christmas in august...

okay, not really. but it does feel a lot like christmas! we have been working on/anticipating four things since we got here: internet in our apartment (we have been using the internet at the academy), a cell phone, hot water in our apartment, and the container (with our beds!). this week we got all four! we ended up having to buy a cell phone here...the one we brought with us was messed up. it was not fun to pay $60 for a phone we could have gotten for free in the u.s. (you know, one of those free for signing a plan kind of nokias), but now we can be reached! our number is 08211021 (and if you are calling from overseas, i think it is 265-8211021).

our hot water was fixed on wednesday...it is still messing up a bunch. like it is either freezing or scalding. but we can at least make a bath by mixing the two extremes. and that seems to work well.

they hooked up the internet on thursday. unfortunately, something is wrong with the ethernet hookup on my mac. it started messing up when i was at ole miss, and i never got it fixed. so we had to buy a wireless router. again, it was way more expensive than it would have been in the u.s., but now we have really fast (well really fast for here) internet.

and the container came thursday night! we slept on a real bed with our sheets last night. and we used our towels today! it is nice to have comfort items like that...well, maybe i am the only person who counts towels as comfort items. bechs mom and my mom both packed us suprise boxes. my moms is separated into september, october, november, and december, so we haven't opened those yet. but we got to open bech's moms box...it was great! she packed it full of jambalaya mix, cajun seasoning, red beans and rice mix, party cups, etc. ohhh yeah, and party lights! she is from new orleans, and the box was totally new orleans. we loved it! one of my favorite things is the gingerbread house kit for christmas...i can't wait to use that!

i have a big prayer request. the people in the apartment before us hired a lady to clean and do laundry. we kept her on, because she needs a job...she does the laundry in a concrete sink outside and then hangs it to dry, then irons it all...crazy! mercy is very sweet, but speaks no english. i am not very patient with her. if you know me well, you know that i am super o.c.d. about how i want everything arranged. mercy likes to reorganize everything! she is trying to be sweet and clean, and really everything she reorganizes looks very good, but it is driving me crazy. i need to learn to be patient, because she is just trying to do what she thinks is right. so please, pray that i will be patient, and maybe that i will learn enough chichewa to explain this all to her.

this monday we start orientation. we are excited about this! i am ready for school to start, but i am nervous as well!