Retreat!

Pictures: (1) Eva singing and (2) being backpacked; (3) Samuel with ice cream, (4) Eli clapping, and (5) Eva napping. The first five days on retreat island have been pretty good. Tuesday was arrival (this was actually pretty terrible--kids refused to nap, emily lost purse, etc.). Then Wednesday and Thursday were meeting intensive and Friday was a day trip. The day trip was a little strange in that the "half day" option went 7am to 5pm and the full day option went until 9 at night or so. We did the half day option and got to see lots of fun things. We started with a park with lots of monkeys. It was fun for us, but Linda thought we were essentially taking our kids through a pit of filth and monkey droppings (technically maybe correct). After that our group split up and had a day in a touristy city. We walked around and sweated profusely (aided by the challenge of navigating a double stroller up and down bumpy sidewalks). We found some nice places for coffee and lunch and also went through some traditional markets and bought little things. Sam has been having a blast and the babies also seem to be enjoying themselves. We each have one kid in our bed, which seems to be the trick for getting a decent night's sleep. Sam loves the beach. It's hard to overstate how much he enjoys it. He spent about four hours there today, and got his first ever sunburn of the year (not too bad, but Emily got worse). He likes to play in ankle-deep waves that splash up on the sand. We don't actually go into the water, but just being near the sand is a lot of fun. This morning when I went down with him we also saw three little see animals, including a small blueish crab, what appeared to be a sea snail, and a clam. I poked my finger on the crab, but it was a fun memorable morning. The meetings are a mix. I feel like denom is really in rapid transition. It's hard to see where things will be. I believe we are set for the next three years, but I do really want to work on connecting to congregations and planning for some self-sufficiency, if possible. I feel grateful we've gotten to work on our language, teaching, and administration skills. I do think the leadership of the group we work with is solid and it's been really nice to have the chance to get to know them better over the course of this week. This is not an ideal travel age, but I think the face time has been a huge help in developing models for our work, in figuring out possibilities for future projects, and in learning how things have worked in the past. I'm having some issues with uploading images, but I'll try to put up several batches soon. These should include: (1) outing pictures, (2) monkey pictures, (3) Sam at the beach, and (4) life at the hotel.