The hole that was....is no more.....

They came. (6:50 AM)

They saw.

They measured.

They looked again.

They talked.

They left. (7:05 AM)

They said they'd be back at 12 noon.

We didn't believe them. :)

The landlord came over and checked in on things. No muchacho.

Some store in town delivered pieces of ceiling tile. Oops - short one, we'll be right back.

The landlord's brother came over and checked on things. Still no muchacho.

The store truck came back. More ceiling.

The landlord came back. Still no muchacho.

The landlord came back again. Still no muchacho.

Two ladies from somewhere close came by bringing the ladder for the muchacho to use.

5pm the muchacho arrives.

By 6:30 the roof is replaced (sections).

In between all these fun in and out adventures the internet people showed up. :) They had to trace lines from our house to the main server in town to see what the problem was. Someone had cut the line. Apparently this is fairly common. Someone wants a phone line; they just cut one that's already up there to make space for theirs. Hmmmmm....

Anyway - after a fashion it was working again. Then all the excitement was just too much for my computer and it locked up and died. Normally this wouldn't have bothered me a ton but I lost about 2 hours worth of data entry....nuts.

So - we are reconnected. Covered. Back in business.

I am thankful for technology....

Faith

The Sky is falling....the sky is falling....

Not literally - just the one that is over our house.

Yesterday I came home after a morning of data entry at the Sowers and was surprised to find bright light inside the house. Hmmm...that's nice, I thought!! Wait a minute - that's not normal (our house normally is pretty dark inside - think bat cave...:)). Hmmmm.....looking at the floor I see piles of shattered roof tile. Now first of all you have to realize that we have bare tiles as a roof. There isn't an 'inside' roof except in the bedrooms where we have a wooden covering. Thank goodness - as I look up - BIG hole. BIG cracks through several sheets of the cement tiles. Not good. Daylight throughout the dining room, living room, and Riley's room. I like daylight and fresh air fine - the problem is the rain and now it's better opportunity to enter the house.

Anyway - now we have a big gaping hole in the roof. We still have no idea how it got there because of the strange placement (or displacement as the case may be...) but nothing was stolen and no one was hurt. We're just praying for the rain to hold off until the landlord can fix it. If not - we'll be getting wet.

At least I have a dryer I could throw things into...

I'm thankful for the strategic crashing and it's lack of casualities...personal or property.

Se fue el internet....

and just when we were on a roll too. :)

The internet is out at the house. We don't know why. We've had several phone calls back and forth trying to figure out what's going on with it but now they're having to send out a tech. This MIGHT happen next week.

On the plus side my house is REALLY clean. :)

If you need to contact us for any reason - right now you'd need to call our cell numbers on the side bar here. In our case, always assume no news is good news. :)

Sometimes we just lose the ability to contact the outside world. It seems kind of like being on the back side of the moon.

Talk soon - con el favor de Dios....

Faith

You know you HAVE a Third Culture Kid if....

The original theme was ' You Know You Are a Third Culture Kid if..." I twisted the theme a bit for my personal usage. What do they call that? Literary license?? I hope so...

There have been threads and conversations going 'round some of the forums I'm on about knowing YOU are a Third Culture Kid if...or you are having Third Culture moments if...

Bottom line it's about living outside your passport county or how you are shaped by living outside your passport country. For me, mostly, it comes from questions about the mental clash or mind bending that happens when something SO OUTSIDE THE REALM OF MY NORMAL sends me panicking to the Sonlight International Forum to lament with, glean from, and laugh with those who are in a very similar boat as mine albeit in a different country. Some of them have even worse stories. Funnier ones. More painful ones. They assure me I'm still fairly close to normal - or that normal no long exists so I should just not worry about it. Or at least have a good laugh at myself and try not to have a public scene next time I encounter the 'clash'. I do blog about some of these 'scenes' (remember cherry pie filling?) but then some others are just too confusing to explain.

For those of you who have NO IDEA what I mean by saying 'Third Culture Kid', here is a text book definition:

Third Culture Kids (abbreviated TCKs or 3CKs) (sometimes also called Global Nomad) "refers to someone who [as a child] has spent a significant period of time in one or more culture(s) other than his or her own, thus integrating elements of those cultures and their own birth culture, into a third culture".^[1]

So the list. I put this into a parenting role. As in, MY children and how they don't 'fit' anymore. I struggle with it enough and I'm an adult. Can you imagine?

You know you HAVE a Third Culture Kid if....

