Day Two - Home Away From Home

Our second day of travel started out kind of rough. It rained. And rained. And rained some more. Everyone who knows me very well knows that when I get scared I sing Jesus Loves Me, usually quite loudly. Well driving through Alexandria in the pouring rain with interstates above me and interstates below me circling in all directions I'm pretty sure Jerry could hear me singing way up there in front of me! But we arrived safely and spent the afternoon settling in to our new apartment.

Is this not the cutest thing? The housekeepers who work in the residence hall clean the apartments between volunteers and they had it spotless! The cute little elephants on the beds are shaped from a bath towel and a hand towel. :) The bed coverings, pillows and window treatments were all made by a volunteer and are beautiful! She made them for all the apartments and windows in the cafeteria and other buildings. The bedroom has only the beds, end tables and a dresser but is plenty of room for us.

The bedroom is right next to the living area and my husband, who is so hot natured that he freezes me wherever we are, is a happy guy in both of these rooms because they are cold! and the temperature can't be changed because it affects several other rooms on this end of the hall. I have a fleece throw to put over me when I'm stitching or watching tv and also a long sleeved denim shirt to wear. I even put a little electric throw on my bed!

The bathroom is small but certainly has all the necessities. :) It will be interesting to see how we adjust to having one bathroom since at home we each have our own. We are so spoiled and don't even realize it - so many people in the world don't even have one bathroom. :(

The closet is more than adequate - and no that's not all the clothes I brought. :) It took a little while to bring in all the clothes I felt like I "had to have." Trust me, I filled it up. But I left Jerry a little room in there.

This is Jerry's chair. You can see my office beyond it.

And this is my chair. Before I put all my stitching stuff and my Bible study stuff, and my blanket and my Ott light and my Puffs on it. Jerry's end table still looks just like it started. Why is that men don't have all the stuff that we women do? He put his things inside the table but I want mine out where I can get to them easily!

And here's the kitchen. Where I won't have to do much cooking at all since we eat in the cafeteria all week. And diet all weekend to make up for the cafeteria all week! I'll show you a menu for the week next post - oh my goodness can you say good? We walked at 5:30 this morning - if I don't walk the 20 pounds I lost before I arrived will be back on in a very short time!

Our first missionaries arrived on Sunday afternoon - all 48 of them. They are processing health kits and birthing kits this week. A truckload of health kits and school kits will be shipped out to Haiti on Thursday - somewhere 12,000 and 15,000 of them. These groups came from Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, Arkansas and Missouri and will go back home on Friday. They range in age from 13 to 70+. Some are processing the kits, some are painting a house, some are sorting clothing at the local women's shelter, some are sewing baby layettes and school bags. There's plenty of work and thankfully, there are eager hands and hearts. More later!