Allbutt Journalings
What have we been doing in recent days
An online web journal (weblog) of Mike & Vanessa Allbutt. (Updated as often as we remember to.)
Monday, November 26, 2007
We've arrived!
Greetings everyone, and welcome to our new edition, live from Puerto Escondido, Mexico.
Travel
After leaving Melbourne, we spent a week in Tassie resting and catching up with family. It was a much needed break. We then flew 14 hours to Los Angeles. We didn't get much sleep, but it was quite a peaceful flight. We stayed in San Diego for a week, adjusting to the new time zone.
We then headed to Florida (about two days before the big fires started in San Diego!) for the US Christian Surfers conference, and we stayed on with the regional coordinator of CS for a few days.
Then the big day arrived. We left Orlando at 6 am and arrived at our new home that afternoon. Praise God, all our travel went well, and all our suitcases arrived intact. The children travelled extremely well, considering all the different connections we had to catch.
Our new home
After three weeks on the move, and sleeping in eight different beds, we finally arrived home. The view from this house is simply breathtaking. We look down to a small beach in a cove. We get the beautiful ocean breeze to cool the house down, and we fall asleep to the sound of waves crashing. We feel so blessed to be able to live here.
The house had been empty for three years, so it needed a lot of work. We've trimmed, cleaned, fixed, moved and painted. There is still more work to do, but it is now at a stage where we can live in it comfortably.
We have been so blessed to have very supportive friends, both locals from the church and expats, who have helped in so many ways. The only problem with this house is that it is removed from town, so there are no buses or 'collectivos' (utes that carry people on the tray). So we invested in a car, to help us get around without relying on taxis.
Mike
Mike has waited months and months to get here, to where there is a perfect wave almost every day. But he hasn't gone surfing too often yet, as he has put in many hours into fixing the house and purchasing a car.
There are still a few big jobs that need doing around the home, and once these are done, he will start to settle into a routine, which will include surfing, meeting the local guys, and learning the language.
Vanessa
The first few weeks haven't been easy for Vanessa. It was hard trying to clean, prepare meals with foreign ingredients, be a mum to unsettled and unhappy children, adjust to the humidity and heat, and unpack. Things are settling down a lot now. It helps knowing your way around, having a car to go shopping in, and knowing what ingredients to get where. The house is also feeling more like home.
The hard thing to get used to is all the cleaning. Because of all the dirt and sand around the home, the house has to be continually swept and mopped. The constant cleaning also helps minimize the number of the other permanent residents of the house (i.e. scorpions, cocoroaches, ants, gheckos).
To help her out, we have a local lady who comes three days a week. She not only does some cleaning, she is also showing Vanessa how to cook some local dishes.
The children
Both Priscila and Joel are more settled now than they were previously. They both struggled with the heat, and having very different routines. They've also both had very bad nappy rashes, due to constant diahorreah. We're continually reminding them to keep their shoes on (so they don't accidently step on a scorpion) and not to drink the tap water. They both get lots of comments from strangers. People come up to touch their hair and skin, and even pick Joel up without asking.
The children at church are always wanting to play with them and hold their hands. Joel doesn't seem to mind the attention so much, but poor Priscila gets tired of it. She burries her head in my lap and refuses to talk to anyone.
Priscila now says three words in Spanish (Hola, Adios and Gracias). She gets a bit upset in Sunday School because she doesn't understand the language. We are considering sending her to a Christian daycare a few mornings per week, so she gets exposed to the language and children her age. Joel doesn't seem very interested in talking as yet. He doesn't say a single word yet. But he is very good at pointing and grunting!
We wanted to share so much with you, we appologize this is such a long newsletter. Please join us in praising God for the way He has watched over us in our travel, and as we have settled in. We can't thank Him enough. Some prayer points include:
- that the children will continue to settle in,
- getting used to the weather and the language
- that Mike will have opportunities to meet locals as he surfs
- for deeper relationships with people we already know
- that we may be a blessing to our local church and community
We trust you are keeping well, and remember to write often. We love hearing from you, especially now that we are so far away.
Mike, Vanessa, Priscila and Joel
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[By Mike 6:40 AM ] +
I trust that this Allbutt Journalings helps bring you up to date with what I have been up to recently. If you want to contact me then click here. Thanks for reading some of my thoughts. If you want to read some of the older files then they have been stored in the archives here.