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August 23, 2008
Dear Family and Friends
Sorry it has taken us so long to get something out to you. We do not have a home phone or internet yet and it could be quite a while before that is all up and working, so it is difficult to get somewhere and send email.
We arrived without incident except for a small flight delay. Thank you for praying for our arrival – we passed through customs without paying any duties on anything! Our house in Corozal is more than sufficient for our needs, although Scott has had to do a lot of plumbing work and we spent yesterday pulling out old dirty carpet and padding from our living room. The floor beneath is scored concrete, but that is better than carpet here. It is extremely hot! Even the Belizeans are talking about how hot they are. Our daytime highs have been around 105º with humidity around 80% and little to no breeze. At night it has only gotten down to about 85º. We have no air conditioning and are sleeping on the floor until our shipping container arrives. As you might imagine, it has been a little uncomfortable.
In the past 10 days we have been getting our bearings, cleaning a lot, and figuring out where to get food and other supplies. What you could easily do in one store in 45 minutes in the States takes 3-4 hours and visiting 5 different stores here. It is very frustrating to feel so inefficient. Our food selection is very limited and very expensive. (We will loose some weight here!) No one here is in a hurry to do anything, including doing business of any kind. We are already known all over town. Wherever we go people already know that we live in the green house by Mark Anthony’s Hotel, that we have a “mess” of kids and that we have come from the U.S. One thing I never thought about was how it would feel to never be anonymous. It is very hard. I found out that I probably offended people in the market our first day here by wearing shorts while shopping. We have been told that Scott must always wear pants when conducting business of any kind and that I need to wear a skirt or long shorts when out from the house. We also had an attempted break-in our second night here. They cut through the chain link fence along the back of our house and came into the yard. This type of crime is very common here, happening almost nightly to someone. Another member of our team has been broken into four times since she arrived 5 months ago. In one case, the person came inside her home while she was asleep. The day after we discovered the cut fence, we got an alarm system. Actually, we got two: Taco and Lonely. Taco is a German-Shepherd puppy and Lonely is an 18 month old Mastiff-Boxer mix. This is our best defense here against home burglary or invasion.
The children are doing okay. Elizabeth and T.J. are bored and feeling isolated and stir crazy. They miss their friends, their “normal” life back home and all things familiar. Kimberly and Rebekah are doing the best. They have made a friend with the little girl up the street, Angel, who is six. She is a sweet, polite little girl but we are having to go through the huge discrepancy between our family and hers. It is hard to be in a position where you have more than anyone else around you. The girls feel bad when Angel talks about their family needing money for food and clothes. Cody and Miriam are struggling a little with the heat. It is hard to sleep well when it is so hot and they do not do as well without sleep.
We are still waiting for our container that we shipped from the U.S. We thought that our broker had handled all the necessary papers for our temporary residency and the importation of our personal belongings. Today, Scott drove all the way to Belize City (two hours away) expecting to make arrangements for our container to be sent to us in Corozal. Instead, when he met with customs officials, he found out that we do not have our work permits and customs is holding our effects until the proper paperwork is submitted. They are also now telling us that our personal belongings will not be duty-free as we had been told. So now he will have to make another appointment for the papers and another for a customs hearing and make another trip to Belize City. Please pray for this situation. I know it may sound trivial, but it has been really hard living with nothing but plastic patio furniture, a few dishes and a mattress on the floor. We are discouraged and frustrated and really want to have our things here.
Right now we are overwhelmed and a little shell-shocked. There is so much to adjust to culturally and such a discouraging situation in the church that we hardly know where to start or what to do. Please pray! Pray for us, for the kids, for the church here and for our team. We miss you all so much and think of you every day.
Our contact information is the same for email;
Blessings to you all!
In His Grace, - August 24, 2008 |