House Hunting

We are so very glad to have arrived in Zambia in one piece with all of our suitcases, and to have had a great start returning to work with both of our organizations. I (Amy) have been sick since December 30 which made for a very scatterbrained packing and travel process, and an even more tricky time when we arrived. I didn't leave the room we're staying in for an entire week, had a slight pneumonia scare, but am happy to announce that I'm almost back to 100%.

In the middle of the mystery illness (aka bronchitis, we're pretty sure), we had an open afternoon to go house hunting. We're currently staying in one room of the Family Legacy housing complex which is now full up with families living and serving here. We are grateful to have this comfortable place to stay while we're searching, but are ready to find a home of our own to really settle into life here.

House hunting here is difficult and far from the glamorous open houses with free candy like in America. I keep stalking the same 3 Zambian real estate websites for new rent listings, and sometimes I'll get a word of someone who knows someone who has a house up for rent. So when we were lined up with an agent to take us to a few properties last week, we were ecstatic. Except that the showings turned out to be a game to see if we'd like the kinda bad or the pretty bad. At the end of our search we had to choose between the house that had only 3 dead roaches in the kitchen with rotting cabinets, the house that looked as if it was rotting, the overpriced cottage in a bad location, the dream house located off of about 20 minutes of a dirt road covered with craters and boulders, or the farm house with 3" spaces around the door frames big enough for black mambas to come cuddle in our bed. Needless to say, we're still hunting.

The rotting house

The only-3-roaches house

The dream house off the Land-Rover-ad road

The black mamba farm house

We know we probably won't find perfect, but we're trying to find a little Bardi nest, somewhere livable that can be our home here in Zambia. It's turning out to be a bit harder than we anticipated due to rent prices increasing from an overall national inflation (some houses we've found in our requested area are upwards at KR 30,000/month for rent which is nearly $6,000. for 3 BR, 2 Bath. in a third world country. crazy, right?!). We found a few more places to view sometime this week and are just praying God makes it very known to us which house is to be our home. We would be so honored if you'd join us in praying, too!

Love,
A&W