Happy New Year to all! I have completely neglected blogging since November, but I’ve been writing down thoughts and stories I want to share, so I’ll be doing smaller, separate blogs to try to catch up.

We returned from our trip to Tanzania on New Year’s Eve and celebrated the night here in PE. It was a relief to come back, to see my bed again, after sleeping in a tent for 5 days. The past couple weeks have been dedicated to finding new accommodation for ourselves. We had our third break-in the night before we left for Christmas holiday. For me, it was the most invasive we’ve had so far. The guys used a ladder to climb up through our bathroom window, about 16 feet above the ground. We had left it cracked, not thinking someone would actually put in the effort to climb up through it.

We think there were two men involved. I was asleep for the entire thing, but my roommates, Mike and Sarah, heard the men climb into the bathroom, and Sarah saw one of them when they came into her room. When the man realized Sarah was awake, he bolted out our back door with the stuff he’d already taken. Thankfully they were just as scared of us as we were of them, and only wanted physical goods.

I do know that one of the men came into my room, taking my backpack and a computer that was next to my head. I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about having a stranger in my room, that close to me while I was sleeping, and don’t really know how to write about it. It’s obviously a complete invasion of my space, but I feel like it’s much more an invasion of me, mentally and emotionally.

My first reaction to this break-in was anger. I was so pissed that these guys had the audacity to use a ladder to climb up a 16-foot wall to get into our house. Over the couple of weeks we were traveling I had a lot of time to think, and I spent a lot of time dwelling on what had happened. It’s not like I could do anything about it while I was in Tanzania, but I did have moments of overwhelming anger, and then overwhelming panic. Being in Tanzania helped a lot, taking my mind off the break-in and helping me focus on things outside our little bubble here. It was a wonderful experience, and it was also wonderful to come back to PE, back to our lives here.

Mike came back a few days after us, and his first night back he woke up to some guys trying to break into our neighbor’s car to steal his stereo. The alarm went off, and the guys bolted, but Mike heard tapping on the windows of our place. Everything was closed, but the thought of someone else trying to get in put us all over the edge. We got permission from GRS to move into a motel for the time being, and the go-ahead to start looking for a new place to live.

It’s been an experience learning how the real estate market works. I’ve never apartment-hunted in the States, nor have 2 of the 3 other people I live with. I think we’ve been up and down almost every road in downtown PE looking for a place. If anything, I’ve gotten to know the city better. After 3 hellish weeks, we’ve finally got an application in for a townhouse. We’re waiting to hear that we’ve been approved, but things look good. We’re trying not to get our hopes up until the lease is signed, but it will be a huge relief to have a home again.

The next few blogs will be stories from Christmas holiday, as well as the long-awaited VCT blog from November. Enjoy!