Our new life

Every day I go to my Google Reader to see which of my friends have posted a blog. I'm sure some of you also check to see if I have recently blogged! I can't say that busyness has kept me from it; just haven't had the inspiration. But let me take a stab at portraying for you what our new life looks like. I must say that it is strange to never have my phone ring, never have anyone stop by for coffee. No one really needs me here right now and I am a person that likes to be needed! So this is a challenging time for me in a lot of ways. I am trying to make the most of it and realize that it is only for a short season and soon we'll be back in the thick of it. Since coming here, life has never been 100% normal I guess since we still have curfew every night. But I have nowhere to go anyway so it really doesn't affect me. Things seem to be pretty normal now in the country after an incredible week of demonstrations, shooting, looting, burning, etc. The only topic of conversation with every taxi driver is about their new-found freedom. People openly blast the government and the late president. In every country we've lived in overseas, we have always been very careful not to photograph anything having to do with military; in fact it's illegal. These days around here, you can walk right up to the tanks and soldiers and have your picture taken with them. People even climb up onto the tanks and photograph each other. It's really unbelievable! Walking down the main street of town, you can see thousands of people milling around, drinking coffee and taking lots of pictures. Randomly, a group of people will form and one will get up with a loudspeaker and start giving a speech. The atmosphere is full of excitement & hope for a new future of freedom. We are comfortably settled into our small, one-bedroom apartment on the 6th floor overlooking a very busy street. (there is an elevator & we have 24-hour electricity:)When the weather is warm enough, I love to sit out on the balcony with a cup of coffee and watch the world go by down below. We have a large grocery store (Monoprix) right up the street from us and every other convenience we could want or need. It's really perfect for our needs right now. Still, I guess every woman longs to have her own place and fix it up and feel like she's HOME. I've already started looking at houses for rent in the newspaper:) We feel like God led us to this place and I don't want to complain about His provision! It is just small and we're both in the living room all day long; no place else to go! It will be sweet when I have my own little corner where I can listen to my music & work on my projects. But until then, I am determined to make the most of this season!! We have begun language programs and that is proving to be more challenging than I thought it would be. Even though I speak Arabic quite fluently, I feel like a baby trying to pronounce this dialect! It's SO different. My French comes in very handy all the time and it's fun to be able to use it again. Our big project for the moment is trying to get a car. The process is unbelievable. Darrell's already been to multiple gov't offices and we haven't really started yet! The car we've picked out is a dark gray 9-passenger Citroen van called a Jumpy. So, there you have a bit of our news. We sure appreciate all of friends & loved ones back home and around the world. We are blessed, to say the least!

Our first week!

One week ago today we left snowy, frigid Chicago and after a very pleasant trip, arrived in our new city, right on time and with all our luggage. We walked out of the airport and started across the parking lot with all our loot just as the skies burst open and poured down on us. We were soaked to the skin by the time we reached the car! Rain is usually a sign of God’s blessings, so we took it as that I have a friend who I’ve known for more than 30 years who lives in this city with her family. They met us and we’re staying with them until we can find our own place. When Dave met us, he had bags of groceries in the car, saying that things were getting bad in the country and they were told to stock up just in case. Sure enough, just 2 days after we arrived, the president of this country was ousted from power and things went crazy here. The night that everything exploded we happened to have 12 adults and 3 children here in this house and because of a strict curfew put into place; no one could leave so they all spent the night. We first of all had a lovely dinner together, then a long time of prayer, then played a game of Settler’s, then watched a movie until midnight. As the helicopters roared overhead and gunfire burst all around us, we were all together having a great time of fellowship. When things quieted down in the morning, they all went home. Every day the curfew has begun at 5PM and lasted until 7AM. The pattern has been that things seem to be quite normal in the morning and people are out and about trying to get food, gas and other essentials. Darrell waited for over an hour in line to get bread yesterday. We have been getting creative in our meal preparation as we don’t have everything we’re used to! By mid-afternoon, things start to close up and the neighborhood “watchdogs” come out, wearing white shirts and carrying all sorts of weapons such as sticks, shovels, axes, shock absorbers, golf clubs, crutches, and an assortment of other strange things. The first afternoon when the government asked all citizens to do this in order to guard their neighborhoods from thugs that were going around randomly destroying & robbing people’s homes, our guys decided to get in on the action and put on their white shirts and joined them. They had a good time hanging out with the men & finding out what the talk on the street was. We haven’t been able to look for a house or do much of anything since getting here. One of the large, beautiful supermarkets here in town was burned down so we are disappointed not to be able to shop there now. Things have slowly started to open back up again but the lines to buy anything right now are very long. Nightly curfews are still in place and fighting down in the center of the city continues so who knows how long this siege will last? For the first time last night, we had a very quiet night. It was not so in other parts of the city evidently. Hopefully at the end of week #2 we’ll be able to report that we are settled into our own place. Stay tuned for more of our adventure!

Christmas & New Year's

Seeing as we only have 5 days until we board a plane for our new home in Long Beach (and that's not California!) I decided I'd better get this blog updated. Christmas has come & gone and more memories were made. Our son Glenn came home on the 22nd of Dec and daughter Rachel + husband Josh arrived on Christmas day. They were all home for a week and we spent lots of time playing games, watching movies, talking and eating. We went downtown Chicago early in the day on New Year's Even and visited Glenn in his studio apartment on Dearborn St. We walked to a lovely restaurant to eat lunch and on our way home we all got soaked in the the rain. We warmed up with a cup of Starbucks coffee and decided to get out of the city before the mobs of people arrived for the evening celebrations. We knew it was the right decision when we encountered thousands of cars entering the city as we were leaving! We spent a quiet evening at home with our daughter (her husband was visiting friends). Rachel & Darrell stayed up until after midnight but I crashed at 10:30. Early on the morning of January 2nd, we all headed for the airport and went our separate ways; they, back home to Philadelphia and we, to visit our son Nathan in the Caribbean for 4 days. We were met by Nate & his girlfriend (who was visiting form Chicago)and taken to the island on a private boat that Nate had rented. It was one of the funnest things I've ever done! The island is beautiful and the laid-back lifestyle is charming. As I write this, we are still here for another day. We have been wined and dined by many of Nate's friends, had a picnic on the beach with steaks on the grill, coffee on the porch, gone swimming in the pool and lots of other fun stuff. Tomorrow we will head back to the frigid north and begin the last-minute marathon to get ready for departure on Jan. 11th. Stay tuned for details of our new adventure.