I'm leaving this morning for Los Angeles and will fly out Tuesday Morning for saskatoon for 2 weeks of deputation. When we came down, we came without full support promised. We were able to do it with the promise to YUGO Canada's Board that I would come back to Canada twice in our first year for speaking engagements to help raise support so we can get to full support by Next summer, otherwise we will be taken off the field.
So this is round one of that- I'd appreciate your prayers as I do some visiting, speaking and representing the mission.- Here is my Itinerary in a nutshell...
Oct 31 11:50pm Arrive in S'toon
Nov1-7 in S'toon / Martensville area. Short report to Martensville Baptist Church ( our Sending church) Nov. 5th. Visit supporters and potential supporters in Saskatchewan this week,.
Nov 8- Travel to Swan River, Manitoba.
Nov 10 swan River Valley Youth Rally. I'm speaking to a number of youth in the area (maybe 50-65+) and challenging them to consider missions.
Nov 12- Speaking at Little Woody Baptist Church, BGC church in Swan River Valley, MB
Nov 12-14 MissionsFest at Nipawin Bible Institute
Nov 15 Return to Mexico
I doubt I'll get achance to visit with everyone I'd like to, but if you'd like to hear about what's going on, see some pictures or want to consider becoming partners with us- I can be Reached on my Cell phone at:
1-780-872-4338 (Lloydminster, AB number)
Looking forward to seeing you!
NEW CULTURAL EXPERIENCE
After church last night I was invited downstairs to eat. It was just a snack-type meal (like supper usually is..) Imagine this combination, if you will..
Take Boiled Corn on the cob... Jab a stick into the bottom of it (so it looks like a lollipop). Spread ample amounts of mayonaise all over the corn. Then sprinkle shredded monterry Jack Cheese on it. Squeeze some lime over it- and add Hot chili pepper sauce if desired...
Never would I think of doing this on my own. How someone came up with this combination is a mystery to me, but let me tell you- is it ever GOOD! The hot sauce is the crowning achievement of this- it just makes the rest of it sparkle!
Give it a try sometime!
Gotta go get ready to fly,
Blessings until next time,
Mike
Monday, October 30, 2006
Friday, October 27, 2006
Pictures of Rosarito
It's hard to get a feel for this one, but this is a house in the landfill community. All around the Tijuana Landfill a community has sprung up. A lot of the people who live here make their living by collecting things for recycling at the city dump. The folks have built homes, largely out of recycled material, in the area surrounding the landfill. During Christmas, YUGO brings christmas shoeboxes to the children here.
This is a picthure of the graveyard around the dump. A lot of the sites are encased in concrete to avoid getting washed away in the rainy season. There were quite a number of crosses that had been washed out and were now down or almost on the ground. A large amount of the graves are small, like they were for kids.
This is another one of the homes in the dump community.
Here are som pics of places we see regularly in Rosarito. It is a touristy area, mostly locals from Southern California coming to do stupid things in a foreign country. So it is has that aspect to it as wel as the area of business for the local residents as well.This is in a plaza area. Michoacana is a state in S. Mexico apparantly famous for helados- cold snacks. These shops will sell ice cream, juice (rice juice, tamarind juice amonth others) and a frozen popsicle unlik eany other you've ever had. Literally frozen fruit on a stick. mmmmmm...
This is our favourite Tamale Shop in the same plaza as the Michoacan place. A Tamale is a dish made with masa dough (kinda like corn flour dough) stuffed with either pineapples, beef and chile peppers, chicken, potatoe and salsa, pork and chile peppers or beef and cheese.Very good, very filling. Usually about $1.30 a piece and one is usually enough. Sometimes we'll split a pineapple too.
This is a typical street scene in DowntownRosarito. This in particular is a pharmacy. There are dozens here catering to Americans. It is much cheaper than the US and a prescription is not necessary.
This is just a Bathroom sign in the plaza. It is free but it costs 3 pesos (30 cents) for a few pieces of toilet paper and a paper towel.
This is a picture of an abbarrotes (corner store) and a taco stand. The rule of thumb here for eating out is, if it has plumbing, it's probably ok. If No plumbing? Where do they wash their hands? Avoid places without a visible sink.This is another pic of a food stand- "Mariscos" is seafood. So you'll likely get fish tacos (like fish and chip breaded fish in a taco with cabbage, salsa, mayo-type sauce and lime) Marlin tacos or shrimp tacos.
