Nov. 24, 2008
Hi everyone!!
I haven’t written in a coon’s age so will have to catch up!!
I will start from summer till now….. Beth, Matt and I went north June 15 via Detroit, kept John and Rebecca up late catching up on 3 months of news and then spent a week in Hamer Bay, attacking boxes stored in Boulard’s cottage. Quite a chore! We mostly stayed at Dad and Mom’s . Next we flew to Portland OR, getting to Walla Walla conference, Bethany then to Lassen and REALLY enjoyed her first year alone there. We stayed with Dave, Jenn & Em at their new place, and enjoyed my piano again!! The kids were excited to get in on the SS picnic, and invited our previous neighbors to it. We also went to the Forestry Center with the neighbor kids and had a good time catching up on each other.
Then we went back to Hamer Bay for the last 3 weeks. My dad went in to have another stint put in so we stuck by Mom. He is doing very well, and has been sticking to a strict diet to help his cholesterol, etc.
While there we had an early 50th anniversary for Dad and Mom, went out to eat at a local restaurant, and then had other friends and relatives for the evening and cake and ice cream, and Tim did an awesome speech for them. Emily arrived that day also.
Then we went to John and Rebecca Whitakers, the kids all went to the Science Museum, while I finished packing, and then we left the next day to Bogota.
We stayed in Bogota for a long weekend, having a nice visit with some of the YP for most of Sunday afternoon. We love to see the dressed up robot men in downtown Bogota and go to the McDonalds there and we had our last great pizza at the airport before we left on Monday for Leticia.
After getting settled in, we got busy shopping for and preparing for the Brimlows visit. They arrived on Sept 6, and Em was able to be with them for about a week and a half, then she had to go back for school, and I lost my right arm….:(
Brimlows arrived, in trickle formation, Brimlow style!! First Nathan and Cam Totems arrived in the back of the closed and locked police paddy wagon – ask them how that happened!! Then some more arrived, and then a bunch in a taxi, then Daniel. Nathan went to meet some in Paul’s jeep, proclaiming he had already had a shower. A Real Shower!!!! OH WOW!!!!! We had made some quick grilled cheese sandwiches, (you know- something dull and boring!) It was quite funny seeing them get wolfed down and all this EXCLAIMING about how absolutely amazing they were- American food!!! Woohoo! Nathan even said he thought he was going to cry!!
Life definitely became busy, and eventually we had a “chore list”, not that we read it much, but was there, just in case someone forgot! And everyone had some sort of other things to do, whether it was visiting people, catching up on their blog, studying Spanish, etc,.
With us were the Brimlows, Lydia Ruga, Dave Bilisoly, Camrianne Totems. Also 2 SA brothers, Franklin Rivera Jr.( Lima), and Wilmer from Venezuela who both stayed for about 3 weeks.
Highlights of their time with us were, Cheryl arriving after a week, visiting out in the kilometers (country) villages and passing out tracts and bookmarkers, visiting the Bible school at km 18 where some indigenous teens were going to Bible school. Cheryl had carpal tunnel surgery while here. One day, all the YP had an extra special dinner for the 4 adults and it was SOOOO wonderful!! They served up a fruit cup, Fruit smoothie, macaroni tuna salad with cucumbers, choice of beef or chicken with 4 different sauces served in home-made crepes. Dessert was a custard-cheesecake with fruit. They spent all day on it and wouldn’t let us into the kitchen all day. We had our hair and faces done for us. They had everything all decorated – table, candles, …The guys were our personal servers and did a great job! A VERY fun time was had by all!!!! There are pictures of it.
We had meetings here Thursday, Saturday and Sunday nights and had visitors every meeting. One day we went up river about 1 hour, stopping at 4 villages along the way passing out tracts, etc. We also started a Sunday afternoon SS with neighborhood kids that has continued on and made more contacts with the poor “river” people/squatters down by the river with houses on stilts. Danny and Durley know some of them. Anyway, one Christian lady is redoing her house now because the side walls fell off (rotten), her husband left her with a 9 year old girl and newborn, her cousin and baby also lives with her and is trying to pressure her to become a Mormon. Another young girl got some English lessons in exchange for helping Paul read the Spanish Bible, which he reads loud enough for the Mormon lady to hear next door through the open wall!!
Also Paul reads the Bible with Leslie, our new maid’s daughter who is in a wheelchair, in exchange for reading lessons. Leslie is around 20 years old, can barely read after spending years in school. I am not sure if she is a slow learner, or if the special ed class here only taught them household activities or what.
