June Report

This month began with a sad good bye to our teammate Lucky as she returned to the states and a joy for Clifton’s arrival. Just before Lucky left, she managed to work with a brother in San Salvador to find a great vehicle for us. We miss Lucky and her contribution greatly but she will return to us on August 7^th. Clifton has been a valuable asset. He has helped me with learning Spanish and taught two of the four lessons a week that I am responsible for.

The van ended up being a total loss but God has now blessed us with a different more reliable car. We now have a Toyota Corolla and we have already put 1700+ miles on it. This car has enabled us to serve more effectively. We were able to take a sister to get her passport and again on another day to help her get a visa for the U.S. We were able to take a brother to the hospital. We were able to transport 6 teens to a youth rally that was 2 hours away. It has truly been a blessing to have a dependable vehicle.

We have managed to keep up with the pace of our current responsibilities and have big plans to add much more soon.  The church has covered Genesis through Ecclesiastes in 120 days. We spent one week going through 150 chapters of Psalms. I am now taking 6 hours of Spanish classes a week to make up for the time I missed when the groups are here. I passed my first Spanish exam so I am improving a little. Della has continued teaching ESL four hours a week at the public school of Ataco.

Construction started on three houses funded by Signal Mountain at the beginning of the month. The materials were heavy and it took all Clifton and I could do to help them unload the delivery trucks. Della’s classmate Jaci and her friend Fred visited us for a week. Fred, Clifton, and I spent (Salvadorian) father’s day working on a house and nearly completed it in one day.

Clifton and I ventured out to do evangelism on our own. We revisited each of the contacts that were made last month with group from Franklin. At each house, in Spanish, we introduced ourselves, said we were with the Franklin group, shared encouraging verses and asked if we could return for more studies soon. It was intimidating and challenging to deal with the language barrier but it was reassuring to have my brother with me.

Signal Mountain arrived on the 28^th to spend a week with us working on the houses. The Sunday after their arrival, Roberto became our 5^th baptism since our arrival! Roberto’s wife, Gladis, was baptized when we first arrived. We have been having small group studies in his house and studying with him every week since. Luz a Maria was baptized last month with the Franklin group and has attended every Sunday service since and joined us for the youth rally which had 177 teens from all over El Salvador.

I will begin teaching Computer Programming classes in Ahuachapán on July 22^nd and we are currently working with Austin Jett from Signal Mountain to develop a tutoring program that each of us will help with three times a week.

We are crazy excited about seeing Central and mom next month!

In Christ,
Caleb & Della

6/30/14: Day 120: Preparation

Woke up at 5:30 AM and started working on a stencil with the congregation logo to paint on the houses. I woke Della up at 6:30 and she showed me a much better way to go about it so I started over again. She ended up whipping it out in the end. I took Clifton to the worksite at 8:00. The first house on the list was the one with the most difficult location. I helped by making a few trips of roof materials and then left to get Austin from Hector’s house. We came back to the house and started work on the presentation to the schools. We made a brochure and a powerpoint. We finished the brochure but I clicked the exit button, Publisher crashed and corrupted the file. So we redid it all. Then we went to the market to arrange the meals for the schools and find information about making copies. We ate lunch and then came back to the house. After some finishing touches we went back to the worksite and met with Carlos for grammar corrections and suggestions. We took Clifton with us and went to the house. After making the corrections we went across the street to the printer shop. Then we went to the market and confirmed our accommodations for the meals. We had the small group bible study in Shucutitan at 5:30 and it was very full with the Signal Mtn. group. Joel taught the lesson with Hector interpreting on Ecclesiastes. We got home around 7:00 and I picked up the brochures from the printer shop.

Worksite - First House

6/29/14: Day 119: Baptism!

