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Language study

We’re itching to start! Our evaluations are on Friday 8 October, and we will be assigned to our classes then and begin (I think) on Monday 11th. We are hoping that we’ll be able to continue to meet the kids for lunch and that we will have Wednesdays off, because the children do! Otherwise we will have some quick thinking to do.

School

The children’s day is very long! They start at 8.30am, have lunch from 11.45am to 1.45pm, then the school day finishes at 4.45pm. Then they also have homework to do each night. However at present our kids get almost every Wednesday off school, and almost every Saturday, too. French schoolteachers do not seem to be very pro-active in dealing with bullying. We have to contact the school tomorrow.

The work

We had our first talk about the work with Sammy Foucachon, the pastor here, just a week ago. There’s lots of work to be done, and we will need to know in some months’ time how large a part the student work will play in our role, and what our involvement in the Gironde churches will be.

Housing

Our house is great, though rents in Bordeaux are expensive. It would be wiser to buy a house, but for this we will need to take out a mortgage because houses are expensive to buy, too. To some extent where we buy needs to be guided by the work we are doing, but also the children’s school is a big factor. Once they are settled properly at their school we won’t want to move them if we can help it, and so we would need to buy on the south side of the city as near Pessac as we can. (near the campus, too, so great for students, by the way)

But first - language. I’m amazed at what we’ve been able to achieve so far, thanks to God’s help, to our determination (and sometimes desperation) and to the kindness of the people who’ve been dealing with us. But there’s a long way to go, still, mustn’t be impatient! We’re only three weeks in, and our course hasn’t even started yet...