A new friend

You may recall last fall I introduced Andjelka, the international student at Wartburg for whom we were going to serve as a host family.  I recently requested a second student, and we were matched up with Rahel from Ethiopia.  She just arrived on campus in January and is studying engineering with the hope of going into architecture.  We met her for the first time at another large potluck last Sunday.  Andjelka was there, too.  (And the food was much better this time!)

While visiting with Rahel, I found out that she had been planning to go somewhere to purchase a laptop computer for use during her school years, but didn't realize there wasn't any kind of public transportation available between Wartburg and Waterloo/Cedar Falls.  So, I offered to take Rahel and a couple of her friends to Waterloo on Friday afternoon.  Rahel found a laptop at Best Buy and the three girls had fun getting some new clothes/boots at the mall.  (All three are freshmen from Ethiopia and had never seen snow before.  They thought it was really cold.  It was 34 degrees with a little drizzle.)  The kids had fun at the mall play area.

By the time we got back to Waverly, the cafeteria was closed, so we picked up Austin and took the whole crew to the Pizza Ranch for buffet.  It was a lot of fun, and I wish I would have taken a picture of everyone together.  I look forward to doing more fun things with and for Rahel!