The other day Uche and I observed that we are currently unemployed and homeless. Well, we're not homeless anymore! God has provided a wonderful apartment for us. Here's the long version of how God provided... If you don't want to read the whole long story then just scroll down for some pictures.
Before leaving the States we made arrangements to stay at a missionary guest house from Friday till Monday morning. We were hoping to have an apartment rented by then and we'd be able to move in on Monday.
So, Friday we arrived at the guest house from the airport where we showered changed and hit the road. We first went to a mall, had lunch and changed some money. Then we met Uche's friend who lives in the neighborhood where we wanted to live. He had scouted some apartments and we headed out to find our apartment. We looked at one place which was very affordable, but was definitely less than what we hoped for. We pursued some other places but weren't able to see them. So, we decided to head back to the guest house and get some rest and start out again the next day.
Saturday we woke up early ready to go and find a home. We made some calls and realized that we weren't going to be able to do anything until Monday. So we made the most of the day by buying cell phones and seeing the new James Bond movie. No home in sight.
On Sunday we went to church and saw many of our friends and were able to reconnect with many people. During lunch it began to rain. No, not rain, pour! Tropical rain storm (can't remember the name of the storm) at its finest. Fortunately, our friends who took us to lunch were able to take us to the guest house so we didn't get totally soaked. We had been awake since 3 am trying to adjust to the time difference and we spent the day relaxing. Actually, Uche spent the day sleeping, trying to conquer the cold that had overtaken him. No home in sight, but the next day we planned to find our home! We sent out our prayer pleading (we were past requesting) to our friends here and at home.
Monday morning we checked out of the guest house and headed to our future neighborhood. We set out on foot in the heat and sun determined to find the place God had in store for us. I think I prayed with every footstep. We saw a couple places that were totally unsuitable for human inhabitation (ok, they weren't that bad, but they weren't good) and one place that was too expensive. We kept walking and looking for signs advertising an apartment for rent (did I mention it was hot!?!), and maybe an hour later we saw a sign on the gate advertising an apartment. So, we checked it out. It was beautiful. One bedroom, nice bathroom, well ventilated, secure, quiet, in other words exactly what we wanted. It was a little far from the school, but the 15 minute walk would be good for us.
We spoke to the owner/landlady and said we'd love to move in that day if possible. She reluctantly told us that another woman was interested and had asked her to hold the apartment until the weekend. We were 2 days too late. Bummer. We tried to convince her we were the better option. Uche was in full charm mode and the lady was so sad to have to ask us to wait. We couldn't wait, because we needed to have a place to stay immediately.
Discouraged, we set out again, and headed to Uche's friend's house for lunch. After lunch we had made arrangements to see another apartment. We met the lady at the apartment and checked it out. It was too big, too dark, not quiet and there were dead cockroaches on the floor. I don't do cockroaches. I really, really, really hate cockroaches. Because we were desperate we agreed to call the next day and make arrangements.
By this time we had been sweating for literally hours and I had blisters on both my feet, but we didn't have a place so we needed to keep walking and looking. We decided at this point to head over to our school to see if the dean of students was in (he'd been out at some classes for a couple weeks), and to see if he had any contacts for us to pursue. We asked in the office if he was in. He wasn't. We weren't sure what to do. Uche then thought we should talk to his secretary as she may be able to help us. We sat in the library, which was air conditioned, to give our poor feet a little rest. A guy came and say by us who had gone to college with Uche. After a few minutes of chatting a guy came by and greeted him and headed to an office. The office was in the general direction of the dean's office. Uche asked if that was in fact the dean, and it was him. We rushed over to his office to throw ourselves at his mercy.
We began to pour out our sad tale of woe. Did I mention we had been sweating alot??!! He said we needed to get some rest first, because we looked exhausted. We explained we didn't have anywhere to rest, which was why we looked a little crazy. He first told us about a place close to the school that a ministry owns and allows people in transit to stay at while they do things at the school. He called, and it was empty so we could stay there for a few days. Phew, immediate need taken care of! He then told us about an apartment building very close by that international students from the school often rented. So, we headed over there to check out if there was any open apartments.
The building is about a 1 minute walk from the school, so we were there in no time. He called out for the owner to see if she was home. She was. He began to speak Tagalog to ask her if anything was open. We hung on her words, that we semi-understood. YES!!! Yahoooooo! We charged upstairs to check it out.
On the second floor we met a German woman who had been teaching at the school and was moving out that day to go to Indonesia. Her next door neighbor from Mongolia, a student at the school, was going to move into her place because it was bigger. So, the smaller one would be empty. We were able to look into the windows of the larger apartment and liked what we saw, so we said yes we'll take it.
We then headed back to school to look for the Mongolian woman to see if she could show us the apartment as well as offer our help in moving her things out. We were anxious to move in. We couldn't find her, so we headed back to the apartment to sign the contract and pay the deposit. We really wanted to move in asap. We spoke with the owner and she said that some work needed to be done in the German woman's apartment before the other lady could move in, so it would be three days before we could move in. Uche started to cry, just kidding, we politely told the woman we were really anxious to move in now or the next day. She said she'd try to make it happen in one day.
So, we made arrangements at the transit house and headed to our church to get some of our things for the time we'd be staying there. We went to bed that night so excited to have seen how God provided the perfect place for us. The dean had told us after all the arrangements had been made that he hadn't planned to stop in at the school that day. In fact, he was going to take the week off before school started up again. But he felt the Lord nudging him to drop by the school, so he did. Hallelujah!
This morning (Tuesday) we woke up excited that we had a home and hopeful it would be soon. Uche headed out to go buy some breakfast. The transit house we're staying at is 2 doors down from our apartment, so he had to pass by there on his way to the store. As he went by he saw the owner of the apartment complex and talked with her. She said that the Mongolian lady was moving as they spoke and we could move in at 2 this afternoon. So, we're moving into our perfect apartment close to our school this afternoon.
Once we get in we'll post some pictures, but here's some others to hold you over.
Our room in the transit house.
View from transit house. You can see a corner of the roof of our school just to the right of the yellow house. We're going to be very close to school.
Breakfast of champions. Warm fresh pandesal, Filipino rolls that are delicious, with peanut butter and cheese whiz.
The presentation was gorgeous. On left you see a chocolate scuplture with gold leaf covering parts of it. The pictures don't do it justice.
Getting the last little bit of the chocolate/hazelnut mousse, I refrained from licking out the bowl... just barely.
A Christmas window at Rustan's department store. It's still bizarre to think Christmas while walking around in sleeveless and capris...
This is my sweet husband sweeping the floor in our kitchen/dining room. It's a local broom, so it looks quite different then what I'm used to at home. Behind him you can see some our borrowed items. 
