Since november last year we live in Apetina our second ‘home’ during the coming years along the Tapanahony river. The first weeks we have been busy cleaning the mission house from a large number of bats that regarded the house as their own for quite some years now. Not healthy at all! We were able to enlarge the livingroom by removing one of the walls.

During these weeks the rainseason started showing that several of the watertanks were leaking because of aging in the full sunlight. We also had to renew the solar powersystem. This means we have been very busy getting all of this accomplished in six weeks. During Christmas holidays friends from the city came to visit.

During the week we were able to paint the roof in order to have it maintenance free for the years to come. We still have some things that need to be done but since the start of the new year we’re back to language. That is our main concern for the coming year and we are pleased to see that we are indeed getting in the groove of Wajana.

We also had to get acquainted to a whole new group of people living in Apetina. At the moment we are getting the names and faces in the right order. We are exploring the village where live around 500 people. Quite a different number than the 100 living at Lawa.

At the moment we enjoy meeting with the people and learning the differences between things we have seen at Lawa during the first 6 months and how people live at Apetina.

Observing, learning, listening and registering are our mayor activities. Loads of impulses keep us wondering how things work here in the village. We feel very welcome and meet assistance and help from everyone we meet. We visit the people asking questions about the language and find an open door and heart. This is very encouraging.