I am also happy to have the internet and we have skyped with family and friends both weekends.  It is great to have family see the girls and for everyone to see us.  It helps us not miss everyone as much if we can see them.  It is great to be able to keep in touch through so many different ways on the internet.  I am also loving the gym next door to our house.  I go about three times a week and wish I could go more often.  Working out seems to be the only normal thing for me right now.  Everything else still seems like a challenge and something I need to figure out. 

(more…)

I am writing to tell everyone about my experience yesterday.  We were suppose to have our internet installed yesterday, but it didn’t happen (we are not surprised).  The installation man was suppose to come around 2pm and Bill decided to stay home so he could be there when the guy got there.  I then had to pick up the girls from school, which I had never done before.  I always rushed home from class so the baby sitter who is watching Maria can go home and get ready to go to night classes.  So, Bill gave me directions on what bus to take home, but somehow I misunderstood him and we took the wrong bus.  Elise and Audrey thought it was great fun to be on a bus and go a different route, but they never told me I was going the wrong way.  I suspected we were on the wrong but after about five minutes, but told myself not to worry since this was new to me.  Then we ended up crossing a huge bridge between Porto and Gaia, and I knew we were going the wrong way.  We should have been close to home by then but instead we were going farther and farther away from home.  I did not have a map with me so, I called Bill so he could look at a map and figure out what we should do.  We ended up getting off the bus at the next stop and I started looking for a bus on the other side of the street that would take us back on the same route we just came on, but I couldn’t find a bus stop.  So Bill saw on the map that we were about six blocks from the subway and he walked us through the streets until we got to the subway.  The subway is very easy to use once you know where you want to go.  So after figuring out where we wanted to go we were home in about thirty minutes.  All in all it wasn’t a terrible experience, just a little nerve wracking to have no clue where you are.  The worst part is that Elise and Audrey were getting hungry and needed to use the bathroom.  But we eventually made it home about an hour and a half later then normal.  Now I know how to use the bus and subway system better!

(more…)

Bill and I were in Zomba, Malawi, for six years before we accepted the call to Mozambique.  Being a missionary wife brings alot of challenges, but also many blessings.  Times are often difficult, but it always brings me back to the Word and the promises the Lord has for us.  It is very exciting to meet new people and see others who love the Lord and want to serve Him with their lives.  It is also very exciting to see the mission work being done on a daily basis by our missionaries.  There is so much work to do and they carry an incredible work load, but the Lord provides them with what they need to persevere. 

Maria is doing great and has really taken to her baby sitter, Ana.  She spends about four to five hours a day with Ana while Bill and I are in class.  Ana is fluent in English but we have asked her to speak Portuguese with Maria.  Ana thinks Maria is starting to understand.  Soon she will be saying words in Portuguese that I won’t know and I will need to ask Ana what Maria is saying. 

Bill is doing well and keeping very busy.  He is a bit stressed because he is about six weeks behind on the MLC course he is taking on-line.  Since we don’t have the internet he is not able to do his work.  He is also having trouble finding the time to do the work.  Apart from that he is busy running around town taking care of the work that needs to be done on our apartment (like getting the dishwasher fixed) and taking care of busy work that goes along with getting settled in a new country.  We have most of our furniture now and a bank account, so things are starting to slow down.

This week we increased our Portuguese class time from two hours a day to three hours.  It will be a big adjustment for me to be away from home for at least four hours a day (it takes half an hour to walk to class).  We also have about 1-2 hours of homework each night, and we are supposed to make time each day to practice speaking on our own.  Thankfully Bill is very helpful around the house and does much of the cleaning and is great with the kids.  It is hard to know how much Portuguese we have learned to date, but time will tell.  We obviously have learned something because we are slowly starting to communicate with people intown.  Marta, our teacher, is a very good teacher and very patient. 

We have monthly bus/train/subway passes now which also makes life much more convenient than having to figure out the fare every time we go somewhere. 

God’s Blessings,
Cathy

Well, we survived our first week in Gaia.  We are now into week two and things are slowly falling into place.  We still do not have a phone in our home or internet, but hopefully we will have that soon (2 weeks).  Today we don’t have water from 2pm till 6pm, but at least we had a warning.  In Malawi it would have gone off with no explanation. 
 
