Thankful

As we see news this morning - we're thankful we got out of Tunis, too! I'm sure we would have been fine there, but I'm not ready to deal emotionally with protests and tear gas again yet!

How to Relax

I'm fantasizing about a regime of acupuncture, reflexology, chiropracty, thai massage, indonesian massage, hot rocks, saunas, exercise...anything to release tension.

I had a massage in Tunis. It wasn't the best, but nice. When the french-speaking masseuse touched my back, he said, "contracte!" (i.e. contracted muscles). Yes, I know. My back is tight.

London

We flew into London today. The past few days we've been trying to help others get out. As you see in the news, our governments didn't do much, for whatever reasons. We were left to organize our own evacuations and our networks of friendships were key ways to share information about the situation and organize. Most of those trying to leave are out now, though we are still communicating with a few.

We are quite tired but don't feel like to we can let down until yet because of our friends still trying to get out, and of course all our local friends who are staying with their families.

Today we went out to buy underwear, toiletries, and hats and gloves to keep warm. We are glad to be here and hope to do some more resting tomorrow.

Tunis

Thank God. We made it. We;ll post more later.

For now, we are thankful, and we are concerned for our friends still there.

Visas in Hand

It occurs to me that I wrote with that title when we were first entering almost exactly 3 years ago. We don't plan on this as a final goodbye, but we hold everything loosly. It's somewhat of a miracle and testimony to friendships that secured us the visas. They aren't allowing anyone out without one, at this point. Now I will tell you that we went downtown to get it - more stories about that later!

It's with lots of emotions that we try to book a flight out. We think it is time. It looks like everything is book out for tomorrow, but governments are sending over planes as well.

New Day

It's nice to hear the birds out and see the sun.

The school liaison says he's coming in and hopefully that will help the visa process. We're able to use the phones to check-in on our friends.

I'm reigning in the chaos at home. The more packed we are, the more prepared and calm we feel.

Our Bags are Packed, We're Ready to Go...

Not really, stuff is strewn around everywhere. But we're getting ready just in case. Of course, first we need to secure exit visas, which is an issue.

And we need to decide for sure that it is best to leave. But in the meantime, it's also good to be ready because these things happen very quickly.

I know they're reporting no internet or phones, but we have them for now in our area. We've got friends at the embassy who are personally keeping up with us.

Back to packing...what do you take in these circumstances?

Exhaustion

Internet is so slow, and I just can't retype the post that it just lost. It's been a very long day here with a lot of news coming in over the hours. We obviously still have electricty and internet, though most phone services are out. We're very thankful to have internet.

Our landlord came by today to meet with us. We really appreciate that. He wants to install his son and his cousin in an empty apartment to help protect the property. He offered for his son to go out and get any supplies we needs and gave us some helpful advice about the situation here. I think we're under a curfew tonight.

Early tomorrow we go to try and get exit visas in our passports in case we need them. If we really needed to get out without one, we could; but it would make coming back potentially more difficult, which issomething we'd like to avoid.

Our emotions and energies are a little fried. We'll try to check in again tomorrow morning.

School's Out

The kids are happy because we just heard we have an "early vacation" due to "low student attendance."

It is true, classes have been scant, with about 45% attendance. Today some students were singing chants and posturing a bit. When this region started heating up a few weeks ago students were instructed that they are not allowed to have political discussions at all. It has been hard to do any real work in lessons because everyone is focused on other events. I realized that I was burning a hole in the carpet from pacing, so I sat down!

We're getting some memos from the embassies and the companies. There should be further information this afternoon.

Exciting Times

I'm making a serious attempt to honor my sister's request that I communicate a little something every day. I don't know if people even read blogs anymore, but this seems a good way to check in without flooding in-boxes with a daily memo.

In short, we are fine. We live about 20 miles from downtown, so things are pretty quiet in our area. And, we are being very sensible about knowing where to be and not to be, and we're stocked on necessities we might need.

So, my best intentions are that this is the first hello of many over the next few days. Maybe it's a good chance to catch up on some old news. I'll have to think what that might be...

love to all.