This is a key-cutting stand. these are all over the place. You can get a key cut for a buck. Some have emergency locksmithing too- 24 hours a day.
This is the "Market on Wheels" . There are 4 of these within a 10 minute drive of us. They are open on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Basically a place to by used things, new things, basic groceries, meat, fish, tacos ,pizza, churros, tacos, pigs head, deep fried pig skin (chicharron). Mostly it seems to be a place to gather together and do business, visit, eat and enjoy. The pictures don't do it justice, you need to see, smell and hear the place to get the full effect!
This is a flower vendor in the market. You can get pretty inexpensive plants here for your house or garden.
We see this sight regularly. It is the "road" into Lomas san Antonio- the colonia where the church is we are working with. It is a fairly poor place, though there is evidence of lots of contruction going on as people add on to their houses bit by bit as they have money.
And this is the newest member of the family. For security issues, it's pretty important to have a dog here. This guy picked us to be his pack before we left the old house and seems to fit in well here, despite his incessant flea infestation. Here he is chewing on part of a seatbelt he found near our landlord broken down car which lives with us in our yard.
This is the boys favourite tree in our yard. I'm not sure if you will be able to see it, but it looks like it is several trunks interwoven with each other.cool.
Here are those boys, gathering aorund their favourite cactus. It has no thorns, unlike most everything else around here.Thanks for sticking around this long!!
Until Next time,
Mike, Shar and boys
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
Weehoo- Phone service and Internet!!
After about 10 Days of silence, we are back connected to the world Wide Web and the land of telephone service.
We've moved into our new Casa. It comes complete with a covered "porch" area for Carne Asada's (BBQ Tacos). It has some cacti and palm trees lining the property and even a mandarine tree in the yard. We have 3 bedrooms, kitchen, living room and dining room and it 2.5 times bigger than our last place. It has a large fenced lot, complete with it's own broken down car, fridge and stove!
It does however some with some drawbacks...
In the week we've been here we've seen no large colonies of ants,
And No Huge Hairy Spiders!!
But other than that, it's great!
The boys have lots of room to play in our yard and the empty lot next door and enjoy hunting for lizards and playing with our new dog " Moose".
Before we moved, Shar took a week of Spanish lessons in Ensenada.
She came back with a newfound confidence and the tools necessary to begin learning the language in earnest. Now she spends about an hour or more each day on the computer learning off of a spanish CD we have. She takes lessons once a week with a lady from our church and has started to attend a Spanish Bible Study. She is looking forward to understanding and Speaking more Spanish!!(Shar's Homestay Family in Language school in Ensenada)
The boys are all in school now. Elijah and Caleb are both in the grade 1 class because the teacher speaks English. They will stay there for a while until they understand Spanish well enough to learn in their own classes. They go from 8:00-12:15 each day and we'll do some homeschooling- espescialy in English in the afternoons. Jacob has been in Kindergarten for about 3 weeks now, but still doesn't seem to have much of a grasp of Spanish- at least to speak it. But he doesn't seem to mind! He is blissful despite his inability to understand or make himself understood! He does have a cute song he really likes- and seems to pronounce things well, although he tells me he has absolutely no idea what it means...
As for me, I'm learning vocabulary from our CD's and going out and about during the day trying to use it as much as possible. I'll be going to Saskatchewan and Manitoba from October 31st until November 15th. During that time I'll be in Martensville / Saskatoon area from Nov 1-7. I'll be doing a short report at Martensville Baptist Church (Nov 5th) and would love to be invited out to people's homes (espescially for meals!!) that week to share a bit more about what's been happening with us here.
Here are a few more pics of stuff around here. I was talking to Irv Penner tonight and his wife, Mari, said that she wanted to see a few more pics of what it looks liek aorund hear, some street pics etc. so I toook a few before dark, and a have a few others I'll share here and will have some more soon!
Thanks for caring!!
Mike and Shar McDonald.
PS- I get snickers everytime I say my last name to someone here and they understand it... "McDonald?" they say "ahhhh Hamburgesa!! - hee hee hee".
