Being In This World But Not Of It: To Market To Market We Will Go

Sorry so much about shopping, but when you are trying to reestablish a home and you have five people and a pooch, shopping is how you are going to get started.

This morning, we woke up at 5 am and got the whole family ready to go to market. Unfortunately it was raining pretty hard still at 6, when we were supposed to leave, so we delayed it to 7. So the kids just got a headstart on their schooling before heading out. I actually like waking up early like that, but will probably need a nap after lunch.

So once again, we set out to run a morning of errands. We picked up my friend and squished, and I mean squished into our little Corolla, and headed a few streets to market. It will be pretty close to our new home, which is nice. And we went and they had the most beautiful produce, and sooooo much cheaper and better than any of the stores. I was delighted to walk away with a huge head of lettuce, cilantro, cucumbers, limes, bananas, tomatoes, green pepper, onions, 2 lbs of black beans all for about 7 dollars…so much cheaper than what I had found so far. And much better quality, fresh from the farm. Yes, it is the little things that make me happy. But since I am cooking from scratch, I need all these things to make a meal complete. And there were so many other things I could have bought, just could not carry anymore.

Then we headed and got some honey, flour, the bakery for breads, two banks…still trying to open a checking account here. We bought Erika some crocs, as her flip flops are just not cutting it…especially in this rainy weather. Oh, and an umbrella, since we were shopping outside in the rain. I was the only one who cared, but got tired of being so wet…. Oh, and some fudge. Belizean fudge, yum. We will have a special dessert today. I do feel more encouraged though and will begin doing as much shopping there as I can before heading to the other stores, which my friend will help us know where to go for that later today. We have had so much favor with people being willing to help guide us to make smart financial decisions. It is overwhelming trying to figure it all out. New culture, new country. It is all so confusing for us.

On another note, all week, Josh has been trying to catch the tortilla truck that drives around. Yesterday he finally caught it and was so thrilled. He came up with the biggest smile and a huge stack of homemade corn tortillas for about 75 cents. We at them with lunch and I will warm them again today and we will eat with lunch today. Lunch is the big meal here, although I am not sure how that will work when we move into the house since the girl we are living with will be gone to school at lunch. We will cross that hurdle when we get to it. But I think it is because it just gets so hot in the afternoon, that you really just want something small for dinner and don’t want to heat up the kitchen.

Tonight we are heading to our other friends (we met the wife 10 years ago in Belize City) home for pizza. We are going to make it. They have been such a blessing helping us before we came and since we got here. We are in an apt right around the corner from their home. During the day, we could walk over there, for sure. We are going to play games and just enjoy fellowship with them tonight. They have a two yr old boy and six yr old girl, so Erika loves to visit them. She opened a Christian Book Store at her home, and also is having music lessons on Saturdays. We have not yet, but will probably sign Tori up for that when we are more established. The price is definitely low and my mother in law had began lessons for her in the States and we would love for her to be able to continue and eventually she may even be able to help with worship at the church. You know, moms always believe their kids can do anything. But Tori would love that. She just loves worship. And would love to serve like that if she could.

We have had a lot of rain the past two days. And when it rains, it gets muddy very quickly. I can see that a lot of my time will be cleaning and training my kids to help me keep the house clean with shoes outside, etc. We even have a shoe locker in the carport of our new home. NICE

This morning I was reading to Erika about Noah from the Bible. I am ready to have her books at her level, but she did great listening as I told the story. I think I have realized more since we got here how bright she is. She is watching a little Leap Frog video right now that is supposed to prepare her to read. She is so bored though with no toys, books or anything. I guess as I tried to plan, and eliminate things from our luggage, I did not think about this time before our shipping came. I feel bad because she is watching too much tv and videos, but it is temporary. Soon we will have a home again, with all her toys and books. I am also running low on the kids paces as well. Again, I guess I underestimated how much they would do during these weeks. But our things are scheduled to arrive on Wednesday and we are so blessed to be able to store them in our new home. That is one thing we were concerned about, where all of our stuff would go when it arrived. We have an apt, but it is small and upstairs and we really did not want to move everything twice. But once again, God is in the details and continually blesses us and walks out the details for us.

We are anxious to get the church going, yet, it is a blessing this time of us just getting some relationships going, and establishing ourselves in the community. It takes time and it is a blessing to have this time to just get settled and be open as God brings people and relationships into our lives. And for us to get a feel of the culture and community. To really feel the heartbeat and needs of Belmopan. Which takes time and interaction.