Functioning

Veggie Tales aficionados like myself will be familiar with the Veggie Tales version of "Give Me Oil in my Lamp".  One of the verses goes "Give me umption in my gumption, help me function function function", and Larry interjects "I'm functioning!"

After today I finally feel that we might actually be functioning.  The first couple of days here at YWAM Worcester were a little rough. Turns out there had been a small miscommunication regarding our arrival, so our room was not ready, and of course we had no electricity on our first evening.  Add to that the logistics of trying to unpack our 5 very full suitcases plus all the hand-luggages into our 2 small rooms, and the realization that eating the cafeteria food was just not going to work for our family, and we had a rather chaotic environment.  

But after 1 trip to a hardware shop for planks (shelving), 3 trips to the mall for, well, everything, and a well-deserved 4th trip to the mall for Kevin and the kids to see the Minions movie so that I could scrub our rooms from top to toe, rearrange furniture, and unpack some more, we are finally in functioning mode.

Here are some pictures of our newly cleaned and organized living quarters:

The above 3 pictures are of the kids bedroom / kitchen / dining room / living area, all combined into a 12ft x 12ft room.  We ate dinner here this evening - cup-a-soups and grilled cheese sandwiches that Kevin whipped up in the communal kitchen. 

And this one is our bedroom.  That beautiful fireplace was hiding behind a chest of drawers so I did some rearranging and gave it a good scrub (sadly it is not a functioning fireplace).  

The kids have already started to make friends.  The base is very family-friendly and there are tons of kids around.  Our next-door neighbors are from Brazil, here on the English Learning School.  So communication is tricky but Daniel is already firm friends with their son Juda.  Here is a picture of them playing together on the soccer field this evening (you can just make out Daniel's red T-shirt):

....and one more of the beautiful view we enjoyed this evening:

It honestly does still feel like camping in many ways.  To get something from the refrigerator, it's like walking out of your house and to the end of your driveway, and back again.  It's the same for the bathroom and nearest sink. Hot showers are not always an option. Everything takes a lot more effort and time.  But we are reminded that we are currently living in more luxurious quarters than most of the world.  And it's good for us to get a taste of what it's like to live here on the base before - hopefully - moving into a small house within the next month or so.  We know we are in the right place, and we are very thankful.