I am in Africa!!!

I am in Africa… I am in AFRICA… I AM IN AFRICA!!!! Everything went smoothly with all of the plane rides and layovers, only one short delay, but that didn’t cause any trouble, since I had another 7 hour layover coming up in London (after the supposed to be 7 hour, turned to 9 hour one in Toronto & 2 hours in Chicago)! I got to the airport and had no trouble in immigration or customs (the immigration officer wasn’t even going to say a word to me until I thought he asked how I was & I said “I’m good, how are you?”And he said “I’m doing well, and you?” Uhhhh… “I’m good!” I laughed on the inside J My bags arrived all in one piece, everything still inside the locks, and only minor cosmetic issues on the bags themselves (a few small scratches or stains, but nothing terminal!) After my long 2 day plane ride, I was very ready to go jump into bed, but I was also excited to see the city, my house and the school. Turns out our electricity was off that night (it goes off for 12 hours every other day, alternating between day and night each time), so were to stay at the local orphanage with a wonderful woman named Romana (she is Italian to the hilt!) I got to meet a few of the children, and I am so excited to go back and work on volunteering there! I also learned today that there is another orphanage locally that takes in children with special needs! I can’t wait to visit this one and possibly see about working there as well.
There is a missionary family here that has taken such good care of us, feeding us and letting us borrow their internet (the school has internet, but it is a little irregular), and carting us around so that we can get things set up. They have 3 kids, all of which are super fun! Their 4 year old son will be in my kindergarten class next year, and he says the funnies things, makes the funniest faces, and makes me so excited for school to start!!
We made our first meal today as a house (the three of us that are here, Mariah, Julianne and I), spaghetti and plantain chips… yummy!! Ok, so we still don’t have any food in the house, but we are going to the Medina Market tomorrow (I can’t wait to see that!!) Yesterday we went to a place called “Freddy’s Corner” to get my cell phone, and it was CrAzY!!! There were people everywhere, you could barely move, people trying to get your attention to try and sell you stuff… and have I mentioned that we have a driver for the school and he is the best driver that you will ever see?!!!?! He maneuvered our school van (not car) out of the “parking lot” (which was really just the sidewalk in front of this place) and on to the street without killing anyone… AMAZING!! J We are very grateful for William and his awesome driving skills!! It is so weird to have people doing everything for you but walk basically… there are gate guards that let us in and out, who take our bags and carry them, and take out the trash, a cleaning woman who is going to clean, iron and do our laundry, and we might even get a cook a couple times a week. They are such a blessing to us, and I just hope that we are to them as well. It is hard for me to not feel bad, but when I realize that if we were not paying them to do these things; they would have no income, which makes me feel much better!!
Today we experienced getting stuck outside in the rain for the first time… wow… it was so neat, you could see the rain coming down the street, like a wall moving toward us. It was not so neat that Daniel (our gate guard during the week) didn’t hear us ringing the bell and we had to wait a few minutes in the downpour before we were let in. Just before it started raining we took a taxi (my first EVER! And it only cost us about $1.00 total!!) to the A&C shopping mall, and then walked back and Mariah bought some super cute earrings from a street vendor for $.50… fifty cents!!! We were almost home, but stooped a few doors down at the “Fair Lady Clinic” to talk to Frances, the brother of the secretary there. He was a wealth of knowledge and gave us some good advice for taxis and getting around, as well as told us about that special needs orphanage I mentioned above, and he actually works there, so it may be pretty easy to volunteer there knowing him! Now we are hanging out at the school, waiting for William and Laurie (the driver and the missionary) to come and exchange money for us, and possibly go with them for dinner. I hope everyone is doing well, and I would love to hear from you all! Thank you for your continued prayers… here are some things you can pray about:
1. Those who still have flights coming in.
2. The director & his wife & the other couple working at the school still need housing.
3. Those in the community that we are meeting and getting to know, that we would be an example of Christ to them if they do not already know Him, and that hey would be open to accepting Christ if not.
4. Things are EXPENSIVE!! I WAYYYY underestimated my startup costs, things like electricity converters, stabilizers and transformers are very expensive, and we need them ASAP. I wanted to buy a small plastic drawer chest for my bathroom, it would cost around $20 in the states, here it is anywhere from $50 - $100 depending on where you look… just to give you an idea J With all that said, I really need more support. Thank you so much to all of you who have already committed to supporting me, but I would urge you that if you have not done so, you prayerfully consider it. If you would like to, you can get in touch with my mom for hard copies of the forms and info, or ask me, and I can send electronic copies of it.
If you made it all the way through all of that, bless you!!!! I certainly didn’t intend to write so much, and hopefully I will be better about writing more often so that the entries are a bit shorter J
Al l my love in Him,
Ashley

(Pictures to come later... when I can figure it out!!!)