This is "La Bufadora" . Just outside of Ensenada, it's basically a water cave with a hole in the top. As water comes in and fills the cave, it eventually spouts out the top in a "poof". It is supposed to be more impressive at high tide, which we weren't therre for... but it was a beautiful drive and I'm glad we were already in ensenada and didn't take a special trip for it. It was cool, but not drive for 1 1/2 hours and pay high tolls both ways cool.
Now this stuff was kinda cool. This was a shop in the plethora of tacky tourist shops lining the street up to La Bufadora. This one was cool cuz of the shark jaws and puffer fish and stuff like that...by the way, if you are a bit sqeamish, you might want to quickly scroll past the next pic...
These are real, dried Mako Shark heads. They put glass eyes in them, but the rest is real..
kinda gruesome up close, but still pretty cool.
This is just a typical street scene in our area. very coulourful signs painted right on the buildings- very typical of the area where we live.This is a typical poorer neighbourhood in Our area. The church we are going to now is in this neighbourhood, about 10 minutes form our house and down the hill from YUGO's Outreach property. the community is called "Lomas de San Antonio"- or Hills of Saint Anthony.
This is the neighbouring lot next to our house. It's kinda filled with garbage and this old truck, which I'm sure would sell for cheap if you're interested.
This is us at our old apartment, just after moving in. I'll have some pics of our new place soon, along with our dog "Moose" and some other pics interesting sites , the school and whatever else I can find!!Blessings!
Mike and Shar and kids!
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
Some Cultural Differences We've Noticed...
It stands to reason that goint to live in a new culture, in a new country that there will be a few things done differently here than at home. Here are a few of the things we've noticed and are learning to appreiciate.
1. Everything Starts at 7AM
- Yeah, just about everything! The major grocery stores are open from 7am-11pm at night. Some smaller stores aren't open that early, but even this morning (and this is not unusual) we heard the car repair guy with his bullhorn coming by at 7am. The buzz of the day begins at 7am
2. Door to Door Delivery of Stuff is Big Business.
-In the morning it can be the car repair guy with his bullhorn shouting out "Radiators, electrical, auto repair, batteries etc. etc." Apparantly if your car has stopped working, he'll come by and fix it at your house. so all you do is go out when he comes by and flag him down.
- Sometimes it's the propane guy with his catchy song playing. i can't sing it or even hum it here, but when you hear it- anytime from 7am till 7pm, you can get a new, full propane tank for your hot-water and stove. Some other propane companies just honk , one truck has a siren he wails as he goes around the neighbourhood
- The Tamale guy comes around at about 7-9am and then again at 7-8pm. apparantly people liek tamales for breakfast and late suppers! He has a bullhorn that announces the different kinds of tamales he's selling today- "Beef and pepper, chicken, pineapple, pork." There are 2 of these guys in our neihgbourhood.
- Seems liek everyone's favourite is the "Pan Dulce" guy. He comes around in the evenings and sells sweet breads to be eaten as a snack. Danish-like pastries, donuts, empanadas. They sell from about 20 cents to 45 cents each depending on the size and if they are filled.
- Finally it's the Helados truck/ cart. Ice cream and these fruit pops that are popular here. These fruit pops are pure frozen fruit- sometimes with cream or coco milk too. The watermelon one, even has seeds in it! Not like our imitation juice popsicles at all.
3. Driving Rules
- At first glance, it seems there are none here. But there are- they are just different then Canada. For instance, a 4 way stop. (There are tons of these!) You can make a U-Turn here- and it is expected that one will. People Rarely come to complete stops. Just enough to see who goes next and whether it's your turn, but in order to facilitate the efficient running of the system, you need to creep your way into the intersection, even if the guy coming the other way is turning nin front of you- you go slowly anyway and then clear the intersection when you get the chance. At streetlights- the greenlight blinks first to let you know that it's about to change yellow- then very quickly it becomes red. A yellow light shoudl be treated as red- cuz chances are good someone else is jumping the green!
- Some roads are very obviously 4 lanes, but at some places, that can expand to 5, 6 or even 8 lanes, depending on the presence of pedestrians, the amount of traffic and whether or not it seems safe to do that! Shoulders are sometimes for parking, sometimes for walking, sometimes for driving, sometimes for selling stuff- sometimes all 4 at once!
