As visitors, we were asked to introduce ourselves and as part of George’s introduction of us he said, ‘we’re here to see how & where we can help out’. During greeting time, another American quickly approached us and asked, “Can you please help us with a VBS program this week?” Introducing himself as Jim, he explained that they’re from a Presbyterian church in Austin, TX and are starting a four day VBS program tomorrow but that only one person from their group speaks Spanish….and they’re expecting 250-300 children! Although we had another tentative plan set up for volunteering this week, we accepted their offer to help and after church followed them out to the area where it will be so we know how to get there tomorrow.
At lunch the five us went around the table and shared a personal high (a rose) and low (a thorn) from our first week here and then shared something we were hoping for (a bud). The ‘bud’ I shared was that we’d get more opportunity to practice Spanish in the coming week. It didn’t take long to get that hope answered… our neighbor Miguel came over this afternoon and we sat chatting on our front porch for over two hours! He owns the house we are staying in and has given us a very warm welcome. Earlier this week he shared an avocado (about the size of 3 of ours back home) he picked from their yard and today he brought over a pitcher of a homemade tropical drink. We also met his wife and 4 year-old daughter Vanesa who hung out with Sophia. Their 13 year-old son Miguelito has already been over numerous times playing with Nathan & Angelina. He attends NCA which teaches all in English so his English is flawless and he actually prefers that over Spanish.
Joel stopped over in the afternoon to say goodbye and to watch the kids climb the mango trees which they had invited him to see. We will miss Joel around here!! The kids quickly fell in love with him and it was a huge blessing to be able to have him help us get settled and show us around our first week. After his time in MI he will return here in August when school starts up again.
This evening we were invited by another neighboring family (where Joel lives) to go to their church. It was about a 30 minute drive away, mostly uphill. As we climbed up we became surrounded by the clouds and we crawled along through the darkness and fog until we reached our destination. We found them to be very friendly folks who graciously invited us to stay for a small meal in celebration of Father’s Day (always celebrated officially on June 23 here): rice, meat & potatoes in a delicious sauce and cabbage salad).
During the service we were struck by the drastic social extremes evident among the church members….some appeared to be simple campesinos (poor farmers), others more typical middle class Nicos and then there was one finely dressed man singing hymns off his Blackberry. Muy interesante.
It was our latest night yet arriving home around 8:30 with all three kids asleep in the vehicle. They are normally in bed by 7 or 8 since they have gotten up each morning by 5:30am!!!! By that time it’s bright out and the birds and roosters are melodiously starting their day.
On the drive home we saw another striking sight as we came up behind a big truck loaded down with bananas. Precariously seated on top of the mountain of bananas were about a dozen persons of various ages and sizes. As the truck hurtled down the incline we couldn’t help but appreciate that we had a vehicle whose lights all worked with adequate seating and seatbelts.
As I was waiting for this photo to load, I heard a thud...another mango dropping from one of the trees. They cover our yard here like acorns in a MI forest.
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