Preparing to travel again!

Habari Gani? - How are you?

We leave for the language school up north, on Sunday morning. Our bags are mostly packed. This city is significantly cooler because of the elevation. We are excited about being able to focus on language learning for a few weeks. The girs are excited about being in a school just for them. They are doing well in their Swahili even though they are still a bit shy to speak to anyone but Rob and I with the phrases they know.

Rob had a dream 2 nights ago that he was eating a big cheeseburger. Then yesterday we were out doing some shopping for the language school, which was an experience I will share with you in a moment, and we were able to have cheese burgers for lunch. It was really cool! God gave him the desires of his heart, or at least the cravings of his tummy!

Shopping at the local Market...Yesterday Pastor George took us to the local street market to buy a few things for our trip. We needed an umbrella, pants for Rob and shoes for Rob, Shelbyanne, and Emily. I told Rob that I wish that I had video cameras for eyes, so that I could show everyone what we experienced. We started out at a little booth that had men's shoes. They sat Rob down and he tried on a few pairs of shoes. They realized that his feet were bigger than the shoes they had there, so guys started running away and returning with shoes for him. Other guys were bringing out shoes for Shelbyanne to try on. I think there were about 20 men "helping" us overall. After about 15 minutes of Rob and Shelbyannetrying on shoes, me feeding the kids snacks to keep them entertained, and Rob picking out a pair that he liked...we left. Pastor George looked at me and said, "What else do we need?" I replied, "Umbrellas." So he walked away in search of some umbrellas. The guys with the shoes followed us on our umbrella search. We found the umbrellas and bought one, which was a much easier process. Then we headed to find pants for Rob, which also went well. Although, while the kids and I were waiting again, Shelbyanne spotted some toys. Once they noticed she was looking at them, they started putting toys in the girls' arms. They seem to think if they can just get it into your hands you won't be able to refuse it. Then they won't take the stuff back, so you have to buy it. :) We finished with the pants (bought NO toys) and followed Pastor George through this Labrynth of booths with clothes, shoes, bags, shoes, toys, shoes, and more shoes. We ended up finding shoes for Emily, and then making our way out to the taxi. The guys with the shoes Rob liked followed us the whole way through, and we made our final deal from inside the taxi. We got the shoes for way less than we would have paid in the States, but I bet he would have come down a little bit more had we left and come back at a later time.

Then last night we got to eat Pizza, for the second time while here. After dinner we all got ice cream cones dipped in chocolate. It was a great treat. The sisters had asked that we eat elsewhere yesterday for our meals. They had one of their sisters and several others in a car accident where three died and 6 were injured. They went to the hospital and were not able to prepare meals for us. We felt very badly and shared our condolences in the best way that we could with our limited language.

Well, that is it for now. Please pray for safe flights, smooth transitions, and a profitable time at the Language School. We will have internet access there as well, so we will be keeping you posted on our progress.

Blessings,

Amy

Swahili for this post:

Donovan mwaka mojia na nusu

Meaning - Donovan is one and a half years old