Comparisons

Ok...

We knew that moving to Barakel would be good practice for the foreign mission field. That was part of why we came.

After living here 10 months, here is some of what we have been practicing...

Bugs. I will admit this is not one we initally thought of. Last night, though, as I was ranting about the fact that no matter where I look there is a bug in my house, something that flies, crawls, or creeps, it hit me. When I lived in Bolivia we had to have everything in super sealed plastic containers or in the fridge. There were mornings I would wake up with a dead lizard on my floor and ants all over it. One morning I even had a frog jump out at me from the shower. So far no frogs here, just Daddy Long Legs and other assortment of creepy crawlies. I am not grossed out by them, so much as tired of them. Oh well. At least Forrest hasn't eaten any yet.

Found this one in the bathroom this morning.

Isolation This really hit this winter. We still feel it, but with all the activity in camp during the summer, the intensity of it has lessened. We joke that we are an hour from something and two hours from anywhere else. It's so true. In our little town, we have a post office, a hardware store, 3 gas stations, a grocery store, a dinner and a bar. That's about it. The next town over is about 10 miles away and it has a library and a McDonald's. For just about everything else, we need to take a trip of at least an hour. Walmart, JCPenny's, the hospital, my OB, something other than Micky D's...all an hour. Target, Meijer, and Olive Garden are all 2 hours away. We are getting good at making lists and living without for a while.

What I think we miss the most is the cultural activities. In Holland, we could walk anywhere and there was always something interesting to see. Bands in the park, street performers, ethic food to eat.

The thriving metropolis of Fairview.
Check out those gas prices from September!

Lack of family
We are now two and four hours away from our nearest family. In Holland, our closest family lived 30 minutes away. This has been an adjustment, and we are learning more and more how to deal with this.

Saving things
Admittedly we don't have to do too much of this right now, but the one that people alway ask us about when they come to visit is, "why are you saving egg cartons?" You see, there are some basic groceries that we are able to get from camp, and eggs are on that list. But, since it's camp, we order everything is huge quantities and so the eggs come in boxes of hundreds. We take our saved egg cartons and fill them up when we need to, because there really isn't another good way to transport eggs!

Got to remember to take them with me today.

Living in the Jungle
We realized this spring that we don't just live near the woods...we live smack dab in the middle of it. The other night, I looked out our living room window and saw a deer munching on some ferns. We don't have a back yard, and not too much of a front one really. Even our roof has vegetation growing on it!

Literally the view from our living room window.
That's our backyard!