Welcome to our new home is Barat!
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| The view of our house from the dead end road on which it sits. |
As you can see, the house is not quite move in ready. A few more cosmetic details need to be finished, such as sanding and staining the floors. Trim and baseboards have to be installed. Doors need to be hung, along with painting of the kitchen, bathroom and third bedroom. Then there are a couple more major details to enable us to really live there. The kitchen cabinets, which are finished, have to be installed and the last bit of plumbing needs to be connected.
When I just look around, the house really seems almost finished! Aside from the few last details, moving time is nearly here. We have been dreaming of, planning, and trying to execute this move for sometime now. It will bring us into much more regular and consistent language and culture exposure. It is also a very needy community, making it a fitting location for John's foundation work, and especially eternal work. On the other hand it will also be a big adjustment.
The community we will be moving into is very poor in comparison to where we live now. The majority of the men are fishermen or laborers, like those working on our house. Most women do not work outside the home. Those that do sell fish, pastries, other homemade food, or incidentals. None of our neighbors to be have running water in their homes. The women all do their laundry by hand. Kids are left to play, wander, and roam freely, even those as young as 2 years old. Education is not a priority and parents do not spend much time intentionally teaching their children. Personal property and private space is not a value in the community as we might hold. If our builders had not hung the front door, where there are stairs, kids would just wander in and play freely with whatever they found inside the house.
Our different ways and values have been obvious living here in Barat, but they will be even more highlighted once we are living there within this new community. Every time we have moved it has taken both us and the community around us time to adjust. Thankfully our mornings and schooling of the boys there will help ease this transition. Yet, I ask that you will all be thinking of us during this time. Our boundaries, though they might be different than theirs, such as kids and adults alike dropping by at any hour and freely coming right into the house, or peering in windows if doors are shut, will take time for us all to learn and adjust to.
The actual move itself is an area of concern for us too. We seem to average a move every few years so the actual labor of it is not too daunting. The Barat people are very community and relationally oriented. This results in people just hanging around and the givving of a great deal of help. Thus, we expect many helping hands when it comes to actually moving in. Help is a huge blessing, but what concerns us is the difference in personal property, space, and taboos. From previous experience, we foresee many eyes examining our things as they are moved and then followed with questions about how much did that cost, or what is that, or comments about the great quantity of stuff we have. Not to mention we will be moving a washing machine, an oven range, and individual beds and dressers for our children, none of which our neighbors have. There have also been times when we have had people over to our current house for a meal or a visit and they freely wander around opening doors and looking around. Thus, we find ourselves in this funny situation of wanting to avoid the uncomfortable aspects of people being around as we move, yet they are offering help which would be an immense blessing.
The fact that this move and new home is even possible is because of the partnership of so many of you and the great blessings He has given us. We desire wisdom, patience, thick skins, and the ability to focus on the positive as we under take this move. Thank for lifting up this next step!
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| We spent an hour at the house on Sunday. |
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Caedmon and Evangeline under the house playing with a chicken.
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