Back home

I arrived late yesterday afternoon, and have been enjoying being back "home"!  Of course, it's not without it's shocks... it always takes me a few days to get used to the dust and the grime everywhere.  But I'll get used to it once again.  It did seem quite normal to me already to wipe the rat footprints off of the container of cooking oil and the bottle of Nutella that I took out of the cupboard today, though.  It also will take a few days to get used to all the changes around here! 

First thing I noticed is that our organization has a new LandCruiser in which to drive around town!  Instead of driving around in our two old pick-up trucks with people stuffed in the box, we can now all drive together in air conditioned comfort!  Amazing.  8 of us went out last night for dinner in one truck and we didn't all arrive dripping in sweat!  How cool is that?

The second thing I noticed is that we drove nearly the whole way from the airport to our house on pavement!  Yup, tarmac roads have come to within about 3 "blocks" of our compound!  However, I do have to change all the maps and directions that we send to people to help them find our place, because the big blue container that we always use as a landmark is gone!  And the little blue police post is now yellow!  And the little village that used to mark our driveway is gone and our driveway has expanded - our gate is now right even with the main road.  So we turn straight into our gate off the road, rather than having to ford our way through the ravine to get to the gate.  Truly amazing.  I will have to post some before and after photos - but I'm too lazy to do so at the moment :)

There's also a new office being built on our compound.  So all of our old office has been moved to a temporary location, and my desk is currently upside down stored on the verandah of the conference room.  So, we'll see where I end up working from come Monday!

And in our house, there are a few changes, too.  I now have a working light bulb in my room!  For over a year, the light didn't work, but no one seemed to be able to fix it for me.  And now, it works :)  We also have a new house-helper to keep us clean and organized.  She probably thought I was nuts this morning, as I was unpacking and taking things out of cupboards and moving things around as if I owned it all... because she had no idea that I actually do!  Anyway, I introduced myself and explained to her who I am and why I've been away and all that, and she seemed to get it, but she was wondering what in the world I was doing for a while, I think, and why I was going through someone else's stuff like I was!

After a quick trip to the market today to fill our fridge with fresh fruits and veggies again, I came back home to continue my unpacking.  Which is what I'm off to do now!