- In the USA (souther California anyway) people seem to be in a hurry and courtesy is rare. Here in Mexico, they drive "Crazy (to us) but it's a courteous crazy- if you inch into the lane of the next guy and cut him off- he doesn't give you the "Trudeau wave", he jams on the brakes, lets you in and then rides your tail so that noone else gets in in front of him. Sometimes with a wave of a hand you can change 3 or 4 lanes at once with the permission of the other drivers!
4. Even though everyhting starts at 7am- it goes late too!
- the busiest time for grocery shopping seems to be from 8pm-10pm. Not only is there alot of shopping going on, but the taco stands, the corner stores and the streets in general are filled with people, the smells of BBQ meat, the sounds of music. It slows down after 10pm- then revs up again at 7...
5. Mexicans are the some of the hardest workign people I know.
- We tend to have a preconception in Canada of the "lazy Mexican"- sitting under the cactus having a siesta. While some still do have a siesta between 3-5 or so- its cuz they were up at 5 or 6 am and they'll work till 10 or 11pm. Some have regular jobs during the day then open a taco stand out of their homes at night. Owners of places work all day and night 6-7 days a week. People without "jobs" will sell, buy, dig, do almost anythign to make some money for the day. Exceptionally hard working folks, resourceful and ingenius.
6.It's a day to day culture.
- in Canada (esp. the prairies) we have learned to store away in times of plenty for times of need. I.E. Plant a garden for the 3 weeks without frost and 22 hours of sunlight and then can, freeze, sell, trade your zucchinis till you seem to have enough to do you as long as you can. Modernly it looks like shopping at the superstore or costco and having enough in the house so that if you can't get out for some reason, (lose the electric garage door opener) you can still survive for a week to a month.
- In Mexico, where you rarely have enough money to buy 2 weeks worth of groceries, people buy for a couple days at a time- so the grocery store is always full with people having only a few items in ther carts. there are several "10 items or less" lanes in some places. So our house has virtually no cupboards. Nowhere for us to store our 2 weeks worth of groceries. So we shop almost daily!
- What''s needed for today takes precedence over what's needed for the long term. I heard of a story where some people were looking for a stick to whack their pinata with. After much searching, the missionary came back with a broom he had found in the church. Much to the delight of the people, they took the broom, busted it, and used it as the stick. The missionary was shocked. Why not just use it as it was? We wasted a broom! Today's need takes precedence over tomorrows.
7. Fate determines my life...
- This one is a tough one to swallow sometimes. In Canada our culture tells us that we have control over our circumstances. We buckle our seatbelts, because that saves lives- We have governments inspect our playgrounds and give us new lifesaving gudelines (which change every 5 years- when we realize that a child got hurt under the old guidelines), we regulate everyhting with the hope of controling our destiny. We deny death, we ignore the ill and the aged, in hope that we can avoid both for us. We also tell ourselves that we can be anythign we want to be- anyone can be the prime minister (despite the fact that very few of our modern prime ministers come from the middle or working class). We expect the government to prevent hurricanes and ice storms and are raged when they cannot fix massive diasters by Monday, or Tuesday at the latest. in Short, we beleive that, with few exceptions, we have control over our lives.
- In some developing world cutures, they beoleive that the heavens determine our lives paths. In other words, poor people will always be poor, so why get educated when you can help put food on the table. Why wear seatbelts? If it's your time to die, it's your time! Safety is not number one. People don't expect to live forever, they don't expect to get out of their circumstances. If God is in control, what can I do?
8. There is an openness to talking about God and a desire to have a relationship with Jesus Christ, rather than follow a religion.
- not everyone, of course, but there seem to be lots of peole who are no longer willing to settle for religion. They want Jesus. They want to know Him, to follow Him and to be loved by Him.
It's an interesting time to be a missionary here. Thanks for partnering with us so we can be here.
Please pray for us espescially in relation to language learning and acculturation. These things mentioned above which can be interesting and even admirable, can become an irritant too during the different phases of culture shock. Pray that we won't do or say anything that would hinder our ability to serve the people here with the Good News of Jesus- espescially while in the culture shock phases!
thank you and Bless You!
