Fishers of men

Friday was a blast. We met up with Marc & Buffy at their house, which is awesome by the way. It is all by itself at the end of their road and all they see in front of them is the beautiful ocean. There is a walkway out to a little island, with a few homes on it, out in front of them. That is where the boat is, that Marc uses. So, Justin & him went to get the boat and then they picked us up in the canal behind their house. It was pretty cool. Years ago the pirates cut through the mangroves and made these little waterways so they could navigate around without having to go in the open ocean. Tour guides will bring tourists out to boat through these for $25 a person, Marc said. So we got a free tour! You always get to see the best things when in service, don't you? We see more of areas than anyone else, even locals! So we were off, trailing through little mangrove canals and then open bays and then back through little canals. We got to see some of the little housing developments only accessible by boat, but most of the areas we went, we could get to by car as well. It's just much faster to travel around by boat. We didn't get to do any door to door though. Marc & Buffy had a full schedule of calls & studies. We just enjoyed the ride & sights. They had a lot of good calls. We invited them all to the meetings and many said they wanted to come, so we'll see. It is just so exciting to see all the people that want the truth so much. And everyone would take the magazines, they are all eager to have something to read. You could throw 100 - 200 magazines in a backpack and place them all in a day if you wanted. The problem is, their aren't enough magazines to do that, so you have to be a little stingy with them, which is sad. There are fishing boats that come in and then go out to sea for months, and the men aboard love to read the magazines. Marc was trying to get Justin & I to go on one and give them our magazines, but we didn't want to because we wanted to save our magazines for the door to door work to start studies. They are out of Teach books right now, so that is all we have to work with. Isn't that sad though? I felt really bad. We need people to help us, and literature!!!! Anyone? Anyone?

We stopped at a restaurant on the water where Marc & Buffy made a call on the owner, and also made plans for us to come back the next day for supper. There is a family visiting from Denmark for 2 months, and they were coming to our meeting in Oak Ridge for the brother to give the talk. So Marc & Buffy were taking them out afterwards. They had a spider monkey tied up there, and some alligators, and a parrot, in cages. We stopped at another little shack for lunch. I can't remember what the things we got to eat were called, because everything is spanish. But they were some sort of burrito, filled with beans, cheese, egg, and I think potatoes. Very yummy. They cost about 75 cents. Well, we had a fun filled day, and didn't get back to Marc & Buffy's until the sun was setting. It doesn't stay light here very late, in the winter it's dark by 5:30, and in the summer, 6:30.

 From the little island looking back at Marc & Buffy's house

 

 

 

 

 

 No, it's not Panama Jack, it's Roatan Justin

 

 

 

 

 A gringo's property.... nice!

 Midas had a day at the beach

 

At meeting on Sunday, we had a total of 17. One more than last time. So our numbers are going up. Justin & I went up to Oak Ridge early, to remind some of our calls about the meeting, but most of them were busy, or forgot. But all of them said they wanted to come next week, so we'll see....

We went to the little restaurant on the water that we had stopped at the day before. It was Marc, Buffy, Justin & I and the family from Denmark, Sorren, Ingrid & their daughter Anne. They really like it here and are already planning to come back, but it won't be until next year. We sat in a little gazebo out on the water. This was a local food shack, so it wasn't real big, or fancy, and the main seating area was filled with locals. But our spot was a little away from everyone else, and pretty cool. Sunday is their bbq day. You can choose pork, beef, or chicken, and your plate comes out filled to the edges with meat, potato salad, rice & beans, cole slaw and a tortilla. It was delicious!

So, that catches you up to today. I have a question to put out to the readers......... I keep getting hives. I've been getting them everyday for the past week. I have ruled out a food allergy, because I'm not eating the same things everyday, and it took a week and a half after I was here to start getting them. And hives from food allergies would start within hours. I don't think it's any soaps or detergents either, because I'm not using anything different than I use at home. I started looking on the net and saw that parasites can cause hives, and then we remembered that in Belize a call told us that they don't get sick in their stomach when they have parasites, they just get a rash. So, we thought that might be it, so Justin tried to go in a 'farmacia' to get medicine. We'll he communicated to the lady that I had hives & a parasite, but when we got home, we realized she had given me a cream? How is that going to help with a parasite? Well, Justin convinced me to put it on anyhow. But then I looked up the name of this cream on the internet. It turns out, it is for a parasite.... but it is a skin parasite! Justin got me medicine for scabies!! So, now I am scabies free. But I still have hives. Anyone have any ideas what might be wrong? By the way, I am taking a home remedy to get rid of a parasite, if that is what it is. Papaya seeds. Thanks to Sandy Cook, and Christopher & Sherrie.

