Arrival and First Impressions

We arrived very early Tuesday morning after a 36 hour trip. The sun was just coming up as we walked off the plane – a welcome sight. Most of our luggage has not yet made it to Kyrgyzstan, but we are hopeful that it will soon arrive.

After showering and resting a while, we took the taxi by ourselves to meet with our friends from Mercy Foundation. It was wonderful to see people we met in December and reconnect with them and to meet new ones. We both have an indescribable sense of how much this feels comfortable to us. We know we will have very difficult moments ahead getting used to so many new and different ways of doing things and missing family and friends, but the sense of this is right is amazing to us.

We have experienced shopping at the bazaar – actually every day since getting here as we are equipping our apartment. The bazaar is an extremely large and crowded open air market. Quite fascinating to walk though. I have been a convenience cook since becoming an empty nester, so I will be learning a whole new way of doing things with many unfamiliar foods and ways of preparation.

We have enjoyed getting to know our young translator- Natalia. She will be with us each time we go out in public for quite a while. I have been amazed that my elementary efforts to learn Russian are now paying off as I can communicate basic concepts and even understand a little.

Today we look forward to an Easter celebration at Mercy Foundation this afternoon. (They use the orthodox calendar here for religious holidays). David has been asked to preach at the Chinese church on Sunday and we look forward to that.

Next week will be a week of new beginnings as we start to make connections with the many folks that LAMb founders, Lynn and Ruby Johnston know and have worked with here.

There are exciting days ahead as the journey continues…