Boxes, boxes, boxes Posted by jonfaust on Thursday, September 14, 2006 (UMST) We're no longer living out of suitcases!! We've progressed to living out of boxes!!

September 13, 2006 Hi everyone, We're no longer living out of suitcases!! We've progressed to living out of boxes!! All summer we were living out of suitcases so it is a relief to finally be in one place, but much of our stuff is still in boxes so we're struggling to find the black paint Ben needs to paint an Egyptian wig for Social Studies and duct tape I need to fix the water filter since we can't seem to find the new filter pieces we bought in America, etc. etc. And we still don't know how to take care of our garbage so it's building up. I know, that's disgusting. But there is progress. Every sink now has soap, every toilet now has paper, every bed now has a mosquito net, and THE PHONE LINE IS WORKING!!! The owner brought over a bright pumpkin orange DIAL phone with an extra piece I haven't figured out yet. And it works!! So that means I can finally do emails without having to tote my computer by bus or taxi over to the mission compound to go on line. This is great progress! I can hopefully find the time now to deal with the 643 emails in my Inbox! We have figured out how to get around by bus, which the boys and I did on Sunday to go to church. It included a 15 minute walk to the bus stop, a 20 minute bus ride, and then another 15 minute walk to the church. The boys were troopers but I decided we'd spoil ourselves and take a taxi home, especially since we had done some shopping after church and I didn't feel like lugging those bags on the bus. Not to mention I wasn't sure if I could find the bus stop at that end again from where we were. I'm getting plenty of exercise though. It's a 10-15 minute walk (depends if Jeremiah is along or not) to the boys' school and I have been doing that walk three times a day. I walk them to school, go pick up Jeremiah at noon, and then go back to pick up Ben at 2:45 (except for the days he has tennis or computer, in which case he is done at 3:45). That totals at least an hour of walking. It has been very good for me, but tiring with all the other up-and-down-the-steps trips I am making still with unpacking and organizing. As a result, I have been falling into bed exhausted shortly after the boys go to bed most nights. The boys are doing well with school. I'm LOVING being able to use English to communicate with teachers, students, and other parents. It's so much easier than doing it all in French. This school is so much better at communicating than the French school so language differences are not the only reason we feel like we know what's going on so much more here. I'm involved with the PTO and a room mother for Ben's class. I'm sure Doug will also be eager to be involved as well when he's around. Speaking of Doug, we decided he should have a cell phone as well so that we could communicate during this lengthy separation. We are talking quite often (not good for the budget but great for the spirit) and he is doing well. It has been interesting that while we're talking, often I'm sitting under the covers in bed to stay warm while he's sitting under a fan to stay cool. Temps here in Tana have been in the mid to high 40's nights and mornings (which means it's about the same temp inside) but on the coasts it's toasty warm. He has been traveling around to various sites up north, teaching and meeting with people, all the regular stuff that he likes to do. The one sad thing he discovered was that our Danish missionary friends gave away our two turtles that we had asked them to take care of for us. We're not sure why since that family left the country while we were gone. The boys are very disappointed, but we're all the more thankful that everything worked out for us to get Fred back. One more follow-up to my last letter. I think I mentioned Jeremiah's run-in with the mirror. His finger seems to be healing, but two nurses have since told me he should've had stitches. Oh well. He also had a run-in with the pavement during the school picnic on Saturday. His elbow got pretty scraped up but he didn't want to go home to get it cleaned up because I knew by the time we walked home, cleaned it up, and walked back, everyone would be gone. So he decided to keep playing in spite of his wound. We cleaned it up when we got home and that's healing too. I think I better close for now. Hope you all are doing well. We love hearing from you even though I've been terrible about responding. Blessings and hugs, Monica