We've Shifted!

We are so thankful for our new house! We had been praying sometime for a new place to stay, living "dorm style" at eMi was becoming quite challenging for us as a married couple, living at the office next to the other interns. After 5 months of living in the boys’ quarters (rooms out back for the helpers) and having to walk outside into another room to shower/use the toilet, we are incredibly thankful to be living in our own place. We are now living in a new, three bedroom duplex right up the hill from my school. Another family at eMi found the duplex and wanted to move there, but the builder had a hard time completing it on time (it was suppose to be completed Nov. 1st). After waiting 2 months, they finally started looking elsewhere and we started praying for this place. Finally, in mid-January, the builder, after missing several deadlines, barely came through and finished the job (there's still a list of things that need to be completed, but it's livable!) After we leave in June, the eMi office will move to our side of the duplex and the other half will be used for eMi interns. We are so thankful and are love having our own place again.



Though it was a challenge living in the boys quarters, it was sobering to think that we were living much better than most Ugandans who live in shacks or huts without plumbing, electricity, or privacy. So now, we are even more so living in luxury, and at times do feel really undeserving of it. But the truth of the matter is that we don't deserve the house, and we didn't deserve the one room either. Another undeserved blessing from the Lord was his provision of furniture for us. My friend, Nicolien, the 6th grade teacher at Heritage, moved back to Holland after Christmas and we purchased a lot of her African furniture, including a log-style sofa & two chairs, a kitchen table & chairs, microwave, coffee maker/water boiler, curtains & mattresses from Holland, and a large mosquito net. It was such a blessing and saved us loads of money to buy them used. We purchased an oven from another girl who moved away and are using one of eMi's mini fridges. We and have enjoyed cooking our favorite meals again like homemade pizza, spaghetti, tilapia, chicken enchiladas, and new Indian dishes as well! Cooking here does come with its challenges and expense. The power goes off every third day so many times we end up cooking, eating, and showering by candlelight! Produce is quite inexpensive here but dairy products like cheese, sour cream, and cream cheese are quite costly (though there are cows all over!) We don't have a car so we are dependent on others to take me to the store or else we take a matatu (taxi), boda-boda (motorcycle) or walk. Pam, a MTW missionary here, takes our neighbors (two MTW girls) and me occasionally, which is so nice. Surprisingly, we do eat out about once a week (restaurants are quite inexpensive) and there are many delicious, clean, and safe ethnic restaurants around! We eat out way more here then we did in Rolla! I've had Indian, Italian, Ethiopian, Chinese, Thai, and Mongolian BBQ here to name a few. Yum!

For Valentine's Day, we walked to a nearby restaurant, La Petite Bistro, and enjoyed delicious salads, bread, filet, veggies, and almond incrusted tilapia. Including the bottled water you have to buy, we paid the equivalent of $12 for both our dinner. Not too bad. That price included entertainment, by the way. A guy played the keyboard with the pre-recorded drum beats and sang 80s and 90s love songs the whole time we were there.