Sonrei House

Well, The place has a name, and even a sign!
    So first, of course, some details about the name… (pronounced sun-ray)
We have combined English and Tetun to make our own new word :) The obvious meaning is sunray!  Then the word rei in Tetun can mean kiss, so it also means sun kissed.  Rei also means king. On the other side of Dili is a large statue of Jesus and the place is called Christo Rei (Christ the King).  So Sonrei also can mean son of God the King.
           
We really hit the ground running, welcoming our first visitors on Friday morning after moving in Thursday afternoon.  The house felt full and happy, and coped really well.  (Mind you there are still a few little things that need work!  Are buildings ever really finished?) They felt very privileged to be the first visitors, and we were blessed with their friendliness, generosity and awesome humour!  For Madagascar fans, one guest entertained everyone with a perfect king Julian impersonation.  Serenity was a real sweety and translated for the group on a few occasions. And israel and 5 yr old Josiah had great times together! 
 
Our outdoor dining room is just lovely.  We all love hanging out there with the cool sea breezes and ocean view.  We plan to get Bellekria to sew some cushions for the concrete seats running around the sides.  And of course one day we hope to have some hammocks swinging!!  With 14 people our little six person table wasn't enough, so at 6am the morning the group were to arrive, Samuel was building an extra 8-10 person table. 
       This is the door from upstairs out to the verandah.  In the sea just north of East Timor, lies a very deep channel (3km).  Apparently blue whales swim through here, amongst other whales, dolphins and the odd American submarine.  Samuel designed a blue whale tail cutout in the door to let some light through.  As they installed the door, Serenity and I were enjoying the view, and guess what?  We were sure we saw a whale swimming past!!  Honest!  (It may have been shadows on the waves….)
Storage!! Storage everywhere!!  In the days before moving Samuel stayed up late building a large desk/book shelf for the office, and a set of shelves for our clothes.  Which meant that as we moved in things could go straight into place rather than fill the floor with boxes!!  The only lack was Samuels store room, which meant that all his tools and pipes and electrical gear was spread over the office floor.  So yesterday the guys all pitched in for a quick build shelf.  I was hovering ready to throw boxes onto the shelves as soon as they were screwed in place!  Ta Da!!!