Dios la Bendiga,
Until Next time,
Mcdonald family
1. Everything Starts at 7AM
- Yeah, just about everything! The major grocery stores are open from 7am-11pm at night. Some smaller stores aren't open that early, but even this morning (and this is not unusual) we heard the car repair guy with his bullhorn coming by at 7am. The buzz of the day begins at 7am
2. Door to Door Delivery of Stuff is Big Business.
-In the morning it can be the car repair guy with his bullhorn shouting out "Radiators, electrical, auto repair, batteries etc. etc." Apparantly if your car has stopped working, he'll come by and fix it at your house. so all you do is go out when he comes by and flag him down.
- Sometimes it's the propane guy with his catchy song playing. i can't sing it or even hum it here, but when you hear it- anytime from 7am till 7pm, you can get a new, full propane tank for your hot-water and stove. Some other propane companies just honk , one truck has a siren he wails as he goes around the neighbourhood
- The Tamale guy comes around at about 7-9am and then again at 7-8pm. apparantly people liek tamales for breakfast and late suppers! He has a bullhorn that announces the different kinds of tamales he's selling today- "Beef and pepper, chicken, pineapple, pork." There are 2 of these guys in our neihgbourhood.
- Seems liek everyone's favourite is the "Pan Dulce" guy. He comes around in the evenings and sells sweet breads to be eaten as a snack. Danish-like pastries, donuts, empanadas. They sell from about 20 cents to 45 cents each depending on the size and if they are filled.
- Finally it's the Helados truck/ cart. Ice cream and these fruit pops that are popular here. These fruit pops are pure frozen fruit- sometimes with cream or coco milk too. The watermelon one, even has seeds in it! Not like our imitation juice popsicles at all.
3. Driving Rules
- At first glance, it seems there are none here. But there are- they are just different then Canada. For instance, a 4 way stop. (There are tons of these!) You can make a U-Turn here- and it is expected that one will. People Rarely come to complete stops. Just enough to see who goes next and whether it's your turn, but in order to facilitate the efficient running of the system, you need to creep your way into the intersection, even if the guy coming the other way is turning nin front of you- you go slowly anyway and then clear the intersection when you get the chance. At streetlights- the greenlight blinks first to let you know that it's about to change yellow- then very quickly it becomes red. A yellow light shoudl be treated as red- cuz chances are good someone else is jumping the green!
- Some roads are very obviously 4 lanes, but at some places, that can expand to 5, 6 or even 8 lanes, depending on the presence of pedestrians, the amount of traffic and whether or not it seems safe to do that! Shoulders are sometimes for parking, sometimes for walking, sometimes for driving, sometimes for selling stuff- sometimes all 4 at once!
- In the USA (souther California anyway) people seem to be in a hurry and courtesy is rare. Here in Mexico, they drive "Crazy (to us) but it's a courteous crazy- if you inch into the lane of the next guy and cut him off- he doesn't give you the "Trudeau wave", he jams on the brakes, lets you in and then rides your tail so that noone else gets in in front of him. Sometimes with a wave of a hand you can change 3 or 4 lanes at once with the permission of the other drivers!
4. Even though everyhting starts at 7am- it goes late too!
- the busiest time for grocery shopping seems to be from 8pm-10pm. Not only is there alot of shopping going on, but the taco stands, the corner stores and the streets in general are filled with people, the smells of BBQ meat, the sounds of music. It slows down after 10pm- then revs up again at 7...
5. Mexicans are the some of the hardest workign people I know.
- We tend to have a preconception in Canada of the "lazy Mexican"- sitting under the cactus having a siesta. While some still do have a siesta between 3-5 or so- its cuz they were up at 5 or 6 am and they'll work till 10 or 11pm. Some have regular jobs during the day then open a taco stand out of their homes at night. Owners of places work all day and night 6-7 days a week. People without "jobs" will sell, buy, dig, do almost anythign to make some money for the day. Exceptionally hard working folks, resourceful and ingenius.
6.It's a day to day culture.
- in Canada (esp. the prairies) we have learned to store away in times of plenty for times of need. I.E. Plant a garden for the 3 weeks without frost and 22 hours of sunlight and then can, freeze, sell, trade your zucchinis till you seem to have enough to do you as long as you can. Modernly it looks like shopping at the superstore or costco and having enough in the house so that if you can't get out for some reason, (lose the electric garage door opener) you can still survive for a week to a month.
- In Mexico, where you rarely have enough money to buy 2 weeks worth of groceries, people buy for a couple days at a time- so the grocery store is always full with people having only a few items in ther carts. there are several "10 items or less" lanes in some places. So our house has virtually no cupboards. Nowhere for us to store our 2 weeks worth of groceries. So we shop almost daily!