Della went to the church building at 7:00 to help with the cooking. Clifton and I went at 8:00. We normally have two services but today we only had one because we are serving a big meal for everyone. The Signal Mountain group of 10 arrived at 8:30 and I got to meet some new people and see some old friends. The congregation was packed so Clifton and I had to get more chairs. The kids did a skit that was cute. Clifton and I then served the Lord’s Supper and I gave the closing prayer. The sermon was given by Joel from Signal Mtn. who is an art professor. After the sermon, Roberto came forward to be baptized! Roberto’s wife is Gladis who was baptized when we first arrived. Since she was baptized we have been having group bible studies in her house every week. Then the meal was served. About 1:00 we went with the group to a park and then walked to the big tree. On our way back we saw a Michael Jackson impersonator. Then we went to Juayua and walked around a bit. We had dinner with the group in a nice restaurant in Apaneca. Then we had a meeting at Hector’s house to discuss the plans for tomorrow and to see the materials that Austin had brought. Austin organized the collection of an impressive curriculum for ESL. Our plan is to begin using this material to facilitate an afterschool tutoring program at the church building.

There have now been 5 baptisms since our arrival 119 days ago!

We got home around 8:15 and went right to bed.

The kids skit

The group from Signal Mountain

Roberto Baptized

At the Museo

Jackson Impersonator

Cool Wasps

6/28/14: Day 118: Cow Obstacles!

Woke up at 4:00 A.M. and Clifton and I left at 4:30 to get Luz a Maria. We had told her to be ready at 5:00 but we were hoping she would be ready. She came out the door with her grandmother who looked to be in her 70s at 4:40. She insisted that her grandmother was going to go with us and I didn’t know enough Spanish to argue. I dropped Clifton, Luz a Maria, and her grandmother off at the bus stop where Hector was to meet them at 5:30. I got to Shucutitan at 5:00 and went straight to Yaritza’s house to help her with the food. I met Sarita and her sister Natalia there and then we went to Javiar’s house. The five of us made it back to the bus stop at 5:20. Hector showed up right on time and Clifton got in the car to make 6 passengers while Luz a Maria and her grandmother rode with Hector. I followed him down the mountain to Carlos’ house to try to get his van (my old van) to crank. It started with the jumper cables and the 6 of us continued on to Quezaltepeque. Hector got lost on the way and had to ask several people for help. We also encountered about 20 cows walking down the road taking up both lanes of traffic. We all ate breakfast after we arrived. Then we sat through two sermons with a short activity in between. Yaritza served our group lunch and then we had free time for two hours. I met a group from San Salvador that wanted us to come and spend a month working in their congregation to motivate their youth. It sounded like a great opportunity but I don’t see how we can swing it any time soon. We were hoping that the bus would take Luz a Maria and her grandmother back home but the bus was only going as far as Ahuachapán. So all 8 of us piled into the car and we weighed so much that my bumper got stuck on the curb. The bumper about came off before I could do anything so I went back and beat on it with my hand till it went back into place.  We made the mistake of thinking that we could navigate home with the phone and made a wrong turn. The scenic / obstacle route added an extra hour to our drive home. On our way we encountered another larger herd of cows and over 50 speed bumps. Most of the speed bumps were practically invisible so I hit some pretty hard with my 8 passengers. As we were approaching Santa Ana we started seeing that there were many manholes in the road with no cover. I missed many of them only by the grace of God. They were nearly impossible to see and they probably would have totaled the car if I had hit a single one. Then we got randomly pulled over but thankfully the officer didn’t care that that there were 8 people in a 5 passenger car. We finally got back to Ataco and I dropped off Clifton, Luz a Maria and her grandmother. Then I took the rest of the teens back home to Shucutitan. When I got home Clifton said that they insisted on walking instead of waiting for a taxi. But thankfully they found one on their way because it was probably a mile or so. Then Clifton said as the taxi was turning around it fell off the road into a ditch. So he and the taxi driver had to lift the taxi out of the ditch to top the day off. It has been a super long day. 

