glass house

Thursday, November 5

This moving back and forth stuff is so hard. We love living here, but it always takes us a little bit to remember that the "rules" change every time we switch houses. Our neighbors around us can hear every little thing we do since the louvers are always open. With no ceilings, the house isn't sound proof at all. The reflective layer inside the roof line takes a tiny amount of light and brightens the whole house. And any noise in our room can be heard anywhere in the house. So getting up early in the mornings before the kids wake up is really hard because we wake them up no matter how hard we try to be quiet and keep things dark.

The little girls from the neighborhood still love to watch me hang up laundry and name the owner of every piece I hang up. They just giggle!

I've been told several times since we came back how fat I've gotten :-) It's a good thing I'm secure in who God made me to be! Felta was laughing that she and all her friends were whispering about me when I got off the boat last Sunday. I just tell them that I didn't have a garden in Honiara, and now I'll work hard and be thin again.

Our oven is also having difficulties. Part of our training last year was cooking over an open fire, but right now the stove top still works. The pilot light is on, but the whole element won't light to heat the oven. So no baked goods for us right now! This might be really good for my waistline...

Even our daily schedule has to adjust to living here in Marulaon. We've been surprised at how much the angle of the sun changes and how much earlier the sun is rising now than when we were here in April. By 5:30, the sun is well on its way up. The bell for morning prayer has been ringing consistently at 5:50. So everybody is up and moving early, and we eat breakfast around 6:30 when Aaron gets home from morning prayer. Then the "bucket brigade" begins. We still have to pump water by hand from the big rain tank on the ground to the small tanks on the roof. So, it's easier to bring in buckets of water to wash dishes and clothes. I do love my twin tub washing machine that my sweet husband bought for me! Aaron put wheels on the bottom of the washing machine's cart (which he built last time we were here), so now it's much easier to move the machine over to the shower drain when it's time to wash clothes. We all haul buckets of water to fill up the washing machine, wash !
dishes, and refill the toilet tank in addition to taking turns pumping water as part of our morning routine. I try to have laundry and daily cleaning finished up by 8:30 so we can start school. The house girls usually come around 8:00 (though Felta came at 7:00) and stay for four hours. School usually finishes up around 2, and the kids play outside. I try to get outside and visit with neighbors and work on language until about 4. Radio sked is at 4:30 with SITAG in Honiara, and then we eat supper at 5:00. Evening prayer usually starts between 5:30 and 6:00. Then it's cleanup and bedtime routine and crash!

Even with the difficulties of adjusting to living here again and trying to learn the language and culture, I still LOVE it here! Watching the moon rise over the Pacific Ocean thrills me. God is so good to provide friends and food and more than we could possibly ask or imagine. Our village is sooooo beautiful! Our kids love to swim with goggles and admire the coral and the myriads of ocean creatures that live there. I'm constantly reminded of His grace to me and learning to extend grace to myself and to my family as we live in a cross cultural situation.