Island Life! (Part 2)

Part Two:  A Whole New Way of Living...

We were so thankful to have this small glimpse into what life is like in the bush.  

Things like: 

• No electricity (solar panels, though)--which meant not as many fans.  Biem is a very hot place so that was an adjustment!  It meant less lights at night--just another thing we adjusted to.  This whole solar electric system thing was probably the biggest adjustment!
• No buying supplies
• Our kids being FILTHY every. single. day. (shower time was glorious!)
• Nowhere to go!  Literally.  We were pretty much stuck on that island!  Not that it was horrible, just different :) 
• more bugs.  and rodents...
• learning to live life in the bush with the Rimestads!  This was a huge plus.  So great for team dynamics, to experience this with them!

Here are some pictures to show you what everyday life was like...

Here are a couple pictures of the missionary house we stayed in (thank you, Depners!  We have so many good memories from living in your house!) 

the house had a play area up in the loft--definitely a hit with our kids!

we had a water bed :)  Not going to lie, it wasn't my favorite bed I've ever slept in!  Lol.

One thing that was really EASY to adjust to was seeing this view every morning from my kitchen window!  This picture doesn't do it justice, but that's the ocean right out there--every single night we could hear the ocean waves, right outside our house.  It was so glorious.

We had pretty much an endless supply of fruit!  We brought some things in with us to trade with the people--it was great.  They would bring us bananas, oranges (those green things are oranges), pineapples, sweet potatoes, papaya...etc, and we would trade them for it.  Pretty sweet deal! 

This was a regular occurrence.  Some days there was a constant stream of people at our house--just wanting to talk to us, or trade with us, etc.  It was great for language learning!

Infected bug bites became an everyday occurrence too...We were constantly cleaning sores, putting peroxide on them, covering them with bandaids...

Speaking of bugs...look at these bad boys!  I wish I could post the video on here, these ants carried this dead lizard across our bedroom one night!  Sick.

Oh, yep, also we had rats...I could hear them running around the loft at night!  (shudder).  Rats are a fear of mine, so I'm kind of glad we had them because now I can say I've experienced it!  I know rats will be a part of my future :(

 This rat was caught in a trap in the pantry...and when we got home that day, it had hobbled back and it was underneath Daisy's bed.  Nathan took it outside and a Biem guy helped him kill it with a screwdriver and then they fed it to a cat :) 

Okay, so doing bush orientation with David and Emily's family was so incredible.  We learned a ton about each other!  And it was just so amazing to have them right there, doing it alongside us.

The kids were very happy to play every day, too :)

I love this picture... Emily made the kids hot chocolate one day, and these are their faces, begging for more :)  With the dads imitating them in the background :)  (this picture was in the Rimestad's house)

Louise still adores Kaine!  And he adores her, too.  He is SO sweet with her!  I have never seen him like this with anyone else, ever.  I love their relationship.  So funny--for some reason, Lou's instinct is to lick his face! :)  

Just living everyday bush life with the Rimestads was so much fun :)

Such a good month of learning!  More to come!