Lunch With Grandma

Yes, I still have a lot of mission trip writing to do, but I have to jump in here one more time before I get to that.  Since we got back I have been tending to the things that just couldn't wait any longer, like funerals and jury duty.  Finally, this week, I have gotten to a few of the people on my list.  Literally.  I have a list of people that I need to call, see, email, people that just got neglected while I was gone.  Today I went and picked up Grandma Brantley and took her to lunch.  We just always called them Grandma and Grandpa because their granddaughters were in our youth group when we came and that's all I ever heard them called.  When my kids were little, we would go and visit them.  Grandpa always showed Joshua his knife collection, and the girls always played with the barbie dolls that were left there by the granddaughters.  We always took by something homemade on Christmas Eve and visited for a while.  It's been 11 years since Grandpa left us.  I adored him.  Absolutely adored him.  Grandma and I talked about him at lunch today and I told her that I always go for the ones that like to act like big bull dogs but are really big teddy bears inside.  I had Grandpa figured out from the start, and I was right.  For years they sat right behind us in church. Grandpa and I had many heart to heart talks that I will never forget.  He let me see the real Grandpa and I loved him just the way he was.  Grandma and I became much closer after Grandpa died.  We laugh and talk and never have a quiet moment when we're together.  Today, while we were sitting in the restaurant, Joshua just happened to come in.  Grandma hadn't seen him in so long and she was so thrilled to see him and he certainly remembered her!  We talked about how blessed she is to be her age and SO healthy and able to do all she does.  She still cooks lunch for her family most days, and I do mean cooks!  She talked about her devotions that she had read just this week. Another elderly couple from church came over to our table and were just shocked to see us together.  They asked if we were related.  We both just looked at each other and neither of us said anything for a few seconds.  Finally we both laughed and I said "Well, yes!"  Grandma had known them for years, I had known them for years, but none of knew we knew each other.  Finally, I told them that we had always called them Grandma and Grandpa and that our kids had always called them Grandma and Grandpa, for all of our 25 years here.  They went on to their table and sat down and we laughed about it.  All I know is that I have spent a whole lot of years very far away from most of my family.  My children have had several Grandma and Grandpas that are not any blood relation. We have had many relationships that have bathed us in love.  God has blessed us in ways we could never have dreamed.  My visits with Grandma are precious to me.  I look forward to them.  They are not always for her benefit.  Sometimes I need her to be my friend and I always know where to find her and she always has time.  We walked out of the restaurant and Grandma took my hand and she said "I think we are relation, I think that happened a long time ago."  I have to agree.

Happy 27th

27 years ago today I married Mr. Wonderful!  Today we celebrated by doing our favorite thing...going to the beach!  I have a LOT of blogging to catch up on, I know, but I just had to step in and let you know about the big celebration!  We used to always go away for our anniversary, but somehow after being out of the country for a month, living out of a suitcase, just finishing unpacking and doing the laundry this last week after being home already for two weeks, the thought just wasn't real appealing to either of us!  Reading at the beach sounded like great fun, and it was!  This morning I reflected on how many of our wedding attendants we are still in contact with.  We have been blessed with some very rich friendships, three wonderful children, one church family of 25 years, many brothers and sisters of many nationalities, seen alot of places and been honored to represent  and serve Him together for 27 years.  It's been a joy and blessing, and it's not over yet!!! 

Leaving Antigua

Tomorrow we will leave Antigua and head to Guatemala City to welcome our team here for the mission trip!  We are VERY ready to see all our kids!  The last few days we haven't done too much, just rested and done all the last minute things that we wanted to get done here. We have enjoyed the roses in our yard, the dogs waiting for me to come and play, the gardener-he cut down bananas this morning, and our sweet little apartment!  We have loved our time here and look forward to mission trip now!  We will have a construction team building a couple of houses, a medical team, and an evangelism team presenting the gospel in schools and city squares.  We look forward to seeing what God is going to do! 

We traveled to Pana again on Saturday.  On the way, I was able to get a picture out the window, of where the mud slide was last weekend.  Not a great picture, but maybe you get the idea! 

Saturday was a really nasty day, lots of rain, so we weren't out much.  On Sunday, we got in a boat and traveled aroound the lake.  It was a beautiful ride.  We only got off at San Pedro and just walked around a little before heading back to Pana.I love seeing the ladies all gather at one place to visit while they do their laundry.  This was pretty up close, the best picture I've been able to get of the event!I bought from this lady with the baby on her back last weekend.  This weekend too!  We chatted a little this week.  Her name is Angelina and her baby is precious...only a month old!I also got to see ladies making fresh tortillas!  It is pure torture for me to not be able to eat them, but if you saw them doing it, you would understand.  So far, we haven't been sick and I wouldn't want to ruin a good thing!On the way home, of course we saw lots of sites.  I love seeing the cows tied up with a rope while they graze.  A girl on our van had a dog with her that she let go wherever it pleased.  Most of the time, it stayed under my feet.  I was glad it wasn't a typical Guatemalan dog!  Now we are just trying to rest up from School before out team arrives on Thursday!  We are ready to see our kids!

