we're here!

We’re here! I am actually writing this post at 2:55 a.m. Tuesday morning. That is about 7:55 Monday night for those of ya’ll in Mississippi. We went to bed at 8:30 last night, and now I can’t sleep! Oh well, I decided I would come write this post right now, then fall back in bed and try to get some more rest. I am not sure when I will be able to post though. We are going to try to get internet set up this week.

We left Saturday at 5:15. The Evans, my family, and Bech and I had a last lunch at Little Tokyo then headed to the airport. We ended up with 11 checked bags total…not too bad. After very tearful goodbyes, we set off. The short flight to Dallas was fine, although I did cry some of it (I know, I am embarrassing…just hope you never have to fly with me when I am leaving for a year!). The flight to London was fine too, just so long. And Bech and I have realized that we aren’t really able to sleep on planes. We actually got about 4 hours sleep on that flight.

London was fine. We got to go into the city, but after going through customs, checking our bags, taking the tube in from Heathrow, etc., we ended up only getting to spend about 3 hours there. My friend Liz Anne is in London right now, so we were planning on meeting up. But when I tried all of the numbers, I couldn’t get them to go through. I don’t know if I am just an idiot about international codes, or what. That was disappointing, but I guess it just means now she will have to come visit us in Lilongwe. We wandered around London for a few hours. We peeked into the National Portrait Gallery and saw a Lucian Freud (along with some other good paintings). We needed lunch but wanted something local. We asked somebody at the museum and he sent us across the street to St. Martins. It’s an old church with a crypt below it, and in the crypt, they have a café set up. We ate there and enjoyed it. We stopped in Trafalgar Square then headed back to the airport.

We left at 7 that night for the long flight to Johannesburg. It was exactly that…long. This time we both only got about an hour of sleep. We got to Johannesburg at 6:50 a.m., and didn’t have to leave until 11:30.

We got to Lilongwe on schedule, about 2 in the afternoon. Only one of our bags was lost, which is quite a big deal (I mean that only one was lost, and not more). It is full of academy stuff, and will get here eventually. Its probably just stuck in one of the cities we flew from.

Sam and LeAnne and Amy Louise (another ABC missionary) picked us and all of our luggage up and took us to our new apartment. At this point, Bech and I were both exhausted, in cultural shock overload, and probably a little smelly (we hadn’t been able to shower since Saturday morning). They left us at our apartment for an hour, and I was able to take a shower. It was cold…turns out our hot water heater has its own switch, but when its turned on, it trips out all the other electricity. We will get that fixed this week. It’s a good thing I grew up going to Kanakuk, because I can totally handle cold showers.

We started unpacking…it definitely makes a difference to put our stuff up. We have been living out of a suitcase for almost 2 months now, and it is fun to know we won’t have to pack up anytime. Then Sam and Leanne came and got us and fed us dinner (plus Bech got to shower at their house). We came home at 8 exhausted…it may be the one and only day I go to bed earlier than my Nana and Papa! Of course now I can’t sleep, but I am starting to feel a little tired. Hopefully as soon as I finish this, I’ll fall back to sleep.

A lot of our stuff was on the container that left the states in May, including lots of kitchen stuff, clothes, furniture, our beds, our sheets, etc. We had been told it wasn’t here and probably wouldn’t be here anytime soon. Well guess what??? It’s here! Yay! This is a huge blessing. It is so hard to be in this apartment and not have a real bed, our own sheets and towels, our own everything. But the container is here, and now we will have those things. Plus, the school will have all of its supplies before school starts!

Today we have lunch and dinner with two different families at ABC. This morning, I will go visit our neighbors, the Ketchums, who are also ABC missionaries. They live in the same complex as us and have just done all of the basic stuff, getting internet, figuring out how to pay for electricity, etc. Hopefully they can help us do some of that stuff!

I’m off to bed. Please pray for us…we are nervous about everything! I will post pictures soon!


***added later…
okay it’s now Tuesday afternoon. I did finally get back to sleep about 5:15, after listening to the first prayer from the mosque close to the apartment complex. we unpacked more this morning then went to campus. we saw my classroom and got my curriculum. we ate lunch with laura chinchin and are eating with another couple tonight.