3 Adventures for the Day (With a bonus from yesterday)

One of our roommates, The Paw, courtesy of our roommate Jacob. See story below.

Adventure #1 - We're living with 2 cats. One is a fat (somewhat mean) calico and the other is one with a broken paw (it's broken just above its paw and it sort-of limps along on the part that's broken. I think it was a stray that this family took in.) The one with the broken paw I call "The Paw" and always think of the line from Toy Story where they're in the vending machine where the alien toys all say together, "The claw decides who will stay and who will go." And I obviously sub in the paw for the claw. Anyway, a number of us are allergic to cats. And since all the students meet at our apartment for large group meetings, we put the big cat in the bedroom and The Paw out on the balcony. We have since discovered that The Paw can jump from the balcony through our roommates window (they don't use screens here) and into their bedroom. Keep in mind that we're 6 stories up. So today we notice that the balcony is minus The Paw. We look and look. Our roomate's window isn't locked but the wind has blown it mostly closed. So Jacob (roommate) and I leave the meeting to go and see if the remains of The Paw are to be found on the ground below, and we see a cat running! He ran under a car, and sure enough it was The Paw. HOW ?!?!?!? did this cat get down 6 stories! Then we lost him, then they found him under the hood of that same car. As our other roommate Steph said tonight, "He's been laying down for a long time. He's had quite a day."

Adventure #2 - I'm spending one afternoon a week mentoring 2 women and going on campus with them. So Wednesday's are the day. We're still very much learning our way around. We take a bus, then get on a large van which takes us the rest of the way. As we were leaving we got on a large white van that seemed to have the correct direction on it. So we board and are weaving farther and farther into this neighborhood. I'm thinking that campus must be on the other side. But our driver stops at the edge of this neighborhood and basically tells us to get off. Um, okay - where do we go? So I used my little language to say where we want to go. He said to wait at the corner and another would be coming. This is not so comforting when you don't know where you're at and you're waiting for a van to hopefully come. We asked 2 more vans that came by and they told us the same. Fortunately we only waited a few minutes, and the correct van came - Phew! Thank you Jesus for taking care of us. But we DID make it home just fine. We got to meet a few women and have coffee with them and talk with them. That was pretty fun. It was my first time over to the campus area.

Advnture #3 - Aaron and I went on a date tonight. I had him take me to the city center so I could again learn to navigate another bus and see where it went. We got to eat at a really traditional, really good restaurant. Our neighborhood (though all apartments) is relatively quiet. Being more in the middle of things you really see that, yes, millions of people do live here.

Bonus adventure - we've had no hot water the last 2 1/2 days. It did get fixed today - Yay! But last night Livie really needed a bath. So I heated water on the stove and mixed it with cool water in a plastic bowl, and we scrubbed Liv right in the kitchen :). (our sink is really small) A bit of water to mop up, but we did okay. Glad I don't have to do that all the time, though - definitely a 2 person job.

It's just crazy, though, to look out just about any window and see hundreds and even thousands of apartments around you and in the distance. The city is beautiful as it's sortof located amidst hills and mountains. So you can really see around quite a ways. But it's so sobering to think that in a place this size there's only a few dozen known believers. I feel like a very small candle in a very large, dark room. I'm so grateful to know, though, that in Him our light is sure. Keep praying for us :).