He has written so eloquently, and honestly summarised our thoughts and emotional state at the end of our first 3 months in Siberia. We're happy to be here. We're still hopeful that we can have a positive impact in an incredibly difficult and frustrating place.
We're acclimatising, but I continue to be told often that we're so lucky that it hasn't been hot yet - in context, it has hit 44C and is usually 39-42C each day, and 30-35C overnight. #notlookingforwardtosummer
Our apartment feels like home.
We're making friends, slowly. I'm uncomfortable in the unemployed-expatriate-wife-but-not-a-mother role, partly because I haven't met another here yet, but I'm persevering with the stay-at-home-expatriate-wife-and-mother group. Everyone should meet for 3 hours a week to make craft to sell at an annual bazaar and raise money for charity!
We've learned that Siberian ants don't eat honey or sugar, but LOVE home-made bread.
We sleep to the sound of a fan, an air conditioner, our mosquito net flapping and small geckos chirping with delight at being near our air conditioners. We awake to the prayer call sometimes, but more often to an unintelligible man screaming into a megaphone as he drives by trying to sell something from his cart at 6:30am.
We've learned to be careful to avoid including the bedroom air-conditioner-remote in the washing machine.
We speak of 'kissing' in terms of cars, SUVs, trucks, motorbikes and rickshaws colliding when there are 8-10 possible routes at an intersection that would have only 3 in Australia. I might have heard Him mutter "so, you want to kiss ME?" to a rickshaw when driving.
We're growing a lot in our young marriage and He nailed it when talking of our shift from independence to interdependence being the most significant change. This has been particularly difficult for me with my fiercely independent and stubborn nature (yes, I can hear you snorting and giggling).
I've come to feel like everything changes regularly and little is permanent; I am so incredibly thankful for the Big Man's word and faithfulness which never changes. A little numerical breakdown demonstrates the difficulty I've been facing in coming to terms with the permanency of marriage and expecting to live somewhere for at least the next 3 years.
In the past 5 years I have:
- moved home 5 times between the Middle East, Siberia and Australia
- lived with 3 families, 9 women, 3 men and 2 boys
- adopted 5 cats (1 since deceased, 4 now cared for by various people!)
- studied faith and language formally, relationships and faith informally
- been employed 6 times; Case Manager, English Teacher, Clinical Policy Reviewer, Research & Evaluation Analyst, International Health Coordinator
- been hospitalised 3 times, swallowed approximately 20,000 pills and received 50 injections
- welcomed 12 nieces/nephews to my world, with the 13th due in late May.
- grieved the loss of 3 dear grandparents
This week, I'll continue my Siberian lessons with my Nuclear Engineering/German-studying neighbour. I've only had one lesson so far and it was both depressing and encouraging....the grammar is mostly the same in the local dialect but vocabulary is incredibly different. I've learned 3 dialects previously and the vocab is different from all of these :S. Fortunately, locals understand me when I use other vocab, but I don't understand them....so perserveremustI.
I'll also work three days for the Dutch Consortium of Rehabilitation trying to draw an incredibly messy report into a readable and meaningful report, and prepare and interview for an almost dream job with the Federation of the Red Cross (on Tuesday for those who talk to the Big Man!). I'll make lots of bread in our wonderful bread maker, knit some and attend the craft group.
Now, if you've made it this far, congratulations. Write back to us! We miss you all and want to hear your news too - more than stalkbook updates and SMS (tho we appreciate those too!). Book in a Skype or FaceTime call with us - our weekend is Friday/Saturday which means we're nearly always available late afternoon/early evening your time on those days.
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