The countdown is on

In less than 24 hours, three of our students arrive. Tim and the other dorm dads are doing airport runs tomorrow night and most of Monday. Seven of our students arrive Monday at supper time as they are all coming from the C&MA field in Cambodia - these seven have known each other since grade four! Our last student arrives a week late due to her parent's furlough schedule.

We cleaned the dorm today. Tim did a bunch of cleaning jobs while I bleached the kitchen cupboards and contents (thanks to Bonnie for introducing me to the importance of bleach at age 14!). We then tackled the outdoor porch. Two cupboards out there were filled with a bunch of old and broken sports equipment, umbrellas, tools and toys. We went through everything, organizing the "keep" pile and throwing away the rest. I watered the nearly dead plants. We have about 40 pots and although a few of the plants are completely brown, long-timers here say to water them first before uprooting as they may come back.

Tim also cleaned out underneath the house - its built up on piles and people have obviously been using the lower space as storage for a long time. We're not sure what to do with most of those belongings but at least its organized. Tim was given the camping supplies for the school and that stuff went in an secured spot.

I drove Kaleb to Island Plaza, the nearest mall, for a haircut this morning. With stores like Fila, Nike, Versace, Adidas, Tommy Hilfiger...I doubt we'll lack for brand name clothing. In this same mall is the Cold Storage grocery store where we bought a load of groceries for our dorm. The store manager found out we were first timers, not only to the store but also to the island, so he gave both Tim and I gift bags full of food! And then he and another employee carried our huge load up a flight of stairs and packed our van for us - talk about good service :)

For supper, we headed to the Indian restaurant within walking distance. Several other staff members were there so we enjoyed great conversation. My esophagus and stomach are still tingling from the effects of the awesome Chicken Masala and Chicken Tikka that we had.

It was a busy but very productive day. And to top it all off, one of the other dorm dads came over tonight to see if we needed anything or had any questions. Then he prayed with us. What a great way to end the day!