Disorientation...

  Warning...if you don't like rambling posts you might want to jump ahead to the pictures. Writing is a way to help me process everything and also a way to remember all my many thoughts and emotions...but if you're still with me, here goes...
   As I sat on the plane so many thoughts went  through my mind. There was a dull ache in my heart as I thought of the dear family & friends we left behind...there was also excitement at the thought of making more new friends and learning a new culture.
   After a half hour drive from the airport we entered what will be our home for the next few years. We were all eager to explore it. Christi entered the kitchen and exclaimed, "Look Mom! A bird in the kitchen!" My mind immediately pictured some cute, bright colored tropical bird flitting daintily around my kitchen but when I rounded the corner I encountered a bat making frantic circles desperately trying to make its escape. Thankfully it soon found a way out! A moment later, Collin went to the sink for a drink and jumps back, "Mom! There's a frog in the sink!" We chased it around the kitchen awhile till it disappeared in some cranny. After squashing a few cockroaches and a few other unidentifiable bugs I remembered I told mom I'd call her to let her know we made it down. As I was talking to her a bug flew in my mouth at precisely the same moment I inhaled so down my throat it went. Through a coughing fit I told mom we safely arrived and we're fine!  Kaylah's dancing around saying, "I'm gonna love Grenada! I just know it!" I told her to keep it up cause right now her mother needs all the encouragement she can get!
   We woke up the next morning and began the tedious task of unpacking and trying to find a home for everything. Let me back up alittle here...we realized we share our home with a mighty army of termites that don't clean up very well after themselves so before we could put our stuff away we had to clean up mounds of what looks like sand, but in reality is termite turds. I briefly contemplated making a pile in the back yard for the children to play in in place of a sandbox. JK:) If there are two words to describe my emotions that day it would be disoriented and overwhelmed. I felt like I had the worse case of ADD ever. I started lunch and got distracted about 5 times till I got it completed. We also had numerous people stopping in which was great but slowed the process down. (back again...Selena, a dear spunky 10 year old girl we are getting to know fast just popped her head in our bedroom window. I came in here for privacy...goodbye privacy!) In the afternoon we went to a soccer (they call it football) game that the teachers get together as a way to reach out to the community children. On the way home Kaylah was extremely glum. After awhile she finally admitted she feels so out of place. I told her to give it some time but I understand the feeling. Everyone knows everyone else and we are the new  pale faced kids on the block. Less I paint an awful gloomy picture let me go to today....which is day 2...
 We are feeling much more settled in. We went to market and for a few groceries. The children were delighted at the powdered milk we purchased. Jk...I mixed some up and had to admit the smell  brought back memories of mixing up milk replacer to feed our calves when we lived on the farm. Maybe once it's good and cold it will taste better....maybe. I was feeling rather domestic this afternoon...made some orange juice with freshly picked oranges and used some of my yummy milk to make baked oatmeal...or tried to make. Chris had to light the gas oven for me cause I have this fear of it exploding in my face and being permanently disfigured. I will learn...just not today. Since I was still dealing with ADD today and had no timer to set, I completely forgot about it. About an hour later I made a horrified dash to the oven expecting to see charred remains. Instead, the oven flame had went out and there sat my pan of baked oatmeal, as cold as when I first put it in. Chris had got called away to something else so I had to wait till he came back to relight it. He showed me how to do it so I don't get in another dilemma like that again.
  The children are having fun getting to know the other neighbor children that come to play. Chris said it's gonna take some getting used to to always have children around. They are not all trust worthy which makes it harder, but we are enjoying getting to know them. Even Kaylah was making some friends and seemed to be in a better frame of mind today.
Tonight is junior youth night...we will play games with them, have devotions & snack...or so I'm told..it will be our first time there.
 Ok, now for some pictures....

 

First a bus, then a plane and now this....(Chris isn't permanently stooped from sitting too long in the plane...I just snapped the picture at the wrong time)

The girl's bedroom. We put a mattress on the floor for Christi because the bed's to small

 Chris cleaning out the millions of termite droppings...

what a delightful way to start our first day in Grenada!:)

I have a feeling the Grenadians are all peeking out their windows wondering 

what for loud monkeys moved in next door......

 

The boys housekeeping skills kicked into high drive (for an hour or so, that is) 

 

I found this on Kaylah's locked bedroom door....I guess I'll believe it...

 

The skeletal remains of the lizard I accidentally drowned with a load of wash in my washing machine

                        Just a fraction of the remains of the war between us and the termites.....

Anyway, that is all for now...I won't always bore you with multi posts a week... I just had so many things to write about and I didn't want to wait to long less I forget!