- What''s needed for today takes precedence over what's needed for the long term. I heard of a story where some people were looking for a stick to whack their pinata with. After much searching, the missionary came back with a broom he had found in the church. Much to the delight of the people, they took the broom, busted it, and used it as the stick. The missionary was shocked. Why not just use it as it was? We wasted a broom! Today's need takes precedence over tomorrows.
7. Fate determines my life...
- This one is a tough one to swallow sometimes. In Canada our culture tells us that we have control over our circumstances. We buckle our seatbelts, because that saves lives- We have governments inspect our playgrounds and give us new lifesaving gudelines (which change every 5 years- when we realize that a child got hurt under the old guidelines), we regulate everyhting with the hope of controling our destiny. We deny death, we ignore the ill and the aged, in hope that we can avoid both for us. We also tell ourselves that we can be anythign we want to be- anyone can be the prime minister (despite the fact that very few of our modern prime ministers come from the middle or working class). We expect the government to prevent hurricanes and ice storms and are raged when they cannot fix massive diasters by Monday, or Tuesday at the latest. in Short, we beleive that, with few exceptions, we have control over our lives.
- In some developing world cutures, they beoleive that the heavens determine our lives paths. In other words, poor people will always be poor, so why get educated when you can help put food on the table. Why wear seatbelts? If it's your time to die, it's your time! Safety is not number one. People don't expect to live forever, they don't expect to get out of their circumstances. If God is in control, what can I do?
8. There is an openness to talking about God and a desire to have a relationship with Jesus Christ, rather than follow a religion.
- not everyone, of course, but there seem to be lots of peole who are no longer willing to settle for religion. They want Jesus. They want to know Him, to follow Him and to be loved by Him.
It's an interesting time to be a missionary here. Thanks for partnering with us so we can be here.
Please pray for us espescially in relation to language learning and acculturation. These things mentioned above which can be interesting and even admirable, can become an irritant too during the different phases of culture shock. Pray that we won't do or say anything that would hinder our ability to serve the people here with the Good News of Jesus- espescially while in the culture shock phases!
thank you and Bless You!
Dios la Bendiga,
Until Next time,
Mcdonald family
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
YEE HAW Mommy's Back
from language School in Ensenada.
It was a trying, but good week for all! We had a flood here at the house, lts of last minute cleaning and some interesting "Daddy-Style" meals, but we survived the week without Sharlene.
Sharlene had a trying week at the Language School, which apparantly is normal. She came back with some good tools for learning, which is great! She doesn't think she came back with alot more proficiency yet, but she understands more and has lots of confidence. The very day we came back, we went grocery shopping and Shar took the initiative to ask questions of the store employees, which she didn't know enough to do before. So while she is not fluent yet, she has the tools to get going now.
There is a lady from our church who comes to teach shar on Saturdays for an hour. The difference in what shar could do an dunderstand from last week to this was immense. We are also looking at getting another tutour to come over a few days a week. Hopefully soon!
We are officially moving.
Again.
This time we found a mobile home on a good sized fenced lot with smal palm trees, cacti and flowers! It's a bit rustic for Canadian Standards, but at least the plumbing works and the rent is almost the same. It's in the same neighbourhood we are in, has 3 bedrooms, a large living room and kitchen, a hookup for a washing machine outside and a good sized lot. The place is large enough that we can bring the rest of our clothes etc. out of storage on the US side and bring them here. It even has closets in every bedroom- even the bathroom has places to store things!
We had been wondering why the gocery stores here only seem to sell small sizes of items. In Canada we were used ot Superstore and we shopped for 2 weeks at a time. Here people seem to buy daily, small amounts of smal litems. With little storage in the homes (and it seems to be the norm) they just get enough to get buy a few days at a time.
The place we are in now is nice, but exceptionally small and the kids end up needing to play on the road, which is a bit disconcerting to us!
Friday is moving day-
We'll send pics on when we're moved in!
Thanks for reading!
Until next time,
Mike, Shar and Family
It was a trying, but good week for all! We had a flood here at the house, lts of last minute cleaning and some interesting "Daddy-Style" meals, but we survived the week without Sharlene.
