Mud, Musical Chairs and Rivieras

Hello there friends and family! I have taken it upon myself to update our blog (this is

Bethany by the way) and to make the post an interesting one, no offence to Mom. So, I have decided

to show you Leticia and the surrounding countryside from my point of view, and then show

some pics and comments on the Rivera’s visit. So be prepared for a long post.

To begin with, I would like you guys to see Leticia through my eyes

First of all. . . .mud.

Something I detest, but would like you to see a few pictures of it anyways

Mud.

And more mud

And still more mud

(Someone looks a little exasperated here)

Next are ants. Everywhere. Big ones, red ones, little ones, black ones

itty bitty tiny ones. And there are some really cool leaf-cutter ants too,

but I don’t have a picture of them.

Anyways, here is a fencepost covered in ants.

Cool, eh? Oh, and I can’t help adding that Franklin told us that some people in Peru

eat ants. Live ones. Just stick ‘em down their throats. Ok, that was gross, next.

So now something I love- the rain. You do not know what rain is until you have been in

the Amazon. And to show you a real rain storm look at the following pictures.

And that is the street we are driving through, not a creek or something.

Love this picture.

And now a few pictures of the river. Although I will not consent to swim in it,

I love taking pics of it. I took these three, they are probably my favorites.

This one I took a few days ago- love it

Even a place with so much mud can have beautiful sunsets

Ok, so now the Rivera’s visit. Franklin Sr., his wife Ruth, and four of their kids, Franklin Jr. (who was

here with the Brimlows), Ruth, Jonatan, and Benjamin were here for two weeks. Franklin Sr. and Ruth

left for Lima on Mon., and Jonatan left a few days before they did. Franklin, Ruth, and Benjamin

will be here until Paul gets back from the States. Here are some pics of a river trip we took, and

also of around the house.

In the boat, Matt being weird, as usual

Just to give you a taste of how brown the Amazon is

We had a small gospel meeting In a little church that was all open (as you can see),

and a bunch of children and a few adults came.

“Ruthita”

Benjamin saying hi to the camera, well, actually is trying to hide his face.

This kid was so cute; I had to take a picture of him.

A group picture

Matt and Benji playing “futbal” with a coconut. If there is anything that

even slightly resembles a soccer ball within a radius of 5 miles, you can

trust a South American to find it.

Then they threw it in the river to see it splash.

There was this cool path I couldn’t help taking a picture of.

Making s’mores-Mom found real honest to goodness marshmallows, so we roasted

some of them over our stove.

Ok, just a few more things. Lots of kids for around the neighborhood come on meeting nights

and Sunday School and we have to think up some ways to keep them entertained. The first thing

we thought up was musical chairs. Here are some pics.

Somebody tricked me into this.

The two youngest of the group with Franklin- He’s a favorite.

All the kids gathered around the piano.

And now a goofy picture:

Well that’s it. Thank-you for reading this enormous post. I will probably be updating on our new house soon, so stay tuned! Bye for now!

Love to all-

Bethany