Odds & Ends

Tuesday, Lucha was barking in our backyard. Our dogs never bark unless there is a problem. Jimmy looked out the window and there was a man on top of our wall getting down. We did not recognize him, so I do not think he lives next door. Our house is surrounded by fields otherwise, so we really do not know why he would be up there. Lucha is a good guard dog. Please pray that God keeps us safe. This has made us be even more careful.

Yesterday Jimmy made virgin Piña Coladas... they were yummy. I made some no bakes and some oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. I could not find any brown sugar, but they taste good anyway. Jimmy took some no bakes for his class this morning. It is hard to find a lot of things here, but we have figured out how to make all kinds of new things since we have been here. If anybody has some great recipes for meals that do not require anything prepackaged we would love to try them. We can buy beef anyway it would come in the States and we can buy boneless chicken breast. Turkey is very expensive. Other than that we cannot find any other meat that we feel safe eating yet. If you have any good recipes please email them to us.

Jimmy always fusses at me when I let Lucha on the couch or bed. I went upstairs during my class to ask Jimmy what something was in English... Lucha was sitting on the bed with him. There is a double standard here!

You probably heard that Bush was in Guatemala on Monday. There is a large population here of liberal hippie gringos, they are the ones that were protesting. On top of that, the only news Guatemalans hear about the US is through CNN International and that is just propaganda. It is really sad. Linda says things that she hears about the States all the time, and they are just not true. It seems as though Mexico is causing all types of problems for which the US gets blamed.

Please continue to pray for my spanish. I am learning subjunctive right now and then afterwards I will have 2 and a half months of just practicing. I would really like to translate for the medical team that is coming in the middle of May. I study three hours with Linda every day covering new material and only speaking in spanish. I try to practice with Jimmy for several hours too (only using spanish). Please pray that I will be diligent. When you’re in the middle of everything it is hard to see progress especially when there is so much new material everyday. I was encouraged when my parents were here because I realized that there was a big difference in my spanish from when Jimmy’s parents were here a month earlier.