

 All of the logistics of getting back worked out. It seems as though many have been praying for us. Even since arriving here in the village, I've felt great peace. So if that's you, thank you.

In a couple weeks we will need to fly out to renew our visas to attend our mission orgs fellowship. We will also finally get our action packers that we had to ship from the capitol city (when we did our quarantine). With international travel we get more baggage allowance. So once we arrive in country and can only have 1 suitcase each to travel, it's cheaper to ship that excess weight than to pay overweight. We found out our stuff arrived in town so we will be bringing those items in with us. We have also begun a list of grocery items we'll need to purchase for those next couple of months in the village. It's daunting, for sure. We will probably need two flights to get us and all of our stuff in and since we pay by weight, it's always a strategic challenge!

Thanks for praying for us!