Home again!

We're home in Niger! Thanks for all of you who prayed for us. The trip went well, and we are happy to be settling back in. It's been great seeing our missionary friends, as well as renewing retlationships with our Nigerien friends. And I have to mention the joy of seeing Ian and Beka and kids! Having family here to welcome us is an extra blessing.The kids have enjoyed times with their cousins and friends, and we have started to acclimate to the heat. Our bedroom starts out at 98 degrees most evenings, and our air conditioner brings it down to about 84 by morning. It feels great! The power outages have been minimal since our arrival, for which we are greatly thankful!

Our first week was spent digging out things we needed to survive life here. Other missionaries typically host you for meals for four days, plus our SIMAir family had given us food in the house for breakfast and lunches. So we had a while before needing to cook at all. By then I had located most of my kitchen stuff from the sea of boxes in the storage room and laundry room.

We're in a different house than we were before, so there are a few extra things to do in the settling in process than we would have had in the old house. But I in particular am LOVING the new house! The layout of the living space is just so much easier, and the kitchen is huge compared to the other house. Plus the kitchen has a ceiling fan, and a window near the stove that I can place a fan in to draw out the heat. You have no idea what a wonderful thing that is unless you cooked in my tiny old 105 degree kitchen with no fan!! I'm greatly rejoicing. It's a mission owned house instead of a rental like last time, so it's much better off to begin with than our old house. But, being Africa, things just don't work the way they are supposed to, and often the work was not done right the first time. Case in point- we had been here 20 minutes, and it was about 3 AM. The new air conditioners that were installed (wired by an electrician) were turned on in the kids rooms. Within 5 minutes they overloaded the system, and plunged the entire house into darkness. (save one bathroom light in the new part of the house that's on a new breaker) One kid was on the potty in one bathroom, while I was with the others in another room. Kevin was outside, and all four kids started screaming. Not knowing how to find a flashlight, or a candle, or even a match I had to drag the three kids into the bathroom. Once I felt in the dark and located them, that is. Somehow almost the entire house was on ONE breaker, which was not able to handle the load. All the kids were shuffled into one bedroom for the night so only one air conditioner was on at a time. So the electrician who was hired (and paid!) to do it the first time was called back to fix it. In the meantime he had some other repairs to do. They added a bedroom and bathroom to the house while we were gone. One of the brand new outlets that was installed was wired backwards. And the attic space was a mess of twisted wires, not in proper boxes, or connected properly. Unless you consider 220V wires twisted together and taped with electrical tape proper... I don't! And I don't even know about electrical stuff like that. Thankfully Kevin does, and is able to go around checking that things are all as they should be.

Have I mentioned the blessing of a husband who knows how to fix things? I'm always thankful for his "Mr. Fix-it" ability, but never more so than when we are settling into a new house. Especially one in Africa! (OK, or the bush of Alaska!) He has opportunity to show his skills throughout the days as he goes around making the house nicer and more livable for our family.

The days are full, as just cooking and keeping up with the family is full time. Add to that trying to find places for everything, sorting four years worth of clothes for four kids into storage boxes, finding somewhat matching clothes in their current sizes for them to wear, trying to keep the kids somewhat clean when all they want to do is play in the dirt, and waiting patiently for Kevin to have time from his constant fixing of things to make closets for the two rooms that don't yet have them. And of course we have to fit in occasional trips to the pool. =) It's full, but fun.

I have many praises!
-We have been here over a week, and I have not yet seen a cockroach. Let me tell you, I am thrilled about that!!! I don't mind the geckos and other critters we do have in the house. But the cockroaches just make my skin crawl. Every day I can go without seeing one is a reason to rejoice.
-The power has been regular, other than short outages, usually less than an hour.
-Our new internet is SOO much faster than what we had before.
-Our house is perfect for us, and it's nice being just the next street over from Ian and Beka.
-My kitchen makes life so much easier! I can actually be there without feeling like it's a form of torture. =)
-The kids are all healthy! Elayna is over her pneumonia, and everyone has managed to pass by any new bugs...so far.

Well, that's my epistle for the day. I'll try to add pictures soon, but for now it's time to go make some supper.