Just last Friday Jeff asked me if I wanted to fly with him and John to Trinidad on Monday to help with an evangelistic series in the nearby town of Santa Ana. I said you betcha. So I got packed up and was ready to leave when I got word late last night that Jeff had to fly to Santa Cruz today instead. So looks like we'll be headed down tomorrow or Wednesday if everything goes as planned. I'm excited. It'll be a nice break from the construction and a chance to practice Spanish. And more importantly it's another opportunity to cooperate with God in His work, both in changing other people's lives, and changing mine a bit more too while we're at it.
After the meetings are over John and I plan to head out by bus to La Paz and then on to Peru since our 90 day visas are about to expire and we're due to check out of the country. So we'll be cruisin' around for a little while. We should be back to the school here before Christmas though.
Monday, November 28, 2005
Thursday, November 24, 2005
And here it is again (in case you accidently deleted my email. :)
Happy Thanksgiving from the southern hemisphere! It's a grey rainy day and a bit cooler than usual, so at least it feels a bit like Thanksgiving weather-wise. I figured there wouldn't be much to do at the school today with all this rain, so I decided to catch a ride into town with Ruan and Tara (the new missionaries from Michigan who will be taking over administrative duties so Jeff and Fawna will be free to start the medical aviation program). We plan to have a late THanksgiving dinner on Sunday. Tara and Fawna have been stockpiling and there's talk we may even have pumpkin and apple pie. How about that? I'm excited.
I don't remember what all I told you in the last email I sent as far as news goes, so forgive me if there is any repetition. So here are a few things of note. We finished the floor and the plumbing in Ruan and Tara's house. The septic is all dug out (by hand because the backhoe was not working at the time) and it just needs to be bricked up. So before too long we should have the first flushing toilets on campus. We also just finished pouring the foundations for the duplex (staff housing) where Enrique and his family will live.
The dike down by the waterwheel is a continuous project. Currently we're working on doubling the width of it in preparation for the heavy rains (which are just starting.) The tractor is working now, but unfortunately it can't get to the dike so all the work we do on it is with our favorite equipment, the good ol' wheelbarrow. We do use the tractor to pile up loose dirt though and that is a HUGE improvement over digging all our dirt out of the bank with the mattock.
Fawna and Sandra (Enrique's wife) held some cooking classes for a couple of Sundays here in Guayaramarin this November. I did not attend but I heard good reports. And the school just got a press that we can use to make soy milk straight from the beans. It's quite a laborious process however, so I'm not surprised that I haven't seen it served with my oatmeal yet.
It's pineapple season! Our patch has been producing like crazy. Eric and Dave made a solar fruit dryer and put it on Ruan and Tara's tin roof, but it hasn't been working (just might have something to do with rainy season?). In any case, all the pineapples seem to ripen at the exact same time and we have been selling some in town because, hard as it is to imagine, we can't eat them fast enough. (And believe me, we can really chow on those pineapples.)
And speaking of chow, after all the students left, the cooking assignments have been divided between all the SMs and remaing staff. Eric and I are responsible for Wed night supper. It's pretty interesting cooking from scratch over a wood fire for 12-15 people. Fawna and Tara have a small gas stove and oven which they kindly let us use as well, but the majority of the cooking is done in the kitchen over the fire. Suprisingly the food has turned out pretty good so far. The sautaed vegetables have really helped out in that regard. Last night we fried up some lentil paddys (with sautaed veggies in them) for sandwiches and they were actually really good. Maybe I was just extra hungry, but everyone else said they liked them too.
Anyway, that's about all for now. Thanks so much for all your prayers and for those of you who have emailed me. Your support is HUGE. More than you know. Please continue to pray. There are plenty of needs here. For those of you who have expressed interest in knowing more about specific needs you can help with, I suggest you get in touch with Ruan and Tara since they have a better idea of what needs are priorities and will be better able to answer your questions as well. Their email address is rtswan@hotmail.com. Once again happy Thanksgiving!
I don't remember what all I told you in the last email I sent as far as news goes, so forgive me if there is any repetition. So here are a few things of note. We finished the floor and the plumbing in Ruan and Tara's house. The septic is all dug out (by hand because the backhoe was not working at the time) and it just needs to be bricked up. So before too long we should have the first flushing toilets on campus. We also just finished pouring the foundations for the duplex (staff housing) where Enrique and his family will live.
The dike down by the waterwheel is a continuous project. Currently we're working on doubling the width of it in preparation for the heavy rains (which are just starting.) The tractor is working now, but unfortunately it can't get to the dike so all the work we do on it is with our favorite equipment, the good ol' wheelbarrow. We do use the tractor to pile up loose dirt though and that is a HUGE improvement over digging all our dirt out of the bank with the mattock.
Fawna and Sandra (Enrique's wife) held some cooking classes for a couple of Sundays here in Guayaramarin this November. I did not attend but I heard good reports. And the school just got a press that we can use to make soy milk straight from the beans. It's quite a laborious process however, so I'm not surprised that I haven't seen it served with my oatmeal yet.
It's pineapple season! Our patch has been producing like crazy. Eric and Dave made a solar fruit dryer and put it on Ruan and Tara's tin roof, but it hasn't been working (just might have something to do with rainy season?). In any case, all the pineapples seem to ripen at the exact same time and we have been selling some in town because, hard as it is to imagine, we can't eat them fast enough. (And believe me, we can really chow on those pineapples.)
And speaking of chow, after all the students left, the cooking assignments have been divided between all the SMs and remaing staff. Eric and I are responsible for Wed night supper. It's pretty interesting cooking from scratch over a wood fire for 12-15 people. Fawna and Tara have a small gas stove and oven which they kindly let us use as well, but the majority of the cooking is done in the kitchen over the fire. Suprisingly the food has turned out pretty good so far. The sautaed vegetables have really helped out in that regard. Last night we fried up some lentil paddys (with sautaed veggies in them) for sandwiches and they were actually really good. Maybe I was just extra hungry, but everyone else said they liked them too.
Anyway, that's about all for now. Thanks so much for all your prayers and for those of you who have emailed me. Your support is HUGE. More than you know. Please continue to pray. There are plenty of needs here. For those of you who have expressed interest in knowing more about specific needs you can help with, I suggest you get in touch with Ruan and Tara since they have a better idea of what needs are priorities and will be better able to answer your questions as well. Their email address is rtswan@hotmail.com. Once again happy Thanksgiving!
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