Thoughts from Casey

It's really amazing to be back here, especially after a week of seeing people. The crazy thing is that we still have SO many people to see. We've seen practically none of the people that we served with and for when we were here before. We haven't even had the time to show up there. Hopefully later this week we will.
For me it's frustrating with how American I am. As Americans, we just have no idea how amazing our infrastructure, systems, and businesses are. We assume the rest of the world is like that. Well, it's not! And because I've been raised in the system where things work beautifully 95% of the time, I get so impatient and frustrated with the things here that work 36.75% of the time. We sort of skirted the system to get cell phones last week because we didn't want to wait 3 months. (My ministry partner Mike got them for us, his new employees!) They weren't ready the day we were at the cell shop, even though we spent over 2 hours there. Mike went back the next day only to find out that my phone wasn't ready because they ran out of them. After a few days, we figured out that Sarah's phone wasn't receiving calls or text messages. Then, when she tried to use the gift cards that she had been given as a promotion for selecting the phone she picked, they didn't work either!! We phoned trying to fix her phone over the weekend, that didn't work. We've now spent hours at the cell shop on Monday and Tuesday trying to get her phone fixed and me a loaner until one comes in.
It's hilarious, because NOBODY has ever had an experience like that in the States. I have had to work really hard to fight my self-consumed, entitled, American nature. I have to allow this thing to run its course and trust that, eventually, we will get phones, a bank account, internet, a TV, etc. The more freaked out and frustrated I get the worse it feels. The last couple of days, I've just been really relaxed about it (at least the phone) and it's not bothering me anymore. A novel concept, I know!
Our big need now is to find one/two car/s. The car that we stole from the Torrance's will be needed by them again soon. So, just pray that God would lead us to great deals on great cars that we can actually afford. Turns out our friend Andy Duncan, who came to visit us today, might just have both of the cars we need within his family. So, we should have just asked Andy from the beginning!
So, just pray that we would continue to get settled. We should pick up the last of a group of furniture we bought from a couple over the weekend, which should be a great addition to our home (the ATM will only allow us to get out a small amount each day, so we've had to wait until we could accumulate enough).
Sarah has her first meeting with Avril Thomas, her supervisor at Living Hope, tomorrow morning. I had a great meeting with some people at the International Sports Coalition on Monday, which you can read about real soon @ ubuntusports.blogspot.com.
Thanks for all your support! We feel your thoughts and prayers!

Love,
Casey
P.S. Was thinking while running this morning that things could be a lot more challenging. I could be some place where the only hope of communicating is a satellite phone that you get to use every couple of weeks. At least I have the opportunity to even have a cell phone. This all came to me as I ran down a beautiful road on a cloudless, 70 degree morning, with mountains all around me. So things could definitely be worse!! When I complain I'm often reminded of my friend Nathan's time in Sudan. That was some serious hardship.