Chickens, Sunrises, and Spanish

We’ve had a bunch of experiences and stories this month so there are going to be short segments of many of them.

San Pablo: Last week we had the chance to go to San Pablo La Laguna to visit Shauna’s sister Brittney and her husband Joel. They live about 3 hours away and we spent a few days with them. It was great to be able to spend time with another married couple and have fun together. One morning we woke up in time to see the sunrise. Another morning/afternoon we took a boat ride on the lake and hiked 3 ½ hours along the lake. The pictures below feature some of the sights we saw! We were also able to see the area of San Pablo, visit their neighbors, and see some of the kids Brittney and Joel have to their home four days a week.

                   

               

                  

Chickens: So Carlos, my Spanish teacher, and I were having lessons one day at our house and he looks up and says, “You know there’s a chicken in your yard?” Since that time we have had three different types of chickens in our property. Here is the one in our tree :) 

House utilities: I love how cheap electric and water are here. Our electric bill averages around Q120/ month (roughly $16) and our water bill average has been Q10 (around $1.45). Also we were running low on gas for our stove and so we ordered a new gas tank and within five minutes a guy arrived with the tank strapped to the back of his motorcycle. That’s called service! (it is quite rare to get service like this so I was a little surprised)

Spanish: When I have Spanish lessons I usually go to Carlos’ house twice a week and he usually comes to mine once a week. However , sometimes we change things up and go to a different location. Yesterday we went to a macadamia nut tree farm. It was a 30 minute bike ride to get there and back, but the farm was so cool. We had a little tour ( the tour guide talked in Spanish and I understood most of what she said!) then we had lessons at a table in the garden/sitting area. Did you know macadamia nuts can be used in sunscreen, lotion, soaps, and candies? Anyways my Spanish is definitely improving and my flash card piles are becoming bigger and bigger J I have had good practice when we have our neighbor kids over once a week. This past week we played the game memory with them and I learned some animal names I didn’t know so that was a plus: Pulpo is octopus and cabra is goat.

Jalapa: We took a trip early this month to Jalapa, a town four hours away. We visited five or six families to provide some food, formula, diapers, and evaluation of how their doing (health wise). We also visited this place where they do ministry for older adults. Behind this buiding there was a school where I was able to meet a physical education teacher who teaches all kinds of sports to kids there. We exchanged contact information and he said if I ever wanted to volunteer or help out I was welcome to. So that could definitely be a cool learning opportunity as I think about starting sports ministry here.

Anniversary: We celebrated our first anniversary on the 24th – hard to believe it has already been a year! We went to Antigua for the night and spent part of the next day there.

Antigua
Central Park Fountain

The restaurant we went to for dinner
was super busy!

A cool spiderweb on a
door near our hotel

We would love if you would continue praying for:

-Our neighbor kids as we build relationships with them

-Learning Spanish

-People who would be around our own age and stage of life to be able to be friends with

We would also love to know how we can be praying for you. Let us know. We also are encouraged by friends and family who have e-mailed and talked to us just to see how things are going. Gracias

Andi and Shauna