Now that school is done, my
schedule is a little different. However, life is still interesting because it’s
just pretty fun being me.
In A Nutshell…
Because
of the state of the drywall in two of the upstairs rooms at the mission house,
Neil decided to tare out all the old stuff and replace it with new stuff. I
spent quite a few days helping out with that in the past two weeks. The first
step was to clean everything out of the Neil and Lucinda’s and Dylan’s
bedrooms. I didn’t help out with that step at all, but I’m sure it would have
been interesting. The closets up there were full of things that “probably came
over with Columbus” according to Lucinda. Somewhere along the process, Neil
found a fake tarantula the size of a dinner plate. Dylan had some fun with
that. After everything was cleaned out, we began to tear the old, soggy,
crumbly particleboard off of the walls. That wasn’t the cleanest job in the world,
and it felt good to have the last of it loaded up in the truck and ready to be
hauled off to the dump. Before we put on the new drywall, Neil and I brushed up
some sort of chemical on all the studs to keep the termites from finishing what
they started. The studs actually still looked really healthy. The wooden
siding, however, didn’t. Who knew that wood could be see-through in places?
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| Putting on that drywall |
Neil
went into Santa Elena one afternoon and brought back a whole vanload of
drywall. He got right to work putting in on all the walls and ceiling. Pretty
soon, we had all the walls covered and were ready to start with the mudding. I
hadn’t had much experience with mudding before, but Neil is a pretty good
teacher. Neil told me to enjoy the mudding as much as I could because the
sanding afterwards was going to be a lot worse. He was right. The mudding was a
lot of fun, and the sanding wasn’t quite as fun… and it makes you really dusty
and dirty. But after we finished we had two rooms that “didn’t look too bad for
a couple of missionaries” according to Neil. We painted the walls and the
ceiling as well. Now all that’s left is painting the floor and finishing the
trim.
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| …and more drywall |
On
Sunday, (October 13th) I went with Aron and his family to Santa
Rosita for the morning service. I set my alarm for 3:28 AM and finally heard it
at 3:36. We left soon after four and arrived in Santa Rosita just in time for
the service at 9:00. I didn’t know that I was going along until 7:00 on
Saturday night, so it was kind of a spur of the moment thing. Also, I was
supposed to teach the men’s Sunday school class. Thankfully, there were only
two men besides me to it wasn’t too scary. Since Jeff’s weren’t’ there, Aron
preached the message. After the service was over, we headed back to the girls’
house in El Naranjo for lunch. They served us some really awesome sandwiches.
At about two o’clock, we headed back to El Chal. I kind of like travelling from
Santa Rosita to El Chal. The scenery is really nice. The only annoying thing is
the invisible speed bumps. Some of them blend in so well with the road, that
you literally can’t see them until they are about fifteen feet in front of you.
That’s when you just have to brace yourself and enjoy the ride.
Since
classes are officially over now, I’ve been having a “boys night” every Friday
night with some of the guys from grades seven and eight at school. It was
partially Stephan’s idea and partially my brother’s, not really my own. But I
executed the idea, so I think I should get at least a little bit of credit. The
idea is to have a time of playing soccer or some other game or sport, and then
a snack and something inspirational afterwards. So far, the guys have been
having a lot of fun. You can pray that it would continue to be a good thing,
and that the guys would learn stuff.
While
mentioning prayer requests, remember Santos and Clara and family. They lived in
Petén for a good part of this year. At the beginning of this year, they had a
baby girl that seemed to have nothing but health issues. A couple months ago,
Santos left for the capital to find work. About a week and a half ago, all the
children left Petén as well. Clara stayed behind with the baby who was in the
hospital. This past Saturday, the baby died. We had a little service for her on
Sunday morning, and Clara and the baby flew to Mixcolaja that afternoon. You
can pray for the family as they deal with the loss and also pray for them as
they settle into a new home.
Top 5 Highlights…
>>Burgers at Douglas’s house. One evening, Lucio, Edix, and I went to Doug’s house
for a supper of hamburgers. We figured it was the least we could do to help
Douglas cope with being far away from his family. I think he likes burg3rs
almost as much as I do.
>>Staff Thanksgiving dinner. We celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving with all the
staff. I really have a lot to be thankful for.
>>Outing with Stephan’s and Danny’s. This past Saturday, I went with Stephan’s and Danny’s
to look at some land up the Passion River. Fun day!
>>Drawing night. One evening, Neil, Lucio, and I all drew a picture.
Neil drew a waterfall scene, Lucio drew a flower, and I drew our dog, Spike, as
a pirate.
>>Cotusa with the Basico class. Wesley invited me to go along with the Basico classes
to Cotusa for lunch and swimming. It kind of rained pretty hard while we were
trying to cook the chicken, but that made it memorable.
Top 5 Quotes…
“I’ve gone out to find
myself. If I return before I get back… don’t let me leave.” – a t-shirt
“I am feeling very Olympic
today… how about you?” – Jeffrey
“Hey guys, I have another
question that probably doesn’t have an answer…” – Dylan
“I cut the end of the wire
off three times and it was still too short.” – Tyler
“When I get home, I’m going
to start looking for a job right away. I think I’ll need about six years to
find a suitable salary, and by that time I’ll be sixteen and able to work.” -
Dylan
Spanish Vocabulary…
Casco (CAHS koh) – it means
“helmet”
Memory tool: The words
sounds a lot like “Costco.” Yeah, like the store. Every time that I’ve shopped
at Costco in my life I’ve worn a helmet.
Fun Facts…
>>Some speed bumps are
visible and some are not.
>>Tarantulas are not
quite as scary as one might think.
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| Yes, it's real |
>>Nobody believes a
gringo when he says he’s out of “phone time.”
>>Glass Coke bottles
are fun to play with.
 |
| No invisible string. No lies |
More to Add…
Neil
and Lucinda’s son Tyler is here in El Chal visiting for a couple of weeks. He seems
to be a pretty cool guy. I will show pictures of the two finished rooms in my
next blog.
