Arrivals

Kids waiting at airport for teammates' arrival

Our 7 year old son is writing in his journal. He writes,“Two people came to our home.  They’re our new teammates.  I like them.”

He summed it up well. He’s right, we’ve welcomed two new teammates to our island and so far we think they’re pretty great. 

Seeing them come brings back a lot of memories.  It makes us remember our own “first time in Africa,” then “first time on the islands” and then our “first time leading a team” experiences. We remember the excitement and the uncertainty, the jetlag and the intense first days, the overwhelming first impressions of the task before us (usually language learning) and yet the relief of finally being at your final destination after months of preparations.

We went back to an old blog about our first impressions of coming to the islands in 2009. We were coming off of months in the States after our evacuation from Chad. Our oldest daughter was just a baby. We were arriving as the only newbies with our experienced team leaders and two other veteran teammates.

Their plane landing

As we read the old blog we remember trying to sort the sensory overload of so many new things. The humidity, the green vegetation, the dominating volcano above us and the realization that we really were on a small island in the middle of the Indian Ocean. Then there were the people—both friendly and surprisingly short in our first observation.  And there was the bustle of the city on the big island. The comings and goings with everything around us being so new— the language, clothes, customs. We remember that feeling of being a fish out of water. Not sure exactly what to do with ourselves as we followed more veteran workers around without being able to engage people in conversation or do much for or by ourselves.

Now here we are, years after our experience with two new ladies going through much of the same stuff. We tell them some about our experiences but at the same time we know that there is no way we can stop the overload. It will take time to sort through everything they are seeing and experiencing these first days. If anything all the advice and anecdotes we share just add to the overload. We also can’t skip them over the awkward moments of not knowing the language or not understanding the cultural dynamics around them.

It’s just part of the transition. We try to prepare them with the knowledge that we can share. Today we talked to them about culture shock and while knowledge may be power— knowing about culture shock will not give them the power to avoid it completely. But we hope that knowing and hearing the stories from us and their other teammates that they will determined to  persevere through the overload and past the culture shock.There will be a time when life won’t be overwhelming and things will begin to make sense. There will even come a time when it will all become very everyday and ordinary. So that is why it is nice to look back and remember the initial wonder at the beauty, the colors, the people that make this place unique. It is an amazing place and we’re excited to be working here and welcoming others to this place.

Our four team ladies!

Do you feel a call to work on the islands??

PRAYERS ANSWERED
Our two new teammates arrived safely with all their luggage. The logistics of Megan traveling to meet them, of putting their excess luggage on a boat and the overnight stay on Volcano Island all went very smoothly. We are very thankful for your prayers and for the hospitality of our Volcano Island colleagues. We are very excited to see our new teammates are already embracing learner attitudes and taking everything in stride.  


PRAYERS REQUESTED
Pray for our new teammates’ sleep— getting over jetlag can be tough and our days during this orientation week are full. Pray for good sleep and a quick adjustment to the time zone and climate (it has gotten pretty hot and humid now). Pray also for the rest of this week where they are living with us and doing orientation and initial language learning. Next week they go to live with an island family for a week. Pray for their relationship with each other as they are just getting to know each other but also have to room with each other for these intense initial weeks. Ma Imani will need to stay on the big island for at least another month while they wait to see how things go with her sick daughter. Pray that she finds a good community there and that she can find some temporary work.


HOPE EVERYONE IN THE US HAS A HAPPY THANKSGIVING!