Settling in

The past few days have been a bit of a blur, except for one day of fairly heavy emotional turmoil that spilled out in several cry sessions with Scotty. There are some fears that I have struggled with off and on about returning to the city where Scotty lived, knowing that he had a busy social life here without me at one time. I oftened wondered where I would fit into it all and how long it would be before I made lady friends of my own or we could make friends as a couple. We have prayed much about certain things that I knew could come up and that we would be patient with the emotional challenges that moving to a new culture brings. Last night we attended a pancake dinner downstairs which included about 25 or so shoe-shiner boys to whom our friend Randy bases the majority of his ministry here. We also invited a few of our Bolivian friends, one of them being Dani, a girl my age who is part of our church plant team. I shared some of my struggles with her and was very much encouraged by her Biblical and Christ-centered response, as well as plentiful offerings to just be a shoulder to cry on or someone who can listen. We've made plans to get together on Monday to tour the area we live in, looking for the best butcher, produce market, and other useful shops. Later in the week I'm planning on joining her and a couple other girls to cook lunch together and get to know each other better. God is so gracious in the way He quickly answered our prayers and has opened up opportunities for me to make friends with nationals here. Scotty also has reconnected with an old friend, Negro, who seems to be growing in his faith and shares similar interests as Scotty. In his last term, Scotty played for a university basketball team and has already visited practice with another team. He's strongly considering playing again as a way to make non-believing friends and get some good exercise.

We're settling in quickly, having taken many trips to the markets to fill my pantry with yummy things to cook with, as well as buying some fun plants to make the apartment feel more homey. We also met with our new Spanish teacher, Jamie, this afternoon and set up a time to get together next week to start our lessons. I was pleasantly surprised to hear him say that we are at an advanced level of Spanish ability and he seemed to wonder why we wanted classes at all.

Tonight we're taking time for ourselves to have a date, awaiting with growling tummies a fantastic Argentinian steak place down the street where Scotty knows the owner. We like the idea of frequenting a handfull of markets and restaurants where we can get to know the staff, hopefully building relationships in the community and becoming familiar faces (I'm sure that won't take too long since there aren't too many white faces like ours!). We continue to marvel that we are back and see the hand of God over and over smoothing the way for us.