Differences

Just a few days until we leave Albertville, France and I'm reflecting on our stay here....

I think after 7 months, we've finally adjusted to living in France.  I guess that means it's time to pack up and move on to an even harder adjustment.  Just thinking about adjusting to life in Africa is a little daunting.  It takes me back to when we made the move here to France.  Adjusting to living in a foreign place was no easy task.  When we first arrived in France we were hit with so many differences large and small.

1. Airport.  Not so much the language barrier, but that we couldn't get our strollers until baggage claim and that those picking you up are not allowed in baggage claim.  Thus we had to carry everything from the plane (including 2 very sleepy kids) all the way from the plane, through customs, to baggage claim and then we were still on our own (but with wheels) until getting through 2 sets of security doors.  Feel free to read or reread my post on that experience.  http://wildauersgototogo.blogspot.fr/2015/01/mission-impossible.html

2. Time.  The time is 7 hours different.  Jet lag really hits you when you move across an ocean with kids.  It took our kids several weeks to adjust to the time difference.  The first few nights they would wake up for an hour or more in the middle of the night ready to go for the day...but it wasn't day.

3. Food.  It's hard to imagine now, but the first time I went to the grocery store, my mind was blown.  I didn't know what anything was, what any of the labels said, how much anything cost, nor how to cook it (and I like to cook).  Thankfully, it only took a few times of going to the store, to figure out what things were, how much they cost, and that food here tastes so much better and is better for you because they don't add a ton of preservatives.  Without having a car, it took us a few weeks to really stock up on the essentials.  I won't miss trying to get home while lugging a stroller tied down with bags of food (that easily out weighed the kid sitting in the front of the stroller) every week.  On second thought, maybe I will.  We will see how things are like in Togo...

4. Language.  You would think this would have been number 1, but surprisingly I think we got by a few days without the language barrier being a problem.  Of course knowing French would have helped at the airport and at the store, but you can find ways to communicate without words; it's just a little more challenging.  Eventually though, you really need to learn the language to get by and not make so many mistakes.

5. Schedule.  We didn't have much of a schedule before moving to France.  Pastors don't have a 9-5 day job, they work all the time, here and there and everywhere, thus making days a little less orderly.  I actually really like order, so this was a nice change for me, albeit difficult to follow a schedule with kids.

6. School.  I had been out of school for 7 years and Micah 9, so getting back into school mode was a big challenge and of course we had the added kid obstacles as well, 3 kids that is.  I admire any full-time student with kids.  It is not easy and something I would prefer never to do again (haha, I still have more language learning to do).

7. Sicknesses.  I had never had conjunctivitis before coming here.  Now the kids and I have had it twice, a few weeks after getting here and now a few weeks before we leave here.  Liza and David seemed to be sick all the time with all the different viruses that were passed around between the little ones at the nursery for the first couple months.  Then allergens really hit in the Spring here.  Apparently being surrounded by mountains isn't all glorious.  Allergens are trapped with no where to go, but to your eyes and nose and throat.  I wish I would have brought a bunch of allergy medicine with me (it's not cheap here).

8. Housing.  I don't know how I almost forgot this one.  Moving to an apartment building with kids (who love to be kids - read: love to be loud all the time) and tight spaces can really try one's patience.  Yet, the community has been great for all of us and the kids have loved having friends to play with everyday.  Even though the friends will be missed, I am definitely looking forward to having our own house again.  And even though Sam is trepidatious about speaking to the African kids in French, I think he'll be just fine and will pick up a few tribal languages before we know it.

Here's to moving to Africa!  Although I might not be looking forward to dealing with all the challenges we will face, I am ready to get there and conquer them.  It's been a long time coming and I am excited to see how our Lord Jesus will bring us through to our new home in Togo.

Sam is really excited about moving to Togo.  David is just going with the flow.  Liza on the other hand is reverting back to bad sleep habits and clinging to mama.  I pray that I don't get so caught up in the move that I forget to give my children the needed attention which will aid them in adjusting to this major change as well.