Language School Completed!

The school usually does a field trip on Thursday, but Cary and I didn't want to go yesterday and talked our teachers into taking us on our own private field trip!  There is a mountain with a cross on it where you can hike to and see the whole city.  It was QUITE a hike!  But, we made it and Julio and Gloria were very good guides.  It was a pretty view and we had fun spotting all the places in town that we are familiar with.  Today was our last day of class and we even got graduation certificates!  I said obviously there was no test!  It was a great couple of weeks, but we are very glad that school is over and we can relax a little before the mission team arrives!  Gloria was my new teacher and I got to move out of the dark hole and into a real classroom.  I like to think that is because I got promoted the second week, but that may or may not be true.  Gloria had a great sense of humor and we laughed a lot.  

 

Just Another Day!

This is how we start our day...Sandy and Chico start to whine outside our door and I go and open the door. They stick their heads in, but come no farther! They get their loving, and a bone, and then they are on their way! It is SO cute! These are the pictures we took from Ginger's roof. Today was an especially clear day, no fog or clouds. It is just amazing to be up on that roof! For lunch, we ate at a nursery! It was SO pretty! I don't know what this blooming vine was, but it was beautiful! After lunch we walked around town a little, then headed home to study and do laundry. Near our apartment, we noticed they were doing a little road work. It was interesting enough that we stopped and watched! And then, as we started to walk away, we noticed the baricade! Gotta love the simplicity! So goes another day in the life....

There just wasn't a lot of excitement today!  We went to school this morning and then went for a wonderful lunch with Ginger!  Cary had eaten at this place before and the food was SO good!  We have not had any problems with the food here!  After lunch we took Ginger to the Jade Factory and then she came to our apartment to visit a while.  It rainned this afternoon, but I did manage to get in a little bit of playing time with the dogs.  They are very good therapy for me when my brain is on overload!  We had dinner at home and are enjoying a quiet evening at home!

No Pictures Today!

Nope, not a single one!  The only time I would have taken one my camera was not in reach-which doesn't happen often!  We walked to school this morning in the rain, after it rainned all night and yesterday evening!  When we got to school, we found Ginger!  Ginger is our dentist's wife and she is here to study this week also.  Doug has been our dentist for almost 25 years, and we love them dearly.  They have taken great care of us!  Doug will be coming with the medical team in a couple of weeks.  Ginger took us to show us her room at the school.  Oh my, I WILL have pictures!  On top of her roof is the most beautiful view ever!  I had my new teacher today, Gloria, and things went MUCH better!  She thinks Gladys just was giving me too much, too fast.  After school we showed Ginger the town...lunch, grocery store, and market.  We got our stash of fresh veggies and fruit. After we were done shopping, Ginger and I took a tuk-tuk back to our homes.  Now THAT was funny.  Cary wanted to walk, and we needed to ride because of our groceries.  A tuk-tuk ( I am sure that is not how you spell it,) but it's a glorified motorcycle with a bit more protection!  So, Cary flags one down for us, hands me a bill, and sends us on our way.  No, we have no idea if the bill will cover the cost.  Then, I have no idea where we are going and I still don't know how I got to where I belonged.  We went places I'd never seen before!  Then, I have to get out and send Ginger off on her own and trust he takes her to where we told him to and doesn't try to charge her any more than I've already paid him!  We laughed the whole way, and I am sure he was wondering what in the world we were laughing about.  It was a great day and I will get pics of the view, a tuk-tuk, and my new teacher!

World Cup in Guatemala

This is the new Mama.  Her name is Bonita (Beautiful) and she came and found me this morning.  She purrs constantly and her little claws never quit.  She quite enjoys the loving!  She came around again to tell me goodbye.  Can't wait to see the babies in a couple of weeks!  We left Santiago and took a boat back to Pana and just relaxed.  Had coffee at a cafe' and just took our time checking out the market area.  It was kind of funny, really.  Usually they are all over you trying to get you to buy things.  Today, however, they were ALL involved with the World Cup!  It was very interesting to see them so caught up in the game that they just let us roam around in peace!  We saw several places with TVs set up and just chairs in the streets-even an occational car would stop in the street and view the game from their window!  All I can say is that I am thrilled that it is over!  It was a long time comin!We had an uneventful trip home this afternoon and had a wonderful dinner in Antigua when we got home.  Tomorrow starts week two of language school!