Start dumb van

Cows in the road

More cows in the road

6/27/14: Day 117: Hit Parked Motorcycle

Clifton, Della, and I left at 8:30 to pick up Gladis and her two kids to go shopping for all the food for Signal Mountain. I dropped everyone except Clifton off at the grocery store and then went to get Linda. When we got back to the store we formed three teams. We filled 8 karts completely full of groceries over the course of 3 hours. Hector took half and I took the other half. We loaded the car so full that I couldn’t see out the back window. Some guy parked his motorcycle right behind my car such that it was impossible to back out. He was standing right next to it and watched as I barely touched it. When we got out of the car to see what happened. There was no sign of damage on his motorcycle or my car. But he insisted that there was damage on his so we waited for Hector to come out to help settle the matter. While we were waiting the van that was parked next to me came within centimeters of hitting another parked car. I ended up having to move my car to let him out. This parking lot was stupid. Then Hector talked to motorcycle guy for a few minutes and then said that the man wanted $20 to fix it and that would be the end of it. I stupidly asked if that was the right thing to do and Hector responded that “Well if you want, you could give him more”. I gave him the money and we left to take all the refrigerated food to Linda’s house. It was 2:00 and by this point Della was starving so we grabbed some food and went home. At 4:00, Clifton, Della, and I went to visit all the teens to make sure they know the plans for tomorrow which is to meet at Edgardo’s house at 5:00 AM. Tomorrow we are driving to a city near San Salvador for a region wide youth rally. Then we went to Yaritza’s house and played games with the teens. 

6/26/14: Day 116: Gas Woes

Clifton and I put the bunk beds in the garage for Hector to pick up. Then Della, Clifton, and I went to Santa Ana to pay the car taxes and get the vehicle ID in our name. Della started to feel bad from hunger so we stopped to eat an early lunch. Then we went to Sonsonate to try to get insurance for the car. We made an appointment to get the car inspected on July 7^th , hopefully it will be covered. Then we went grocery shopping. On the way home we stopped to get gas and I made the mistake of asking them to fill it up. Last time I got gas the car was empty and I told them to put $50 in it; it kicked off at $48 and he continued to pump it until $2 of gas had gone out on the ground. So this time it kicked off at $48 and he continued barely holding the trigger until there was $58 and with us telling him to stop over and over. Getting gas is a pain. We got home by 2:00. Della needed some things from the market so we left at 4:15 for that and then Clifton and I went to the bible study at 5:30. Clifton taught and Hector interpreted.

Hector had gone back to all the schools we visited and offered them lunch to go along with the presentations for next week. Tonight after the study he said it would be great if Della and I would go ahead and take care of organizing that.

Bryan came over at 7:15 and we worked on origami for a bit. We used the paper that we made the other night. Bryan picked a nearly impossible model; I do not believe it will ever be completed. 

6/25/14: Day 115: Changing Plans

Clifton was still feeling rough so I went to Spanish class without him. We finished the Silabario book which is used here in the school to help the preschoolers read. I bought the book for 1^st graders, it looks great. It is a collection of short stories and each has worksheets, comprehension questions, and vocabulary all in 100% Spanish. While I was at Spanish class Della went out with Hector and met with the school directors to better arrange the schedule for the ESL presentation next week. After lunch Della and I met with Hector again to talk to another school. Then I went with Della for the ESL class in Ataco. We had only four students, the lowest attendance yet. This is the last class that Della will teach and my last Spanish until July 21^st due to Central and Signal Mountain coming to El Salvador. Evening service went well. Then we tried to solidify the plans for grocery shopping Friday and JEA Saturday. 