Moving to Africa...Soon

I was trying to find pictures to go in this blog post and the latest ones are of houses in Dapaong.  I suppose that's a good topic to write about!  The house we thought we'd be living in is occupied by another missionary family (different organization).  Bummer, but hey, that means there's another family, with kids, who will be homeschooling as well.   We've been working with Jacob Gaugert to find a house to live in, and we decided to go with a 3 bedroom house with lots of space outside for the kids to play and a gazebo which we can *hopefully* use to eat outside most of the time.  This house also has AC units already, which may have had something to do with our decision.  Especially since we just went though a week long heatwave - canicule, in French - here where temperatures were just as high as they will be in Dapaong.  I have to admit, I am not looking forward to the heat or being so close to the sun.  I get heat rash and burn easily when I'm out in the sun.  Yet, somehow I will make do.

Our house in Dapaong 

We are wrapping up our time here in Albertville.  I stopped taking classes as of the end of June to stay home with the kids and get things done before the big move to Africa.  Samuel's last day of school was July 3rd, though he has wanted to keep going to school at home with mama as his teacher.  I've been trying to have school with him as much as possible while accomplishing tasks at hand.  So, we go on a lot of field trips!

Samuel enjoying a taco on his last day of school

We took a field trip on the train to Chambery last week to the travel clinic.  David and I still needed to get the yellow fever vaccine.  The others got their yellow fever vaccine in the states, but the earliest a person can get the yellow fever vaccine is 9 months old. Thus, David and I (since I'm breastfeeding) had to wait.  Thankfully, David just turned 9 months.  We went on 2 field trips to the pharmacy to pick up medications for a travel medical kit and for malaria.  And we took the bus on another field trip to go shopping for other "necessities" like sandals, bed sheets, and a can opener!

Recess: Bucket of Fun

We are getting rid of all of our winter coats and clothes and most of mine and Liza's pants, since we will be wearing skirts and dresses all the time (outside of the house anyway).  I'm starting to clean the apartment and soon will start to pack everything up.  Today I planned out the rest of our meals here to use up all of our food and will go grocery shopping one last time Wednesday.  Final exams begin Thursday and end next Tuesday.  Please be praying for Micah!  We have learned a lot of French in a little over 6 months and even though we still have a lot to learn, we are looking forward to moving to Dapaong to truly be immersed in West African life, culture, and language.  There, we must use all that we have learned.

Family Picture in Albertville, France

Conflans Medieval City and the Alps in the Background

So what day will we finally make it to Togo?  We move out of our apartment July 28th, pick up Micah's brother, Matt, at the airport in Geneva and spend a week with him in Germany.  Upon returning, Micah and Matt will leave the kids and I in Geneva while they drive back to Albertville to get all of our bags, come back to Geneva and check them into the airport.  The next day we will fly to Lome, Togo.  We will arrive in Lome at 10 that night.  August 6th is the day we finally make it to Togo.  We will spend about 2 weeks in Lome getting our visas, buying a car, and shopping for other needed items like pans, fans & cans of food.

"Kids Say the Darndest Things"

I asked the little ones a bunch of questions and this is how they responded...

Do you like living in France?

Sam: yes

Liza: yeah

What's your favorite thing about France?

S: playing outside with Levi

L: going to the train station

What’s your favorite thing to do at school?

S: draw pictures

L: play with my friends

What’s your favorite activity after school?

S: ride my bike home

L: play with mama

What’s your favorite food to eat?

S: tacos

L: tacos 

(they could be talking about Mexican and/or Turkish tacos)

Can you speak some French for me?

S: no...umm.. ne touche pas (Do not touch)

L: un, deux, trois, quatre, cinq, six, sept, huit, neuf, et dix (1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 & 10)

What’s your favorite song to sing?

S: Old McDonald (they just sang this at their school's festival)

L: abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz now me know me abcs next time won’t you sing with me

What do you like to do with David?

