Wednesday, November 01, 2006


International Learning Center

We've been here 11 days and the time has flown by! We are in classes from 8 am until 3pm, with optional classes until 5 pm most evenings. Three meals a day are provided in the dining hall, cafeteria-style. The evenings are spent working on various assignments, applying for visas (not credit cards!), corresponding with our Regional office on business matters, and for many of us, tying up loose ends from home.


Our home-Quad #23

I'm not sure of the total number of acres of the property here, but the campus itself is about 35 acres out in the country. We're 3/4 of a mile to the next house. Cow pastures line the driveway into the International Learning Center. The campus is comprised of an administration building, medical clinic, 3 dorms, cafeteria, gymnasium, library, 2 school buildings (for children), several conference buildings and about 30 "quads". The quads have a great room (living room) in the middle and 4 apartments off each corner.

The great room is where the four families socialize and have their small group meetings and worship times. It is very functional, and for those of us that are extroverts, we thoroughly enjoy sitting in the great room in the evenings talking with the other families. In our quad, we have 2 single ladies sharing an apartment, a young family with 2 preschoolers, another "empty-nester" couple and Glenn and me.

Our kitchen is tiny, but sufficient, with a small dinette table, 1 narrow sink, miniscule stove/oven, pint-size microwave and college-size refrigerator. Get the picture? Because our meals are provided, we don't need much, but it is nice for heating hot chocolate, making oatmeal or storing cold drinks. We do miss a big table for spreading out to do our work and assignments! Because our quad is right next to the building where there is wireless internet, we can pick it up from our apartment!

Our apartment has two bedrooms, which is really nice! The second room we use as our office and spread out our printer, files, books and office supplies. Each bedroom comes with twin beds (so we don't have any more children just after getting on the field?) but parents always push theirs together and get HUGE beds, King size plus!

Hope you've enjoyed our little tour of our home away from home. We are settled in nicely and are enjoying our classes which range from church planting movements to personal discipleship to cross cultural worship and lots more! Glenn and I are taking an ESL/EFL (English as a Second Language/ English as a Foreign Language) class for certification in addition to our regular classes. The ESL classes meet on Saturdays, so as you can see, there isn't a lot of free time! Will write more soon! We greatly appreciate your prayers for us!

2 comments:

Senegal Daily said...

Wow! What a blast from the past. Those photos brings back lots of good memories. Have you made a midnight Krispy Kreme run yet? :)

A few thoughts -

1. Good thinking on the ESL class. I wich I had been able to take it, but it conflicted with a Chrono Storying class. III took it though.

2. I zoomed in on your bulletin board and see there's good (and equal) representation of your "four kids" up there. Very nice.

3. Thanks for updating!! It really helps make us feel in the loop!

We love you!

Peggy said...

hey! i stayed in quad 23! we called it "Q23 Town!" Good times...we didn't have as much space as you guys in your apt though...4 of us were staying in an apartment. Ah, the good times that were had! thanks for the update!