Back home with visitors!

November 2nd we moved back home! So grateful to be back in a space that we know and have really made our own. Crazy enough, I did the math, and in the month of October we slept in our own beds 7 nights. I think that caught us by surprise; we didn't plan to be out of pocket that much. So it felt really good to be home.

A local friend and I worked hard all day to get the fine layers of dust off of EVERYTHING in our home. We ended up rolling up our longest piece of carpet, to shake out the dust outside just before it started to rain. Austin worked most of the day to get our heaters up and running so that we could heat our house up. By mid-afternoon, I'll be honest, I was dreaming of sweatpants and a quite night settling back in to life at home.

But that would be way too predictable for the life we are coming to know here. At 4:30, 4 women from our homestay family showed up with a big bag of something. We went through the long line of greetings and "why weren't you there?" before they let me know they had come to use our shower. The weather has gotten colder and the community shower is starting to get really crowded.

"Why of course, come in" we replied. First I had to explain that our water has a strong bleach smell, as Austin cleaned out the water tank while we were living somewhere else. The bleach was fully diluted, it just smelled like you'd been swimming after your shower.

"No problem", they said.
"We've also been gone for 2 weeks and I haven't used the shower yet. It should be fine, but I don't know. Our electricity has been off for the last 3 days, so the hot water tank may not be completely full either," I explained.
"No problem" was again their reply.
So we got them set up in our bedroom and bathroom. Austin took apart one of the heaters he had just put together, so that the bathroom would be warmer for them. I taught them how to use a shower and explained how to regulate the temperature of the water.
"Oh, I forgot my conditioner, do you have some?" Kaleen asked.
"No problem," and I showed her where it was. It wasn't what she was used to, so I served her up a small bowl of my homemade yogurt instead.

By 6p.m. the first 2 women were back in the bathroom bathing, while I served tea and the left over oatmeal bread and apple butter from our family fall celebration. By 6:45 they were finishing up and complaining that the water had gotten cold. The entire water heater had been drained.

"Let's eat dinner and maybe it will fill back up in the meantime" I proposed.

Luckily I had made a chicken noodle casserole ahead of time, to make our first night back home a little easier. Little did I know how grateful I would be for it. Served with local presentation, we had chicken noodle casserole and steamed pumpkin. Some liked it and others didn't, but they were very gracious.

On low electricity the hot water heater wasn't even half full yet. So I began boiling water to take back to the final 2 women who were now patiently waiting. After 8 trips (of my 3 largest pots/trip) the ladies had all the water they needed and were finishing up.

By 9 p.m. Austin was delivering them home. Needless to say, we fell into bed that night with a good case of the giggles. What a crazy night. And to be back in our beds with tired bodies after a long day, we slept really well!