6/24/14: Day 114: Meet Where? 2

We had a team meeting at 7:30 till 9:00 that yielded nothing but frustration. The meeting also ran a bit long and Maria (Edgardo’s mom) got worried wondering where we were. Della and I picked up Maria at 9:15 and managed to find the U.S. Embassy in San Salvador without much trouble. We had to park a ways off and walk. When we got to the right gate they wouldn’t allow us in to accompany her. Della told Maria just to call us when she was done and we would come pick her up. Then the Embassy employee said “no she won’t because you have to keep her phone” with a snooty smirk on her face. I was super frustrated by this, I thought surely they can keep her phone and give it back when she is done or she could keep it in the off position, but again we were facing the communication barrier. We told Maria that we would meet her back at the car when she was done. I had no idea how long this process would take and I desperately needed to find a restroom. We found a Smash Burger! I had no idea that the chain was international and this had been on Della’s list for missing home. It will be a rare day that we can eat there again though because it was very expensive.  After lunch we went back to our parking spot near the Embassy and waited for 3 hours. Finally we decided that maybe we should drive around the block and see if we see her. We found her standing on the corner waiting on us. She said she had been waiting a long time… I have no idea why she didn’t walk to the car; I know she wasn’t done before we finished eating. We got home around 4:30 and Della rested while Clifton and I watched a movie together. I also got to catch up with some of my friends back home. I also got to hear an amazing report from the Haiti mission team.  

Smash Burger in El Salvador

6/23/14: Day 113: Vapoorized

I didn’t know if Clifton was feeling up to going to Spanish class so I waited so long til I was running late. Clifton came out of his room just as I was about to leave and said he wanted to go. So I waited some more. I was holding the memory-stick in my hand while I was locking the garage but as we were on our way Clifton asked about it and I couldn’t find it anywhere. I went back to the house and couldn’t find it; I guess it vapoorized. I copied the files to another memory-stick and left for class almost an hour late. When we got there the teacher said he forgot his computer and would like to go to his house to get it. So we got in his car and spent 30 minutes getting the computer. We got it all set up and I plugged in the memory-stick and the files were missing for the presentation. So I called Della and got her to email it. Then when we played the audio it was so quiet I couldn’t hear anything even with the volume all the way up. So Spanish class was a dud today. Clifton hadn’t eaten anything for a while since he had been sick so we got some food and then went to pay for the internet. The internet has been out for almost a week now and we have never received a bill. We got home at 10:30 for Della and I to go to Apaneca to meet Edgardo. We went to Javier’s school and met with the director about the ESL program that will be presented by Signal Mountain next week. We tried to visit some other schools too but they were closed for teacher appreciation day. We came back to the house for lunch and then went to the school for Della to teach ESL class. She had class despite the holiday and had a good number of students. After class I taught in Shucutitan with Hector interpreting. The lesson was long and several people were out sick. We got home at 7:00 and Bryan came over at 7:20. We made some origami paper together and then I told him it was time for my bed. We finally got internet back around 8:45.

Tomorrow we will be meeting with the team. After, we will be searching for the U.S. Embassy in San Salvador to help Edgardo’s mom.

6/22/14: Day 112: Clifton Sick

Clifton came out of his room at 8:30 and said he had been sick to his stomach all night and he needed to stay home. Della spent 4 hours between last night and this morning translating my lesson to Spanish. Della worked hard to make sure that this week went better than last week for the teen class.  We had a visitor but they were well behaved. Paolo also came along and helped a good bit. After service I worked on my Spanish homework and spent some time with Clifton. Then we had second service and I finished the book of Proverbs. After service we came home and I worked on my lesson for tomorrow night and Della worked on her ESL lesson.

Della (6.5 Months) & Linda (Wife of Carlos) (7 Months)

6/21/14: Day 111: Jose Passed Away

We crawled out of bed at 3:30 AM for Della and I to take Jaci and Fred to San Salvador for their departure to Guatemala. We managed to find the hotel the buses were leaving from without any trouble and learned a new way through San Salvador. We said our good byes and left at 6:45. On our way to the mall we discovered a new Walmart location. I now know of 3 Walmarts in San Salvador.  We had planned to go to Walmart so we decided to check this one out. The parking was bad but we got the odds and ins we needed. Then we went to the mall to eat breakfast at Taco Bell. After breakfast we came home and rested. During the afternoon I finished Psalms, read half of Proverbs, started on the lesson and Spanish homework for Monday, and caught up the budget. Hector called and told me that Jose, the gentleman that we took to the hospital 4 days ago, had passed away at 2:30 this afternoon. At 9:00 PM Clifton and I followed Hector down the mountain to Carlos’ house to catch the end of the funeral. There were around 80 people there. Jose was really cool and I wish I had known when we were out together, that this was his last few days on this earth. I didn’t complain about helping but I was frustrated, as usual, about the language barrier and the confusion that it causes. Jose is now the second person that we have seen alive that has passed while we were here. We got home from the funeral at 11:00 and went to bed.

