Settling in

 Settling In

We're all unpacked and moved in now. Our house is pretty nice and spacious and really not at all what we were expecting. We're able to drink the water because the house has its own well. We do have to be careful about drinking water when we go into town, but we haven't had that big of a problem with that. We just fill up our water bottles in the morning and they last us throughout the day. We do have power outages every once in while at the house due to energy cutbacks, but those haven't seemed to last for long. All in all, we've had a great stay here and I'm looking forward to calling this home for the next 2 months.

Despite the definite upsides to being here, I did have a small adjustment issue when we arrived. As I mentioned in my last post, I got a little motion sick on our last flight to Zimbabwe. While I thought I was feeling a lot better after "getting sick" all over the airplane (least grotesque way of putting that), the adjustment to the altitude and not being in motion, took me a little while to get use to. Needless to say, I was sick for the better part of Wednesday evening and for a few hours on Thursday. Thankfully, our guide Caitlin gave me some motion sickness pills to take and I had brought some Pepto Bismol with me. That seemed to help out a lot.

Before I started to feel better though, Satan decided to take advantage of my weakness. I started to feel really discouraged about being here. And of course I started to think of all the possible viruses I could have besides motion sickness, which made me even more worried. I really started to doubt why I ever came in the first place. Before going to bed early that night, I prayed that God would comfort me and take away what ever sickness I had. I knew that the medicine wouldn't do anything without His help.

After a few dizzy spells the next day, I was feeling much better and I was finally able to act like myself. God showed me His control in my life yet again. He has been reminding me of His power throughout the entire process of preparing for this internship and He continues to remind me daily. I am thankful to serve a God who still loves me even though I'm unreasonable and imperfect.

I do know that Satan will continue to attack. That's the bad news. But if Satan finds it necessary to attack me, it must mean that God really wants me to be here and Satan wants to do everything to stop it. And even though Satan sounds pretty convincing sometimes, I know why I'm here. I came to Zimbabwe because I felt it was what God was calling me to do and I wouldn't be here without the hope I have in Him. I know that He has some amazing things in store and I am excited to see where He leads me.

Psalm 62: 5-6
Find rest oh my soul in God alone; my hope comes from Him. He alone is my rock and salvation; He is my fortress, I will not be shaken.
 

Our spacious, beautiful, and tropical house. Not what we expected at all.

Our dining room, where we eat all of the delicious meals that Caitlin cooks for us during the week. We cook our own food on the weekends.

This is the kitchen. In this picture, Caitlin is cutting up some great tasting squash. I forgot what it is called. Jaclyn, Caroline, and John are the people standing around the table. Emily is behind Caitlin. I wasn't able to get everyone in the picture at one time.

The squash that is nameless at the moment.

Traffic jam going into Downtown Harare

Caitlin told us that this building was much like a tomb. It is where all of the previous leaders and people of influence in Zimbabwe are buried. Interesting!

These sculptors are everywhere around town.

Caroline swinging at the playground we found near the shops we went to on Saturday.

Jaclyn and Emily walking to one of the shops.

Our view from the coffee shop that we stopped at near the shops.

AppleGees instead of AppleBees. We all got a kick out of this.

Caroline and Emily in the van, where we spend quite a bit of time traveling to and from places.

Cooking omelets on Saturday evening. This was our first meal to cook on our own.

Nando's! We stopped here to eat on Sunday afternoon. They have some delicious chicken. John has been wanting to go here ever since we arrived.

Jaclyn, Caroline, and Emily napping and reading on the lawn. This is where we spent Sunday afternoon. Zimbabwe has beautiful weather!