Some nice surprises

First, let me say that we got our cargo through today. It was an extra 200 bucks, but it's here and that's a relief. Thank you to those of you who prayed for this.

I have a friend who teases me for my optimism :-) But the thing is that it really is easy to be optimistic in this beautiful world (okay, of course there are tragedies as well- I'm not being glib, just enjoying the positives of life). Here are some from Congo so far:

-the internet access being so much better than I'd thought and it's so gorgeously green (I think I mentioned those two before)
-seeing my favorite bird from my time in Tanzania and hearing that it's pretty common (i think it's a pintailed whydah) it's black and white and the male when mating has this amazingly long tail so that when it flies it looks like it is swimming
-the rainy season- I love real thunderstorms so awesome. The dry season starts soon so I'm savoring the sound of rain on the corrogated iron roof, and the lightning. Sam is mesmorized too.
-it seems like making friendships here will not be too hard and that is important to me
-there are avocados, also passion fruit, mango, papaya.. but I expected those- the avocado is a nice surprise

Of course, there are a lot of things up in the air- finding housing seems like it will be really difficult, and once we find a place, outfitting it could be hard (and time consuming) too. We'll need to buy a stove, refrigerator, and probably a washing machine and appliances are super expensive here. Plus we'll need to screen the windows to keep out mosquitos and hope that the water and electricity are relatively stable in the neighborhood.

We'll be looking for a babysitter at some point and that is a big deal, but the only way I can imagine to do real work here. I can't really take Sam to the WHO with me for example even if I can work from home during his naps.

But all in all, I am really optimistic about living in Congo for the foreseeable future