Santiago

We left Pana on Saturday morning and took the boat over to Santiago, to the Bamboo Hotel.  THIS is the view from our room!  It is beautiful!  We had lunch at a hotel, and got massages.  The "hut" in the trees was the little massage room.  The lady was pretty old and had no experience, but, oh well, it felt good anyway!  We walked around the local market for a while and Cary met Lydia.  She was adorable!  Of course she was trying to get us to buy from her, but she had personality.  Cary taught her to say "I am cute"!We spent the evening at the hotel where we saw 4 new baby kittens, just born!  When I come back they will be 2 weeks old!  I walked back to the room, in the dark, to get something and this HUGE frog jumped out at me.  I've never seen anything like it!  It's even bigger than it looks!  I made Cary go back with me to take the picture.  Note to self...never travel without a flash light!

Road Trip!

After school on Friday we left in a van for Pana.  Our van was full, and it was supposed to be about a 2 hour drive.  Not so!  It was more like a 5 hour ride!  We were to be picked up at 12:30, and it wasn't too far from that, but there were many more stops after picking us up before we were on our way!  It rainned terribly, we saw a horrible accident, and for a while, we were completely stopped.  We didn't know what was going on.  Well, like I said, it was raining a lot and we eventually found that each car was stopping, trying to decide if they should try to "fly by" a mud slide that was gonna happen!  It was a huge waterfall coming down the mountain and sooner or later, it was going to slide.  Adventure.  We are looking for adventure.  Not really, I just kept studying me Spanish!  So, we finally made it to Pana and we were supposed to take a boat to the other side of the lake where we were going to stay in Santiago.  The people running the boats saw their opportuity (they don't run the boats that late) and wanted to charge an arm and a leg to take us over.  We just stayed in Pana for the night!  We ate dinner at a beautiful place right on the lake, Sunset Cafe'.

Sky Cafe'

After the coffee plantation we walked back to the apt. and found this church along the way.  That night we went to the Sky Cafe' for dinner.  The view AND the food were amazing!  The picture of us is not great, but it's the only one we have!  This is the same church we saw earlier in the day!

Coffee Plantation

On Thursday we took a chicken bus to tour a coffee plantation with our teachers.  It was a great break from the dark hole, but the only problem was that the guides only spoke in Spanish.  Needless to say, after only three days of school, not a lot was understood!  But, from the pictures you can see coffee trees, beans, and the packaging.  Also, you can see pictures of Cary and I with our teachers.

Back To School

No, I didn't write yesterday.  It was a rough day, not one I wanted in print!  We had our first day of language school, and it was rough for me!  Cary asked how I liked it, and I said "I hate it."  I felt pretty hopeless.  After a lot of self talk, we went back for session two today, and it was MUCH better!  No, I won't say I'm a success story yet, but at least I have hope today!  Kenneth and Diana surprised us and came to dinner with us last night, so they worked at giving me a pep talk during dinner!  We went to the market after school today, ate lunch at McDonalds, and plan to eat in tonight and study a while!  These are pictures of our class rooms.  Cary's is inside, I am outside.  I refer to mine as the dark, damp hole.  It really is pretty, but it is dark and damp!  My teacher is very nice, her name is Gladys.  Cary likes his teacher too, his name is Julio.

Happy 4th of July!

I am pretty sure this is the first time I have been out of the country on the 4th of July! Interestingly enough, it was brought up today in several places where we were. I woke up to hear church bells ringing! It was so pretty! It wasn't long before Chico and Sandy were waiting at the door for their morning greeting! We went out and played a little ball before breakfast! Actually, we played avocado. Sandy has a hard time remembering where she has left her ball, so she gets the next best thing. When she needs a rest, she just peels the avocado and has a snack break, then goes and gets another! Chico just wants to be loved on and have his belly scratched. The grounds where we are staying are so beautiful. Lot of pretty trees and flowers, mountains in the background. Ruth and Paul invited us to go to an English speaking church with them. It was a beautiful church, loved the stained glass window! We went to a Sunday School class, and I just want to say it was the first time in 25 years my husband and I sat in a class and listened! Usually he is teaching and I'm doing a million other things! It was on prayer and the teacher did a great job. The service was a traditional service, made complete with The Old Rugged Cross, All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name, and even the Lord's Supper. The pastor spoke on The Model Citizen, and brought in the 4th of July and whatever the Guatemalans call their independence day. Paul and Ruth took us to one of their favorite places for lunch, and it was beautiful, and the food was very good. It started raining this afternoon and rained most of the afternoon and evening, making for a real nice nap time! It has been a wonderful day of worship, fellowship, and rest! Tomorrow, we start language school!