We started in Costa Rica for a year where we were always a “new” family. The “long timers” were wary of us, and we did not really understand why. Then we lived in Peru for almost 4 years. We started as the new family, and by the time we left we were old hands. Except for a couple families, no one had been there longer. Now we have been almost 5 years in Kenya. When we came we were again the new family. Last night after saying goodbye to friends, Allison and I started trying to think of who was still in Kijabe that had been living here when we arrived. There are quite a few missionaries here, but we could only think of just a few families that were “longer timers” than us. A sadness of medical missionary life is that the turnover is frequent. Good friends are made and then off we go from one another, either to other mission sites or home to the US. I can understand the wariness of the older missionaries in Costa Rica, Peru, and Kenya who kept a bit of distance. But there is joy is in making new friends (if not always time to do it well), and seeing how God provides. And the greatest pleasure is in doing good work that God has given us to do.