your children can't answer the question: "Where are you from?"
your children speak two (or more) languages but can't spell in any of them.
they ask you "What language are we speaking today?"
their prayers keep adding friends and family in more countries.
your children have a passport that, more than likely will be full before it expires.
your children's life story uses the phrase "Then we went to..." five times (or six, or seven times...).
your children watch a movie set in a foreign country, and know what the nationals are really saying into the camera.
you have to remind them to throw the toilet paper INTO the toilet when you are visiting the states.
they ask you if it will hurt to eat a POP TART.
they dig in and eat whatever is put in front of them never mind that it might have been running around with them a while ago.
you can send your littles to the store for groceries by themselves because it's just down the street.
your kids can haggle with the checkout clerk for a lower price.
their wardrobe can only handle two seasons: wet and dry.
they go to Taco Bell and have to put five packets of hot sauce on a taco or ask why some people think this is Mexican food.
they have a name in at least two different languages, and it's not the same one.
they think VISA is a document stamped in your passport, and not a plastic card you carry in your wallet.
your children think it's normal to buy your produce from a guy with boxes in the back of his truck.
they believe speed limits are just suggestions.
your children ask you what a clothes dryer is and why YOU are so excited to have one to use for a while.
your children then ask you why their clothes feel funny after being washed and dried in said dryer.
your children think normal milk comes in a bag or off the shelf; a gallon jug is incredibly strange.
your children know that you have peanut butter and chocolate chips hoarded for the next birthday.
they constantly break in line and don't even think it's wrong.
they've seen people urinate in public and it don't think it's abnormal.
they ride public transportation to school.
their view of appropriate personal space freaks some strangers out when you're back "home."
they think grafitti is just a cultural expression of ideas.
they have no idea what a garbage disposal is.
they think THEY are the dishwasher.
hot water for showering is a possibility; not always a given.
WATER for showering is a possibility and not always a given.
they don't even notice the garbage on the street.
they wear long sleeves and sweatshirts when it's 50 degrees outside.
they have NO concept of what air conditioning is.
they speak two languages, but haven't ever "studied a foreign language."
they've never heard of something called a "helmet law."
they think seat belts are only something you use on really long road trips.
they think it's normal to have 5-6 extra people in the vehicle.
they think a phone is something you use on the computer.

You realize what a small world it is, after all.

I'm thankful for the perspective all the mind bending is giving me...really I am. :)

Faith

A boring blog post...

and why???

Because I've forgotten to take my camera with me every day we've done some kind of work this week. Sigh -

What have we been up to??? The statistical answers are following:

Alan - fixed a motorcycle. (This might have been last week...)

Faith - packed pastor boxes.

Alan - drove out to a village with food donations for the special needs families.

Faith - sorted donations.

Alan - is driving out to another village with Allen Sowers to check out a bridge project.

Faith - made more pastor's boxes.

Alan - delivered some boxes of orphanage donations to the Ward's house (other missionaries in the area www.fast4wards.net if you want to 'meet' them) during our 'when-we-need-cash-we-go-to-Santa Rosa-because-Gracias-doesn't-have-an-ATM' trip. We also grocery shopped a bit during this one (they have bigger selection and more in the 'big' city), had lunch, and visited.

Faith - is going to sort more donations.

Oh - and I did a bunch of laundry in one day - because. I. could. :) I even washed and dried some things that sort of didn't get clean in the last runnings of wash and not-a-chance drying spells. Just in case you were wondering, since that that nice, electrical, US model clothes dryer is set up and ready to run at my (or Trish's) beck and call, the sun is out again. :) It's our fall back plan for those not so sunny days.

Alan took the camera with him today so HE should remember to take some pictures to show you for the next post.

Have a great day,

Faith

Then What to My Wondering Eyes should appear....

but a dryer.

No kidding.

This is real.

It works.

It's not mine - but I get to use it. :)

SO WHAT??? I can hear you now - I have very good hearing folks.

I have not had or used a dryer in over 3 years except for the occasional visit to a friend's house or the times when we've been in the NW checking in.

I (normally) LOVE hanging out my laundry. I don't even mind the dry, crackly clothes. I love that the sun takes care of this task for me. One thing I've noticed in moving further south. One must have SUN to actually get said clothes d.r.y........

Now here is a picture of the weather locally. I KNOW you family and friends in Washington are going to call me a big whiner but we've had nothing but cold, dreary, wetness for almost a month now. The occasional sunny day has appeared but it's miserable trying to do a weeks worth of laundry in less than 24 hours. I don't think there is this much clothesline for sale in all of Honduras and I certainly don't have the yard space to string it up if it were. Last week I resorted to trying to dry the kids' uniform shirts with our hair dryer...it didn't work very well but did provide some humorous comments. :)

HOW do you ask did such an appliance appear at my door???? Well, since you're dying to know, I will tell you it's a group effort.

Trish's family has the dryer. Their house doesn't have a PLUG for this dryer. They didn't have a plug for the dryer in the last house either but ran a 'fix' of sorts from their fuse box. At their current house the fuse box is RIGHT NEXT to Trish's bed and with her asthma it's just NOT a good combination...not to mention that it's at the complete other end of the house from the washer.

Now - our part. WE have the plug. So we offered said plug and now she and I are able to get some of this laundry dried in less than one hour per load. BELIEVE ME when I say this is a HUGE improvement. We were both checking to see who was winning on the length of time for loads that have almost gotten dry. We're both at about 3 days.

I'm thinking the jump in the electric bill is going to be worth it. I just hope all my clothes don't shrink from the shock of dry, hot air on them...

Today I'm thankful for a dryer. Also for Trish for letting it come and play at our house for a bit.

Busy, busy, busy....

The container HAS ARRIVED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Of course, with it's arrival, all free, down, slower time has left. :) We'll post pictures in a few days of the unpacking, sorting, and distributing process but I have to figure out where I laid my camera.... :)

Talk soon!!!

Faith