Clifton
Last Monday I posted on Facebook saying I wished I was fluent in Spanish more so that day than I ever had been in my life. This was not because of the frustration or lack of convenience that comes with the language barrier; it was because I have not been able to have any depth in my conversations while I have been here. On that Monday last week when we were out with Maria and Jose Luis to drop off his breathing machine at the hospital in Santa Ana there was a good hour or so where it was just Jose Luis and me waiting on Caleb to find Maria.  Jose Luis kept trying to say something to me and I was unable to understand him, not only because of the language barrier but also because of his age and lung problems making his speech fairly difficult. I was very worried that it was something serious that he was trying to convey, as he was complaining about having back pain only a few moments before. After a while though, I was able to make out that he wanted me to sit down in the back of the car with him. Since I still did not know what he wanted to convey to me I had the idea for him to write out what he wanted to say on a piece of paper and I would just use google to translate it. What he wrote down was the word “Amistad” which translates to friendship. This instantly made a huge impact on me, and thankfully we were able to have a very simple conversation about where I was from, how old we both were, and some other shallow things. If I could have said more I would have loved to share stories with Jose Luis, and tell him what an honor it was to get to assist him by driving with him and Maria to Santa Ana. Even though I couldn’t say near all I wanted to, I am still extremely thankful for the time I got to spend with Jose Luis that day on his last outing on this earth. 

Jose Luis Passed 6/21/2014 

6/20/14: Day 110: Reptiles!

I studied my summary of a short Spanish story and then Clifton and I left at 7:20. We stopped at the church building to start the water in the baptistery draining. Apparently, sometime last week, a rat got stuck in the baptistery and drowned; making it stink super bad. I tried my best to start the siphon with gravity but I finally gave up and used my mouth; fun times. Clifton and I made our presentation and his went better than mine. Clifton and I went to the grocery store on the way home. Then I went and finished draining the baptistery and cleaned it for an hour. We went out to lunch to celebrate our last day with Fred and Jaci. The food was good and it rained a lot. Then we went to the big tree and all got our pictures. We decided to do a little exploring and drove to the town of Juayua. We found a reptile exhibit and Clifton got his picture taken with a big snake. They had all kinds of lizards and snakes. Some of the snakes were crazy big! There were also some tarantulas and I asked if they were for sale but they were not. Then we went to teen class and Clifton taught while Della interpreted. At 6:30 we met Hector and Carlos to go to a meeting in San Rafael. We thought the meeting was concerning the invitation for July when Central is going to be here but it was about some divisions in the church that happened years ago. I ended up reading psalms for most of the meeting. Everyone seemed happy at the end of the meeting and they fed us pupusas. I then dropped off Carlos and Hector and got home at 9:40. Della, Jaci, and Fred got in the car and we drove around to scope out neighborhood for the house we want to move to. The only disturbance was a couple that was making out across the street from the house. The area was pretty dark but really quiet. Carlos is going to check it out with us Sunday.

Clifton paid to hold a giant snake!

