Settling In...

Well, we have now been in Nairobi for almost a week and are starting to feel at home. We still have a lot of learning to do, but are so blessed by the people here. I haven't shared many details with you so far, so I am going to try to do some of that here. We are living outside of the school campus, less than 1 mile walk to the school. We have a landlady who has rented out the back/bottom part of her house to the school. It is a one bed/ one bath little apartment type place. It is perfect for us at this point. We have been working on getting it set up and making it more "homey." Little by little it is coming along. The walk to Rosslyn is pretty easy and is really a nice walk to make. It takes about 10ish minutes to get to the school, so not bad. The staff/faculty here have been great about offering to take us to the market to get the things we need to get settled in. Most of the shopping we do is at a place call Nakumatt. It is pretty much a small version of Walmart. You can get a lot of the same things, with just little variations. They do have some American brands from time to time. We have already been there about 4 times in just the 5 days we've been here trying to get settled in. Ed started New Teacher Orientation last Thursday and that has been going well. It is very informal and the time is used to explain how Rosslyn works and things like that. The other new staff are great. We have already made some wonderful friends. That has been such a blessing. I think that is part of the reason why Nairobi and Rosslyn are already starting to feel like home. Ed is excited about the teaching atmosphere that Rosslyn provides. Some of the things that we are still trying to adjust to are: not having hot water 24/7, having to hang dry all laundry, learning how the shillings work compared to the dollar, eating food we have never even seen before, not having the independence to go where we want when we want like we had in the states.....Those are just a few things that come to mind at the moment. I think the food adjustment has been harder for me than for Ed. I have liked about 50% of the meals the school has taken us out for so far. But I am starting to figure out what I like and what I will only be trying once. :) Some food is quite a bit more expensive here, so that is going to take some time getting used to. Meat especially is more expensive. Ed has told me he will settle for having meat for one meal a day to cut costs. (If you don't know, Ed is usually a big meat eater!) But other than those few things, we are adjusting well. Life is definitely different, but we are seeing how different can be good. If you have any questions, just let me know. It is hard to know what to cover in such a short time. I will try to write more often when we get the internet at our place. We hope and pray you all are doing well and are being blessed. We feel more and more blessed everyday. The Lord is here with us and we feel his presence daily. I will write again soon. The Lord bless you and keep you!
~Ed and Tricia