We are settling in. We've got a little bit of a groove going on.
We understand to run out and grab the laundry off the clothesline should the rain begin. We have trained the kids to walk home from school, which is very safe for them as during that time a lot of grown ups are on the road and they tend to keep an eye on the kids.
We've got the yard thing down, today Kendal spent lunch with the yard meris (the women who tend the garden/yard) and talked a bit with them.
We've had dinner at a few houses and have had folks over to play games etc.
The kids are loved by everyone. They are loved by the national neighbors, and by other missionaries on center. They have sort of adopted aunts and uncles here. You don't really call people "mister" and "misses" it's all aunt and uncle around here, everyone is family.
The freedoms that this place offers far outweigh the loss of liberty. Compared to city living, being in the hills is much more peaceful and liberating.
There are some lovely things about this place, and some not-as-lovely things. I'm neither declaring this place as a paradise, nor complaining. We really do enjoy it here, but in the interest of full disclosure, I'll share a few not-as-lovelies.
For example, I love that you need to learn to accept a certain amount of dirt here. Kids go shoeless and they will have mud in their toenails until they move back to America. (-; It's a way of life.
Your clothes will never completely be perfectly white and soft from fabric softener, but I love it, it's a more manly feeling to have sun-dried clothes. For years my we air dried my shirts because I like that (plus I fear shrinking) (-;.
The one thing I didn't expect was the constant feeling of your skin crawling. I'll get used to it. You know how if you find an ant or something on you, how you feel it moving, and then shake it off, but then for minutes later you still feel the creeping of it? It doesn't bother me, but I soon learned to not ignore that feeling because odds are, something is on you. (-;
The other day I felt a twinge on my leg and thought "ah it's in your head" and I brushed it to get rid of the feeling, and grabbed a spider instead. Not a large one, no worries.
And then there's the head bonking. I bonk my head almost daily here. They have door closers that jut out from the ceiling three feet from a door, to catch the door and cause it to snap back. Dust and rain are concerns and so doors don't stay open much, although we leave ours open all day and use the screen door, because the climate is such that you can leave windows open all day and the temp will be perfect.
A cool tropical breeze at the right moment.....ahhhhh.
So we're settling into a bit of a groove. We do a lot of reading, we have a lot of family time.
Tonight my daughter said, "so do you think we can arrange a family game time tonight?"
If the kids finish their supper and their chores, and homework and get ready for bed, there is usually a good half hour where we can play Uno or some such.
Things close between 4 and 5 here. You do need to plan ahead if you need something at the store. Which is part of the lower stress, there isn't a whole lot to do after 5pm besides socialize. No one really works after 5pm unless they are in one of the unique 24x7 positions (such as a hostel parent).
There aren't a lot of "can you do this on the way home."
you can't pick up fast food after 5pm, you can't do errands, get gas, or do practically anything. The place shuts down for getting stuff done.
That means you take breaks from work from time to time to get it done.
So far we're still in the honeymoon stage with food. We're experimenting and enjoying it. I'll let you know when the romance wears off.
Work-wise, I have a TON to learn. But I'm glad that almost daily I'm able to contribute some small thing to improve things here. We're told that the internet speed improvement is the number one best enhancement to living here on center. It has opened computer services up to a large number of new issues which thankfully, I have a lot of experience in having worked in large network areas.
Issues such as, how do they handle spam? How to they handle phishing, do they block cracking sites, how do we educate parents to watch their kids and what they try to view on the net, what do we block from the net?
There are all kinds of issues but we have a creative bunch and a good mix of resourcefulness and skills.
I can tell already it's going to be a good place to live, and an exciting place to work.
