Swinging

Veronica has a new and improved swing now.  The first one was made of wood which wasn't treated (since no wood here is), and the seat cracked.  We brought coated chain down from the United States, and our builder used leftover metal beam pieces to make a seat.  Now she has a sturdy place to wait while Dad and Mom discuss construction on site!

Bloom

We have planted nine fruit trees at the top of our property which are taking root and blooming little by little.  Here is an apple bloom, with our construction visible in the background.

Thank you, Lord, for the new life blossoming
on our property, both in our buildings sprouting
up and in our fruit trees!

Ministry building walls

Time for the ministry building walls!

First the chicken wire...

Next the asphalt paper...

Then the styrofoam.

The styrofoam will be covered by another layer of asphalt paper and then steel roofing panels which we are using for siding.

Birthday party

I took Veronica to the birthday party of one of the girls at our church, Abigail, who is on our dance team and turned 10.

The birthday girl had asked her guests to arrive
in costumes, so we dressed Veronica up as
a Sticker Princess.  This is a balloon made
by the clown at the party.  Veronica won
first prize for the originality of her costume.

They had fun playing games with the clown.

Beautiful princesses.  The girl in the middle
with the tiara is Abigail.

They have a funny custom here where the
birthday child takes the first bite of
cake after the guests sing "Happy Birthday"
and they start chanting, "Take a bite, take
a bite..."

...face first!  Ha ha ha.

Wedding

We went to the wedding of the brother of one of the families in our church.  It was very pretty with draped fabrics set up in the family's yard.

Waiting for the wedding to start.  This precious
lady is Aura, my friend Lesvi's mother.

Girls lined up in their traditional outfits
to watch the bride enter.  These are girls
from our church dance team.

After the ceremony, the bride and groom
stand under a bell-shaped paper form that is
filled with rice.  The parents of the bride and
groom stand on either side of them and
pull strings, breaking the paper on the bottom
and letting the rice fall on the newlyweds
as a blessing.  This seems to be done instead
of throwing rice, like in the United States.

After receiving the rice blessing, the newlyweds
return to the front, and the guests line up to
give gifts and hug the couple.  Then comes
a full meal and wedding cake.

View from kitchen window

One day I was looking out my kitchen window and saw that our neighbor decided to build a shed... almost blocking my view.  One of the things I love most about living here is that new, unexpected things happen all the time!

Our neighbor, Roberto, built a basic wood
frame on his roof, then nailed on steel roofing
panels as the walls of the shed.

This is my new view.

Thankfully, I can still look out over part
of the neighborhood!

Babysitting Suzy

From time to time, one of the other missionaries here, Carol, asks us to babysit her dachshund, Suzy.

We all love Suzy!