To be honest, the past week or two has been hard. We’re settled into our temporary digs in Arizona again. It’s nice to be back in somewhat familiar territory and close to family. But to be honest, the wear of constantly having to figure out our next living arrangement so we don’t lock ourselves into a longer-term rental arrangement that might mean we can’t deploy when things open up takes its toll. And we are facing the reality that we are due to leave our current place on January 4. Snowbird season in Arizona is in full swing and there’s nothing left in the half-way affordable range in Phoenix. While we found some nice options out of town, those would have put us 2+ hours away from family.
Since Omicron is swamping the news, I reached out to the property management company for the place we’re staying to see if the owners were still planning on returning to the area from Canada on January 5 and indicating that if they weren’t, we’d be interested in renting for another month. We found out yesterday they were open to it and the arrangements were verbally confirmed today. We at least know where we’ll be living in January and it doesn’t require us to move again. Woohoo! Thanks be to God! It was a much-needed emotional boost.
The other good news is that this week we’ll have all our visa application materials ready to submit. From what I can tell from contacts in Indonesia there’s still a good chance we’ll be able to enter. So far, things are remaining manageable and a far cry from the 20,000+ cases per day the country was reporting over the summer from the Delta variant.
Combined with the government’s tentative indications they will move to endemic rather than pandemic footing sometime this spring, the owner felt very confident we’d still be able to get it, even though Indonesia has closed its borders to travelers from hard-hit countries in Africa and Europe. We’ll likely have to quarantine for 10-days, but he hoped even that requirement might be reduced in the near future. Assuming no other complications, we should have our visa approvals in early January. One of the last requirements for visitor visa application is proof of round-trip airline tickets – they want to make sure we’re going to leave! We’ll purchase those and ensure we have the option to change things without penalties if Omicron does throw obstacles in our way. Our goal will be to depart the first week of February.
We’re grateful for your continued prayers and partnership. The good news was much needed and it’s exciting to think we might actually be on our way overseas in the next six weeks or so!
The Nelson Family Indonesia 