Day 8

Today was our first day at MTI, the organization that runs PILAT, our 2 week linguistics training course. Orientation was at 4 pm so we had the day to ourselves. Our friends and fellow future missionaries Massimo & Susanna Mollica are also here with their two kids so it was fun to hang out with them. We started the day with a play session during which Cael found Mr. Potato head, which he's been a big fan of since seeing Toy Story 3.

Coen spent the morning napping. Longer than normal, poor little guy. I think he's tired!

Here's Cael and Sandro, the Mollica's oldest little boy who is a few months younger than Cael. They had fun playing together.

And here is our room. Cael is sitting on his bed.

It's pretty big with 2 sinks even. We're thankful for such a nice room!

We had lunch in the dining room, where we'll be eating all of our meals.

Then we took the kids to their classes. It was cute to see their names on the rooms, as the teachers were expecting them.

And had orientation, our first session. This was mostly a time of introduction. Everyone stood up and said where they were from, where they are going, and what they'll be doing. Oh and what language they have to learn. It was cool to see so many people, about 50? going to so many different parts of the world. Many of them have to learn really hard languages, like Chinese, Arabic, and various tribal languages. It made me thankful I "just" have to learn Spanish!

Then we had dinner, also in the dining room. Here we are with the Mollicas.

And then after dinner Cael played outside. They have quite a play area so Cael could run off lots of energy.

During the orientation it started pouring rain, complete with thunder and lightning. When we were outside after dinner I looked up and saw this rainbow!

Another view from the playground. So pretty.

The camp is at a high elevation, over seven thousand feet! I'm glad we brought our water bottles, since we need to be drinking lots of water. It hit me tonight, the elevation, and I felt a little dizzy with a headache. But nothing too bad and I'm trying to drink lots of water.

One more shot of Cael, who found a climbing rock. He got up and down all on his own. He's growing up so fast!

Here he is atop the rock with daddy, Sandro, and Susanna.

Please keep praying for us. Both boys are sick with colds. It's not too bad but if they get worse one of us will have to miss the sessions, since you can't bring sick kids into the nursery. I also am a little sick so pray that that doesn't get worse either. Please also pray for the elevation, that we'd get adjusted to it. I think I have it the worse right now but I'm hoping to get adjusted quickly.