A week of miscellaneous ...

A few minutes here before leaving for a movie at church tonight. Showers and a bite to eat before we go....

Things at the children's home seem to be going well lately. The presidencia municipal (local city government) is now paying for a man and a woman to work there 5 days a week, and there have been another man and a couple of young women that are there most days working, I'm not sure if they are paid or not. There is also a set of houseparents that are new this week. The bodega that our church built 4 years ago is in the process of being converted to a small house, with a second room being added on and shower, toilet and washroom included.

I (Alan) actually spent most of this past week connecting electric and hanging drywall at our church. The building has been in a state of construction since we started attending around 2-1/2 years ago. There is a group from Colorado that will be here next month to work on the church and also do some outreach projects at the children's home and around town that we have been communicating with and doing some logistical work for. We even got to play Sherlock Holmes this past week for a woman in our church whose husband had been missing for 8 days after attempting a paperless border crossing; we finally located him safe in the custody of the US Border Patrol. Phone calls to the Santa Teresa Border Patrol, the Luna County Detention Center, the Las Cruces federal Marshals office, the El Paso Immigration and Customs office and a couple other places finally yielded all the info our friend needed and also taught us a few new Spanish vocabulary words.

Back in the Saddle....

Well, we are back.

Last month was spent out of Mexico and let's just say that re-entry for me has been.....um......tough.

Anyway...we've uncovered the house from the LAYERS of dirt (at least the buildup - can't say today's dirt is gone). I was finding dirt on the windowsills, door frames, a path from under the door to the middle of the room, on the beds, even IN the closets. Good grief. The day we started cleaning; OOPS, no water. Hmmm...have you ever tried to do a major clean without water? It's a bit tricky. We made it through those first couple of days and got water back so we're in business again. I'm starting to get caught up on laundry but RATS, no water again today. New plan. So I'll do a blog update. :) At least we have power.

We've done a major grocery shop. This entails at least 3 different stores or you just don't get it that week if no one has it. Thankfully I only forgot 2 things. We had emptied out the cupboards and such before we left so we didn't have extras so the last few days have been 'strange food' meals. Oh well. Today will be tuna, fruit, and crackers because I have no water to cook with. I'm so glad my kids (or hubby) aren't picky eaters. :) They are glad to be home and picking out the favorite foods again; beans, chilies, avacadoes, but we're all disappointed that our favorite mangos are out of season and therefore gone. They keep saying how much they missed Mexican food! :)

We're also back into the swing of homeschooling. We basically finished our core curriculum before we left for the states. The kids had their summer vacation up there and we're hitting the books again. For the most part, we school year round so that we can be flexible when there are visiting teams, projects here and there, or traveling we have to do. There is a team coming at the end of July so we'll get our 4-6 weeks in before we have a break again. School is taking more and more of my time (where did I get the idea that this time commitment would go down???) and I'm tag teaming all day long.

Alan's been working at the children's home again. It's pretty amazing to see some of the changes. There were new director's brought in right before we left and they've cleaned house quite a bit. There are two new and functional washing machines, two extra female helpers living there full time to help with various jobs and a couple of men from the police force that are volunteering in the afternoons. They've started a couple of work projects but were stalled a bit due to lack of tools; Alan is being the traveling tool man so they're back at it. Hopefully we'll be able to get some pics uploaded in the next couple of days. They also have new kids; up to about 17 now. I'm sure you'll see them in the pictures. Where there is a camera, you'll usually find little ones sticking their heads in! :)

I think that's all for today. Just wanted to stop in and let you know we're here - off and running!

Back home again

Back home in Madera after a month and change of jetsetting to the motherland. The time away was great. For those just joining us, we spent some time visiting Faith’s sister in Portugal, and included a week seeing Seville and exploring a bit of Andalucia, in the south of Spain. We saw castles, cathedrals and museums, drank coffee, ate great food, and spent a very little time at the beach amoungst all the clouds and rain. Faith was disappointed because of the cold and wet. Then we spent a week and a half in Washington State, where we visited family and a lot of friends, and had – no, no, you’ll never guess – cold and wet. Then we flew to Phoenix, and El Paso, and the Chihuahuan desert of Mexico, where we seem to have finally outrun the cold. Yet we have wet; the drive to Madera saw a number of heavy thunder showers, and it has rained here just about every night since – it looks as though the rainy season is arriving early this year. At least for us.

Though for all the rain, it seems the dust in Madera has been alive and well up until our arrival here. Here’s a picture of our window sill when we got home. Just to clarify, this is on the inside of the house.