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!