Yes, I realize this is September. But here in the Hilltop, we recently celebrated the beginning of the new year of 2007. (The local calendar is a bit different from our calendar.)

It is hard to believe we have already been here for almost two months. A smattering of what we’ve been up to in that time:

• We got over jet-lag, and started (but not finished!) getting used to the altitude here.
• We’ve eaten some of the best food in the whole wide world, which we now get to eat pretty much whenever we want. (Injera b’ wat, anyone?)
• We’ve been able to see three different families that we previously shared life with in the Sandbox. Two of them now live within a five minute walk of us here!
• We got our driver’s licenses and registered our groovy “flower bus” (Number of offices visited? 7. Number of lines waited in? 28. Being able to drive? Priceless!)
• We “initiated our intestines” with a family-wide case of dysentery (while learning how to deal with a water shortage).
• The Dreamer started grade 6, the Engineer grade 3, and the Monkey KG1 (Kindergarten year 1 of 2) at their incredible new international school, Bingham Academy. So far they’ve loved it there.
• Mr. Rikshaw and I started attending language school full-time. (The course is really intense, but we are learning so much and we are extremely thankful to be able to attend such a solid language program!)
• We joined some friends for a New Year’s Day mountain hike.

Transitions are always stressful in many ways, but we are thrilled to be here, and we have been blown away by the beauty in the land and people that we’ve encountered. Please continue to pray especially for our continuing transition, our language-learning (our brains seem to have a tendency to pop leaks!), and health and protection (especially on the road).