My days have been spent unpacking.
My nights have been spent lying awake, trying to get my body to overcome jetlag.
And that about sums it up.
Both are improving dramatically.
On Monday, we unpacked all the stuff we brought from the States. On Tuesday, we started tackling the garage, where we had stored everything else (except our furniture–the family in our house was using that).
Seriously, the stuff in our garage looked like it had been there 25 years, with the dirt and the lizards and cockroaches and the moths and various droppings from the lizards and the cockroaches. I had forgotten how dirty everything gets here. But thankfully, everything has recovered.
The above picture is our bedroom earlier today, and right now, it’s almost completely put away. Progress!
Here are a few other images from today.
We transformed the garage into the kids’ playroom. I LOVE THIS.
Our landlord had cut down the gigantic, gorgeous trees in our yard right before we arrived. She had been talking about this for a while, since the roots were wreaking havoc, but we were still so sad to see them go. See how lonely that tire swing looks?
I’m not actually sure our dogs remember us.
Spaghetti sauce cooking on the stove; a common site in my kitchen. Tomatoes are plentiful and cheap here, and the canned stuff is expensive. This is about six pounds of tomatoes, cooked down.
This afternoon the vet stopped by (unannounced; he does that from time to time) and told me that I got fat in America. This is a compliment in Tanzania. I did my best to smile and thank him!
Tonight, as I was locking up, I picked up a toy the kids had left on the porch. A giant rhinoceros beetle fell off it and bit my finger and just about gave me a heart attack. Thankfully, it only gave me a bloody finger.
Oh yes, I am home.
This is the end of my Transition Diary….I will move onto other topics now. Thanks for reading along!
Anonymous
Looks like you're making good progress. I agree with what you said a few posts back – in some ways it feels like we never left and it was all a dream (something like that). I remember that feeling. I also remember realizing that some of the nice things I'd packed away when I left looked a little shabby when I got back – not because I'd seen other, nicer things, but just because they had gradually become worn and I hadn't noticed. When does school start for the kids? When does Gil begin with the training school? I'm are the answers are coming in a future blog post. Do you have lots of people who come by to say hello? Are you expected to do some "calling" yourself?
Dr. Adams
Herding Grasshoppers
It all sounds overwhelming, with the jet-lag on top of the work, but bringing order from chaos is such a rewarding feeling 😀 LOVE the picture of the laundry – clean clothes on the line makes me happy.
Praying for you as you settle in.
Julie G
Amy Medina
Dr. Adams–yes, I definitely can relate to thinking that things look a lot shabbier after spending time in clean and sparkling America! That always happens to me.
School starts towards the end of August and Gil will start working sometime in August soon. Though in the next few months, language will be a big focus.
And we are having a number of visitors. 🙂 But many in the international community are still gone for the summer.
And yes, Julie, I love bringing order from chaos!