Sharlene had a trying week at the Language School, which apparantly is normal. She came back with some good tools for learning, which is great! She doesn't think she came back with alot more proficiency yet, but she understands more and has lots of confidence. The very day we came back, we went grocery shopping and Shar took the initiative to ask questions of the store employees, which she didn't know enough to do before. So while she is not fluent yet, she has the tools to get going now.
There is a lady from our church who comes to teach shar on Saturdays for an hour. The difference in what shar could do an dunderstand from last week to this was immense. We are also looking at getting another tutour to come over a few days a week. Hopefully soon!
We are officially moving.
Again.
This time we found a mobile home on a good sized fenced lot with smal palm trees, cacti and flowers! It's a bit rustic for Canadian Standards, but at least the plumbing works and the rent is almost the same. It's in the same neighbourhood we are in, has 3 bedrooms, a large living room and kitchen, a hookup for a washing machine outside and a good sized lot. The place is large enough that we can bring the rest of our clothes etc. out of storage on the US side and bring them here. It even has closets in every bedroom- even the bathroom has places to store things!
We had been wondering why the gocery stores here only seem to sell small sizes of items. In Canada we were used ot Superstore and we shopped for 2 weeks at a time. Here people seem to buy daily, small amounts of smal litems. With little storage in the homes (and it seems to be the norm) they just get enough to get buy a few days at a time.
The place we are in now is nice, but exceptionally small and the kids end up needing to play on the road, which is a bit disconcerting to us!
Friday is moving day-
We'll send pics on when we're moved in!
Thanks for reading!
Until next time,
Mike, Shar and Family
Monday, October 02, 2006
I was thinking the other day about how routine life had gotten
And how it was becoming more difficult to come up with blogs because of the lack of new things to say.
Then this weekend happened...
It started on Friday night- with the spider incident. Didn't I tell you about the Spider incident... I wish I had good pictures- the one I took does not do this monster justice. The 1 mosquito that got in was buzzing me and Shar, occasionally biting us to- it kept us up quite some time until I said I was going to keep the light on to battle this foe with all senses.
then I saw it. It was across the room on the ceiling at the far corner. Even from the other side of the room it looked HUGE. So I screamed like a little girl (not really, it was actually quite a manly scream...) and we both got up to inspect the critter. It was big. And hairy. And BIG... Did I mention hairy?
I found our handy-dandy bottle of roach spray and drowned the spider with it. At first contact- he fell to the ground- with not a little fanfare. I just about emptied the bottle on him and then finished him off with Sharlene's cane. Now after a while we checked out the internet to see what kind of spider it was- and it seems to be to have been a hobo spider- Some other folks think it might have been a small tarantula, which really is not much of a consolation to me.
After we exited him from the apartment via the BBQ tongs (glad we brought them!), it was time for a restless "sleep".
Sunday Afternoon we took Sharlene to Ensenada, Mexico to Language School.
She will be there from Sunday till Friday living with an older Mexican couple to get fully immersed in the language. They say that 1 week there is equivalent to 1 semester university Spanish. The hope is that she'll have the tools necessary to get by here and improve in her Spanish incrementally with tutoring.
So now the boys are batching it!
As soon as we got back, I got on the phone and the boys kept complaining that the toilet would not flush- this is normal for us, so I took no heed and kept chatting with my seester (see, I'm picking up a Spanish accent!). Until I noticed water seeping from the boys bedroom. It seemed that something was wrong. The shower was backing up with the rottenest stench coming up from the drain and 2 inches of water to boot. The "Fosa" was backing up. We went to the landlord and tried to find a truck to pump out the Fosa, but could not find anyone to do it on a Sunday. "manana" they kept saying. Manana? The place may float away by then!
We came back to the house to find the toilet overflowed all through our bedroom with almost 1 inch of water- Our storage for blankets, clothes and a host of other things is under our bed and they were all soaked! After several hours of mopping with the landlords son, we got it dry enough to sleep in for the night.
It turns out the problem was that the little plug on the back of the toilet broke and the water was seeping out into the fosa al day- filling it up until it overflowed into the shower and the toilet and eventually into my sweaters.
Monday came and the fosa got pumped and our things were drying out bit but bit... Life seemed pretty good. (by the way, we're looking for somewhere else to rent!)
