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

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

Preaching tonight

So tonight I get my first shot at preaching here this round through Mexico. I'll be speaking through a translator (Charlie, Assoc. Pastor). I'm hoping it goes well. It can be pretty tough speaking with a translator until you get used to it.

We went out today and have been taking some pics and videos for a little video presentation for my upcoming deputation trips back to Canada. I borrowed a digital camera from a friend that has decent video with audio on it. I hope to get enough footage that makes sense together to give folks back home a chance to see what's up here.

Speaking of back home, I'm coming back for 2 weeks to Southern Ontario from October 11-24th and then to Saskatchewan from Oct. 31 - Nov 14th. We just got phone and internet up and going and I'm hoping to get some appointments in Ontario especially with churches, home groups, families etc to give an opportunity to hear about missions and see who God has called to be our partners in ministry. If you can help by setting up a home group meeting or a church one, we'd be appreciative! I have some possibilities in Saskatchewan for those 2 weeks, but Ontario is pretty free as of yet. We didn't get a chance to connect with some folks we know from Wasaga Beach area and some of my relatives last time we went back, that I'd like to this time... Lord willing!

Could you be praying for Sharlene during that time? She still hasn't gotten enough nerve to drive here yet (it's pretty whacky at times- and it's tough to find your way around...and she has a greater than normal tendency to get misplaced...) and her language acquisition has been pretty slow. I'm going to be talking to a fellow tonight about tutoring us some, but just getting by here without Spanish will be tough here for Shar without me ( I speak a bit more and can fake my way through some things...). Thanks!

We are possibly looking at a language school in Ensenada for 1 week for Shar before I go so she can get immersed and hopefully get to a point where she c an get by. Please pray for the finances to come through and any other logistics needed to work out.

Thanks for reading, not much new stuff happening in out lives, we are settling into some routines just in time to get them disturbed with me being gone for some time!

Until next time,

Mike, Shar and boys.

I have more pics!!

This is Jacob on his 2nd day at kindergarten at Escuele Xochiaztlan. In Mexico, pre-school / kindergarten is mandatory before Grade 1.



This is a picture of the living room side of our house. Caleb and Elijah are hard at work in Homeschool. They have not been able to go to public school yet because of red tape we're working through. If and when they do go, we'll still be doing homeschool to make sure they are keeping up to date- espescially seeing as they won't know the language well enough to learn the concepts for quite some time.



Close up of Jakey in his school uniform. ALL schools have uniforms here. Our school uniform is blue pants and white shirt for boys- with a blue sweater for cool days. The girls wear a tartan dress over a white dress shirt.


This is our Cucaracha. It doesn't look nearly as big here to me as it did when we killed it, but that is a quarter beside it.


Rosie the boy cat keeping Elijah company while Elijah does his homeschol work. Elijah's classes are all on the computer- which he loves!



These are the boys playing with Daddy's bubbles across the road from our place.


This is the kitchen section of the apartment. We had almost everyhting here donated via yugo- apartments in Mexico rarely come furnished (not even with a fridge or stove!)


This is the bionicle van outside the apartment. Upstairs are 2 apartments and on th ebottom is one apartment and a store (abarrotes). We are on the bottom floor beside the van.



Elijah and Caleb hard at work on homeschool.


Caleb at work...

This is my 2nd post today- there is another after this one --- feel free to browse on down!

Blessings until next time,

Mike Shar and boys

Where Did The Spider legs Go?

Yesterday afternoon Shar found a large black spider in our bedroom while I was out. She did the right thing and stomped on it until it was nothing more than a smear on the concrete floor. Surprisingly enough, after she did that, the legs kept moving, even though separated from the spiders body!

She was not nearly as impressed with that then I would have been, so she left the room. An hour or so later she went back to see it and to show me. The spider legs, however, were missing! Moments later we found them again, mysteriously moving along our kitchen wall. The ants were "harvesting" them and taking them back to their home (which may be closer to us than we want to know...). After getting a little creeped out we went to the circus. It was the first time any of our kids had been to one. The kids loved it even though there were no lions, tigers, elephants trapeeze artist or really even clowns. They and the 30+ other people under the big top enjoyed the horses (a big one and a mini-horse) the llama and the circus goats! These coupled with the man powered pulley that lifted the acrobat belly dancers up into the air, was really too much to describe. It brought tears to my eyes!

Our little home is too small for a washing machine and there is no hook-up outside for one (which is where most people here put them if they have them) so we go to the lavamatica to do ours. I went yesterday (while Shar was spider-hunting) and had a good opportunity to share Jesus with the lady at the counter and her husband. She spoke very good English and translated for her husband. They were asking about some folks they know who go to church and are very separate from everybody else around them- no TV, no radio, no school for the kids, they keep to themselves and avoid most contact with others not of their kind. They wanted to know if that was what Christianity was about. So I talked to them about the freedom that Jesus gives us and how He was involved in the community with people as the Light Of The World. It didn't go too deep at first, but they are interested and I'm looking forward to more opportunities to share Jesus with them!

I'm glad for the opportunity to share even before we know the language. It is obvious that God is at work here with folks searching for meaning and searching for Jesus- they want more than a religion, they want to experience Jesus. Please continue to pray that we'll continue to have these opportunities as we learn Spanish!

