Taking it easy

Pictures: fresh veggies and fruit from the market across the street; yogurt and sour cream; milk; ketchup (it actually says that in Cyrillic)

Thanks again for the comments. They are wonderful. Scheri, I love you, too--and Billy and Teresa and James. Sorry, Daddy was going to email about cleaning the fish tank but I forgot to remind him. I really hope your weekend went well with Bob and Cookie. How did the basketball games turn out on Saturday? I know Grandma and Papa were planning to be there--wasn't this the week to be in Hansen? And how were church and CLUBS? I miss you guys, too. Daddy should be home on Tuesday, February 12 so that is just over a week. I have no clue when I'll get home--I'm hoping by the end of the month which seems like half of forever. You guys should see the adorable clothes my friend Meredith brought: so cute and so little. They remind me of some of the clothes we looked at, Teresa. I can't wait until I can give you all big hugs. We think of you all and pray for you often. And thanks again to Mom and Dad, Brandi, Mrs. Ratto, the Carols, Megan, Julie, Steve, Linda and everyone else for all you are doing to help us. We could not be here doing what God has called us to do if it were not for you.

Yesterday was pretty quiet. I finished the book End of the Spear by Steve Saint (Nate Saint's son for those of you familiar with Through Gates of Splendor which I remember as a young child) I was bawling. Man, I brought 3 big fat books that were supposed to keep me busy for multitudinous weeks--just one more to go: A Chance to Die: The Life and Legacy of Amy Carmichael by Elisabeth Elliot. It seems a little tougher to read so should take me a little longer. Our new pastor has challenged our congregation to read the Bible through this year--so yes, Pastor Bruce, I am current on that. I'm just saying this because it is pretty weird for this pastor's kid (my dad is Pastor Wes) who is used to going to church ALWAYS and teaches Sunday School and Kids Clubs not to be in church--not even once--not even on Sunday. Thankfully we can have a relationship with Jesus outside of church.

Our emptying fridge drove us back to the market and I'm happy to say it was much less stressful for me than last week. Kevin said he was having fun. This time we even saw the tail of something at the meat market. I missed out on the tongues on display. It's kind of funny because a lot of the meat vendors are sitting down until a prospective customer chances by. Then they are up singing the praises of the chunks of meat on the counter in front of them--I guess telling you how fresh and red and juicy it is. Kevin was trying to figure out whether one certain chunk was pork or beef but the vendor didn't of course know what he was saying. We'll either have to learn the words or resort to mooing and oinking I guess. We did get to do taste tests of some pork fat, some honey and some sausage--all quite yummy. Kevin selected some meat and asked that it be sliced. The vendor dude called over the cleaver dude who seemed to barely touch the meat with that cleaver and it melted into slices. I was praying for his fingers!

We found spaghetti sauce and some very thick, zesty ketchup. (I didn't know I would miss ketchup) The cheese we have tried is absolutely fantastic. This time we also bought yogurt and what we think is sour cream. We bought a scoop of trail mix--with all kinds of dried fruits, nuts, and yummy yogurt balls. (I like it all except the big orange things and the big yellow things) We also bought 6 eggs. I was pretty worried about adding eggs to our already burgeoning bags (yes, I was keeping a separate one for raw meat) but the lady cut out the appropriate size egg carton and put the eggs in it then put another piece the same size over the top and wrapped it all with plastic wrap several times. Our last stop was for a big jug of water, a Coke Light and a Snickers bar for Kevin. Thankfully we live just across the street so didn't have to carry our bundles too far.

Before hitting the grocery store we had been going through the maze of walkways between all the storage unit shops outside. Kevin forgot to bring a tie and needs one for court tomorrow. We had found many to choose from. Well after we got our bags full of groceries I wasn't too keen on wandering back through to try to find the place they'd been the least expensive. I totally forgot that these shops are closed on Mondays for some reason.

Speaking of things we don't understand we were looking out over the city last night and saw fireworks going off--what we could see (beyond the tall apartment buildings) was very pretty.
Have I mentioned that most of the skyline here is multi-story apartment buildings. Even along the main streets, the ground level has stores, restaurants, drug stores, whatever, but rising high above most of them are apartments. Of course, there are also beautiful churches and government buildings and motels. Around the smaller towns, I did see some buildings that looked like single-family dwellings and some that looked like duplexes or four-plexes. I get the idea from our interpreter that land is very expensive here.

Now for all you football fans, the Super Bowl could not be found on any TV channel we had so Kevin found a place on the Internet where he could read a play by play account, see the position of the ball, read the stats, etc--the game began at 1 am our time and ended at 5 am so needless to say that messed up our sleep schedule again. I'm really glad he found it though and he was pleased with the outcome.

Please pray for us at court tomorrow that all will go well and that this process will go as smoothly and quickly as possible.