Nathan went to school for several weeks, and Anna and Matt went 1-2 times a week to Spanish and art classes. Another day Dave, Matt and I walked 4 miles up the river path to see a nature sanctuary where they have huge lily pads, birds, etc. You can rent a cottage-type building overnight and be right in the jungle with the bird, monkeys, etc. Would be fun! Met a Christian man who we asked water for at his house along the way back. We were very hot & tired and dehydrated after 8 mi of walking!!
The Brimlow visit is sort of a blur now in my mind. Mostly I made dinners, kept things going, cleaning school, laundry, Nathan occupied.. We ate out a lot, as it was only a little more than making it ourselves. And it was so hot and time consuming, it was easier to go out, but some of us get sick more when we go out. Cheryl wasn’t feeling well a lot of the time, and tired and didn’t get much sleep some nights, but was always cheery as usual!! So I don’t think we realized how bad she did feel . We know now that sunlight aggravated her condition of lupus. We often had kids over to teach Cheryl and others Portuguese, or they would go to the library.
For us, the end result of their visit is, we know lots more people, in Leticia, we have a SS, our house is well known by many more people- for example, just this morning even before we finished breakfast, the doorbell rang at least 3 times! For various reasons, one lady (Blanca) wanted to borrow 7 chairs for visitors to her house, another was a delivery of 10 boxes of Spanish bibles, another, the neighborhood fumigator asking when he should come to spray. All this while we are trying to bag up everything in garbage bags to prepare for the spraying. Our extra fridge is unplugged but full of food staples. So now we are holed up at Yurapary Hotel again for probably 2 nights.
The JW’s and Mormons are a bit-time problem here. People have no idea about them. We have to tell people these people are NOT Christians. Then show them John 1, etc. Down at the river houses, Paul went to visit one day and found about 10 JW’s down there deceiving the poor people. He offered a JW lady a mini-bible booklet. He had her read the verses in the booklet in her Bible to show her they were in her Bible, but when he got to asking her to read a verse in Rev. She had had enough and said no, and bowed out. I don’t think they were expecting so much confrontation in that location!
I was quite excited one morning to hear the definite song of a wren outside our window!! And the next week, a robin doing his cheerio song but I haven’t seen a robin yet, but others have. It made it seem like a small world then!!! Something familiar WAY down here!! So Matt and I made a wren house, but I am not sure if they actually nest down here.
We are having the hot and dryer season now (summer), only downpours 1-2 times a week instead of 5 days a week or so. So I am becoming a SA in that it is a whole lot nicer to have a nap after lunch when it is too hot to do anything else!
We are looking to rent a place in the country, about 1mile out of town, in a gated community. It is much quieter, safer, and more young families with kids for Beth and Matt to play with. Has a vacant lot for soccer, room to bike around, etc., and has a yard with lots of flower bushes and fruit trees!! Then we are looking for a building that we can use for Amazon English during the week, meeting on weekends, with a kitchen and bedroom for visitors or whatever.
Dec. 1, 2008
We had a Thanksgiving Dinner with Danny and Durley on Thursday. Danny brought the turkey and we provided the rest- mashed potatoes, corn, stuffing (sent from Rebecca Whitaker) and so we had a feast with pumpkin (also from Reb. W) and apple pie and ice cream to top it off!
Yesterday a girl who comes to SS earned a Bible for saying 10 verses. She is the first one. She learns like a photographic memory! Now I think the others will be more motivated to practice during the week.
Enjoying some time at Whitakers
Bethany, Andrea and Emily
Playing basketball with some of the YP in Bogota
Playing card games with the kids
Durley & Dany, and Emily doing a puzzle
Dany and Matt doing dishes!!
Our table - 3 times a day
Sunday spread
Nate!!! We love him!!!
The results of yard work by the boys!! Now in bloom!!
Traveling Jeep style to the km`s
On the way to a village on the kms.
At the Bible school at km18
A poor house on the river
Bringing produce to market
Lady doing dishes in the river
Bridge to village
Daniela with a pet bird
Pineapple plant
Tall trees!! That`s small me down there!
Matt on log bridge
Bethany, Franklin and Martha - touching and numerous sensitive plants
Those 2 heads in the water are Nathan and Dave!! Cooling off at a village.
Pet monkeys at a village
At a zoo in Leticia - large lily pads
Tapir (I think)
Anaconda!!
Jaguar (I think)
Ocelot (I think)
Franklin getting hugs from a monkey!
Which side of the fence are we??? This monkey kept insisting on hugging Anna over and over!! It was hilarious! 
Cam and Nathan preparing, writing up menus for the evening 
A wonderful fruit juice beverage and fruit salad!!!! MMMMmmmm!! 
Dan and Cheryl, Paul and Martha enjoying the luxurious dinner
Our plate of filled crepes