Until next time,

Mike and Shar

Refrigeration, hot AND cold indoor plumbing, telephone, tomorrow the internet… it’s like living in luxury….

Except for the Rats…

Yup, we’ve moved into the new place as of last Friday. We are almost completely moved in, but after having to search for parts and install them for the propane stove and water heater, wait for the plumber, the telephone guy and registering for school, we’ve not been able to completely move our old stuff out of the motor home and into our very stationary cement apartment….

Finally today the plumber came to repair the kitchen sink (leaks and first no hot water, then no cold water) the bathroom sink (leaks and not hot or cold water- only a mix of hot and cold, depending on the mood of the sink…) the toilet, (accepts deposits, but does not “send them on”) and the huge leak of hot water from our pipes into the store next door. Hopefully after all is said and done, it’ll be done, but in Mexico, one never really knows if the repairs are finished.

The telephone guy came to install the line today- he had to drill through the solid concrete wall to get in, but it’s in… we just need to find a phone that is packed among our stuff either at the motor home or in storage on the US side. So, Lord willing, tomorrow we’ll have internet access and then our US phone with unlimited long distance to US and Canada… that’ll be nice... it’ll be like living in the lap of luxury.

We’re making some good contacts for being so early in the place and so limited in the language. Our landlord speaks a little English, as does his son-in-law. I’ve been able to learn more Spanish by talking with them, and when I’m stuck on a word, they help me out.

Our new home has 4 rooms- 2 bedrooms (1 for the kids and 1 for the parents!) a small bathroom with a tile laden shower (no bathtub, seems to be very few of those here) and a living room/kitchen/dining room. It’s a pretty nice place in a relatively quiet neighbourhood. Being next to the corner store, people drive by and walk by a lot, which gives a chance to be seen in the neighbourhood, which is nice. I get the feeling sometimes, that there is kind of a “there goes the neighbourhood” feeling amongst some folks when they see a family of gringos move in. The Tijuana/ Rosarito area is very different than the rest of Mexico because they see so many North American tourists and retirees that there is almost a “love-hate” relationship with them. They love the money that expands the economy, but not so keen with the cultural changes that have taken place.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot about the rat…yup, the rat. The other night we were putting the kids to bed when Jacob said to Shar… “I just saw a squirrel in the window”. The window he was referring to opens up from the bedroom into the store in the same building. “A squirrel? Are you sure?” Shar said. After looking at a looooonnnnnngg skinny, bald tail, it was ascertained that the “squirrel” was indeed a rat.

We’re thankful for the place to stay and are doubly thankful that some of the glitches are being worked out. We’ll post pics soon of the place and the donated furniture, etc. that fills our place! Praise God!

Blessings,

Until next time, may all your rats be next door (and stay there!)

Mike and Shar

A Good Day in Mexico is When You Call the Police and Noone Gets Shot!

But it WAS close...

Thursday we had gone over to the states to get a few of our things that were in storage and to help bring some of the donations for us across. It went well, if not uneventful (which is nice for a change) until we got home to our new apartment. after opening up the box with our dishes in it, Sharlene found (and evidently tried to deafen via screaming) a cockroach. IT WAS HUGE! the kind you see at the zoo or on TV. So the boys and I emptied the box, and found the critter and whacked him until he was (we thought...) dead. So then we emptied him out of the box and placed him on the floor next to a quarter for a picture opportunity (pic coming soon...) and the the little cucaracha started to pull himself away using th eonly leg he had left that worked. Shar was not impressed, though the boys and I thought it was pretty cool.. tough little feller... So I used a bit of foot power and finished him off... hopefully he didn'y lay and eggs in the box... HE WAS HUGE!!!

After getting supper and going to the store for extra strong cleaning supplies, we arrived back aqt our motor home property after dark. At the top of the hill was a van we'd never seen before just sitting there with the open gate. There has never been anyone at th eplace after dark, so it freaked us out and we drove on for a while.. as we drove by we could see down the hill and it was obvious that someone was creeping around with flashlights. Ok.... Now what do we do? Turns out my cell phon eis restricted form calling US numbers so I can't call the people who own the place to tel them, so I called the assoc. pastor at the church we go to and he calls the police. 15 minutes later, while we're watching lights move around, truck lights go on and of down there and lots of suspiscious activity, the police show up. they decide to go down and send Charlie (the assoc. pastor) in first I suppose as ashiled in case there is trouble. I followed down 3rd and got out to walk with them after I got a call saying that the people down there might be friends of the owners of the property. The police drew and cocked their guns and went in to see what was up- we found a romanian fella in his truck and the police told him to come out and show both hands- through charlie the translator (Romanian fella spoke english as does charlie..) he came out and explained that they were just sleeping there for the night... the police after some intense questioning uncocked the gunns, emptied and reloaded them to get ready for their next assignment.

It's a good day in Mexico when you call the police and noone gets shot...

but it was very close...

Blessings, on th ejourney,,

Until next time,

Mike and Shar and kids...

PS- TODAY IS MOVING DAY TO THE NEW CASA!!! PRAISE GOD!!