July 2015

This month started out with an exciting opportunity for our Co-op.  There is a business here in León called Casa Albierta (Open House).  It is a little like a hostal, café, natural juice bar, swimming pool, organic garden, swap store, yoga class venue, and much more.  Through a friend, we were introduced to the owner, who is French (I believe) and we went to a meeting to discuss a ferria (fair) they were planning with some other organizations here in town. 

Veronica and I went to the meeting and only one other person was Nica, I was the only North American, everyone else seemed to be from either France, German or thereabouts.  Everyone spoke Spanish, albeit with some interesting accents!  The plans for the fair were coming along nicely.  There would be scheduled yoga classes to try, swimming classes to try, organic produce and herbs and honey to purchase, exhibitions (like circus acts that are taught by a guy who works with youth), etc.  Our ministry/Co-op will be given an area to sell our wares and to teach some simple techniques for handcrafts.  How fun!!!  The ferria will be the last Saturday in August.  The plans are for doing some good advertising at hostels, cafes, stores, etc., to get the word out about coming to experience all of these things.  Our ladies are hard at work making items to sell.  Whatever we have left will be a good inventory for our other sale venues.  We’ll see how well things go with this ferria.  The culture here is not as organized as other places and with all of the different cultural influences on the team, it will be fun to see it all come together.  Here’s hoping!

We cook by propane here.  Our tank usually lasts a few months, so we never really know when to expect it to go out.  Of course, it’s always in the middle of using it.  Then you just call the phone number on the tank and within about 15 minutes a guy shows up on a motorcycle (with a custom built box to haul the tank) and you are in business again.  It’s kind of funny sometimes, depending on what you are cooking at the time that the gas runs out.

I seem to always have multiple projects going on at the same time.  Usually, it’s not a problem.  But depending on scheduling, internet access, electricity service, and various other crazy things, it can get quite frustrating when trying to accomplish something.  My friend Kervin, who lives and works in California, is helping me with the ministry website.  It seems to be taking forever.  We have a timezone difference, as well as busy lives.  I’m not tech savvy at all and he tries to be very patient with me.  It has been months and we have still just a few more things to do to launch the site.  I’m ready to get it done and stop obsessing over it.  Lol

My friend Luis has offered to help tutor me with Spanish grammar.  Our schedules seem to be at odds every week, also.  There is always something coming up for each of us.  Of course, I’m not all that sad to miss grammar lessons….

Three teenagers from Rogers AR came for 3 weeks in July.  They spent about half of their time with us and the other half with the father of the 2 sisters.  It worked out well.  They were troopers about participating in the sewing and handcrafts classes, even though that is not their talent.  They also got the blessing (?) of cleaning all of our white plastic tables and chairs with bleach.  I’m sure that was not their favorite thing, but they worked all day long on it and I’m so thankful. They did put together a little drama and work on items needed for the children’s event that we did for a small church.  It was a lot of fun.  We got drenched in a thunderstorm at the end of the event.  We took taxis to the Chinese restaurant and got our bellies full of warm, yummy food before returning home to get dry and cozy for the night.

Some friends from the states donated some money to purchase a few sewing machines for eligible participants to receive the machine, use it in their home to make items to sell and then repay the loan (interest-free) on the machine.  The money will then be used to purchase a machine for another eligible person.  Anival, our instructor for making school uniforms, doesn’t have a machine at home.  He was the recipient of the first machine for this project.  He was smiling sooooo big when we went to the store and picked out his machine.  He kept saying thank you to me and thank you to God.  He is making and selling items from home to help support his family (in addition to his fulltime job).  He is paying off the machine by his hours of teaching twice a month.  It’s been a great opportunity for all of us.  I’m so happy to be a part of this.

Some old friends came by for visits one week:  Brian and Marcela, Alberto and Hubert, Hamilton, etc.  I love those drop in visits.

Since mosquitoes are so bad here and there are 4 major diseases from mosquitoes, the government sends fumigators around to do all the houses and businesses.  What this entails is a combination of diesel fuel and insecticide mixed and burned in what looks like a leaf blower or flame thrower.  It is nasty!  The smoke is horrendous and you can smell it for blocks.  I opt to not have it done here in the mission house.  We just use regular bug spray, which is bad enough, but at least it doesn’t leave the black residue of the diesel fuel. 

This month, when they came around we told them no.  That did not make them happy.  Even though the house was full of women for the classes, they stuck the nozzle towards the door and blew the smoke at the ladies.  Then they stuck the nozzle in the drainpipe at the street (this is where the rain drains from the house to outside) and blew smoke in.  There were 2 babies in the house at the time.  I was livid!  I chased the guy down the street yelling at him.  Sofi made me come back into the house.  The neighbors (who were all outside waiting for their houses to clear from the smoke) all thought I was crazy.  But I will not allow anyone to hurt the people in my house, especially baby Victoria!

Of course, I ended up getting one of the mosquito-born viruses.  I think it was retribution from the guys with the smokers.  But I really believe that I got the bites from being out in the brush where we held the kids event.  No one else at my house has gotten the virus.  Anyway, I think the smoker guys are a little wary of me now.

The rest of July was filled with me being very, very sick with the Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever virus from the mosquitoes.  Sofi and Veronica literally kept me alive and out of the nasty hospitals here.  The sickness went on for weeks and I have never been so sick.  One trip to a clinic that a fellow missionary uses, ended up with blood tests, an IV and meds for pain.  I had to quit taking my meds for high blood pressure because the virus was making my bp tank so drastically.  It was very scary for a while. 

Our used fridge went out for the 3^rd time in the last year, so my home church was very generous and provided us with a new one.  We are so thankful.  In the states we tend to take so many things for granted.  Here, we carry our thanks on every time we remember the blessing.  I like living in a condition of being more thankful.  And every time we open the fridge door, we are very thankful.  What a blessing!

I want to praise God that He is in control of all things.  He put me in the good hands of Sofi and Veronica during my illness.  He kept the ministry running smoothly with the teachers in charge.  I was able to hold a few meetings from my bed, but here that’s not as awkward as it sounds.  God is good, all the time.  Through every circumstance.  He is worthy to be praised and worshiped and honored!