The last 3 months in a nutshell ...

WOW! It's been a while. I apologize for not updating our blog more regularly, time has certainly gotten away from us. Many things have been happening though!

Since my last post (which, btw, the boy did stay at the school and has a great opportunity now! PTL!) we have moved into a new flat (and not had internet much since then!), started a new language school, enrolled in another language school, continued to develop the coaching center in the village & in the vocational unit for the red light district, and made a trip home to switch our visas! We are so thankful for all of this continued progress.

On September 6th, we will begin an intensive language study. We believe that God has really opened up many doors for us to be able to go. This school typically has students from America that are working on their doctoral thesis on cultural comparisons or linguistics, or something similar. We are the first of 'our kind' of student! :) It will 5 hours a day 5 days a week until mid December. This is just overwhelming thinking about it, but we are really really looking forward to it.

The center in the village is taking off. We could literally, be out there every hour of the day teaching English! We are thankful for this open door into this UPG, but we know that we still need to focus on our language learning before we spend that much time teaching English. The more we teach them English, the more they won't talk to us in their language! Right now, we need to hear their language as much as possible to keep learning. After we finish this language study this fall & winter, the center will be ready and waiting for us to engage that area more and more!

Our kids are doing great. They both started going to a school here and that has helped so much to adjust more fully here. They are making friends and doing good. There's still a lot to figure out about the school, but in time I feel like this will continue to be a good fit for them and for our family!

Funny story ... this morning at 7am (after not getting to bed until 2am from travelling) a man was banging and knocking on our door. We realized that he was very angry b/c our air conditioner was dripping (a VERY small amount) of water on his window ledge. OH MY. He was yelling and shaking his fist and all kinds of things. We told him that we didn't appreciate his approach, but we would check into it. Then we went to pay our electric bill today. After wondering around this 'interesting' area, we found it up on the second level of a building (thankfully we can read in their language, b/c none of the signs were in English!). We get upstairs and find a window to pay at. We have 2 bills to pay, but it turns out we can only pay for one. haha We are told, at some point, which we aren't sure when, it will be possible to pay the other bill. OK! We will just wait for that undetermined date and hope they don't decide to turn off our electricity in the mean time. :) Then we went to the store. We paid with cash. The clerk gave one of our bills back because it had a wrong number on it. Somehow, they think the bill we have is fraudulent b/c of the number. We got it from the bank, wouldn't they know? I just think we had a target on us today. Somehow we hope through the night it comes off. :)

Thank you for not being too mad that we haven't update more regularly! We promise to do better!