We are finally saying goodbye to our last long, hot summer in Cyprus. The early mornings and evenings are cooler, but it is still very hot during the day time. We are grateful for the bit of rest from the heat. Today was spent sitting at home waiting for the the car rental agency mechanic to come and check out our car - this time it is very serious, the brakes have gone. We have had to have two new alternators put in the car, four new tires and countless other mendings. Apparently Avis Car Rentals finally felt we have a lemon and gave us another car to use permanently, a KIA. However, we will be receiving a brand new car (not from Avis - rather, Church owned) sometime this month. It will be CES issue, so it is a micro-mini car - an Opal Corsa. But it will be useful for the next few months we are still here.
In fact - we leave our mission here on January 9, 2014 - less than four months from now. Unbelievable!! My how it has flown! We are happy to have been here, and we will be happy to be reunited with our family and friends, and to sleep in our own bedroom, and use our own things again. But I'm certain we will leave here with very mixed emotions. We love the Island and all the people, but being out of the USA this long has been taxing on our wallet and our emotions. We long for familiarity and the modern life-style we live there. Here, in Cyprus, life is very slow and very behind the times. I always compare it to about the 1980's in America. Except the bathrooms are late 1920's! Ha!
The water on the Island is very salty and hard to deal with, it pits all the chrome fixtures in our flat and doesn't taste all that great. The water is safe to drink out of the tap here, but we still use bottled water for drinking purposes, as it is much more palatable.
People here are having such a hard time economically that they rarely smile, and their heads are always down in thought. With the banks crashing this past year almost every small business has folded, and many have left the Island to find work elsewhere, as there is none here. Many city folk have left the larger cities and gone back to their home villages just to survive. There they can fish, grow gardens and live without electricity. The cost of living in Cyprus is very high, and what you get in return is very small.
We will leave Cyprus soon, but Cyprus will never leave us! We are inseparably intertwined with this lovely country, the people, the customs, the language and the food. We shall never forget our time here and the great opportunity we have had to serve the Lord's children in this area of His Kingdom on Earth.
