I Wanna Go Home

There's not too much about life here that makes me want to pack my bags and head for the comforts of State-side. But last night, the one thing I've always hoped wouldn't happen to me...well, it did. There he was and he was in MY house.
I don't like spiders, and I despise snakes. Earlier this week I heard Adrianna screaming for me to come to her room. I went in and she was still in bed, curtains drawn and the light was out. She said, "Mom! STOP. Turn on the light." I had a creepy feeling starting up my spine but I turned on the light and there was big, hairy spider on her carpet right beside her bed. I wouldn't have gotten out of bed either. Yikes. What was I going to do? David had JUST left the house and my helper was more afraid than I was. I was going to have to be brave and get that spider. And I did. I popped a salad bowl over him. Then I slid a piece of paper under him in that bowl. Then I slid a clipboard under that so I could pick the whole contraption up and I carried him out and across the road. I would have preferred to see him dead but I wasn't that brave. At least he wasn't a tarantula this time. Nonetheless he was big and hairy and I wasn't brave enough to chase him.
So I braved the spider. I'm growing up in my ability to survive when it comes to critters.
Last night, David and I were both working on the computers. We heard a scream. We looked at each other curiously, listened, then went back to working. We heard it again. I said, "do you suppose that's one of our kids calling?" David jumped up and went out. David is our emergency caretaker. I don't do blood and hurts very well either. The scream sounded like an emergency so he is the one who went and THANK THE GOOD LORD FOR THAT! There was a snake in our hallway and Lauren had seen it, run back into her room and was screaming til Dad came. She did great. David killed the snake and then brought it to show me. I still have the shivers.
It's not that I really want to go home but snakes are definitely out of my personal comfort zone. We don't know if it was a poisonous one or not, but I can still thank God for his protection. I been bitten by spiders before and that's not fun either so I also thank God for his protection on Adrianna. She has had spiders in her room before but of all the kids, she is my bug lover and can handle it. Thank you Lord for that. So although I long for my "sealed" house in the States I keep telling myself - it could have happened there too. There are snakes in NC too.

What Kind of House Do You Live In?

It's pretty scary to some to think that I live in the "jungle". Actually, now that I think about it, it's pretty scary to me to think that I live in the jungle! What was God thinking? If anyone doubts the sense of humor God has - please, let me assure he just has to have a good healthy dose of it to bring me to this place.
We knew before we arrived that we would be renting a SAM house on the SAMAir base at Cashibo. Before we arrived in Peru my house was described to me. Big kitchen. Check, that's a good thing. 4 Bedrooms. Check, another good thing seeing as we have a larger family. A cool room (or better understood as a room with an air conditioner). Check, check. Need that when you're sweating away to nothing. Front porch, back porch. Bonus! Carport. Great! It was the next part that had me scared. We were told, "it's kind of built like a barn - it's the most barn-like of all the houses on center. Yeah, it's the barn." How would you take that?
Well, we've been living in this barn now for over a year and although we would love to continue renovations (or burn it down and start over) we have come a long ways. Let me share some pictures of our house.

The pictures aren't in a very good order but here goes:
top pic: carport with a thatched roof
next: our house is wooden and built on pillars. In a heavy rainy season the lake rises and floods under our house.
next: my kitchen is BIG. I LOVE the counterspace and David bought me really good appliances so I am very grateful for my kitchen. I spend a lot of time there.
next: front of our house. The high bushes are for privacy and to keep the dust down (seeing as our windows only have screen not glass) but we prefer to have them trimmed a little lower than they are in the picture. We would like to replace them with some flowering bushes that are actually bushes not leaves on the top of some sticks!
next: Adrianna's room. You'll notice the interior walls are not finished -- only one side of the wall exists on the framework. It also exposes the wiring which is quite ugly to me. Although this is not pretty, the rational is that you can see if termites start to work. That would be a plus.
next: my living room. Lots of windows but not lots of light. We have huge trees around our house which shades it (a good thing) but it makes a wooden house feel very dark. I wasn't able to post the picture of our "ceiling" or lack of... we have exposed rafters. You might be able to glimpse that in this picture or perhaps the kitchen picture.

That's not the whole house but it's a good part of it and it gives you an idea of the kind of house that is typical here. Some of the houses are finished nicely, the interior having been sanded and varnished but most of them are similarly built to ours. Houses here require a lot of maintance to keep them nice because of the tropical climate and bugs that like to invade.
David is constantly working to make improvements to the house.

We are grateful for the Lord providing a house for us here at SAMAir. We often contemplate if living in town would be better for our family and being near to the school but at this time we are sure this is where we need to be. So until the Lord moves us elsewhere - this is where we live :)

A Fresh New Year

I REALLY am not the type of person to set New Year's Resolutions. I always feel way to guilty when I can't meet my own expectations. Why put yourself through that?! But this year, this year is different for some odd reason. Can't quite put my finger on it. I made several resolutions and one was about keeping up this blog. But here and now I've realized I've already procrastinated. It's FEBRUARY already! How did that happen and where did the January blog go? Uh oh. This is not a good sign as to the potential of me blogging at least once a month. So I've marked it on my calendar. The first day of the month gets a big post-it note, "WRITE BLOG!" Maybe that will get my attention, eh?
Honestly, I want to give you a more day to day look at life here. I have friends who do such a wonderful job. I have one friend who writes and email weekly and often tells of how high the rat-killing count is up to... I don't think I'll do that, or details a day at school with the kids or tells us what shopping and cooking is like. I can relate to it all and I think it's the kind of stuff you need to know too. I have another friend who does a similar weekly update on her blog and when I read last night I burst out laughing because she wrote an article about "Where does all the trash go?" I laughed because it's so common place for us to sort and burn and blow up our trash but would you know that? Well just maybe she gave give me some inspirational topics to write about in the months to come so you might be better informed as to what life is REALLY like :) !
p.s. This one doesn't count for February.