We moved yesterday, to a house about 20 minutes south, that is walking distance, from where we were living. It is a bigger home and much more private, and painted lime green outside, lime green with inside too, with some of the rooms a melon or pumpkin. The family that is renting it to us left some of the furniture, so we have a spare bedroom with a bed in it, our office where we also put some of what was our front room furniture, a large living room with lovely furniture, and a large dining area. There is a separate room for the washer and dryer, and the pila. They left their dining room table for us - it seats 8, so that with the small one we have will be enough to seat all of our missionaries when they come to eat with us. Since 8 of the elders showed up to help us move yesterday, I told them I would be fixing all of them dinner as soon as we can get set up, and have a free time on a Monday! I did make sure that my cookie jars were full before the move - so they could be empty when we finished the moving. Two sisters also helped us and had my kitchen unpacked for me before we even had everything unloaded. They are coming next Saturday and we shall bake something sweet together.
The house seemed quite quiet yesterday after everyone left, but this morning at 5am I awoke to a symphony of bird calls and songs occasionally punctuated by a rooster crow. It was still quite hazy out, with just the trees and plants surrounding the house and the song of birds. To top it off one little bird even came and sat outside the window and sang for me. It is now 6:30 and they have all begun to go off to their days work and the symphony is gradually calming, but with calls still coming from each direction. In back of the house are two banana plants, on one side are two pineapple growing, on the other side we look out to see where our neighbors have ducks and lemon trees, and some other trees yet to be identified. In front of the house is a variety of plants lining the drive, but then the staple of the world here, corn, grows on both sides of our path up to the house.
The family we are renting from are very dear, their daughter has always called us Abuelita and Abuelito, (grandma and grandpa) she is now about 4 or 5 years old. She was very excited that we are living in "her house," but also very curious as she saw it changed to our things. We have a lot of fun with her and when her grandparents are around we always say, "oh my how lucky you are to have so many grandparents!" The grandparents are also very special, her grandfather was the first person baptized here in the Senahu area, 35 years ago.
We went and did the housing inspection in the areas up the mountain this past week and it was quite an adventure. We are certain that the most remote area we have missionaries placed right now is Chijolom. So glad we went before rainy season hit, because our car will probably not make it once the rain hits the roads. Several times Elder Spradlin had to stop, get out and figure out where to drive in front of us in order not to get stuck. He is a great driver, and I am grateful! Our next trip will definitely have to be in a truck. Once we drove as far as we could we had just a short walk to the church, about another 20-30 minutes on trails. Our missionaries live in a small room off of the church, with a faucet outside for washing their dishes, a shower and what we would call in the states an outhouse. The impressive part was how neat and orderly they had organized their things, and how overall clean they were keeping their apartment. We made a list of a few things that could help them be a little more comfortable and will make those purchases in the market today for them since they have limited time down here on Mondays and Market day isn't till Tuesday. There definitely isn't availability for the shopping in Chijolom. I'm grateful for meeting so many valiant Elders, willing and joyful to serve wherever the Lord calls them to go.
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