On a lighter note: Update from the Davis family in France

We are well, and thriving in France, but grieved by what we have seen in Kenya, and for our friends who lived in a once peaceful nation that has been torn apart. Our latest updates are that my parents are in Eldoret and are safe. They were away during the worst of the violence, attending a wedding in a remote part of Kenya unaffected by the turmoil in Eldoret. We have also heard that Kipkaren was not spared in the chaos.

We can do nothing but pray. I’m not sure if I would rather sit in France feeling powerless to help, or in Kenya; but we believe in God’s timing, and also believe that true peace comes from God; it seems like humans really fail at it.

So back to France, here we are. We live in an apartment of 3 tiny dorm rooms—two bedrooms and a kitchen. Tovah and Lami share a room and have spent their time playing in the two refrigerator boxes I found for them. Jen and I share a room too :)

The kitchen is filled with French chocolate, cheese, fresh bread, and lots of fruit (plus 500 Kenyan teabags we brought).

Elami goes to garderie during our classes, and seems to enjoy it. Tovah goes to Ecole Maternalle (nursery) and absolutely loves it; she is smiling when we drop her off, and dancing when we pick her up. French does not seem to be a barrier to our girls’ happiness.

We attend classes morning and afternoon, sitting with 8 other beginners wrapping our mouths around words that are spelled like dog but said like “jzwekyirtzh” and the like. So far we can conjugate 4 verbs, say the alphabet, and count to 10 billion (and the decimal places.)

The French are a lovely people (unlike what you hear.) They are polite and generally willing to help. They suffer from having the worst airport in the world, and extremely long lines, and insane prices, and no one cleans up after their dogs; but all in all it is a wonderful place. We are surrounded by parks with plenty of places to play or run, great food and culture, and schedules that work well with a family. In short,we are blessed.

Our current plan is to cram French language for 6 months, to take a short trip to Kenya (and possibly Congo) in July, to spend a few months in the USA, and to be out serving In Bukavu, Congo in November. Please pray for our plans.

Sorry to the many emails I have not replied to—Our computers seem to be intent on waging war against us. This time I had to reinstall Windows Vista (which took five hours and disabled our email.) If anyone would like a phone call from us instead, let us know. We now call with Skype which is very inexpensive.

That's the news—au revoir.

God Bless,
Davis, Jen, Tovah, Elami, and the French