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| Our son turns 3 years old!!! |
Saturday, 30 March-
We were out on the street chatting with neighbors and watching kids playing with the balloons we had brought out for our son's birthday. We were surrounded by the cement streets and cement homes of our neighborhood. Suddenly a voice starting calling us from above. Looking up we saw the petite figure of our landlord up on the roof of our building. She was calling us to come up.
A cool afternoon breeze met us as we emerged from the dark stairway onto the roof-- we could see the ocean, we could see the jungle of green extending up the mountains, we could see the unique coastline of our island home. But we could also see all the buildings, home built on top of home extending all along the coast and further into the city. Wow, so this is where we live.
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| The Pirate-themed birthday game |
Wednesday, April 3-
I (Megan) didn’t get to explore the area with Tom while he house-hunted and with three little kids at home, the errands have often fallen to Tom. So I’ve been studying our neighborhood, trying to figure out how everyone is interconnected and which little shop sells the best eggs. But this morning I have the chance to go beyond our neighborhood, so I ask our daughter if she wants to follow me on an adventure.
I don’t know how far to have the taxi go as we wind back and forth up the hill to the town above. I want to check out the town a bit (we are thinking someone from our team might live here) but I also want to visit a family while I’m here and I don’t know where they live. So eventually I tell the taxi to stop and our daughter and I get out. We look around a little and stop in a shop. Then I decide it’s time to call my friend and figure out where they live.
As soon as I pick up my phone it rings a menacing little tune to tell me the battery is dying. I call my friend, hoping the directions will be simple. “Oh, she’s not home. Call back in 10 minutes.” I hang up and my phone gives its warning ring again. So I call back and ask for directions, but before getting any useful information my phone dies.
Now I told our daughter this was going to be an adventure so I hold her hand and cross the street to a group gathered in front of a little stand. I give them the name of the grandmother of the family and one of the ladies lights up, “Oh yeah, I know her.” She quickly discusses with the other islanders where my friends live but I can tell right away that it must be far away because no one wants to show me. I let them off the hook by asking them to just tell me the direction I need to start in. “Go down to the hospital and find this road that is next to it.” The hospital is a good ways down the hill and the shade is lessening as the morning continues, so I try to push our daughter at a steady clip as we walk on. “Mommy,
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| Megan & boys with neighbors |
We stop for a little rest and while we do, someone comes up to us. “The people back there said where you are going. I can show you the way. Here let’s take this path right here, it is faster.” We must have taken our break at just the right spot, we follow our new friend away from the road and into unseen neighborhoods tucked into the jungle. I now understand the others’ hesitancy in showing us the way. This is a hike! But it’s not an isolated hike, it takes us into a huge community of people-- home after home, path after winding path. Our daughter does great and eventually after several steep ups and downs on tiny little paths between houses, we see the familiar faces of our friends. They are very excited to see us and are proud of us for thinking of asking for the grandmother. “Everyone knows me,” she declares. She goes on to tell me how nice their town is, up high and away from all the cars and noise of the “city” below. I look out from their house and am struck with the same feeling I had on the roof of our house. Wow, so this is where we are...among another mass of formerly unseen people.
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| Megan, kids & landlord on the roof |
I hope someone from our team can live up here and learn the ins and outs of these paths, find out the names of all the major families and get to know all those grandmothers that “everyone knows.”
This is one of the exciting things about our future team-- rather than be overwhelmed by these bigger views, we can get excited about the reach that our team will have-- beyond our neighborhood, into other towns and communities, along the coast and up into the jungle. It’s exciting.
PRAYERS ANSWERED
Our daughter and Megan had a good adventure, with help coming through just when it was needed. Our son turned 3 years old! We had a wonderful day. We are very thankful for our son and the kind boy he is becoming. Our youngest has started crawling (maybe this should be a prayer request). It is great to see him growing and doing well. Teammates from Volcano Island welcomed a baby girl. Tom, Megan and our youngest were hit by a one-day stomach bug that thankfully didn’t last long and didn’t effect our other two kids. We had a nice Sunday-- celebrating the full impact of the statement- He is risen!
PRAYERS REQUESTED
Pray for our teammates and family as they adjust to life as a family of 5, for recovery after the birth and as they get all the documentation needed to travel back to the islands. Our daughter starts school Monday-- pray that she would have an understanding teacher, make friends quickly, remember her French and really enjoy school here. Pray for us as we get into our pre-team routines that we would make wise decisions about the use of our team-- balancing language learning, family, time in prayer, preparing for the team, networking for English teaching and getting to know our neighbors.
