A Life of Streiff

Thursday June 18, 2009
It has really turned cold this week and we had to scrape ice off of our car windows three mornings in a row. I can’t believe that the homes down here don’t have central heating. They just use portable heaters and thank goodness for that, we have a little gas fireplace and it is so nice to sit by in the evenings. We don’t use them during the night because we have very warm blankets on the bed. So every morning I get up early while Paulie is still sleeping and turn the portable heater in the bathroom on and get the gas fireplace going and then jump back into bed. I wait a half hour and then I can get up and get ready for work.
This country is amazing because you can have four seasons in one day. It can start off with clear blue skies, cold and then within a few minutes it can rain cats and dogs. An hour later it’s warm and sunny and by the time we go home it’s cooled off again. We always try to keep our overcoats nearby just in case.

I thought that I would put some work pictures in because no one seems to think that we work at the office. This is Paul's desk with his favorite goodie drawer.

Everyone wonders how I get so much work done. They don't realize there are five of us. (Please notice the differences of our deskstops. )

Monday we went to the burger king to get a drink at 10 AM and it was sunny so we didn’t take our coats or umbrella. At 10:15 it was a cloud burst. We thought that we could wait it out for a few minutes and then head back to the office. It started to let up a little so we decided to make a run for it. We needed to be back for a conference call at 11:00, so we took off. As soon as we crossed the street it cut loose again and dumped on us all the way to the office. I found a magazine in a garbage can, put it over my head and ran. Paul was right behind me with just an envelope. It was a 3 minute run but we were soaked. Paul had to go into the women’s bathroom (one of the other men already had the men’s room blower) and use the hand dryer to dry his shirt, tie and pants. His jacket took all day to dry. We were quite the sight at our meeting, Paul had one of the ladies coats wrapped around his legs and we were both shivering.

These are some of the trees that we love.

Our weekend was one of the first that we kind of stayed home. We cleaned our little home and did a few other chores until about 2PM and then took a little drive but nothing major. We went passed a huge field of sheep and I said “Sheeeeeep.” But when I did it I made the sound of a how a lamb would do Baaaaaaa. Paul jumped and looked at me and said “What was that? I told him it was me and he then said that it sounded like a flat tire. So now every time I want to get him and see sheep I do it. He usually ends up hitting me but I’m pretty fast at ducking.
On Sunday after Church we walked down to Long Bay Park. It’s about a fifteen minute walk from our home.

We are still amazed at all the beauty that surrounds us. The trees and hills are so beautiful. We just walked along the beach and enjoyed the scenery.

This is long bay.
We got a nice surprise on Tuesday, our Samoan visas came through and we are going to leave here in two weeks. We are excited about being able to get up there where we can work closer with our district leaders and local government leaders. The fact that it’s cold here and hot there makes it so inviting.