Can you imagine not needing hot water? So far this is what i've experienced in the houses and bathrooms we've been in. No hot water option. If you shower, it's cold, if you do laundry, cold, if you wash dishes, only cold!
Everything is Imported!
Today is day six being here in Aruba, and I'm currently enjoying a cool breeze on the beautiful patio of our host family (Erick's -our outreach leader- sister and brother in law's). I'm overlooking the peanut field that the man of the house has planted here in his backyard. There is practically no agriculture here in Aruba, and one of our hosts, Donny, works here in parliament. He wants to show that it is possible, that something besides tourism can grow here, that Aruba can produce it's own products. I believe this is prophetic: Aruba producing it's own produce, it's own fruits so to say.
So far what I've experienced here in Aruba is lots of imported goods. Since the nation is not self sufficient, they have to fly everything here. Which causes much of everything to be relatively expensive. We're eating lots of what German's would call “toast bread”, which in North America is just normal bread, tuna, cornflakes, pasta etc. Milk products are very expensive, quite the opposite of Germany.
Weather
The days are very warm and humid. So far it has ranged between around 26 and 31 degrees everyday, but since we're in rainy season we have the satisfaction of the coolness the rains bring. It typically doesn't rain all day, but in short bouts.
The Arubans
I've been really overcome by the general friendliness of the Arubans. Yesterday was our day off, and Simon and Elijah and I took the public bus up to the northern part of the island to the nice white sandy beaches. It was a bit stressful for us as a family to figure out how things work transportation wise, but many people were very helpful. Even willing to give up their seats on the bus for me, which hasn't happened so often in Germany. I've also been astounded by Erick's family, and how gracious they've been to us. They've invited nine young people into their home, given up their beds, and allowed us to use their house as their base. We were only planning on being here until last weekend, but we still haven't found a house that we could rent for ourselves to stay in. This is a prayer request of our ours! Especially since Simon and I live on the opposite end of the island with Erick's sister and brother-in-law. We have to figure out rides with various people, his family has been even more gracious to be taxiing us around, but it can't last.
Here you can see that our team is staying with family near Santa Cruz, in an area called "Paradera", and our little family is staying in Savaneta. It is about a 20-30 min drive. Our request is for a our own vehicle to get the team around the island, since public transportation isn't so great, an a house that we can live in together!!!
Not only is his family driving us around, but a contact of Volker's (our DTS Leader), Jose, has come out to Aruba from his home in Venezuela to drive us around with his car when we need him. He is a pastor/missionary as well, and spends half the year here and the other half back home. This is really touching though, that one of his purposes of being here is to serve us.Someone else who has flown out to visit us is Juan-David from Columbia, a friend of the family. He would really like to take part in the next DTS that starts in January in Hurlach, so please pray that he can quickly get a visa and accepted!
The culture here is very mixed, ranging from people with African, Latin and Asian background. As a matter of fact, every supermarket here is owned by an asian, and has an asian name! Around the corner is "Morning Supermarket" and around another is "Hong Kong Supermarket", and near us is "X and H Supermarket", and many of them are built in an asian style.
Timing here is "island time", so far I haven't experienced so much rush, but much rather waiting. We wait for people to pick us up, we wait to be dropped off, we wait for someone to pick something up, then we wait while they talk with a friend before we get back going. Much of our time in one sense feels "wasted", but this is subjective. I think especially for the Germans and Swiss this can be challenging, but even for myself as a Canadian, I can get annoyed. But I can't change the culture, but I can adapt to it. So we are trying to be more relaxed, and changing our expectations on timing. Things are much more relational here, and not so much "getting things done". Although, I'm sure there are things I don't quite see yet.
Our Team
We've been battling a lot with trying to settle in here, and clarifying things. Last week was rather all over the place, with us trying to figure out transportation, things breaking down, cell phones breaking down, all sorts of "unexpecteds". But we took a stand as a team, and realize we're in a spiritual battle. We're really focusing on keeping the unity in our team, and glorifying God. Because ultimately our goal here is to see Him glorified in us, and on this island.
Last week the team did a variety of things like going to a youth group, doing capoeira downtown with another team in the area, and many prayer walks where we have met people, and even was able to invite someone to have lunch with us. We would like to continue meeting with those we've met and connect them to the local church here, and encourage and pray for them.
Our goal here is to bring the young people here that are from the churches, and who we meet along side us in everything we do and disciple them, and also to connect and unite those we meet who don't necessarily meet this "young people" category. We want to see Aruba, and the churches and people here united, especially since we've had the impression that there is a spirit of division here. At times this spirit of division has crept into our group, so we are trying to keep guard, and by God's grace, nothing will happen.
This afternoon
The team has gone out to cover Aruba! This morning we had the impression to be strategic with our prayers and intercession, and take the physical act of traveling to the north, south, east, and west ends of Aruba and claiming it for Jesus. We (besides Elijah and myself who have stayed behind at the Mother House :) for his nap, and to do a few errands, and start dinner for the team) split up into groups of 3-4, invited some of the local youth, and spread across the island. This is also a team where we expect to see miracles, we want to pray for people, we want to gain insight into this nation, see the problems, and see what we can.
I'm very excited for them to come back this evening and tell us about everything that's happened. God is a big god! He can do the impossible, and we expect it.
No pictures!?
So as you can see, I've included no pictures. Reason being: I forgot the stupid camera cable! I will have to look around and see if anyone has a card reader or cable that will fit, but until then... no pictures :(
Just picture us in summery clothing, and there are palm trees around, and Elijah is running around in his diaper. By the way, I think so far he is happy being here. Perhaps not so much with the heat, but the people, the ocean, and all the lizards crawling around!
Much love,
Dani
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