One Month To Go!

Well, we've only got one month to go! We are making good progress:

• Rented the house for October 1.
  
• Sold the Van and the Computer.
  
• Found spots for almost all the big furniture.
  
• Started packing (summer clothes only so far).
  
• Gotten all our shots.

It's been quite a bit of work and lots of little details need to be taken care of. For instance, for our South Africa Visas, we need a chest X-Ray to show that we don't have TB. And we need a police report, and a Health Report signed by a doctor, etc etc.

We will be moving out of the house into Mom and Dad Wielers basement on Sept 24, which is less than two weeks away. A slight sense of panic has set in, but we are coping. A LOT of people have offered to help us out, which is great, and we are slowly starting to get to the point of needing help and being organized enough to figure out who can do what. I'm sure we will be fine by the time the 24th rolls around.

We now have all our travel details arranged. We will be leaving for Akron Pennsylvania on October 17 for two weeks of orientation. After orientation, we fly from Philadelphia to Atlanta on Nov. 2, overnight in Atlanta and then take a VERY LONG direct flight to South Africa. We leave Atlanta at 10:30 AM on Nov. 3, and arrived in Jo'berg at 10:45 AM the next day. We will be flying on a very big plane, an Airbus A340-600 (see picture).



By the way, C4L, the organization we are working with, has a canadian presence. Check out their web site here, they have some pictures from White River and some interesting background on the work of C4L.

Getting Ready to go

Hello Dear Readers. By now you know that our family has accepted a three year assignment with Mennonite Central Committee (MCC). Our assignment will take us to White River, South Africa, where we will be working with a local organization called C4L, which is a training center, whose mission is "to sharpen the skills of people (mainly from civil society but not to the exclusion of government and business) - so that they can serve others better."

We will be leaving for two weeks of orientation on October 17, and will be in White River by early November. As you can imagine, there is a lot to do between now and then, and we are busy packing, trying to rent the house, sell the cars, do all the legal stuff and not loose track of our children!

The response to this move in our lives has been extremely positive. Our friends and family has been very supportive, and we have been overwhelmed by offers to help us out. It seems that we aren't organized well enough to take advantage of everyones offers, but hey, it's still almost two months till we leave, we will be able to think of something to do, probably at the last minute.

It's also been very interesting to see peoples initial reaction when we tell them where we are going. The most common response has been "WOW!!", often followed by "Congratulations". Quite a few people seem envious in a positive way, sort of like "I've always wanted to do that". So far, no one has told us that we are crazy, they are probably too polite.

We are going to try to keep this blog fairly current, especially as we start our service, so please come back from time to time. Also take note of the email addresses that we will use when in South Africa. They are:

charlene.wieler@gmail.com
john.wieler@gmail.com
danica.wieler@gmail.com
erin.wieler@gmail.com

Important Update
Both our cars are now fully safetied and for sale

1. 1998 Honda Civic LX - four door, five speed, AC, Remote Start, 152,000km
   
2. 2001 Dodge Grand Caravan Sport, AC, all the power bits and pieces, 85,000km

Call or email me if you are at all interested!