S: laugh with him

L: play with David

What do you like to do with Sam/Liza?

S: have fun laughing 

L: play with Sam

Who do you miss from the states?

S: Jacob and Levi

L: cousins

Are you ready to go to Togo?

S: yes

L: yeah

If you could pick one thing to take to Togo, what would it be?

S: whatever you pick mama

L: my books and my purse

Who do you want to pray for?

S: Liza and David

L: Daddy

A few more fun questions/answers...

What makes you laugh?

S: mom makes me laugh by tickling me

L: tickle

How old is your mom?

L: too really old

How tall is your mom?

L: big

What does your mom do when you're not around?
L: pocket full of posies

If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for?

S: gluing

What makes you proud of your mom?

S: making tacos

How are you and your mom the same?

S: tacos

How are you and your mom different?

S: by getting dressed with different clothes

How do you know your mom loves you?

S: by giving hugs and kisses

Where is your mom's favorite place to go?

S: mama likes to drop me off at school

What is you favorite place to go?

S: to the taco place

A short video of David's responses:

Spring Break

The hardest thing about studying French in France is not being able to see all the amazing places in Europe.  Seriously, who goes all the way to Paris, France and doesn't see the Eiffel Tower?  Our family!  The picture above is from a year ago, when we visited my brother's family in Paris, Tennessee.  (I thought I'd throw it in for fun!)  Anyways, we found really cheap tickets and took the TGV (the fastest passenger train in the world) from Albertville to Paris Easter weekend to go to church, but there was no time to "see" Paris before coming back to Albertville for classes.

I think most people would think that's a little crazy.  Yet, even though I would have loved to "see" Paris, I am not at all disappointed with our trip to Paris.  We were truly thankful to have the chance to receive and celebrate Holy Communion on Easter Sunday with our fellow Lutherans of a sister church body in France (and to go to a French potluck was just icing on the cake; think potluck and 5 course meal all in one).

Europe is full of amazing places to visit.  I'm not going to start naming them, because I'll just long for them even more.  So when one is given a window of opportunity to travel a little, one should do so, and so we were determined to go somewhere! Yet, we did not have much spare time to plan a route. So what is one to do? Well, decide on a destination. We decided to visit Luther Land, also known as Germany.

Back in the states, we did not take many vacations, but when we did, I would spend a lot of time researching all the possibilities of places to go and things to do.  We never tried to make it up as we went along and we always had our lodging set and a few coupons printed off for here or there.  Well, not this time.

I did not have much time at all to research places to go.  On the nights that I didn't fall asleep after putting the kids down, I had the choice to study or plan for our vacation and even though I'd rather have been planning our vacation, I chose to study.  That left us with very little information to go on for our trip and no lodging booked for the last 3 nights.  Some how we made it around Germany with 3 little ones and very minimal Internet though.  I've never stopped at so many tourist information places before in my life!  

We started our spring break near Strasbourg, France (Wœrth, to be exact) going to Sainte Trinité, a congregation in fellowship with the LCMS.  We were so thankful for our time there, to visit with fellow Lutherans and have The Lord's Supper again.  It was a great start to our spring break.

We ventured on to Luther Land.  We visited Heidelberg, Worms, Eisenach, Erfurt, Weimar, Wittenberg, Leipzig, and Nuremberg.  And of course, since we had to drive through Switzerland to get back to Albertville, we had to stop at both a cheese and a chocolate factory.

As we look back, it wasn't just a sight-seeing tour for our family. Many of the places also provided a chance for Micah to strengthen his future classroom discussions of our Lutheran heritage.

You can see more of our trip by clicking this link to my pictures on Facebook.  A new window will open and you can click on a picture to scroll through all the pictures with captions.

Sink or Swim in Class

Our class

We wrapped up our first trimester of class a couple weeks ago with a week of exams.  Each day we had a different part of the exam in the morning and afternoon.  We had grammar, reading, dictation, oral & written comprehension, and oral & written production.  Yes, a whole week of testing.  It was actually very nice.  With the testing spread out through out the week, it gave Micah and me extra time to study and review everything we've learned since January, that is to say, everything we haven't had time to revisit because we desire to take time to care for 3 little ones when we aren't in class.

