Tuesday, October 02, 2007

Sorry it's been so long.........

T E A M H O U S E

The first morning after moving into the team house was one of those mornings when coffee has a crucial place in one's life. The night before we had moved all our stuff in, painted the whole entire living room, etc... I tiptoed into our for-the-most-part-empty kitchen and carefully collected our last drinkable water, poured it into the electric water boiler, turned it on and -mistake oh great mistake- left the kitchen for another morning routine... when i returned someone had filled up the boiler with contaminated tap water for showering purposes (we didn't have hot water then)
I just stood there watching and sighing over my empty coffee mug and what could have been a great coffee. i whispered with half a smile and looking up to the ceiling: "Hhhhaaaa, team house!"

SO!!! The team house!
Let me tell you about it, it's big, it's great, it's yellow and gold and green and blue and buzzing with life, and children's laughter. Jediah and I moved in a week before Zoumrad and her kids arrived. Our room is on the smaller side' so we decided to get a loft bed to have more usable space. One morning, we headed out to IKEA and as we enter the store, Jediah prays, Lord let there be a loft bed in the AS-IS section. And voila! Wouldn't you know, God had placed the exact loft bed we had seen online and dreamed of getting but had to give up on as it was too expensive. There it was less than half it's price, mostly because one main piece was missing.
Jediah came up with a solution in less than an hour and here we are now with our miracle bed.

PLEASE PRAY AS WE STILL NEED QUITE A FEW THINGS TO MAKE THIS HOUSE FULLY OPERABLE (WASHER, COUCH AND ARM CHAIRS, TABLE AND CHAIRS, ETC)

John Von Buchwald arrived yesterday, he is a great addition to this wonderful house. We had a great prayer meeting this morning over coffee.
Our landlord is a tough one! We had a few 'wrestling matches' in order to get our gas turned on, some ancient windows replaced etc. Beside that he is fine.
Our neighbors seem very kind, 2 have invited us over for coffee. Please pray for more contacts with the others to develop. I personally can't wait to go in a 'real' Turkish home and get a feel of what their home lives are like.

Here are a few more pictures:



the foyer our first meeting in the team house! I am sure you will appreciate our temporary curtains! (straight from africa!!)Jozsika sitting on our expensive furniture





taking a nap while daddy is shopping for the house Zoumrad and Leyla having coffee
picture to re-appear soon

Sunday, September 30, 2007

RAMAZAN - one more week to go

Ramazan: prayers are intensified, faces are stern, drums wake everybody up -faithful ramazanians as well as the others- at 4:30 am, food is more important than ever ->eat before 5 am and eat as soon as the first night prayer echoes, advertisement for 'ramazan specials' (ie foods) fill the shops and fronts of stores.

watch this short video to get an idea of what it sounds like in some places during the prayer call / the quality is not that great, but you can definitely get an idea!