We've Got Mail

We just our third package while we’ve been here from our family AND a letter! It’s definitely a cause for excitement : )

It’s amazing how much they can fit into a small boxing with some good organization. Here is all the stuff laid out on our table. Letters and pictures, a lot of food, enough bugspray to keep mosquitoes away for years, more Purell, and therabands from Peggy for physical therapy exercises!!!

The letters and cards were the best part (but everything was GREAT). Brendan got two birthday cards, both hilarious. One of them is shown here. When you look at it from different angles or move it around the hamster dances. And when you open it, the hamster dance song plays. We showed it to the boys next door who loved it (although they were a little confused by it).

Thank you for everything else too! There was a Christmas card from the Warrens, Brendan’s relatives, and pictures of my family. I wish you all knew how much we miss you! And my Grandparents wrote two letters in the package and one real letter that got here in just three weeks! Real letters…everyone appreciates them, but I have never appreciated them so much as I do now. Keep them coming if you’re up for it!

Other really cool things and what we’re doing with them:

- Peggy sent three sets of therabands of different colors and we’ve already donated one set to Assert, a rehabilitation center that works with Timorese with extreme disabilities. One set will go to the school clinic where I work regularly and we’ll see what other opportunity presents itself for the third set. But in the meantime, we used one set to run a 3-legged race for the SMA third year students when we were teaching them games (we told you, you have to get creative here).

- A block of wood for carving. Brendan started doing some carving last summer and he’d like to start carving a chess set if he can find some free time. Thanks Grandpa Bill!

- We made cheesecake! My family sent a no-bake cheesecake since we can’t do any baking on gas burners.


We lasted about four days after getting the package before we made it, but even that was a struggle : ) And it was incredible!


Here’s the mess as we begin making the cheesecake. Also notice that I’m holding a beautiful ummm put-under-pots-so-they-don’t-burn-the-table thing (the name escapes me). My sister Sarah made it and it has been a great addition to our kitchen! Right before the package came we had an incident that made us realize how necessary these things are – so Sarah sending one was like an answered prayer : )

Brendan preparing the filling for the cheesecake!

And here he is, showing off the final product, garnished by some peanut butter M&Ms!


But everything is better if it’s shared, so Brendan took cheesecake to these ladies: Sister Etelvina and Georgina. Together the three of them are a team transforming the university library for the upcoming accreditation. They recently all were formally trained on using the Dewey decimal system and KOHA, a computer catalog program.

But anyway, it was Georgina’s first time ever eating cheesecake and Sister Etelvina’s second. They thought it was heavenly! Letting the Timorese experience some of our “home” food has been especially entertaining. We had the girls from the clinic over for lunch once and made spaghetti with meat sauce and they ate everything! We think next time we’re going to have people try sloppy joes and see what they think. Hopefully we’ll get pictures of that one ; )

Ok, that’s probably more details than you ever wanted, but you can see that getting a package is a big deal. It’s a physical sign that says: We know you’re far away, but we love you and we’re praying for you and thinking about you. Hopefully you can see this blog as a similar message back to you. We do love you and we pray that God blesses you always!

Much love,
Rachel and Brendan