Things are going well so far, nothing too crazy to share. When you go to the market almost everybody speaks English, so communication isn’t a problem in the markets and stores, it’s the communication with the cab drivers or moto-bike cab drivers to get to the stores that is difficult. Thankfully, our neighbors have been able to give us a ride to most places we have needed to go.
Blake did have to go out of town yesterday, he took a bus to and from Butare (about 2 ½ hours away) and then took the moto-bike home from the bus station. It was 1000 Franks (less than $2) to take the moto-bike from town to our house. If he would have taken a regular taxi it would have been 4500 franks ($9) and a city bus would have been 200 Franks (35 cents). Obviously the taxi would is too expensive and the problem with a bus is that in the States it would hold 8 people but here they will regularly put 20 people in it!
We have taken time to work through our house; we have 4 bedrooms, a huge kitchen, huge living room, huge dining room and a nice, big porch. To us this house is huge, but you must remember we have lived in an 800 sq foot home and then a basement for our 2 ½ years of marriage, so really it’s all big.
We will have a guest room (so feel free to come and visit us if you want:), an office, and the 4th bedroom will be used for storage, not so much for us (we came with checked luggage) but we are storing things for the mission station, a few beds, desk, etc.
I haven’t started on the finance yet; I have been practicing on my French, and trying to learn a little about QuickBooks. Otherwise, yesterday I got kind of bored. I am coming from a full-time job and moving to working from home, but I don’t have the work yet, so it’s a good relaxing time, but I felt like I should be doing more, but wasn’t. I’m sure it will change quickly enough.
We have a lot of different kinds of birds here, and there is one that has decided to make his nest directly outside our bedroom window. He sings a very “wonderful” song every morning at the same time. I would like to try and record it so I can have it as my ringtone on the cell phone, the only problem is that if it were my ringtone I would want to rip my ears off every time it rings!
The weather has been great, no snow, not to hot, very comfortable actually. It has rained 3 times so far, and it is a heavy ran, it’s awesome to watch, and it has really cooled the evenings down. At night we leave the window open and it’s very comfortable for sleeping.
One area of life which is very different is that we have to be very conscious of the electricity we use, as it is very expensive. Thankfully we have plenty of windows to provide light during the day in our house, so we don’t have to use the lights until evening.
Well, I guess that’s all to share now. We will keep you posted. Please keep praying for us as we transition into our new home and learn the language.