Jeff and Angela Enderle arrived last Friday - they are the other family going to Mozambique with us.  It is great to have them here with us and to have someone to speak freely with in English.  They seem to be doing well and adjusting to life here. They do have a few frustrations with getting their personal items into the country. Please pray that they get their stuff soon.
 
The girls are doing great and sleeping through the night again.  Elise and Audrey started school this week and really like it.  They don’t however like the 30 minutes walk to and from school each day.  It completely exhausts them.  Bill is looking for a bus route we can take to and from school. 
 
We started language lessons this week.  Our language teacher, Marta, is great and fluent in five languages.  She teaches at the university and is the daughter of the pastor here in Gaia.  We have class Monday through Thursday for two hours a day.  Bill and Jeff seem to be picking up the language quickly.  The disadvantage for me is not being able to practice.  Bill is spending alot of time walking the girls to and from school and at the inernet cafe or setting up a bank account or etc…  Hopefully next week I will get out a bit more and get some practice. 
 
I have figured out how to use my washing machine and my new dryer.  It has made a huge difference for my happiness.  The apartment is still very dirty, but I have come to realize that is just how it is going to be.  Dust and dirty floors are going to be a part of my life for the next year - there are three construction sights around our apartment buildling.  I try to wash the floors every day, but the dirt just appears again the next day. 
 
Tomorrow is Audreys birthday and she is taking cake to school.  It is also Fathers day and Bill is going to school with her for a few hours.  Bill is also having a birthday this weekend - his 40th!  Leave him a message here. 
 
God’s Blessings,
Cathy

Pastor Villares and his family have been awesome.  He is a very busy man, but still is findng time to get things sorted out for us.  He is a full-time university professor, plus the only pastor in the Lutheran Church of Portugal.  I think he sleeps from about 2am to 6am each night–that´s it. 

Cathy

WELS Missionary Families will do language training in Portugal before moving to Mozambique before Christmas 2008.

We made it safely.  Our flights were uneventful.  We arrived in Porto on time and all our luggage made it as well.  The girls traveled well but they were very tired. 

We made up our beds, unpacked a few essentials, and ate a quick lunch.  Then we all took a nice long three hour nap.  That evening we walked around town a bit and found a chicken and rice restaurant and ordered some food and went home.  It was delicious and even the girls were famished and ate very well.

It has been a rough start here.  Saturday morning our daughter, Audrey, woke up with a fever of 104 and it has been around that since then.   That first night no one slept well and there was a lot of crying. 

Our apartment is nice a big.  We have three bedrooms but we will only use two as bedrooms.  The third bedroom is closer to the front of the apartment and will be our office/guest room.  There are two full bathrooms, a nice sized kitchen, a large living/dinning room, and a nice entry way, and a laundry room.  We are on floor one, but really it is the second level.

Our apartment is located in the middle of Gaia.  There are tall buildings and apartments all around us.  It will take some getting used to.  The grocery store is two blocks away.  The library is five blocks away.  The subway in one block away.  Pastor Villares and the Enderle’s apartment are about five blocks away.  There is a park about four blocks away.  There are two bakeries within a block of our apartment building, yummy!  There is a Wal-Mart type store about half an hour walk away and there are Taxi’s waiting to bring you home with all your stuff. 

Monday night was had dinner with Pastor Villares and his family.  They are all very friendly and wonderful.  We felt very comfortable immediately and had a very nice meal.  His daughter Martha will be our language instructor.  She is very fluent in English and appears to be a good teacher.  She wants to start lessons on Monday after the Enderle’s arrive. 

Bill seems to be a bit frustrated with the bureaucracy here. He tried opening a bank account only to be told he needs a tax ID card.  He told them he won’t be paid in Euros and won’t need any taxes taken out of his pay checks…so he doesn’t need a tax ID card.  They told him it was essential to open a bank account so he went down to the tax ID place.  He stood in line for over a hour and didn’t get anything accomplished.  Finally he came home and realized it would not be an easy process to get a tax ID card.

Cathy