Learning a language with a family is not easy.  Some might say it's insane.  Some meaning me.  I don't think the cultural change or the language barrier has been that difficult.  Yet, the transition from being a stay at home mom to a full time student and yet still a mom has been crazy hard.  The first couple weeks of class I studied every minute I could to try to stay on top of everything we were learning.  I quickly realized that I couldn't keep that up.  I wasn't getting nearly enough sleep staying up past midnight and then waking up through out the night to feed a 3 month old and getting up for the day at 6:30am.  I wasn't spending much quality time at all with my kids and they were starting to let me know through their behavior.  I finally realized towards the end of the second week that I couldn't do it all.  I could not possibly learn it all and be there for my family.  So I've been trying to convince myself that it's okay that I don't have time to study everything.  Of course that's easier said than done.  Every day I struggle with wanting to learn everything and be able to speak French as well as my peers.

Towards the end of the trimester I was starting to drown in class.  I was falling so far behind that I couldn't understand our teacher and I wasn't able to think fast enough to say anything in French.  I have so much in my head, but I can't seem to pull out what I need fast enough to form a sentence.  I was ready to stop taking classes and be a stay at home mom again.  I was pretty much convinced of this after talking with a few other moms who are finding alternative ways to learn French.  Surprisingly, it was during exam week that I started to swim again.  I finally had a chance to study without having more water (information) poured on top of me.

After exams I was still fairly certain that I wanted to stop taking classes, because I knew that if I continued I would start to sink again and eventually drown with all the new information.  However, our teacher talked me into continuing on.  She completely understands my situation with kids and everything.  But she can also tell that I'm understanding concepts and that I just don't have time to study and memorize those concepts.  She thinks I should keep with it and at least get what I can out of it.  Even if I can't quite utilize everything I'm learning yet, it will be a lot easier once we get to Africa to apply it, than if I stop taking classes.  I agree with her, I learn best in a classroom.  I would get a lot more from class in a week than I would on my own in a month, maybe even 2 months.  Especially considering back in the states I would always fall asleep working with Rosetta Stone.

So, here's to 2 more months of classes for me!  They won't be easy, but they will be worth it in the end.  We will still be here through the end of July, as Micah will be going on through July.  I'm pretty sure I'll be drowning again by the end of June though.  I think that it would be best if I get out before I completely drown.  This will also give me time to accomplish last minute tasks and care for the household before going to Togo in August.

Our Shipment

All of our containers and boxes of donations, theological books and personal items have arrived safely in Togo.  Less than 4 months and we will be there too!  Thank you Jacob Gaugert for all the hours you put into getting our shipment to Dapaong.

Notre Appartement à Albertville

Last week, we learned vocabulary for housing and directions.  Our homework one night was to draw a layout of our appartment and walk the class through the layout using the vocab we learned (by memory).  I've copied my layout and short dialogue below.  

Nous avons un appartement de 4 pièces à rez-de-chaussée.  Nous avons l'entrée dans le couloir à gauche, nous avons la salle de séjour et la cuisine. Pour le droit est la chambre de Sam et la salle de bain. Au fond du couloir a gauche est notre chambre avec une douche, des toilettes, et la chambre de Liza avec une douche.

Pictures of our apartment

Kitchen

Dishwasher...

Dining room & living room

Study

Sam's room

Full Bathroom (sans bath tub)

Hallway

Master bedroom

View out the master bedroom window on a rainy day

(we're on the main floor, so the mountains are blocked a little bit by the bushes and trees, 

but they are still pretty amazing)

There are showers & sinks in both the master bedroom and Liza's room 

and this closet toilet is in between the 2 bedrooms

Liza's room

Liza's view of the mountains (although the clouds are hiding them a little)