Rain, Rain, let it rain

What a week! We are getting in the swing of things now, which means we are getting busier. We have been in the ministry a lot and are really enjoying it. I dare to say, I think it may even be better than what we experienced in Belize. Everyone is just very humble, kind, friendly and hospitable. We went out on Tuesday for the day by ourselves, up on the east end in Pandy Town. We had a really nice time. We got a lot of new calls and potential studies. We did have to dodge the rain a bit though. I don't think I've mentioned yet about the rain! It is the rainy season here, so it rains quite often, probably almost every day. But it doesn't always last real long. Some days you'll just get a couple 15 minute torential downpours and that will be it. Other days, you'll get more of a yucky all day rain. And then some days you get lucky and don't have any. We've been told November is the peak of their rainy season, so it slowly tapers off until February. Everyone says February - March is the best weather here. Not rainy, and not too hot. But anyhow, Tuesday we did get some showers and have to duck under some buildings, but we still had a great day. Today, we were back up on the east end, with the group meeting there today. We worked with Marco & Buffy, the other couple that are going to be going to all the meetings up there. They are probably in their 60s, but very fun and lively. We are going back up to work with them tomorrow, to do witnessing by boat. We were supposed to go last week, but it got postponed. So I'm sure we will have some good pictures and stories from that. The group meets at a beach near a resort, for lunch on Thursdays. It was fun hanging out and eating while watching the waves. I know this could make you folks jealous back home, but you see, these are the kind of things needed to help make us relaxed and enjoy being here. Because not all aspects of life are as easy as back home. I already miss being able to grab some food out if you have a long day, or trying to figure out what to eat, since food is a little different here. Going to the grocery store is a little overwelming. But, over all, we are slowing getting used to being here. I think we will keep adjusting more and more.

                                                          a veiw of Pandy Town from up high

                                                               Waiting out the rain!

                                                      The bathroom at the Oak Ridge Kingdom Hall

             Look beside my left arm and see what's in the backround................

                                                   Piglets!!!!!

                                                     The service group meeting for luch

                                               The veiw from the Paya Bay Resort

On the weekends, the younger ones all get together on the beach in the West End. They swim, and play volleyball. It was pretty cool, when we got there, we didn't recognize anyone at first, but then we saw a few we knew. Most of them we didn't recognize though, which was weird. Who were all these people? They were our spanish brothers and sisters from the spanish congregation! There were about 30 of us. It was pretty neat. The beach is empty on the weekends, so we had the whole area to ourselves. The only problem was, we couldn't talk to half of them! So we are really hoping to learn spanish, because there are around 100 publishers in spanish on the island, and we would like to be able to talk to them.

                                                  Do you see Justin?

To answer the questions about health care..... It doesn't seem to be a problem getting what you need. There are little clinics and pharmacies all over the place. Everyone says the clinics are decent, and you can get help for minor things.... like stitches, or if you get sick. And the pharmacies are awsome! You can pretty much go in and get whatever you want. When we were sick, Justin wanted some good cough suryp, so he went in and asked for something with codeine in it, so he could sleep. No problem! So don't worry about us, we might get better care here, than in the states.

To an island - from an island

We have had a fun few days since I last posted. Wednesday, we heeded everyone's advice to find a beach and get some sun. To answer Deb's question: Yes, we can see the ocean from our windows. It is about the same veiw as the photos with the sheep, except a little farther back. We can't go to the water there though. Most of the ocean along the south side of the island is not beaches. It is called the 'iron wall', because there are walls most of the way along, that just drop off to the water. This is the side cruise ships come in on and other boats like cargo & fishing. So unfortunately, we can't walk to any place to swim. Actually it sounds like most beaches are quite a drive away. There are some resorts not far, but you have to pay to use their beach. So we decided to venture down to the famous West Bay Beaches. This area is the whole way down to the west tip of the island. We hadn't been that way yet, and this it is supposed to be the best beach on the island. It is where most of the resorts are and where all the tourists want to go. So we got a taxi, and off we went. It was quite a drive! Probably about 45 mins. That is crazy seeing as it was only about 12 miles away! That is how it is to get anywhere here. The main road is so windy that everything takes double as long as it would if the roads where just straight. Probably from one end of the island to the other, would take you 2 hours. But it is only about 30 miles long. It is very beautiful though. There are a lot of hills and little mountains that take you up high and give you beautiful veiws of the island and the sea. Anyway, West Bay Beach was beautiful. It was a little cloudy and the ocean was choppy when we first got there, but then the sun came out and it calmed down. The water is turquoise and clear. And there are some good spots for snorkeling right off the beach. We didn't get to stay long though, because it was our meeting night. The only bad thing about this area is, there are a lot of people bugging you the whole time trying to sell you stuff, and it does get quite crowded with people. But it is nice if you want a break and want to feel like you're on vacation. 

