We have arrived!

Here we are folks, it's our new home!!  We arrived in Worcester yesterday evening (having sprinted to make our connection in Johannesburg and JUST made it).  After picking up our vehicle, bought with BIG help from friends in Cape Town, we drove to Worcester on the beautiful N1 highway (right up there with Snoqualmie pass).  

We arrived at the YWAM base 30 minutes before a 2.5 hour scheduled rolling blackout.  These occur twice a week here, from 6pm til about 8:30.  The sun sets at 6:30, so unpacking in the dark was... interesting.

Thankfully we have some friendly neighbours who lent us some candles, so Zaden was able to carry on with his origami as usual.

Being winter-time here in South Africa, it is COLD here.  And there is no central heating.   Last night we all slept with our clothes and sweaters on, under duvets and fleece blankets.  Today I (Rachel), in a moment of weakness, bought a fleece pajama-onesie.  (That's an adult-sized baby-gro, for UK folks.)  Zaden told me I looked like a pink bunny with no ears, but I don't care - at least I'm warm. 

Our accommodation consists of 2 adjoining rooms - one for the kids with 3-tier bunkbeds, and one for us with a king-sized bed.  We share the bathroom down the hall with other families, and eat meals cafeteria-style.  We also have the option to buy our own food and cook in the shared kitchen, which is a tempting idea.

Today we spent a gruelling 6 hours at the shopping mall, getting blankets, bedding, towels, plates, food items, shampoo, and the list goes on.  It's kind of funny that here in Worcester there is better shopping than in Ellensburg!!  The kids did very well but were ready to be done:

We will need to go back tomorrow to get a few items we forgot, like cockroach traps and candles.  Yes, this is South Africa which contains many first-world areas, but we have been reminded very clearly since arriving that we are in AFRICA - and that comes with barbed-wire fences around the compound, cockroaches, blackouts, and hot water most of the time.

We have started to meet some people here on the base, and we are looking forward to figuring out what our days will look like.  The children start school on Monday, so that is definitely a prayer-point.  We would love for them to feel "at home" straight away and make friends easily.  Also for Ashani to transition smoothly into her new school and 5-hour school days 5 days a week, which she is not used to.

Another big prayer-point is for accommodation.  We would love to be able to move into a house here in Worcester soon, preferably at the beginning of September.  We have been told that there are very few rentals available here, and they are hard to find.  It may also be harder for us having just arrived here as we do not yet have a bank account or rental references.  We know we serve a big God and we would love a miracle in this area!