recap of things past...

Well, after a 17 hour flight, a night in Jo’burg, and a 4 hour bus ride, we finally made it our house. The first days consisted of shopping, shopping, and more shopping. You see, the family that I’m living with, the Hodges, have moved here for the next few years. Have you ever had to furnish and equip a completely empty house in a few days? Now I can officially say that I helped. And it’s not easy! By Sunday we had a fairly “live-able” house. We did have to pick up gas for the stove and living room furniture on the way home from church. Church, by the way, was fun. :-) We visited a local one that someone recommended to Rich (Hodge) – he wants to connect with pastors while they are in South Africa (SA). The music was really great! The preacher started off in English and would translate some in African. But as the sermon progressed and the more passionate he got, the less he spoke English. Oh well. :-)

Monday morning was our first DTS staff meeting. It was nice to start getting on the same page as everyone. We had some prayer & worship and then we started handing out jobs to do before the students arrive. And guess what I ending up doing?! Shopping. Again. :-) We had a lot of things to get like food, welcome baskets, dishes, all that kind of stuff. So Monday afternoon, all of Tuesday, and Wednesday morning consisted of shopping too.

Tuesday was the first day it has rained since we’ve been here. Apparently this is the rainy season, but until Tuesday you would’ve had no idea. Tuesday was also the first day that the power went out (that we know of). Jeremy and Jen warned us that the power might go off every day at some point in time. (just like India!) You really just don’t know when it may happen. That’s always fun.

Yesterday was a good but busy day. Not only did our students arrive, but it was Lindsey’s (fellow staff member) birthday. Plus I believe it was a little thing that most people call Valentine’s Day… Most of the day consisted of getting ready for the new students. We spent the morning organizing their kitchen. We did take a break for lunch to take Lindsey out for her birthday.

On a sad note: Rich Hodge had his backpack stolen out of his car. It had his passport and a fairly large sum of money in it. He had left their camera and laptop home so they were safe. It’s really sad and frustrating but we know that God can work things out. It’s really His money always.

After lunch we ran to get groceries for the students and then headed back to help finish getting their house set. We were done about 5 and the students arrived around 7. (We are still minus one; she arrives today the 15th.) We had the students over for dinner before they went to their house the crashed. It’s a long flight.

Below are a few pics: me with my new temporary phone. Me, Rich and Lynn all got the same phone so i decorated mine with High School Musical stickers so we can tell the difference!

This is my room. It's VERY blue. But i like it.