 

 

We went to meeting in the new Kingdom Hall in Coxen Hole for the midweek meeting. The congregation has about 40 some publishers and about half are locals and half are from other areas that have come to help. Everyone was very friendly and they didn't appear to need much help commenting or with parts. There are a bunch of elders and everyone seems very zealous. But that is ok, because we are hopping to focus our energies on the east end. Most in the congregation are happy staying on the west side and don't want to move up there and help. I can understand why, it seems pretty nice down there and it is a lot more built up. But we came to help where there is a real need. And that is the east end. The congregation does go up there once a week to work the territories up there, but the problem is, these people couldn't get to meetings because they are so far away. So they want to start having meetings up there and see what happens. I'm truly hoping we can stay to see the start of a new congregation! The day for service on the east end is Thursday. So this was our first day out. We met at 8:30 at the K.H. in Oak Ridge. We worked in a little village called Pandy Town. Just as we were hoping, the territory seems as good as it was in Belize. Most everyone is willing to talk to you. The second lady I got, I placed the magazines with her and went over the 1st paragraph in the middle article. She was busy doing laundry though, but still willing to talk for awhile. She was very excited to get the magazines and said "when are you coming back, we can go over this together and sit and talk longer, I'll pull some chairs out and you can stay awhile." Can you believe that! I think she made the arrangements for us to have a bible study! Justin had some good potential stuff too. On one of Jana's study with Sherry, (that came to the meeting the week before, with all 4 kids) we made arrangements for Justin to study with her 2 older boys, Deandre (12) and Elijah (7). 

 

Justin and I went back up to Pandy Town today to work in service ourselves. We figure that there is no point in going to the other end, if we want to help develop things up here. We didn't get real far though. We were supposed to study with Sherry's boys today, but they ended up having something come up. We also were planning on going to a little island to preach about 50 feet out in the water from Pandy Town. It probably has about 30 houses on it. You have to get a water taxi over, or get a ride from someone. It is not a problem though, becasue it is a community on the water, so there are boats everywhere. So after a couple mins. of waiting, a couple offered us a ride over. It took about 4 seconds. As soon as we got off the boat, a little boy about ten years old greeted me with a big hug. His name was Matthew. He lead us to his house, and I was thinking "ok, the parents probably won't be quite as eager as him to see us", but I was wrong. His Grandmother greeted us at the door and said "come in, come in". And then she too gave me a big hug! We sat down and talked like we had known each other for a long time. She took some magazines and said to come back. She explained to us though, that we had come to the island at a bad time. It was getting close to 11 am and at noon is when everyone eats their big meal and relaxes. So it wouldn't be a good time to preach. I knew a lot of areas where like this but just hadn't thought of it. It had started to rain quite hard while we were there though, so she made us stay for awhile until it stopped. Then we decided to leave the island and come back another time. So we caught a taxi back over for 10 lemps a person - that's about 50 cents each. So we didn't get real far preaching by ourselves, but we will get the hang of it. We have to get our groove set. We are very excited about the potential though. Keep the comments coming, we like hearing from everybody! Any questions?? Until next time.....

Moooove!

                                                                         Pandy Town

                                                     A veiw from up high on the road.

 

'yo quiero pollo?'

We are still settling in, trying to get everything arranged in our apartment. We decided to wait till the end of the week to go in service, because neither of us are feeling very good. I think Justin may have bronchitis and my throat doesn't feel to good either. So we have been just chillin' trying to get adjusted to life here. We walked to the store yesterday, and it's only about a 15 min. walk. Not bad. And we were able to take in some of our surroundings. This plaza is pretty nice with a bank, dentist office, clothing store, cell phone store, and even a Wendy's! They told us not to eat there though. Apparently you don't get the same high Wendy's quality that you do back home?? But anyhow, while we were still up there, Justin had already decided that he had to make a call to the brother we heard about that rents cars. I'm pretty sure, within the first 2 minutes into the walk, he had made that decision. So he is anxiously awaiting his Kia Rio now. Who would have thought, right? The brother said it wouldn't be ready for a few days.

Later that afternoon, we decided to take Midas for a walk down the road we live on. Because everyone had told us that this place at the bottom of our road was 'the place to get your chicken'. And we wanted some for dinner, so off we went. Well, a few doors down from us there is a house with a herd of Sheep. Apparently during the day they just leave the fence open and let them roam. So at first it was cute as we're walking down seeing these sheep all over the road, but then it wasn't as good when Midas' started spazzing out. And the sheep were scared, running as fast as they could back to their fence. But they just kept coming from the other side of the road. There must have been about 1,000 (or 50 I'm not sure) So we get down to the chicken store, which was just a little local shaky place, and Justin waits outside with Midas. Now, the interesting thing about living in an area that is half english - half spanish is, you may encounter those that speak either. And while we've been told that the majority on the island know both, some don't. And for us, living at the edge of a community called Los Fuertes, where most everyone is spanish, the majority in this area speak spanish. Now, this hadn't crossed my mind -that no one in the store would speak english, until I was about 8 feet from the entrance. And my guess was right. When I stepped inside, there was about 10 spanish people staring at me, in a room about 10x10 with a bunch of deep freezes. Fortunately with some help from one of the customers, I was able to come out with some 'pollo'.

I have included some photos of the outside of the house, and some views from around the house. Our apartment is the bottom left side of the house.