The mercies of God, what a theme for my song...

It's a rainy and cool Sunday morning. I'm sitting on my airbed with a cup of coffee, listening to the rooster down the street and the spectacled weaver in the thorn tree outside my bedroom. This house is much quieter than our last house in Francistown, because it is not located right next to a main road. This has pros and cons - pros because it is quieter and there is less traffic, cons because you must walk farther to catch a taxi and more 'rural' means more snakes. (Sam saw one on the other side of our wall yesterday!)

I've started this post three or four times, but it is very hard to describe a house without pictures. I've been waiting to take pictures until we are a bit more settled, but I see now that will not be the case for some time. We are here in our house, but first my brother and his family were here with us (a big help in getting moved in) and tonight we have a couple other people coming to spend the night. Many things in the house are transitory - some just temporary solutions until we can find/buy/make a permanent answer, and for other things we are just waiting until our container comes in. (February? Can we pray for an early January delivery?) Also, there are so many blessings, and I want to be sure that I give them all proper acknowledgement. So that's why I haven't posted this as of yet, and I do apologize, because I know many of you have been waiting.

Since I still don't have pictures, I will just sum it up: Wednesday, we made the trip to Francistown from South Africa, crossed the border and made the trip in pretty good time, considering there were 9 of us, 3 under the age of 6. We saw our house in the afternoon, set off some bug bombs overnight to kill all our little live-ins (the house had been vacant for several months, and you could tell by the population which had set up camp) and found a room for the night. Thursday we made our first shopping trip to buy cleaning supplies and items needed to get the bathrooms functioning. We spent all day cleaning with a vengeance... carrying away all the trash, scrubbing every square inch, making a list of needed repairs. Friday we moved in with our suitcases and made one big shopping trip to stock the kitchen. We had a few extra blankets to cover the windows, and with the help of some curtains that someone left in the house, we had all the windows covered. Saturday morning the previous tenant arrived to take her things, and said that the curtains were hers. So Saturday the priority became buying curtains for two reasons - to block the sun/heat and to block the gaze of our curious neighbors. :)

When we arrived in South Africa a couple weeks ago (a month ago? a year ago? it seems like ages in some ways...) a mutual friend put us in contact with an American doctor who is leaving for the States. When this doctor and her family moved over, they shipped a container with American furniture. This worked out as a blessing for all involved. They needed to find someone who would buy their things, and were more than thrilled that missionaries could get them, and gave us very reasonable prices. We needed a lot of furniture, and had resigned ourselves to having to buy the cheaply made things here. But this way, we get quality furniture for a very good price, much cheaper than if we had bought all our furniture in the States and sent it over in the container. Furthermore, the doctor's family has been extremely helpful in hooking us up with other contacts of who to go for when we need certain things. One of the most frustrating things about Africa (particularly Botswana) is that many things must be custom-made, but people don't necessarily advertise that they do those things. For instance, if you need furniture, one of the best ways to get it is to have it custom-made. However, you don't just go down to the furniture-making store. No, instead you have go to a certain fabric shop and talk to one particular guy, because his cousin is the best furniture-maker and will give you a good deal. Very confusing when you are first coming in to town, so we are very thankful for the help and information they have given us.

There are so many blessings, big and small, that have happened along the way - I'm sure I'll never remember them all. Just the very fact that we have been here less than 3 weeks, we have a house, we have two vehicles, we have INTERNET, and we have most of our furniture and kitchen supplies is nothing short of a miracle. This is Africa! Things aren't supposed to work so quickly!

Mom and Dad went down to pick out a refrigerator on Wednesday before the store closed, hoping they could purchase it and schedule it for delivery the next day. They looked at the ones available, Mom chose her first choice (the biggest one!) and they decided to go with that one. They approached the salesman to get things set up, and this is what he told them: "This one? Oh, come back tomorrow." At first, they were frustrated, thinking the salesman was being lazy because it was too close to closing time. But then he explained that THAT particular refrigerator was going on sale the next morning, and if only they would come back the next day, they would save a lot of money. Can you believe it? They showed up the next morning and had it delivered the same day.

That happened with so many things: we went armed with our list of necessities to Game (think mini-Walmart), trying to get our kitchen set up with the basics to get us through the weekend at least. First, there were ceiling fans on sale, from 600 to 200 pula! Almost unheard of in Africa to have such a sale, so we bought two. The dishes my mom chose were on sale, the toaster we chose had a floor model (still working, don't worry we checked:) on sale, there was a beautiful clock on sale, and many other things. Some were the necessities, some were extras, some were sales on a better model than what we would have chosen, some were sales on the very model we would have chosen. Time and again, it happened. I'm still shocked when I recount it all, yet I guess I shouldn't be. Isn't God so good to us?

This is starting to get long, so I will just end it here, and hope to get some pictures later today. It is Sunday, rainy and cool, but it is such a relief after being so hot all week long!