Then Julio came over. Julio is our 2 year old neighbour and has become a kind of friend to the boys. It was Calebs break from homeschool and Jacob was home from kindergarten. Julio, Caleb and Jacob were playing outside when Caleb came in the house in a rush to the bathroom. On the upside, I got to learn a new phrase in Spanish "Julio tiro excretementos de perro en mi Hijo, Y mi hijo vomitos en mi casa"
Which translated means- "Julio threw dog poop on my son and my son is now puking in my house!"
It goes well with the other phrase I learned this week- "Julio spat on my sons arm/face/body"
I have a feeling that as long as there are dogs in the neighbourhood, I'll need to remember that phrase.
So as you can see, our Spanish vocabulary is increasing, and our patience is being tested! Please Continue to pray for us- shar as she is learning Spanish intensively, and me as I clean up puke, poop, water and whatever else comes our way!
God is always good!
Blessings until next time,
Mike
Then this weekend happened...
It started on Friday night- with the spider incident. Didn't I tell you about the Spider incident... I wish I had good pictures- the one I took does not do this monster justice. The 1 mosquito that got in was buzzing me and Shar, occasionally biting us to- it kept us up quite some time until I said I was going to keep the light on to battle this foe with all senses.
then I saw it. It was across the room on the ceiling at the far corner. Even from the other side of the room it looked HUGE. So I screamed like a little girl (not really, it was actually quite a manly scream...) and we both got up to inspect the critter. It was big. And hairy. And BIG... Did I mention hairy?
I found our handy-dandy bottle of roach spray and drowned the spider with it. At first contact- he fell to the ground- with not a little fanfare. I just about emptied the bottle on him and then finished him off with Sharlene's cane. Now after a while we checked out the internet to see what kind of spider it was- and it seems to be to have been a hobo spider- Some other folks think it might have been a small tarantula, which really is not much of a consolation to me.
After we exited him from the apartment via the BBQ tongs (glad we brought them!), it was time for a restless "sleep".
Sunday Afternoon we took Sharlene to Ensenada, Mexico to Language School.
She will be there from Sunday till Friday living with an older Mexican couple to get fully immersed in the language. They say that 1 week there is equivalent to 1 semester university Spanish. The hope is that she'll have the tools necessary to get by here and improve in her Spanish incrementally with tutoring.
So now the boys are batching it!
As soon as we got back, I got on the phone and the boys kept complaining that the toilet would not flush- this is normal for us, so I took no heed and kept chatting with my seester (see, I'm picking up a Spanish accent!). Until I noticed water seeping from the boys bedroom. It seemed that something was wrong. The shower was backing up with the rottenest stench coming up from the drain and 2 inches of water to boot. The "Fosa" was backing up. We went to the landlord and tried to find a truck to pump out the Fosa, but could not find anyone to do it on a Sunday. "manana" they kept saying. Manana? The place may float away by then!
We came back to the house to find the toilet overflowed all through our bedroom with almost 1 inch of water- Our storage for blankets, clothes and a host of other things is under our bed and they were all soaked! After several hours of mopping with the landlords son, we got it dry enough to sleep in for the night.
It turns out the problem was that the little plug on the back of the toilet broke and the water was seeping out into the fosa al day- filling it up until it overflowed into the shower and the toilet and eventually into my sweaters.
Monday came and the fosa got pumped and our things were drying out bit but bit... Life seemed pretty good. (by the way, we're looking for somewhere else to rent!)
Then Julio came over. Julio is our 2 year old neighbour and has become a kind of friend to the boys. It was Calebs break from homeschool and Jacob was home from kindergarten. Julio, Caleb and Jacob were playing outside when Caleb came in the house in a rush to the bathroom. On the upside, I got to learn a new phrase in Spanish "Julio tiro excretementos de perro en mi Hijo, Y mi hijo vomitos en mi casa"
Which translated means- "Julio threw dog poop on my son and my son is now puking in my house!"
It goes well with the other phrase I learned this week- "Julio spat on my sons arm/face/body"
I have a feeling that as long as there are dogs in the neighbourhood, I'll need to remember that phrase.
So as you can see, our Spanish vocabulary is increasing, and our patience is being tested! Please Continue to pray for us- shar as she is learning Spanish intensively, and me as I clean up puke, poop, water and whatever else comes our way!
God is always good!
Blessings until next time,
Mike
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)