I remember when we picked this date for our dinner for the VOH workers. It seemed a long way off. Now it's here and almost gone. Time is clicking away.
Our day started out pretty quiet. I went through the tubs of toys and gifts again, so that I could stretch the kids stuff just a little bit further for tomorrow's distribution. I was also looking for a sack of ink pens that Mary and I have misplaced. We have never been able to find them. I'm sure they are in a really crazy place. Anyway...
I had a quick breakfast of skillet toast with peanut butter on it. The cook was here to start fixing the food for tonight's dinner and I didn't want to get in her way.
Mary and I spent many hours studying our Spanish lessons today. We just snacked for lunch since we were saving our appetites for the yummy dinner tonight. We kept chugging away at our lessons. We finally got cleaned up and ready to meet any early arriving guests. Everyone ended up coming about 4:30. So no one was early. But that's okay.
The guests arrived in waves, as they took the hourly buses from León. It was so wonderful to see the families. For those of you who are reading this that have been here to work with VOH, I'm going to list the guests, because you will recognize some of the people you worked with.
Chico, wife and son
Juan Pacheco (solo because his wife is due very soon with his 2nd child, a son)
Rydder, wife and son
Jassiel & son
Hixel, husband & son
Jeremy & wife
Oscar & son
German & kids
Araceliz (cleaning lady), husband & 2 sons
Pastor Miguel, wife, daughter, son (Sapito) & daughter-in-law
Saturnino (guard), wife & 3 daughters
Yasmina (cook), Me & Mary
What a great bunch!
The only ones who could not make it are Chrisopher & family, because Chris is working in Managua all week, and Joe & Marcela, because Marcel cannot travel by bus yet so soon after her surgery. We met with Christopher's family on Sunday, and plan to meet with Joe and Marcela in town soon.
Our dinner was grilled chicken, rice (of course), beans (of course), tortillas (of course), cabbage slaw & Tang (of course). We had a funny challenge with the chicken. The gas grill was not working well and it just wasn't getting hot enough to cook the chicken. So, Yasmina & Saturnino decided to take the gas tank off and use the grill with (Nica) charcoal. It worked out great once we got it burning. We were putting pieces of papers in there and plastic sacks (they do that alot here) and Mary even brought a trash can and we rummaged through it for burnable material. Once the fire got going, it was great. The cook does a wonderful job on the chicken. (I'm thankful that there was some left over for the next few days!!!)
Mary and I ran around and took family pictures on both of our cameras. I loved meeting the kids, and of course, I loved seeing my 2 grandsons, Chico's son Benjamin and Hixel's son Alexander. We got out a couple of soccer balls for the kids to play with. They were adorable.
After dinner, Pastor Miguel wanted to have a special prayer for the group and the ministry. It was so sweet. Mary spoke of behalf of VOH and I said a few words and German spoke, too. We really appreciate the VOH extended family. The wives said that it was nice for us to include them in this family dinner. They are left a home for long days when we have the translators working with us. We want them to know how much we appreciate their patience and sacrifice during those busy weeks.
Since German came in his van, he was able to take a lot of the people back to León with him. That was nice that they didn't have to scramble to catch the 6:30 bus. We said goodbye to everyone and then Mary and I started cleaning up the joint. We put leftovers in the fridge and washed up the pans. We had used disposable plates, cups and cutlery to eat on, so that cut down on the dish washing. After Saturnino took his family home, he came back and took care of the grill and some other clean up. We had the place looking pretty spiffy before 8pm. Araceliz is probably thinking that she will have to clean up after the dinner when she gets here tomorrow to clean. She will be pleasantly surprised!!
This afternoon we found a very colorful crab who had come in from the beach. It was reddish and black in color. I took a pic on my phone and Mary grabbed her camera. Saturnino took it out for us. It probably ended up being lunch for one of the stray dogs that run around. Speaking of dogs, there are two male dogs that look just alike. One has a broken front leg and I call him Hoppy and the other one Happy, since they are always playing so well together. After observing Happy on the beach yesterday, Mary has decided that Happy is gay. She cracks me up.
She was watching her ants carry cracker crumbs to their home today. She was also spraying ants in the house with bug spray. Those poor ants are so confused by her!
Tomorrow, German is picking Mary and me up at 8:30am to meet some of the translators at the stoplight at 9. We will then go to the Sewer Ponds and Concrete Pit to pass out toys/gifts. It will be fun to be with our friends tomorrow. We haven't had a team in almost a month, so we haven't worked with the translators during that time. We love spending time with them.
On Thursday, we will be having a class for the translators and also giving them their Christmas gifts from me and Mary. That will be fun, too.
Then it will be Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, a day of rest on Monday, and then our next team comes in on Tuesday. From then on it will be very busy until we leave with the team on Jan 4. Time will surely fly then!
Time to sign off with my tummy full and my heart overflowing. God has blessed me with some wonderful friends and I'm so thankful.
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