Our Last Couple of Days in the Village

Well, here we are, with just 2 more full days out here in the village. This
has turned out to be our very longest stay yet! 8 full weeks, plus an extra
2 days. We've scheduled 8-week stays in the past, but sickness or other
unavoidable things have always come up and shortened it to 6-ish weeks stay.
Matt has a theory (and I believe he's right) that the last week is always
the hardest, no matter if the stay was 2 weeks or 22. There's just
something about knowing a transition is coming up, and your mind starts
focusing on the stuff ahead... for me, hot showers and a washing machine are
two of the very biggest. And the more your mind starts focusing on what's
ahead, it's harder to not detach from the present.
Matt wrapped up his last day of translation work yesterday. They finished
revising Mark chapter 10. If that doesn't sound like much progress was
made, let me explain what a huge task revising is! Some days, Matt and the
guys will spend a good hour on one single verse. Talking about the meaning,
the implications of how to say it, and trying to find an appropriate way in
Nukna so that the meaning comes across clearly.
For the kids and I, school is over (we sure managed to drag the work out for
almost 3 weeks of the holiday (but we need the several-times a week daily
structure). Kaitlyn still has to wrap up a few things on her Country Report
on Ecuador, and then she's finished with 4th grade!
These next two days will be centered around inventorying everything we leave
out here (especially things like food items, medical stuff, cleaning
supplies, etc) so that I know exactly what we need to bring out for our next
stay. Because we won't have much space on the helicopter going home, I'm
going to try to get as much of the bedding washed ahead of time, so that we
can just leave it out here for the next time. So that means tonight, Justin
and Julianne will be sharing a bed, and hopefully (all depends on whether we
get some good sun or not) I'll do another set of bedding tomorrow and then
all four kids will double up for our last night. They might not sleep as
well, but that will be a whole lot less bedding to have to pack up and bring
back to Ukarumpa!
It's rather silly, but I'm excited about today and tomorrow because I have
rationed my disposable diapers (I usually allow myself one a day out here)
and I have enough so that I can use only disposables for today and tomorrow!
(don't want to have to cart soggy diapers home!) So after I wash my last
bucket-full of diapers out this morning, I'm DONE with cloth for the next 2
days! =)
I'm looking forward to a radio sked with a good friend this afternoon (you
don't know WHAT a treat it is to get to talk to a friend, in English, for a
half an hour!!! I've been looking forward to this for days!
Last night, Matt invited our two co-translators and their families over for
a movie night and he showed them "The Tale of Desperaux". Cute movie. I
think they enjoyed it, even if it was all in English. Matt does a good job
of giving a synopsis before the movie starts so that they can hopefully
follow along.
Ok, I've stalled from washing diapers and sheets long enough. Hopefully my
next update will be from back home in Ukarumpa!
I'm so excited to be home and have internet and Skype again (and just in
time for our new niece and nephew's birth on 2 July!) and get to re-unite
with good friends in Ukarumpa whom I haven't seen in over a year! And start
the birthday celebrations! Nathan will be turning 8 the day after we get
home, and then Kaitlyn's birthday follows shortly after!
Ok, enough ramblings, but that's just a snapshot of what's going on here.