Celebrating our last day with Jaci and Fred

Della and I at the big tree

Della trying to hide the tree behind her beautiful belly

Some big snakes at the exhibit

Some iguanas at the exhibit

Us at town square of Juayua

Coffee house group pic

6/19/14: Day 109: Water Park

We left at 7:30 to enjoy a bit of site seeing and a waterpark with our friends Fred and Jaci. They will be leaving for Guatemala at 5:00 AM Saturday. We went to the same water park that we went to three years ago the first time I came to El Salvador with Central. We arrived at 8:30 and there was almost no one there but as we were getting stuff out of the trunk about 100 kids showed up. By the time we got our bags in the locker the park was getting full. The slides weren’t open yet so I bought some goggles and we walked to the thermal pools. There were bunches of minnows and they tickled our feet like crazy. It was tickle torture to stand still for more than a few seconds. Fred, Clifton, and I competed to see who could swim the furthest in one breath. I won for completely under the water and Fred won on the surface. Then some kids came up and made a human pyramid three stories tall! The slides opened so we went to check them out. They had some others opened that were not opened the last time I was there. After enjoying the slides for a while they opened a zipline that went from the slides all the way outside the park. Clifton and I ran to get the tickets and we had a great time on the line. We ate lunch at the park about 11:40. Then we went walking around the park and found our old friend the statue of the rhino. They had painted it orange and we got our pictures on it. Then it started pouring rain so we had to wait it out. We got to the ruins in Chalchuapa at 1:40. These were the same ruins that we had tried to go to with the Franklin group but didn’t make it before they closed. They charged us extra because we were ”Extranjeros /Foreigners”. There wasn’t much to the ruins; I had hoped that we would be allowed inside but no such luck. We got home at 2:40 and rested for a bit. The doorbell rang and there were some people wanting the check out our house for buying it. I called the landlord and understood that she had not given them permission so I told them to go away. At 5:15 Clifton and I went to the bible study and I taught on Psalms 66 with Hector interpreting. Hector said that we are not locked in a contract on our house and that we could move any time. It will be nice to not have to worry about people wanting to come and see the house anymore. We will probably try to make the move this next week! 

The slides at the park

They painted our Rino!

Photogenic Dragonfly

Clifton on a slide

$3.00 for Extranjeros Foreigners!

Cool Plant

I Love Della

Caterpillar March 

Della and I on the Rino

Some ruins behind us

National bird of El Salvador

Photo effect on the ruins

6/18/14: Day 108: Chill Day

Clifton and I went to Spanish class and studied a story about a wolf that tried to eat some goats. We got our first homework assignment which is to give an oral summary of one of the stories from memory due on Friday. We came home and ate breakfast. I called a bunch of times to try to determine if there was construction today but no one answered. At 10:00 we all went to the building site and found that there was no one there. So we went back home and I worked on my lesson. It ended up being a fairly relaxed day. I read another 50 chapters of Psalms and we had midweek service at 5:30. We ate pizza for dinner and had brownies for desert. I thought Bryan was going to come over but he had some dental problem. So we decided to watch a movie and then go to bed. 

Big meal for the spider

Della and Jaci made sushi

6/17/14: Day 107: Live to Work

We left at 8:00 to go help with the house construction. Della and Jaci dropped us off and went on to enjoy the hot springs and a day of rest while we worked. Pedro’s house was completed yesterday we hoped to get the other two done today. We had a total of 13 men and 6 teens/kids. The weather held good and the second house was completed by 1:30 when we stopped for lunch. Clifton and I mainly focused on moving gravel around and mixing the concrete. Carlos’ dad built rickety scaffolding for placing the high slabs. It took; 3 men to hold the scaffolding, 3 men on the scaffolding to receive and place the slab, and another 5 men to carry the slab and hand it to the men on top. It was quite dangerous and several people from the community stopped just to watch and see if anyone might get injured. We ate soup for lunch at Yaritza’s house and had Jell-O for desert. I understood that we were done for the day and we were all tired so I called for Della to come get us. After lunch we were taken on a walk through the coffee plants. Clifton, Fred, and I had no idea where we were going or what for. After a bit of walking we arrived at the third house and discovered that they were planning to continue the work after all. I told Neri that I thought he said no more work today and he said “Live to Work” in Spanish. Della was already on her way so we decided to leave. As we left Hector called us Gringos because we were going… He also asked us to get him 10 bottles of cold water. Della brought the water and I ran down the trail to give it to them. Then we came home and Della begged me to go to a house that she wanted to move to. It was nice but I was tired. Then we went across the street for pupusas. After dinner it rained so hard that the power went out so I went to bed at 7:00.

