Sept 25, 2005

Dear Kids

I was so unhappy when I came home from the internet café without successfully sending you an email, last week. It is truly the first time I have been upset since arriving. We really are doing very well in a country that is so very different from what we are familiar. I made a promise to Heavenly Father that I would have a positive attitude, and he has made it possible for me to keep that promise. When we arrived at the apartment and I walked through it for the first time, I knew that I might have trouble keeping my promise. The breezeway in the middle of the apartment is painted dark brown with black, brown and sienna floor; the couple of lights are up high and low wattage. It was dark, dank, dreary and dirty. It was closed in, musty and smelled terrible. The freezer, frig and dryer are in this room adding to the heat. The dryer even vents into the room. There were dusty cobwebs on the walls and ceilings and the corners of the door frames with ants and other bugs dangling from the web. There are two windows at either end of the breezeway but they can’t be opened because of mosquitoes. Curtains covered the windows which would have brought in more light. However, the windows could never be washed because they were on the third floor and couldn’t be reached. One is on the outside of the building, the other opens into an 8 foot square opening in the center of the building for sunlight to reach the windows of all the apartments. Of course, you can’t get to the opening to clean anything so spider webs cling to everything, and the windows are too dirty to allow in much light. Every room in the apartment comes off this breezeway (no breeze however) and there was no way to avoid going through it. After checking out all the rooms I felt like crying. The rooms were large and bright but it was like entering a cave when I came out of the rooms into that breezeway. I went into what would become Dad’s and my bedroom, knelt down and pleaded with Heavenly Father to help me because I knew that I would be very depressed in such a place without His help. I came out of the bedroom and never again has the condition bothered me. I enter that dark, hot, smelly (but cleaned) breezeway many times a day and have never felt the way I did the first day.

Frank told me that I would have to get used to the dirt. He was right. There is no way to keep anything clean. But again, I can do what I can and the rest hasn’t been a problem. We spent 2 days cleaning our living area. Now it doesn’t smell so bad. We still never go barefoot, even to the bathroom in the night. Our flip-flops are always ready. We have 3 bedrooms and 3 ½ baths. We haven’t cleaned the extra rooms yet, but tomorrow is p-day so we can attach a couple more rooms. We are careful with our food and especially our water. It takes me about an hour every other day to clean and fill our water bottles with filtered water. The church provides every apartment with a 3 filter water system. It purifies drinking water. It is hooked up to our kitchen faucet. When the knob is pulled, it redirects the cold water into the filter and out a small nozzle attached to the faucet. It takes about 3 minutes to get a 1.5 liter bottle filled. I wash, Clorox and rinse the bottles, then fill them. I make about 15 1.5 liter bottles every other day. We boil the water that we rinse our dishes in. Our kitchen is very small and very hot. There is one small window and 3 doors coming off the kitchen. 2 of the doors go to the outside, so we have had to tape them shut to keep out mosquitoes. Everything we use in the kitchen fits in 2 small cabinets and 1 drawer. The stove is both electric and propane. All the food, the frig and a small chest freezer are in the breezeway. I have counter space the size of our camp kitchen and it feels just like camping! It is all part of the adventure. Dad and I feel really blessed to have such a nice place compared to the living conditions we have encountered. This is just a taste of what we have found here. I don’t want to make this too long so I will tell you more another time.