Clifton making concrete

Carlos and Fernando lifting a 300 pound slab

Raising a 400 pound post

colorful grasshopper

Alex mixing the concrete

Crazy Bug

The scaffolding that was being held up by God

The kitchen at the house we looked at

Two S2000 cruising through town

The resort Della and Jaci went to while we worked

Jaci and Della at Ataco overlook

6/16/14: Day 106: Meet Where?

I woke up at 5:30, still tired. I worked on finishing the lesson for tonight for an hour while I ate some cereal. At 6:30 Clifton and I left to go to Spanish class. We read a story about a greedy boy who got too many marbles all in Spanish. Class lasted until 9:00; then we went to get some more food. We arrived at Carlos’ house at 9:30 and helped Jose (the gentleman who can’t walk and only has one working lung) get in the car. Carlos’ mom, Maria, thankfully came along with us. We had quite a time finding the hospital; we had to stop and ask 5 people for directions. The parking was crazy. We finally found a spot and Maria left us for 30 minutes and then came back with a permit to park inside the gate surrounding the hospital. We drove through the gate and up to the door for Clifton to unload the oxygen machine. Then Maria pointed down the hill and said some stuff in Spanish that ended with park the car. So I guessed that we were supposed to park and wait for her. We waited for about 30 minutes when Jose started saying in Spanish that his back hurt and he wanted to see Maria. We didn’t know what to do. Then I got a call from Carlos saying that his mom was in front of the hospital looking for me. So I went to the spot where we dropped her off but she was not there. I waited, standing in the rain, for over an hour for her. Carlos called several times but couldn’t communicate, I called Della and she called Linda (Carlos’ wife) several times. I felt hopeless. Finally Della called and said that Maria was outside of the gate that surrounded the hospital. I hadn’t looked out there because, once you are out they will not let you back in. I got in the car and started making blocks around the area. After about 10 minutes I found Maria wondering around about a block away. She had a small bag of parts and the machine was gone. I do not know how she got there or how I was supposed to know, but whatever. At this point I thought that we surely had more to do, Jose had not been needed for anything so I thought maybe we were about to take him to the doctor. But, Maria suggested that we go get some lunch. We drove around Santa Ana a bit and finally gave up looking for food and decided to go back to Ahuachapán. When we got there we found a parking spot about 200 feet from Pollo Comparo. We had a good lunch and Maria treated. Clifton and I got home at 4:00 and I crawled in to bed for a 30 minute nap. At 5:10 Clifton, Fred, and I left for the bible study in Shucutitan. The lesson went well and there was a good crowd. I taught on Psalms 56 with Hector translating. Hector announced that tomorrow is father’s day here which means that everyone is off of work so we could all work on building the houses together. Fred said that sounded like a great idea so we are going to be joining them. The original plans for tomorrow were to go to a waterpark with Samuel to celebrate his 20^th birthday but he called earlier and said he couldn’t get transportation. We got home around 7:00 and Bryan came over for a game of Power Grid. Fred played too. This was Fred’s first time to ever play a real board game. Clifton ended up winning at 9:30. 

Della walking out of the house we might move to

Maria and Jose

6/15/14: Day 105: No Rest for the Weary

I managed to get two hours of sleep last night. We had lots of visitors today at church. There were 13 teens in the class up from the average 8. Between my lack of sleep, the complexity of the lesson, and we managed the most painful lesson yet. The teens also had a difficult time paying attention with all the visitors. I was too tired to even get discouraged over it. After service our friends Fred and Jaci took us out to lunch. We ate at Entre Nubes for our first time. The food was good and the garden was beautiful. Then we came back to the house for me and Clifton to crash. Della took her friends to walk around Ataco while I slept. Then I woke up for second service. I only managed to get a one hour nap. At the second service, Hector said that someone needed help tomorrow and he couldn’t do it. He said a brother needed to be taken to the Hospital and it would take both me and Clifton all day. So I went home and spent 3 hours working on the lesson for tomorrow night on 3 hours of sleep. I feel like I barely made it through the day.

Bunch of teens for class!

Della and our bunny!

Fred trying to look cool

Jacie

Della getting presents